A Special Family Time: Multigenerational Holidays Make Great Memories.
October 21, 2017 by ThySista
Filed under Opinion, Travel/Leisure, Weekly Columns
(ThySistas.com) If you treasure those moments when your family all get together and spend some quality time with each other you could create even more magical memories and experiences to talk about if you embrace the idea of a multigenerational holiday.
Here is a look at how to get the best out of a vacation that spans the generations, including an essential ingredient for success.
Keeping everyone happy
It stands to reason that even if you all get along famously as a family the wide range of ages means that everyone in the party will have slightly different tastes and needs.
If you try and find the perfect place that suits everyone and caters for every single one of their needs you are probably going to be searching and trying to agree for a very long time.
The answer is to pick a place and style of accommodation that seems closest to matching as many of your multigenerational needs as possible.
One solution is to check into hotel accommodation like the Washington DC Marriott Courtyard and then arrange events and outings together that are designed to appeal to all ages.
A strong selling point of using a hotel as the base for your get-together is that you will have a range of amenities on hand to keep everyone entertained and the sleeping arrangements can be easily adjusted and catered for.
When you add in the fact that you will have access to menus that cater for all tastes you can see why picking a hotel for your family vacation might be one of the most appealing options in terms of giving everyone a bit of what they are likely to want.
While you are there
Family reunions can often create unintended tensions if you create a schedule that means you are all spending time together for virtually every minute of the vacation.
A good way of approaching the organization of a multigenerational holiday would be to set some activities and dinners that you all attend in the schedule but also allow plenty of time for each person or family unit to take some time out for themselves.
If everyone does their own thing for the morning or a good part of the day and meets up for lunch or in the evening, it gives you the chance to take a time out and enjoy some space, while creating an opportunity to chat about your day over a family dinner.
Set some ground rules
Another good tip to follow if you are going to enjoy a successful multigenerational vacation is to set some ground rules before you go.
Don’t assume that grandparents are going to automatically volunteer to babysit the grandchildren for hours and get everyone involved beforehand in what they want from the trip and what they expect everything to cost.
If you get those house rules and boundaries sorted before you arrive it will help to ensure that everyone can relax and enjoy each other’s company.
Staff Writer; Paula Barker
