Going on Holiday with Your Adult Children
See also: Holidays with ChildrenTwenty or thirty years ago, holidays as a young adult were all about backpacking and hostelling, seeing the world with your friends. However, the world has changed. Our page on Setting New Boundaries with Your Adult Child explains that more young adults are now not moving out of the parental home, or moving back in after a period of independence. Similarly, many more are now choosing to holiday with their parents.
Travel agents and advisers are reporting a growing trend of young adults holidaying with parents. It is also clear that many multigenerational families—grandparents, parents and grandchildren—are choosing to holiday together. This page provides some strategies for getting the most out of these holidays and explains some of the factors that you might want to consider and discuss beforehand.
Understanding the Situation
What do we mean by multigenerational travel? And how much is it really happening?
Skyscanner.net reports that in the last two years, more than half of people in Gen Z (those born between 1997 and 2012) holidayed with their parents. Almost a quarter (22%) travelled with both grandparents and parents. Similarly, 22% of those in Gen Y (born between 1981 and 1996) travelled with their parents and children.
This is a significant proportion.
One travel company specialising in tailor-made holidays, Journeyscape, reported a 67% year-on-year increase in group trips of six or more people in 2025, and suggested that this was largely through more family groups travelling together.
Why are we seeing this trend?
Around a quarter of Gen Z cited saving money as a key issue for sharing travel costs. However, almost 60% of those surveyed by Skyscanner said that the most important factor was ‘making memories’, and nearly 30% said they wanted to ‘truly connect’.
In other words, money is important—but that’s not really the big issue.
With interest in multigenerational holidays rising, it is clearly important to understand how to manage expectations, find the right location, and address potential areas of conflict.
Tips for Managing Multigenerational Holidays
One travel adviser, Australian based Travel Temple, suggested focusing on STARS: Space, Togetherness, Activities, Relaxation and Separation—which seems a very reasonable summary.
Here are some tips that should help anyone considering a multigenerational travel trip or holiday.
Accommodation really matters
Make sure you have enough room for everyone—and that the accommodation works for everyone.
It is no good having a fabulous master suite if your adult children are sleeping in bunkbeds. It is also unhelpful if the rooms suitable for young children are miles away from the double rooms that their parents will be occupying.
As a principle, it is likely to be better to get a bigger villa or house than you think you need—or more than one.
If you have several family groups going together (for example, grandparents, two adult children and their spouses and children), you might want to consider adjoining but separate flats or villas, to allow families to spend time separately. This makes it easier to manage any difficulties with children’s routines, or picky eating.
Before you book, make sure that you check the floorplans carefully to make sure that the beds and rooms will suit your party. Don’t assume that others will be willing to take the less convenient or nice room. If you wouldn’t be prepared to have one particular room or set-up, don’t book it—or at the very least, discuss it first.
It is also a good idea to find somewhere that has enough room for everyone to sit together—but also for the party to splinter, and people to do different things in the evening or during any downtime.
Top Tip! Make accommodation a joint decision
Even if one person is doing the research and booking, it is worth sharing possible accommodation with everyone, and making sure that they are happy with it before you book.
If possible, offer two or three options, and get a group decision on which one to choose.
Make sure that everyone has a veto, too—don’t just go with the majority decision.
Talk about finances beforehand
It is always worth having a discussion about finances beforehand.
This applies whether you are holidaying with your children as adults for the first time, or as a three-generational family.
Money is a huge issue when planning a trip. You need to be explicit about how you are planning to split the costs, both of the accommodation and travel, and when you are there.
Who is paying, and the split, may affect whether a holiday is affordable for someone in the group.
When you went on holiday with your children when they were younger, then of course you always paid for them. The logical assumption, if nobody discusses it, may be that you are going to do the same thing again.
However, it is worth re-examining this assumption, because there are various scenarios that might change that:
It is fair to say that you may need to pay the majority if you are travelling with young adults who are not yet working, or who are trying to save for a deposit on a house. There is no point in you giving them money with one hand, and taking it away with the other. However, you may feel that there are some aspects of the holiday that you do not wish to cover—their expenses if they go out by themselves, for example.
The situation may, however, be different if your children are working and you are retired and living on a pension. If your incomes are very similar, a more equitable split of the costs may be justified, or you might ask each family group to pay their own expenses.
Even if you are paying the majority—say, accommodation and travel costs—it is not unreasonable to expect everyone to pay their share of the everyday expenses, or to split the bill if you go out to eat.
It is also worth being prepared to change what you are doing while you are on holiday, if something is not working out. For example, if eating out turns out to be more expensive than expected and one part of the group cannot afford it, consider alternatives, or split the group up.
Top tip! Never make assumptions about money
Always be clear from the beginning.
Talk about the money before you book anything, and set expectations clearly.
Knowing the financial situation may change where people wish to go or stay, or what accommodation is affordable.
Discuss other expectations in advance too
Money may be one of the biggest issues around multigenerational family holidays, but it is by no means the only one.
Other issues that are worth discussing in advance are:
Food and catering
How will you manage the food for the group?
For example, are you planning to eat out, or at your accommodation? Are there picky eaters involved, or any dietary restrictions, and how will you accommodate those? Will everyone bring food, or will you order a delivery or go shopping on arrival?
One good option, especially in groups involving several family units, is for each set of adults to provide one or two meals for the whole group. If you do this, it is worth agreeing in advance what each person will bring.
Babysitting and general child supervision
‘Taking the grandparents on holiday’ may be seen by parents of younger children as a way for them to get some ‘couple time’. Unmarried or childless uncles and aunts are also often seen as ‘fair game’.
However, this needs to be agreed in advance.
The general rule should be that each set of parents is responsible for their own children, unless someone else offers to supervise for a while. Having said that, children often have their own ideas about what they want, and may well attach themselves to others without permission.
When your children won’t cooperate
Melanie and Paul, and their two children aged 6 and 4, were on holiday with Melanie’s parents, and her brother, sister-in-law and their similarly-aged children.
On the first morning, Melanie woke to the sound of the door opening in their villa. Before she could react, her son peeped around the bedroom door to ask whether they could go out for a walk with their uncle and aunt.
It turned out that the children had woken up, got themselves dressed, and gone to find their cousins two villas away—all without disturbing their parents.
When Melanie later apologised for imposing her children on the rest of the family, her sister-in-law responded,
“Don’t worry, we might as well have four as two. But we thought we’d better check before we took them out in case you were worried when you couldn’t find them!”
That proved to be the pattern for the rest of the holiday, regardless of anything Melanie could say. The children simply wanted to be together. Luckily her brother and sister-in-law were early risers, and willing to help.
Expectations around use of accommodation
We said above that the accommodation should be a group decision.
However, it is also a good idea to discuss and agree the distribution of bedrooms in particular—especially if one room is much nicer than others.
You may also wish to discuss whether anyone needs any restrictions placed on the use of accommodation—for example, being quiet after a particular time in the evening, or when children are napping.
These conversations prevent surprises on arrival, when everyone is likely to be tired and potentially grumpy.
Don’t try and do everything together
Embrace ‘together and apart’ time.
It is unlikely that everyone will want to do everything together. There may be times when your adult children wish to do something else—or you want some time to yourselves.
You also don’t want to be sitting around waiting for your adult children to get out of bed, if they just want a lie-in every day.
Be clear upfront that there is no need to spend every moment of every day together, and that everyone should work to whatever timetable they wish. However, you may find it helpful to agree one thing each day that you will all do—for example, meet somewhere for dinner in the evening.
Crucially, you need to remember that your children are adults now, and this is their holiday too.
Do a bit of planning ahead...
You may be people who like to ‘go with the flow’, but it can be worth planning ahead for family holidays.
In particular, it is worth discussing whether there is anything in particular that anyone wants to do.
Set expectations about who is planning and organising any activities—and don’t make one person do all the work. If someone suggests an activity, they should be the one to organise it and make it happen for anyone who wishes to participate.
Top Tip! Consider the ‘perfect day’ strategy
One option for planning activities is for each person to plan one ‘perfect day’.
You can either suggest that everyone joins in with all the plans, or give people opportunities to opt out and do something else, or just lounge around.
It is also worth saying that you should not feel responsible for getting everyone up and out on time for any planned activities.
You may be their parent, but your children are adults now. If they sleep in and miss something, that is their responsibility. This is your holiday too, and you don’t need to spend it nagging people to get up.
...but make room for spontaneity
On any holiday, it is advisable to leave room for spontaneity.
The bigger the group, the more this matters.
Don’t plan down to the last degree. Instead, leave room for plans to change, weather to affect what you want to do, and opportunities to open up.
Good Options for Multigenerational Holidays
Almost any holiday can become a multigenerational holiday with the right attitude. However, there seems to be general agreement that some types of holidays may work better, including:
Cruises or all-inclusive resorts. This type of holiday generally offers a range of activities and catering, and therefore works very well for mixed-age groups. As a bonus, many also have children’s activities or Kids Clubs, allowing parents to have some time off. These are therefore particularly good for ‘families with grandparents’.
Activity holidays. Doing an activity-based holiday allows you to share experiences without having to do too much organisation yourself. These tend to work better for holidays with young adult children, rather than small children and grandparents.
City breaks. Cities tend to be good for independent exploration without being reliant on cars, meaning that young adults can get up late and still go sightseeing, or meet the rest of the family for lunch. There will also be plenty of options to do things together, making these breaks ideal for holidaying with young adults.
A Final Thought
It is fair to say that there is a common thread developing on this page.
Most of the issues mentioned boil down to good communication and flexibility. However, perhaps it would be better to say that they depend on recognising that your children are now adults, and have their own lives and opinions.
When you are on holiday together, the holiday needs to reflect everyone’s interest and needs—and you can only reach that point by discussion and agreement.