Multigenerational trips are a rising travel trend, and that makes sense. A vacation between grandparents, kids, and grandkids gives extended families time together without the expectations of holiday gatherings, and with so many vacation schedules to juggle with quality time, families are finding it easier to simply see each other while they relax. To help make your own three-generation getaway work better, it helps to pick places with plenty of options for every age, because not everyone wants to do the same thing. It also helps to decide ahead of time who’ll pay for what. Whether riding horses across the open plains, exploring a city, or rafting rivers, these diverse ideas offer vacations that your family will remember for all the right reasons.   

 

All-Inclusive Caribbean Resorts

 

All-inclusive resorts can keep budgets from ballooning—the pervasive risk of all multigenerational trips. But when everything's included, it’s not a problem when the grandkids want more windsurfing, or when teens grab second helpings of lobster.

 

The upscale Grand Velas Riviera Maya, a luxury resort on 206 acres in Mexico, delivers good food and a sense of expansiveness. The oceanfront, family-friendly Ambassador suites are around 1,100-square feet apiece, and the spa, which administers treatments inspired by local traditions, provides ample space for relaxing. At the kids' clubs, those aged 4 to 12 take mariachi lessons, listen to stories, and enjoy arts and crafts. Teens get foosball, air hockey, and video games.

 

At Beaches Turks & Caicos, expect more crowds but also more activities—wakeboarding, sailing, scuba diving—as well as no-extra-fee child care for infants through 3-year-olds, and a full day's worth of activities for kids ages 4 to 17. The waterpark’s geysers and slides divert kids for hours, while Sesame Street characters thrill preschoolers, who can bake cookies with Cookie Monster, take a nature walk with Big Bird, or listen to stories with Elmo for added fees. For a bit of luxury, consider a two-bedroom suite or a 3- to 4-bedroom villa. Both lodging categories come with butlers.

 

City Explorations

 

In many big cities, a mix of history, art, outdoor sites, and science attractions enables families to follow their interests without roughing it.

 

Take Boston, for example. Along the Freedom Trail, grade-schoolers can find the Old North Church and other places they might be learning about in history class. Little ones like to build houses and blow giant bubbles at the Boston Children’s Museum as well as climb the duck sculptures in the Public Garden (pictured above).

 

At the New England Aquarium, animal lovers can see harbor seals, penguins, and endless tanks of fish. The Museum of Fine Arts houses one of the largest collections of Monet paintings in the United States. Science-oriented teens find fossils and dinosaurs to ogle at the Museum of Science—one of the best in the country—and kinetic sculptures to activate at the MIT Museum, located across the river in Cambridge.

 

In season, enjoy family bike rides along the Charles River Esplanade, Boston Red Sox baseball at Fenway Park, or ice skating on the frozen Frog Pond in Boston Common.

Boston is just one example, though. Many U.S. cities are equally good playgrounds for multiage family vacations.

 

National Parks and Nearby Towns

 

Many of the biggest national parks in the American West have a huge range of options for multigenerational groups. One of the most spectacular spots is, of course, Yellowstone National Park, where even the most blasé kids look up from their phones as the Old Faithful geyser shoots spray more than 100 feet into the air or a herd of bison moseys in front of the car. Learn about the park on an outing or multiday trip operated by Yellowstone Forever, the park’s nonprofit partner. Naturalists tell you about the wildlife and set up high-powered telescopes so you can spot wolves in the hills and goats on mountain ridges. 

 

After Yellowstone, sample the western culture of Cody, Wyoming. President Theodore Roosevelt called the drive from Yellowstone’s east entrance to Cody “the most scenic 50 miles in the world.” At the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, five museums showcase firearms, Plains Indian culture, Western art, and wildlife, including grizzly bear claws and live encounters with hawks and owls. In summer, watch cowboys ride bulls and race horses around barrels at the Cody Nite Rodeo. 

 

 

Reprint from Frommers