I’m embracing 3G holidays: three generations, non-stop mandatory activities

Picture this: You’re sitting on warm sand, arm in arm with your partner as the sun dips below the horizon. The moment is perfect.

But it’s not just the two of you soaking it in. Your parents are sitting beside you, gazing out at the same stunning view. Nearby, your kids and their cousins are building sandcastles and your sister is snapping photos. This is multi-generational holidaying.

Kellie Floyd on a recent inter-generational family holiday to Uluru.

This style of travel, also known as 3G or Multi-Gen holidays, is on the rise. Research from Club Med shows that nearly half of holidaying Australians plan to take this type of trip in the next 12 months. If you Google “multi-generational travel” you’ll see a growing number of tourism companies now cater to this market, offering all-inclusive Multi-Gen holidays, where everything is pre-packaged and predictable.

But that’s not my family’s style. We craft our own itineraries that cater to everyone – choosing destinations, activities, and meals that suit the whole family. For us, the perfect travel recipe includes a mix of culture, adventure, downtime, and a generous amount of food (with kids, always plan for plenty of food).

Before you panic and imagine the many ways in which this would be your holiday from hell, let me be clear: To those in the middle generation, your parents won’t enforce your bedtime. To older family members, this isn’t about being built-in babysitters. The idea of multi-generational travel is that everyone is an active, willing, and happy traveller.

Negotiating the itinerary takes more time than it might on a holiday with just a partner or only one family (Nanna and Pop love history, the kids insist on pool time, and I crave hikes and coffee), not least because when we travel together, we stay together.

Unlike families who love to splinter into groups or have days alone, for us, the magic lies in everyone sharing every experience. Like it or not. Whether it’s visiting the National Gallery in Canberra, biking around Uluru, or enjoying an afternoon swim in a hotel pool, each family member finds something for them in the day’s activities. I know this because our dinner conversation always starts with the same question: “What was your favourite part of today?”

On a recent adventure to the Northern Territory, I found myself lingering behind as my 11-year-old son and his pop strolled across red dunes towards a restaurant for dinner. I quietly signalled to the rest of the family to hang back a little and give them space for their own conversation. They walked slowly, completely absorbed, oblivious to the sand kicking up and painting their clothes in a rusty hue. Moments like this could happen anywhere, but how amazing that it happened in the heart of the outback, with them experiencing this vast and ancient landscape together for the first time.

Watching the bond between my children and their grandparents grow as they make memories in a setting beyond our home is magic. But the other aspect of multi-generational travel I hadn’t expected to love as much as I do is the experience of spending quality time with my parents as an adult. Away from the daily distractions, where conversations aren’t cut short by the next obligation, you have an opportunity to connect more profoundly and know each other in ways you might not otherwise.

Travelling as a multi-generational group also stretches us beyond our usual holiday routines. My primary-school-aged kids can now spot a Jackson Pollock among other abstract expressionist paintings. Pop can tick off cliff jumping, and Nanna has rock scrambled.

The exciting moment of the trip always turns into a chorus of laughs and cheers when someone does the unexpected – like Dad jumping into freezing water when no one else dares, or celebrating as the littlest family member sinks his first ball in a game of pool.

These holidays might not last forever, especially when our kids reach teenage years and would rather die than be forced to hang out with their parents for a full week. But until that day comes, we’ll keep going all in. It isn’t for the faint-hearted, but when you nail it, the holiday is pure magic.

Kellie Floyd is a freelance writer and marketing and communications consultant.

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