Millennials and travel

[CdnCarrie]

I was having a conversation recently about this with a coworker.
Back in my day when I was in my 20s (1980s) people didn't travel as much as now. Flights are cheaper.
However back in the day when we did travel (unless it was family related - weddings, etc) I went with my friends or boyfriend/husband. We did cheap road trips, getaways, etc.
I don't recall anyone I know travelling with their parents except a close friend who was a single child and close to her mom. They did annual trips as her boyfriend and father didn't like traveling.


Now I see all these kids in their mid/late twenties - often married - travelling with their parents. And it's not that the parents are paying. The children have good jobs. No kids. Lots of friends. But traveling with their parent.
I find it sort of odd in a way.

Is it just a shift in generations? If I only get 3-4 weeks of vacation time I would want to spend at least the majority with my husband and not as a big group especially as a newlywed.

Of course each to their own. My kids are still teens so time will tell how they will choose to spend their vacation time in a decade.

And I'm not saying people should never travel with parents of course. I just find it odd that young people want to spend all their vacation time with their parents. I can see one family trip a year but all 3 weeks?

Is this becoming more common among people you know or is it just my perception?

 

[tvguy]

Well, I was in my 20's for the first 7 years of the 1980's and your perception was not my experience. I traveled a lot. Air fares were cheap then. I flew PSA a lot for work. They had a program called "Right your own ticket". You could buy a packet of 10 tickets for $100 (for travel within a certain distance), walk up to the ticket counter without a reservation, hand them ticket and get on the plane. $10 to get from Sacramento to Los Angeles, did that a bunch for work 1979-1980. And is you look up the history of Southwest.....they modeled their operations after PSA, no frills cheap travel.
As for personal travel, I went to Canada every other year with my mom in the 1980's.......I got married in 1982 and my wife came along too. My wife had family in Texas and Missouri and we went there every year, many of the trips to St. Louis were with her mom. So travel with our parents was common for us. We took vacations with my mom until 2012 when I was 55 and my mom was 89. And we did 4 cruises in the 1980's, out of Miami, so we traveled alot. And in those days, the cruise lines threw up a hotel room for the night before the cruise, and the air as part of the cruise fare.

 

[Pooh2]

We are middle-aged and recently went to Disney with our son and his young family. We were happy to be part of our grandkids first trip.

We see tons of multi-generation families at Disney and on cruises. We are happy that they still want to spend time with us!

Not sure why you think's it's odd that families want to spend time together.

 

[CdnCarrie]

We are middle-aged and recently went to Disney with our son and his young family. We were happy to be part of our grandkids first trip.

We see tons of multi-generation families at Disney and on cruises. We are happy that they still want to spend time with us!

Not sure why you think's it's odd that families want to spend time together.

I didn't say that.

 

[Pooh2]

I find it sort of odd in a way.

I didn't say that.

Huh, must be out of context.

 

[cvjw]

My older son is almost 24, gainfully employed and loves to travel. He and his significant other are traveling the world together, which is great. But, he will still gladly go with us whenever we invite him on a vacation. We don’t find it odd at all to travel with our young adult sons. We cherish every minute we get to spend as our little family of 4

 

[CdnCarrie]

Huh, must be out of context.

My parents came with us to WDW too when we had kids.

My post had to do with being young, independent but only traveling with parents on all your vacation time.
Seeing that with a lot lately and wondering if it's generational.

It was actually my coworker who brought it up!

I love my parents but when I was in my 20s I didn't want to spend every vacation day with them! LOL. I think my husband would have complained if I had suggested that!

I do think it's great that there is this great friendship and they travel together but every single vacation?

 

[gillep]

My husband and I travel with our families every few years. We are doing Hawaii with my mom, her husband, his son, and my brother this year, and somewhere with my husband's family next year, I think our last time with either family was 2016.

We live 3,000 miles away from either of our families and usually only go back for Christmas each year, which is always so hectic and not even remotely relaxing or easy to just hang out and reconnect. As a result, we make it a point to travel with them every few years so that we can all see one another.

We get at least 5 weeks of vacation each year and can carryover unused days, so although I wouldn't want to do this every year, it is fun to do every once in awhile, and I am happy to use my vacation days to do so. We are older millenials though so we have established jobs and such.

My husband's sisters, on the other hand, are excited to travel with us, but less so to bring their father, because they see him constantly and would prefer a vacation from that responsibility, but we can't afford two separate vacations with his family so it is what it is.

We all split the finances with my family and my husband and I end up covering most of the costs with his family.

ETA this is nowhere near ever vacation, my husband and I do a few vacations, just us, each year.

 

[CdnCarrie]

My older son is almost 24, gainfully employed and loves to travel. He and his significant other are traveling the world together, which is great. But, he will still gladly go with us whenever we invite him on a vacation. We don’t find it odd at all to travel with our young adult sons. We cherish every minute we get to spend as our little family of 4

Some vacations not odd. All vacations? Would his SO be okay to spend all vacations with you?

My post was regarding many 20s year olds that I know ( I can think of 5...) that have great paying jobs, are in committed relationships and only travel with their parents. My coworker mentioned it and it dawned on me that I knew people like that too.

 

[Katie Little]

This is an interesting thing to think about. My husband and I have gone on several vacations with his parents (mostly the beach). We live on our own, so it’s kind of nice to spend that QT with our family when we can. I go on smaller day and weekend trips with my mom frequently and on our upcoming trip to Disney we are actually bringing my dad (who’s never had a vacation in his whole life). I’ve never looked at it as “I only have so much time off why spend it with my parents or in-laws.” It’s more of a “Hey life is short and we don’t get to see these people as much as we would like to, let’s see if they want to tag along to this place.” Now I will say that we don’t do everything on the trip with our parents, we kind of do our own thing for most of the trip – it just so happens that we like the same things so we do a lot of it together if it works out. We also both grew up super poor so this is the first time we’ve really been able to have these experiences with our parents.

 

[NYCgrrl]

I was having a conversation recently about this with a coworker.
Back in my day when I was in my 20s (1980s) people didn't travel as much as now. Flights are cheaper.
However back in the day when we did travel (unless it was family related - weddings, etc) I went with my friends or boyfriend/husband. We did cheap road trips, getaways, etc.
I don't recall anyone I know travelling with their parents except a close friend who was a single child and close to her mom. They did annual trips as her boyfriend and father didn't like traveling.


Now I see all these kids in their mid/late twenties - often married - travelling with their parents. And it's not that the parents are paying. The children have good jobs. No kids. Lots of friends. But traveling with their parent.
I find it sort of odd in a way.

Is it just a shift in generations? If I only get 3-4 weeks of vacation time I would want to spend at least the majority with my husband and not as a big group especially as a newlywed.

Of course each to their own. My kids are still teens so time will tell how they will choose to spend their vacation time in a decade.

And I'm not saying people should never travel with parents of course. I just find it odd that young people want to spend all their vacation time with their parents. I can see one family trip a year but all 3 weeks?

Is this becoming more common among people you know or is it just my perception?

My recollection of the 80s differs from yours when it comes to airline cost and maybe it was a difference in markets. I bought tickets to Central Europe for about $350.0 r/t but hotels were much cheaper. Now it seems the pricing has reversed.

As for traveling with my mom in my twenties I didn't but my older sister did frequently and other close in age friends traveled from time to time with their parents as well. I think it was pretty normal in my culture and nothing unusual about adding grandparents and/or aunts and uncles to the mix. I know that I found it different that people I knew outside my culture had age-segregated parties. For us, a party meant all the generations together, trading jokes, recipes, and sharing the latest gossip.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

We are millenials with kids, we enjoy traveling with my parents. There are lots of other reasons of course, but an extra pair of adults when you're vacationing with kids is never a bad thing! In my world, this is not a new concept. When I was a young child we vacationed with my grandparents, I'm assuming largely for the same reasons that we go with my parents now.

Also, you can't always know that the parents aren't paying for the entire thing or footing a good chunk of the bill. In my experience, when friends (especially those without kids) travel with their parents it's because it's free or largely covered by their parents.

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

Not a millennial here.

When in my young 20s, I traveled with friends, DH, parents, sometimes a combo of DH and parents. I hope my kids will still want to take some trips with me at that age.

I don't really know enough about any of my friends' or acquaintances' vacation habits or details to say that I know how they spend their entire vacation time allotment.

 

[Christine]

Some vacations not odd. All vacations? Would his SO be okay to spend all vacations with you?

My post was regarding many 20s year olds that I know ( I can think of 5...) that have great paying jobs, are in committed relationships and only travel with their parents. My coworker mentioned it and it dawned on me that I knew people like that too.

Yeah, now that you phrased it that way, I agree it's odd. I have two kids (28 and 25 y/o). We vacation together probably once a year (either a big Disney trip, or if not doing Disney, they come along on a family type trip to see grandparents or the beach). Otherwise, they use their remaining leave to travel with their friends. My daughter just returned from a 4-day trip to New Orleans. Son is going to Arizona this Saturday for 4 days. They do a lot of shorter trips like this with their friends and/or significant other. DD has been to Iceland and France also, on her own.

If they didn't want to do that and spend their several weeks all with me, each year, every year, yes, I'd think it odd.

 

[gtpoohbear]

I guess I have had the opposite experience- as I feel like it was more common when I was growing up (80s/90s) for travel and vacations to involve large, extended families. I only remember a couple of vacations in my childhood that didn't involve my grandparents, and usually and aunt/uncle as well. And those were very last-minute trips, involving more physical activity and general chaos than they likely would have wanted, hence their absence. I think this was common among my friends too. The assumption was that a "family vacation" should involve the WHOLE family. Vacations with only a nuclear family seem like a more modern concept to me. But this may also have been a cultural/regional thing, more than a generational difference.

It was actually hard for my parents to accept at first that DH and I wanted to have vacations with just us and DD (and later DS, but by then they had gotten the point). They were always a bit miffed at not being invited in those first few years. In reality, they probably still are, but at least know better than to bring it up it now.

We have already told our kids that they will always be invited on any vacation we take, once they are grown and on their own, but never expected to come. And I would certainly never expect to be included on a trip that they plan, but if the opportunity arises, I probably won't turn it down.

 

[5kidsmommy]

My kids don't really travel with us. One lives in Alaska, one lives in Utah and three live here in Ohio. They all travel but not with us. They do travel to visit us and we travel to visit them. I do travel to Disney with my two youngest just because they are the Disney fans. I don't find it weird when adults travel with their parents, thats just not us. Several of our friends travel with their grown kids but ours would rather have their own experiences. They traveled extensively with us when they were growing up and now they are ready for their own adventures.

 

[DisneyKoyote]

Am a millenial (late 20's) and the majority of my friends are huge travelers (minimum 2-3 international trips a year, with a couple trips within the US). I don't see them traveling with families usually...when they do its because i) parents pay for majority of trip (which I know you said is not the case you see), ii) visiting relatives overseas, or iii) parents on the older side and they want to treat their mom/dad to something nice. Other than that it's almost always traveling with friends/SO. So based on my experience, they maybe do one trip a year with parents which I think is nice.
Edit:// idk if this makes a difference but they're all from the NYC area so maybe the city's culture just makes them more independent?

 

[skyblue17]

I'm an older millenial, single and travel often with friends & solo. I also like going on trips with my parents when I can. They're fun to do stuff with! Why would that be odd.

 

[Welsh_Dragon]

I was 15 when I last went on holiday with my parents. After that I backpacked with friends during the long summer holidays, exploring Europe and the Far East mainly. I wouldn’t have dreamed of joining my parents on holiday in my late teens or early twenties. I thought they were old, when they were in their 50s. They acted old, not in an ‘about to keel over’, decrepit sort of way, but in the way they dressed, general decorum, the way they presented themselves to others. They were the epitome of what society expected people born in 1910/20’s to be in middle age.
On the otherhand, my early/mid 20s children still holiday with me, but it is in addition to their independent travel with friends. It has never been discussed and just happens. I thoroughly enjoy it and I am grateful for it, but I can’t explain why it happens. Maybe it is just that people’s perception of ‘old’ has changed.

 

[PAsFab5]

We are millennials (just squeaked by on that lol) and now that I think about it...we almost always travel with our parents (we pay our own way and try to help with their expenses). My in-laws are always up to go anywhere at anytime and we just all have a great time together. Now, we all have separate accommodations (Hotels, condo ect) but we meet up each day at the beach, pool, park, for dinner...sometimes we just play board games in someone’s condo and eat snacks and share memories!

Our oldest son is married and him and his wife come with us on all vacations as well (and invite us on theirs) so I don’t think it’s tied to being a millennial, I think it circles back to how you grew up and if you have fond memories of vacationing with your parents and/or extended family you want to carry that on as a adult.