Vacations: A Grand Time

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Last summer Ellen and Peter Derber, 58 and 64, of Manistique, Mich., invited their granddaughter Christine, 10, on a trip to Italy. Taking a day off from their Interhostel tour, they visited the American cemetery at Nettuno, where Ellen's uncle--a soldier killed near Anzio 20 days after the 1944 invasion of Italy--is buried. "Christine accepted the seriousness of it," recalls her grandfather, "knowing that under every cross or Star of David was someone who sacrificed their life just so we could do what we do."

In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on America, that travel experience took on a deepened meaning for Christine because she was able to understand what thousands of dead meant. "At the cemetery," she says, "I saw 4,000 crosses--not even all of them. And World War II took years, but the World Trade Center was just one day."

Most grandparents who travel with their grandkids want the chance to bond with them individually, and that's the way the Derbers felt. They wanted to get to know Christine away from parents and siblings and to have the fun of introducing her to new experiences. Beyond that, they wanted to pass on the history of their family and an idea of how it connected to history in a larger sense. They want all their grandchildren to understand, as Ellen puts it, that "this is our world. You're not separate from these other countries."

These are among the powerful motives propelling what was, until Sept. 11, a growing boom in grandparent-grandchild travel. It remains to be seen what effect the terrorist attacks--and the chill they cast on the travel industry--will have. But the demographics suggest that the upward trend will continue as more and more of America's 77 million baby boomers become grandparents. In the past year, 20% of U.S. grandparents traveled with their grandkids, according to a survey for American Demographics by Zogby International, a polling firm. In fact, "grandtravel" made up 21% of all trips with children in 2000, reports a Meredith Corp. survey for the Travel Industry of America, up 13% from the previous year. Boomers, Meredith Corp. found, account for 46% of all family travel and spend more on their family vacations than any other group.

Today's grandparents are more affluent, fit and travel-savvy than grandparents ever. Whether they live near their grandchildren or at a distance, they feel a need to get away with them one on one. Typically, one grandparent travels with one grandchild, or a couple takes one or two kids.

Helena Koenig founded the Grandtravel tour group--and coined the term grandtravel, now common in the industry--16 years ago. She has expanded from four tours to 20, and a host of imitators have sprung up. Hotels and travel groups of every stripe, from the Loews chain to Elderhostel, have developed grandtravel packages. These range from reduced pricing and specially designed suites to international tours, complete with guides for adults and licensed teachers for children.

The most popular international destinations are cities like London or Paris. In the U.S., the national parks and historic sites like Washington or Virginia top grandparents' lists. Typically, the organized tours are for children ages 7 to 17, who are often divided into younger and older groups. Grandparents range from their 50s to their 80s, with most between 60 and 70.