Ben Block is the founder and CEO of 6GTravel the parent company of of DH Travel Services, the operator of Great Value Vacations, Great Value Holidays, Sceptre Vacations, and the Aer Lingus Vacation Store. With more than four decades of history in the travel industry, DH has packaged and delivered millions of vacations across Europe and beyond. We sat down with Ben to talk about one of the fastest-growing trends in leisure travel: multigenerational vacations.
Q: Multigenerational travel is being called one of the defining travel trends of this decade. What’s driving it?
I think the honest answer is that Covid changed how people feel about time — specifically, time with family. Before the pandemic, it was easy to put things off. We’d say ‘we should all do a big family trip someday’ and someday would never quite arrive. Then, for a period, travel simply wasn’t possible, and that period of enforced separation made people realize how much they missed being together — grandparents with grandchildren especially. When travel opened back up, ‘someday’ became ‘now.’ Families stopped waiting for the perfect moment and started creating it. The data really backs this up. According to a 2025 survey by Squaremouth, 47% of travelers chose multigenerational or family trips — up 17% in a single year. And a report from American Express found that 58% of Millennial and Gen Z parents planned to bring extended family along on vacation. That’s an extraordinary number. This isn’t a niche market anymore. It’s the mainstream.
“Covid changed how people feel about time with family. Before the pandemic, it was easy to put things off. Then, for a period, travel wasn’t possible — and that period of enforced separation made families realize how much they’d missed being together.”
Q: What does a multigenerational vacation actually look like? What makes it different from a regular family holiday?
The key distinction is the span of ages — and the span of needs that come with those ages. Think of it like a symphony orchestra: you have very different instruments that each play a different part, but together they make something richer than any single instrument could on its own. A multigenerational trip might have grandparents in their seventies who want a leisurely pace and cultural immersion, parents in their forties who want a mix of relaxation and good food and wine, and kids ranging from toddlers to teenagers who want adventure and novelty. Designing a trip that works for all of them requires a fundamentally different approach to planning. Typically, these trips are longer than the average vacation — because travelling as a group of eight or twelve people takes significant coordination and you want it to be worth the effort. Accommodation is a central consideration: many families opt for villas or multi-room rentals to maintain both togetherness and privacy. And the itinerary needs built-in flexibility — shared anchor experiences that the whole family does together, alongside options for subgroups to branch off based on interest and energy level.
Q: You mentioned the emotional dimension of these trips. Can you say more about why they matter beyond just the logistics?
This is really the heart of it. At a certain point in life, grandparents understand — often more acutely than anyone — that time is the most precious commodity there is. Taking a grandchild to see the Colosseum, or walking through the Irish countryside together, or sharing a meal on a terrace in Tuscany — those are experiences that get woven into the fabric of a family’s story. They become the stories that get told at the dinner table for decades. The grandchild grows up and tells their own children about that trip they took with Grandma and Grandpa. There’s research that speaks to this too. More than 55% of families have started specifically opting for trips that include grandparents alongside children. And when you ask people why, the answer is almost always the same: quality time. Not screens, not routines, not the background noise of daily life — real, sustained, present time together. A shared vacation provides that in a way that a Sunday dinner simply can’t. For many grandparents, these trips are also a form of legacy. They’re gifting the next generation an experience, a memory, a shared point of reference. That’s a profound and beautiful thing.
“Grandparents understand, often more acutely than anyone, that time is the most precious commodity there is. A multigenerational vacation becomes the story a grandchild grows up to tell their own children.”
Q: DH Travel Services operates both Great Value Vacations and Sceptre Vacations. How do those brands serve this market differently?
This is something I’m genuinely proud of — the fact that we have two distinct, well-developed brands that approach the multigenerational market from different angles, and yet both are genuinely well-suited to it. Great Value Vacations — which we also operate as Great Value Holidays for our UK audience — is built around the idea that exceptional travel doesn’t have to be prohibitively expensive. When you’re booking for eight or ten or twelve people, cost becomes a very significant factor very quickly. Our GVV packages are expertly designed, air-inclusive, and cover an enormous range of destinations across Europe, the Americas, and beyond. For a family where the grandparents want to treat everyone to something special but also need to be mindful of budget, GVV is a natural fit. You get quality and value, and you don’t have to make painful choices between the two. Sceptre Vacations is a different proposition entirely. It’s our premium, bespoke brand, and it operates through a network of skilled travel advisors who build truly customized itineraries. If you have a family with particular tastes — if Grandad loves architecture and the grandkids are passionate about food and the parents want luxury accommodation — Sceptre’s consultants will weave all of that together into a trip that feels entirely tailored. The focus is on local culture, cuisine, and authentic immersion. For the multigenerational traveler who wants a once-in-a-generation experience that will be spoken about for the rest of their lives, Sceptre is exactly the right tool for that.
Q: What destinations do you see particularly resonate for multigenerational groups?
Europe is by far our strongest market and it’s an extraordinary canvas for this kind of trip. Ireland is perennially popular — there’s something about its landscape and pace and warmth that works beautifully across all ages. Whether you’re walking the Cliffs of Moher, exploring a medieval castle, or sitting by a peat fire in a country inn, there’s a kind of magic that holds across generations. The same is true of Italy, which offers this incredible combination of history, beauty, food, and approachability. A grandparent who studied art history and a twelve-year-old who just wants good pizza can both find joy in the same Italian piazza. Portugal has emerged as a particularly strong destination for multigenerational groups in recent years — it offers extraordinary value compared to other Western European countries, excellent infrastructure, and that rare quality of being genuinely interesting at every level of curiosity. Greece is another favorite: the combination of ancient history, spectacular scenery, and relaxed seaside culture creates natural spaces for the whole family to come together. What I always encourage families to think about is: what is the through-line? What is the shared experience — the Colosseum, the fjord, the castle ruin, the vineyard — that everyone will gather around? Build the trip outward from that anchor, and the rest falls into place.
“What I always encourage families to think about is: what is the through-line? Build the trip outward from that shared anchor experience, and the rest falls into place.”
Q: What are the most common pain points you see families encounter when planning a multigenerational trip — and how do you address them?
The first is sheer coordination complexity. When you have multiple households involved, each with their own schedules, school calendars, work constraints, and travel preferences, just getting everyone to agree on dates can feel like a diplomatic negotiation. We try to make our booking process as streamlined as possible — particularly through Sceptre’s PerfectFIT platform, which allows travel advisors to generate custom quotes quickly, adjust components on the fly, and share beautifully packaged itineraries directly with clients. That speed and flexibility matters enormously when you’re trying to herd a large family toward a decision. The second is accommodation. Hotels are often not ideal for large multigenerational groups — individual rooms don’t create the communal energy that makes these trips special. We work hard to incorporate options like villas, manor houses, and castle stays that allow families to be genuinely together rather than distributed across floors of a hotel. The third — and perhaps the most underappreciated — is pacing. Multi-age groups have very different energy levels. Grandparents may need slower mornings or afternoon rest. Young children have their own rhythms. Teenagers want independence and stimulation. A well-designed multigenerational itinerary has breathing room built in. It’s not a race. Some of the best moments on these trips happen in the unscheduled spaces — a spontaneous walk, a conversation over a long lunch, a moment of watching a grandchild discover something for the first time.
Q: Any final thoughts for a family that’s considering taking this kind of trip but hasn’t quite pulled the trigger yet?
Just go. That’s my honest advice. Don’t wait for the perfect moment, because the perfect moment is a moving target that has a way of staying just out of reach. Children grow up quickly. Grandparents’ mobility and health can change. The window for this kind of trip is real, and it’s finite — even if it doesn’t feel that way today. I’d also say: don’t underestimate how transformative it can be. I’ve spoken to many families after they’ve returned from these trips, and the sentiment I hear most often is something like, ‘I didn’t realize how much we needed this.’ The distance from ordinary life, the shared meals, the shared discoveries, the laughter — it does something to a family that no weekend gathering at home can quite replicate. It resets relationships. It creates new stories. It gives everyone something to hold in common. Whether you’re thinking about a beautifully priced Great Value Vacations package to Ireland, or a fully bespoke Sceptre itinerary to Tuscany designed around exactly who your family is — we are genuinely here to help you build that experience. That’s what we’ve been doing, in one form or another, for over forty years.