A jar of sand from Utah Beach sits on Leti Muñoz's ofrenda — a souvenir from a three-week trip through France and the UK she took with her mother, Teresa, in April. The goal was personal: Teresa wanted to stand on the Normandy coast where her late father landed during the Second World War. What she remembers most, though, is drinking Champagne at the top of the Eiffel Tower after a day of wandering Paris with no plans at all. "I don't think we stopped talking the whole time," Leti says.
That mix — a mother's dream trip delivering something deeper than either expected — is the essence of a growing travel trend: the matriarch trip. Instead of the usual family holiday dynamic, where mum does the research and caters to everyone else's preferences, the itinerary starts with one question: where would she like to go?
It doesn't have to mean a battlefield pilgrimage. When Molly Schoneveld's mother, Susan, revealed she'd always dreamed of seeing the Greek islands, Molly built a trip around it. The two travelled to Santorini, Antiparos and Athens, staying in a two-bedroom villa with a private plunge pool at Canaves Epitome in Oia. There was no family history waiting for them — Susan simply loved the water and had admired it in photographs for years. That was reason enough.
The practical lessons from both trips are worth stealing. Handing your mother the destination choice doesn't mean she has to handle the logistics. Leti booked the Normandy leg through Road Scholar, a nonprofit running educational trips for older adults, precisely so she could focus on time with her mum rather than admin. The organisation says it's seeing more adult children travelling with older parents, and its own survey found more than half of participants are open to a multigenerational trip within the next year.
Pace matters, too. Molly's mother needed a knee replacement, so after an overnight flight and a three-stop itinerary, Molly used a travel agent, booked separate bedrooms for privacy, and hired a private guide so Susan could manage the Acropolis despite her knee and her fear of heights. Experts suggest going through an itinerary in advance — walking distances, terrain, cobblestones — and asking honestly whether your mum prefers a fully planned day or room to wander.
The richer payoff comes from the conversation. Anthropologist Elizabeth Keating points out that adult children often know surprisingly little about their mothers' lives before kids — the neighbourhoods, the childhood fears, the courtships. Cornell professor Karl Pillemer, who has interviewed over 1,000 older Americans, recommends moving past "what happened" to ask how an experience felt or what they'd do differently. You don't need to turn every coffee into an interview; familiar streets often do the work on their own.
Both families kept it going after the trip. Leti and Teresa have since driven from LA to San Diego for gardens and are planning Christmas in New Mexico, where Teresa's parents came from. Molly and Susan came home with new inside jokes at a stage of life when shared memories are harder to make.
For anyone with a mother or grandmother who's been quietly deferring her dream trip for decades, this trend is a nudge: hand her the map and follow along.
Story first reported by Condé Nast Traveler.
