What is skip-gen travel?

Skip-gen travel is a vacation where grandparents travel with grandchildren and the middle generation stays home. The term took off in Virtuoso’s 2024 luxury-travel survey, which found 32% of grandparents had taken a grandkid-only trip in the prior year. The format works because it solves two real problems at once: working-age parents get a kid-free week, and retired grandparents get extended time with grandkids while they’re still physically able to travel. Best ages tend to be 8 to 14 — old enough for activities, young enough to still want the trip. Yacht charters fit skip-gen well: limited footprint, controlled environment, captain and crew double as childcare backstop. A Caribbean catamaran for grandparents and three grandkids runs roughly $25,000–$40,000 for a week, all-in. Skip-gen and multi-gen charters walk through booking specifics.