Late last month, dozens of kids and their grandparents set up camp in Southern California’s Dos Picos County Park for a weekend of arts and crafts, s’mores, games, and nature. They were partaking in a free annual “gramping” event run by officials in San Diego County, where some 18,000 grandparents are raising their grandchildren.
The portmanteau refers, of course, to camping with one’s grandparents — or, depending on who’s using it, camping with one’s grandkids. In the case of the San Diego event, it allowed adults who have guardianship of their grandchildren to spend time with others in the same situation, but gramping in general is a chance for the two generations to connect sans parents.
And it’s a win-win for both parties. The travel trend, which picked up steam a few years back, facilitates the kind of bonding that comes from having new experiences together and can help foster a closer relationship, which may in turn offer a wealth of benefits.
“It’s put a new lease of life back into me that I wouldn’t have had if I’d have been spending the time back home on my own,” Trevor Parry told the BBC last summer of caravanning with grandson Elliot, adding, “It makes you feel younger.”
Strong support from grandparents has been shown to positively influence children’s emotional well-being, while caring for grandchildren may provide cognitive benefits and even increase lifespan. Research also indicates that a greater affinity between grown-up grandkids and their grandparents can reduce depressive symptoms in both.
It doesn’t have to strictly be camping, either — “skip-gen” travel can refer to any kind of trip. Speaking to Washington, D.C.’s WTOP News in 2023, Kelly Espy shared that taking her granddaughter to Italy helped the two deepen their connection.
“When we left the group in the evening, we just went back to the room and talked about the day and talked about what she liked, what she didn’t like. It was good quality time that we had together,” Espy said. “I think she learned to trust her grandmother. If I say, ‘It’s going to be OK,’ it’s going to be OK. It was a good experience.”
Hotel chains like Hilton emphasize skip-gen travel in their marketing materials, while the not-for-profit travel company Road Scholar offers over 50 trips catering to grandparents and their grandkids, from chocolate-tasting in Switzerland to sailing in Maine.
According to a 2025 survey from the Family Travel Association, 28% of respondents had taken a skip-gen trip in the past three years, and 35% were planning to take one in the next three.
Road Scholar CEO James Moses told The Boston Globe last summer: “It’s about creating lasting memories, but it’s also about learning together, being curious together, experiencing the world together — all of which create a unique and lasting bond between a grandparent and grandchild that lasts a lifetime.”
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