Moments like these are the reason we plan a multigeneration vacation every so often. Like many extended families, ours is spread across the country. Gatherings back home can begin to feel like Groundhog Day: ever less exciting for returnees, ever more exhausting for aging hosts.
A vacation rental in an appealing destination can be an excellent family adventure.
Beach vacations in winter are a big hit with us. Mexico’s Pacific coast is a bargain, and cities like Zihuatanejo and Puerto Vallarta are easy flights from the various US cities our family connects through. Popular resort meccas like these can be touristy, though, their beaches choked with chaises, vendors, and crowded high-rise hotels.
We’ve learned to look just beyond the cities for safe, clean, friendly villages like Troncones, bucolic places that are minimally developed and within a short drive of large airports. Here, small inns are often interspersed with beachfront villa rentals, frequently owned by US or Canadian expats but managed locally.
Vacation rental homes offer full kitchens, indoor and outdoor space to gather or romp, and quiet and privacy. In Mexico, daily maid service and pool maintenance are usually included. Especially when traveling with children - in our case, Waylon and his sister, Quincy, 5 months - these bonuses trump the swankiest hotel.
Even without kids, a rental villa in a small beach village can be idyllic. On their honeymoon in 2004, our daughter Amanda and her husband, Miles, discovered the surfing village of Sayulita, just north of Puerto Vallarta, where they stayed in a small cottage overlooking the sea. Their blissful experience led us to return there in 2006 for a Christmas week, four-generation family gathering.
Eleven of us were divided between two villas, each with its own pool. It was no honeymoon, but it was crazy fun, and best summed up by our daughter Erin’s Christmas Day query to the table: “Which would you rather be eating right now - this fresh shrimp taco, or Grandma’s Christmas ham? No, offense, Grandma.’’
