The boomer grandparents who still pay for their family’s luxury holidays

If you’ve ever wondered how that friend on a £30k salary managed to buy that house in that expensive part of town, the answer is probably; the Bank of Mum and Dad. Baby boomer parents have been stumping up contributions to deposits for 20 years as house prices have soared and wages stayed the same, making first time home ownership in parts of the UK near impossible without some help. Boomers have helped with the homes, but there’s something else they’re funding, too – family holidays. If you’re wondering how that same friend on her £30k salary with a big mortgage and huge nursery fees is also affording that all-inclusive 5* resort on a Greek island for her and her children, then the answer is probably: her parents, or her in-laws, are paying. (Photo: Thomas Barwick/Getty)

Financial help for over half of UK parents

Travel insurance company AllClear in 2025 surveyed 750 grandparents in the UK who travel abroad regularly, and 54 per cent of them said they have fully funded a family holiday abroad. Those grandparents are likely the cohort – of which there are millions across the UK – with final salary pensions, full state pensions, and low-to-no mortgages. More than half of UK parents (56 per cent) have had financial help from grandparents towards a family holiday, with 54 per cent saying the grandparents paid the entire bill. Parkdean resorts also found that more than half of parents regularly go away with their own parents, or partner’s parents, with 82 per cent saying they’d struggle to have a break if it wasn’t for the financial help they get from them. To take a week’s trip abroad in the school holidays can cost several thousand pounds, with prices inflated when they hit highest demand. (Photo: Toby Melville/Reuters)

'An overhaul of the pricing system'

Travel agents, including Advantage Travel Partnership in 2024 called for an “overhaul of the pricing system”, arguing that there is a huge premium on breaks taken in the second half of July and in August, when almost all of the UK’s school children are on their summer holidays. Their study found that a family of four will pay an additional £716 on average if they travel during a school half-term or holidays across the year, compared to travelling in term time. It also found that this number rises even further during the six-week summer break, when travel costs increase the most. The spiked costs are proving so high, in fact, that some families are opting to pay school fines for removing their children during term time. A record 459,288 school holiday fines were issued in England last year, according to new figures from the Department for Education (DfE). So if a grandparent is offering to stump up for that sunny half-term break to Costa Rica, it’s going to sound pretty appealing. Yet, grandparents paying for holidays is not always as transactional as it sounds. There are plenty of emotional reasons for the generations to holiday together. The money might make it possible, yes, but the impetus tends to be something more wholesome; to all spend quality time together. (Photo: Getty)

'I really like holidaying with my parents'

Rose, a 34-year-old book editor from London, never grew out of holidaying with her parents, and has accompanied them on villa holidays around the South of France, and Italy (plus one trip to the Caribbean). They have always paid for the trip. She used to go on her own holidays, too, with friends, or her partner, but now she has a two-year-old in nursery, and a child in reception, so money is tighter – and going away in the school holidays, rather than off season, would be a financial strain. The last two summers, her mother – a retired GP – and her father – a consultant cardiologist who is still working – have taken her, her husband and their children away to the South of France, and The Dolomites. This year, they’re doing an Easter holiday trip to Puglia and doing a traditional farm stay in Salento. “I know a lot of people moan about too much time with their relatives, but I really like going on holiday with my parents,” says Rose. “We get to have fun in a new place outside of the daily grind of work and pick-up times and rushed meal times. (Photo: Manfred Gottschalk/Getty)

'They tell us to save for the grandchildren'

“They help us with childcare at home, but we don’t really get to sit and chat properly. On holiday, they have loads of fun with the children, and them being there allows my husband and me an evening out, just us. We also make sure my parents get time to do their own thing, and aren’t tied to our child-friendly schedule. But they really like to be part of all the chaos. Obviously I’d love to take them away someday, and I tell them this a lot, and say how grateful I am, but they say they both worked hard so they could spend their money this way. They tell my husband and me to save our money for important things, for the children, for our mortgage. We insist on paying for at least a few meals, drinks and other things when we’re there. He felt funny about letting them pay at first, but he now understands that they don’t feel obliged, they actually want to do it.” (Photo: Tom Werner/Getty)

On the rise

Steph Heyden, who runs Hey Escapes, an independent, bespoke travel agency in the UK, says that she’s seeing more holidays like this being booked. “Multigenerational holidays, with grandparents footing the bill, are definitely on the rise,” she says. “Particularly, in my experience, in families with infant-aged children, which makes travelling outside school holidays possible and therefore more affordable. Grandparents gain precious, uninterrupted time with their grandchildren, as well as providing the middle generation with a rare chance to truly unwind. For many it’s also a conscious choice to spend some of their inheritance now and invest in shared experiences and memories rather than leaving it sitting in a bank account for the taxman. With increasing living costs, high mortgages and childcare costs stretching family budgets – it’s a welcome option for young families who want to go on holiday but don’t have the capital to do so without help from their wealthier parents.”

An awkward topic in friend groups

Family holidays can make for a great change from the grind of daily life, and the work-and-childcare juggling of the school holidays. But it can also be an awkward topic in friendship groups, where one parent is yet again spending half term in the germ-riddled soft play, while another is off on a £5k holiday to a luxury ski resort in Val d’Isère. “Count yourself lucky, because the most my parents have ever paid for since I’ve been an adult is a plate of chips,” writes one Mumsnetter – with a hint of irritation – in response to a post about the downsides of a free holiday with the grandparents. Yet, as with everything relating to the Bank of Mum and Dad, it’s also the not knowing how someone is affording that lovely holiday that can make you feel like you’ve failed if you and your children are staying put. (Photo: Getty)

'My close friends know'

Does Rose come clean to her friends, or parents at the school gates, about how she’s making it to a Masseria in Puglia this year? “I don’t post lots of photos to Instagram or go on about these trips too much. My close friends know my parents pay, but I don’t advertise it to people I don’t know. Some of my friends definitely don’t have family who can help in this way, but I do have quite a few friends whose parents or in-laws regularly take them away on trips, or fund the accommodation or flights, for example. Having children myself, I can understand the pleasure it would give me one day to be able to pay for them to have a holiday, and to go on a big trip with everyone, together.” (Photo: SalvatorBarki/Getty)

Difficult to have any control over

Yet, money can come with baggage. For anyone thinking, “Yes, but I’d put up with anything for a free trip to a Greek island this Easter”, take solace in this; it can be tricky to have any say in, or control over, a holiday that you’ve not paid for. Jess, a 39-year-old PA from Bristol, two years ago agreed to a summer holiday with her husband’s parents, and assumed they’d pay their portion, while she and her husband would pay for themselves and their three (school age) children. “They surprised us by booking – and paying for – the whole holiday,” she says, “which was obviously a lovely surprise. What was tricky about it, was that we didn’t choose the place, and we wouldn’t have chosen it because to get anywhere involved walking for ages, which isn’t great with young children. There were a few difficult things about it, actually, as they didn’t do much playing at all with the children during the day, and were on their own schedule completely. But you don’t want to say anything, as you’ll seem ungrateful, and it’s very nice for the kids to be away with their extended family, and it’s lovely memories for them. I did think that I wouldn’t do it again, but it looks like we will be doing it this year after all. It’s very difficult to say no, particularly when they’re offering to pay because you can’t really use the excuse that you’ve decided to spend your money differently this year.” (Photo: Georgios Tsichlis/Getty)

Bank of Mum and Dad staying open

It used to be that parents might help their children through university, and with the deposit for a first home. But now, the Bank of Mum and Dad seems to stay open indefinitely. Jane, a 63-year-old former head teacher took her daughter, and her nine-year-old grandson, away on a cycling trip in Denmark last July. Jane has two other children, but they earn more, and have partners, whereas her daughter is a single parent. “My husband and I were big savers, bordering on frugal, I’d say. After he died unexpectedly in 2021, I felt that old – but true! – cliche of life being so short. I help all my children where I can, but taking my daughter and grandson away was wonderful, because they’d not managed to go abroad for a few years, and my grandson is madly into bikes. It’s not that affording life was always easy when I was younger, but young people have it tough these days, they really do. I have enough to spend on a nice trip every year, and so who better to do it with? It’s a pleasure.” (Photo: Michal Fludra/NurPhoto via Getty)