Leti Muñoz keeps a glass jar of sand and a shell from Utah Beach, France, on her ofrenda. She brought them home in April after traveling with her mother to the stretch of Normandy’s coast where Muñoz’s grandfather had landed during World War II. The two women enjoyed three weeks of traveling in France and the UK, but Utah Beach was the place they’d really gone to see.
Leti’s mother Teresa had imagined the visit for years. “It was a significant place in my father’s life,” she says of her late dad. “I wanted to walk in his footsteps.”
Yet when she talks about her favorite memories from the trip, it’s drinking Champagne with her daughter at the top of the Eiffel Tower that comes to mind first. It was the cherry on top of a day spent wandering through Paris with nowhere in particular to be. “I don’t think we stopped talking the whole time,” Leti says. Following Teresa’s wish to see Utah Beach had been the inspiration for the three weeks of exploring together, but it led to far more than the shore they’d come for.
That’s a consistent element of what has become known as the “matriarch trip:” a family vacation built around a mother or grandmother’s choice of destination, giving the places and experiences that matter to her top billing on the itinerary. It could mean going back to the neighborhood where she grew up, following a piece of family history overseas, or finally booking the wish-list trip she’s always wanted to take. For her family, it’s a chance to see either follow an important woman in their life to a place of personal importance—or discover one together.
It also turns a familiar family travel dynamic on its head. Moms are often the ones coordinating vacations on behalf of their family—doing the hotel research, remembering everyone’s preferences, and aiming to please. But that doesn’t mean their desires get priority when it comes to choosing the fun stuff. A matriarch trip begins with a different question: Where would she like to go?
Leti and Teresa’s experience made me wonder what others have learned from doing just that. So, I spoke with families who have taken matriarch trips of their own, and experts in the space, to understand how to plan an equally impactful trip. One lesson rang consistent: the destination was only part of what made these travels so memorable.
