VBT Bicycling and Walking Vacations

National Grandparents Day: Take the Grandkids!

Published September 3, 2015 | By Clark Norton

You can bicycle along this canal with VBT. Photo from VBT Bicycling and Walking Vacations.

It was news to me, but National Grandparents Day is on Sunday, September 13^th.

According to Family Travel Association:

50 million U.S. households are now led by grandparents, forecasting a continued travel boom by this large group of baby boomers.
Today’s grandparents are far more active than their parents were, spending lots of time planning trips around specific activities.
As a result, multi-generational adventure travel is up 30% year after year. (Multi-generational travel is the fastest growing segment of the travel industry and tops the list of travel trends, according to the Virtuoso Luxe Report.)
More grandparents are traveling with just the grandchildren, leaving the greandkids’ parents’ behind.
22% of all grandparents traveled with just their grandchildren in the past year.

Here are a few suggestions for multi-generational travel, whether it’s… Continue reading →

Posted in Baby boomer travel, cycling, Family travel, Hotels, State parks | Tagged Hilton Hawaiian Village, Mark Twain Country, multi-generational travel, National Grandparents Day, New York's Finger Lakes, Strong National Museum of Play, VBT Bicycling and Walking Vacations | 2 Comments

Sound of Music Turns 50, Austria Awaits

Published March 26, 2015 | By Clark Norton

Austria’s Lake Country near Salzburg. Photo from VBT.

The much-beloved film The Sound of Music, which was released in 1965 and won the Oscar for Best Picture that year, did most of its location shooting in and around the city of Salzburg, Austria.

It’s hard to imagine many baby boomers who don’t know the (somewhat fictionalized) story of how the musically inclined von Trapps — composed of would-be-nun-turned-nanny Maria (Julie Andrews), Baron von Trapp (Christopher Plummer), and a parcel of cute kids who could belt out catchy tunes like “Do-Re-Mi” — became a family and fled the Nazis in Austria for safe haven elsewhere.

After hiking over the mountains (in the movie, at least), they eventually made their way to the United States and became known as the Trapp Family Singers.

The gorgeous Austrian scenery, the infectious music by Rodgers and Hammerstein, Julie Andrews twirling on a mountaintop in the… Continue reading →

Posted in Baby boomer travel, Cities, Countries, Europe, Hiking | Tagged Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Prague, Salzburg, Sound of Music, Sound of Music 50th anniversary., Sound of Music film locations, VBT Bicycling and Walking Vacations | Leave a comment

According to government and private surveys:

Leading-edge baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1955) and seniors account for four out of every five dollars spent on luxury travel today.
Roughly half the consumer spending money in the U.S.--more than $2 trillion--is in the hands of leading-edge baby boomers and seniors.
Baby boomers (born 1946-1964) travel more than any other age group.
When asked what they would most like to spend their money on, baby boomers answered “travel” more than any other category, including improving their health or finances.