The Informed Traveler
The Informed Traveler
Multi-Generational Vacations & Loreto, MX
Guess who's offering to pay for those multi generational family vacations? If you said grandma and grandpa you would be correct. That's at least according to a recent survey from FlightCentre. On this week's show travel expert Onanta Forbes will join me to breakdown the numbers and the reasons why. Then we'll head to Loreto, Mexico to give you some insight on one of the more quieter Mexican vacation spots.
Hello and welcome to the Informed Traveler Podcast, a weekly travel podcast. Our goal is to help you become a more informed traveler. And I'm your host, Randy Sharman. So guess who's offering to pay for those multi-generational family vacations? If you said grandma and grandpa, you would be correct. That's at least according to a recent survey from Flight Center. So in a few seconds, travel expert Onanta Forbes will join me to break down the numbers and the reasons why. And then we'll head to Loreto, Mexico to give you some insight on one of the more quieter Mexican vacation spots. But first, let's kick things off chatting with travel expert Onanta Forbes, who joins us each week to discuss some of the travel news and travel trends. You can follow her adventures on Instagram, Facebook, and ex at Onanta Forbes. OnantaForbes.com is her website. Hello, Onanta.
SPEAKER_01:Hi, Brandy. How are you?
SPEAKER_03:I'm well, thank you. We're gonna talk about this uh survey with Flight Center, talking about uh grandparents funding the uh vacation for the whole family, which I think if uh someone wanted to fund my vacation, I'd be all for it.
SPEAKER_01:Right, absolutely. I don't have grandparents, but I'm up for anybody who wants to adopt me.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, exactly. I agree. Well, there are numbers behind it, and we've kind of talked about this in the past when it comes to multi-generational travel, so it kind of falls into that uh sort of category, but now there's some numbers to really back it up, right?
SPEAKER_01:So 27% of Canadian baby boomers are willing to use their retirement savings to fund a multi-generation trip. And this trend is fueled by a desire to create a living legacy through shared experiences rather than just leaving an inheritance, and why not? Like there's so many uh trips that are geared for that, especially for bucket list trips, like uh taking your kids and your grandkids like on an African safari. And um, these findings that came from a 2025 September survey include that um grandparents are opting to fund vacations with their families, doing like memories created are more valuable than passing down financial assets and just the willingness to spend in addition to using their retirement savings. Six percent of Boomer's survey said that they would tap into money otherwise intended as a future inheritance for their children or their grandchildren. So I think this is fabulous because um in this day and age, it's almost like travels of expectation, it's not like a you know, a per perhaps or a you know, yeah, or a luxury kind of thing. Yeah, it's it's like part of your everyday life in the sense that people want to travel. And I think social media definitely have spurred that on with shows like The Amazing Race or just you know, different um different movies and different destinations. And so um a majority of Canadians, 73%, have already traveled or want to travel with multiple generations of their family, and 79% say reconnecting with loved ones is a top travel priority, and millennials are also favoring multi-generation trips, with 80% considering um that they would go on one. And this is consistent with a broader trend among younger generations who prioritize experiences over traditional saving goals. And some of the reasons for this trend is um like the pandemic and the rising cost of living has shifted financial priorities for younger generations, um, you know, favoring travel experiences over home ownership for traditional milestones. And you can see that too when people do a lot of remote travel doubt because the pandemic and technology sure showed us that we can work from anywhere, just as long as you have good Wi-Fi, right?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, exactly, exactly.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, and then baby boomers are generally healthier and wealthier than the previous generations of retirees, so they have more uh disposable income and time to travel, and then um also costs. So for many families, um, multi-generational trips are appealing because costs are shared among different family members. It's not just the grandparents, um, but it, you know, a lot of grandparents have that resources to do so, and just family trips are a top priority for boomers who want to spend more time with their children and their and their grandchildren. So, as a travel professional, you know, planning vacation um sometimes can be challenging, but you know, you might want to consider various um aspects of it, like budgeting. So determine a budget early in the process and discuss who will pay for what. So not every family member will have the same spending power. So it's so having a clear plan is crucial, and then create a balanced itinerary with options for different age groups and interests. Some families find it helpful to split up the activities and come together for meals, and that's true, like for cruise ships, right? Because when you're on a cruise ship, you don't all have to do the same thing. Um, even when you're at the port, you could do different things or you know, take advantage of the different activities at the port and do a group, a group excursion. And then if you're doing like a land stay, look for flexible accommodation options such as suites or rentals that offer separate bedrooms and space if for group activities. And of course, we've talked about this many times in different kinds of trips, that ensure all family members have adequate travel medical insurance as well as provincial health care, um, as it's limited outside of Canada.
SPEAKER_03:Well, you're right. Travel is expensive, and uh, if you're raising a family, uh chances are there's not enough, not a whole lot of money left over for uh for a family vacation. So if you can spread the costs around, or if the uh grandparents are willing to take up most of the costs, why not? Plus, you also have the child care because now you have two extra bodies or whatever the case may be to look after uh children so you can experience uh the vacation a little bit different, a little bit uh better in that in some sense.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, absolutely. Um, and it's it's good that um there's different interests because I think that also allows you to experience something that you may not have thought of before because of the interest at the either the destinations or the individuals traveling as well. And it's actually now is the busiest booking periods for Canadian families because they're looking, everybody's looking ahead for winter skates, holiday breaks, and trips to the sun, lead the pack. So, like whether it's Costa Rica or uh Jamaica or even Thailand. Um and we've talked about cruises in the in the past as well. So it's not just a vacation, it's the connection of um all the members kind of coming together. And it kind of brings, it's kind of nice to see um grandparents um enjoying their grandkids of all different ages. It it's a nice, it's a nice way. And um, you know, and it's even like we we went to a football game the other day and just the tailgating and all the different family members that were part of the uh experience. So it's nice, it's very nice.
SPEAKER_03:It is nice, and uh, you're seeing now too, I think uh hotels adapting, and there's a lot more accommodation options that make it easier for families of six or eight or ten, whatever the number may be, uh to stay in the same accommodations. You're not sharing or you're not uh splitting up rooms, hotel rooms, or or that kind of thing either.
SPEAKER_01:Right. There's actually a TV commercial that kind of just even I identifies that, like at the end of the night, everybody it's nice that everybody has their own space so that they can recharge and do what they want to do, um, and then get together in the day to uh enjoy further adventures.
SPEAKER_03:Well, good stuff. Uh it's uh one of those things. I guess the biggest takeaway that I also got of this too is book now because people are looking, they're they're uh booking farther out uh to make sure they get the kind of accommodations and the flight times and the situations that they want. Uh so if you're thinking about doing something like this, uh now's the time to start having a look and call your favorite travel agent.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely, best advice ever.
SPEAKER_03:Onantha Forbes is a travel expert. You can follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and ex at Onanta Forbes. OnantaForbes.com is her website. Thanks, Onanta.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you. Have a good day.
SPEAKER_03:This is the Informed Traveler Podcast. I'm Randy Sharman. Just want to remind you of our website, theinformtraveler.org. That's where you can find our contact page if you have any questions or comments about the podcast or any show ideas. You can always email me too with any questions you might have. My email address is Randy at the informedtraveler.org. And check out our social media pages too at facebook.com slash informed traveler, Instagram at informed traveler, or on X at Informed Traveler. That's where you'll find a number of videos and reels on our visit to Charleston last week and posts from our other adventures. Plus, you can now sign up for our monthly newsletter. It's released at the beginning of every month. Our October issue will be out in a few days. Just go to our website, theinformedraveler.org, click on the newsletter button, and it'll take you right there. Or better yet, subscribe to it and have it arrive in your inbox each month. Well, it's been close to two years now since we've had the opportunity to discover Loreto, Mexico. It's a beautiful area located near the Sea of Cortez. So I thought it might be a good idea to get an update on what's to see and do there. So joining me now to share all the great things that Loreto has to offer is Avet Granados Morines, operations coordinator with Visit Baja Seur Tourism in Loreto, the website, visitbahasur.travel. Hola, Avet, how are you?
SPEAKER_00:Hola, buenos días.
SPEAKER_03:It's uh very nice to chat with you again. It's been uh, I guess over a year and a half since uh we've been to Loreto. I can't imagine there's too many changes in there. One thing I do like about Loreto, and we'll talk about the basics in a second, but I just wanted to get this out. The one thing I liked about it is it's quieter, it's more laid back, it's not the hustle and bustle of some of the bigger uh tourism areas in Mexico, and and that really is its charm, and and that's how you market it, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00:Yes. Good to hear you, good to talk to you again. Like you say, almost two years that you were here with your wife. And yeah, Loreto, it's a small town in the middle of the Baja California Sur estate in the peninsula, and we are facing the Gulf of California. We are surrounded by the Gulf of California, and in our back we have mountains, the La Gigante Ranch, Range, mountains.
SPEAKER_03:Well, it is a beautiful area. The weather is always beautiful there. You're facing the the Gulf of California, uh and it's beautiful, calm waters, and then you have the mountains uh behind you. It's so yeah, it's very, very, very uh picturesque, very pretty. Um, so tell me about well when you and you touched on where it is, it's about, I don't know, four or five-hour drive north of um Los Cabos to give people a visual, right?
SPEAKER_00:Well, actually are six hours from Los Cabos, and if you arrive there, you can you have to drive six hours continue to the north part of the state, and you arrive to Loreto. We are uh it's for four hours from La Paz by by car. And but uh you we have an international airport and you can fly directly here from Calgary in winter time, from San Francisco in winter time, and all year um from LA and Phoenix and Dallas.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so it's easy to get to. Uh so there's no reason why people wouldn't visit, right?
SPEAKER_01:Exactly.
SPEAKER_03:So just tell tell uh uh uh about the area. I I kind of opened up by saying it's pretty quiet, pretty laid back, but there's lots to do, right? So just kind of give a uh overview of some of the activities and some of the things that people like to do when they're visiting Loreto.
SPEAKER_00:Uh yeah, we are um like we say it's uh it's a small town. Loreto was the first uh Spanish uh success settlement in the peninsula. Uh we were founded by the Jesuits. They arrived here in 1697, and um we have the first mission builded by them. And we was we were uh we was called the the capital of the Californias, because for more than 130 years, Loreto was the capital for all the peninsula and the Alta California, or now the California in the US, in that time was part of Mexico, and that is the origin of all the history in this part of Mexico and the west side of California.
SPEAKER_03:Well, it truly is uh an amazing history that uh I was quite surprised about, and some of the the amazing historic sites that have been there from the 1600s, including some of the missionaries and and uh some of the churches and uh other historic sites, which you can tour, so it really is uh for a history buff a great place to be.
SPEAKER_00:We have a lot of um traditions and activities and culture, history that make us uh one of the pueblos magicos or magical towns in the peninsula. It's a program of um towns in Mexico. And with the uh Sea of Cortes here in front of us or the Gulf of California, we have a lot of things that we can do, or you can do, like if you are visitors, uh into the islands and the water, water activities, and we have a lot of fauna. Uh, our biodiversity is it's super, it's superb. We have um a lot of species of marine mammals. We have the main or the biggest marine mammal or animal in the world is the blue whale. The blue whale came to our waters in the Loreto Bay to uh it's for reproduction purposes, uh feeding purposes, and the babies. They they arrive here to have the the calves here, and that happened uh between January and the beginning of March every year, and that is one of our main activities and most important activities to have the blue whales here. There are more mammals around and in that season too, like homebacks or um uh uh fin whales is the second largest marine mammal, but to come and watch the blue whales is it's amazing. It's a dream, really.
SPEAKER_03:It really is. Um yeah, you're right. If if uh history is your thing, then the readal's a good spot. If adventure is your thing and uh whale watching and other wildlife, uh, it's a great spot. So there is lots of uh activities and things to do, and I will have to say that seeing a blue whale was quite an amazing sight, which we got to do when we were there.
SPEAKER_00:The blue whales and we have uh tons of birds, marine birds, and we have birds on the mountains, and we have a lot of animals, and we have um trails um in the mountains. We have the second missions over the mountains, it's San Javier Town. Uh the Jesuits built the second mission there. It's uh it's a small village where you can find this beautiful church and orchards and a museum and uh the all the the traditions of the ranchers is keeping there. It's a place that you can go and escape of uh all your problems, really. And it's uh really like a to be in the middle of um I don't know, in the middle of the mountains. And and when I say mountains, I I you have to think. Maybe you ha you think that the forest or trees, and but here is just desert or semi-desert areas. We have a lot of cactus and we have a lot of life, but that different life that you custom to see in your surrounds. This part of the the Mexico, this peninsula is amazing about about that, about the the the desert. That is part of us. That is make us special because the landscaping with the mountains, the desert, and the the water, the beach, the beaches here, it's it's so impressive.
SPEAKER_03:Well, yeah, I forgot to mention there's beaches too.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Um the other the other thing I really enjoyed about uh Loreto was was the food. Like it and and just the freshness of the food. Like you can literally, if you have, I don't know, seafood for dinner, it's probably caught that day.
SPEAKER_00:Oh yeah. The the food is amazing. It's um uh we have mainly we have a lot of um dishes uh prepared in base of of fish and seafood. But now with the people that is coming to live here from mainland or from other uh parts of the world, uh we have more um well, more restaurants, more uh flavors in this uh in this food or for these ingredients. And that makes Loreto very special because we have a bunch of restaurants, maybe 30, 35 big restaurants, but the quality of the food is fresh and is delicious. All these new flavors, all these new recipes, all we have a lot of new chefs and young checks, uh chefs coming from uh a big resource from Puerto Vallarta or Mexico City or um and Monterrey, and they arrive here with all that energy and all that uh new flavors, and that's you can taste it on the food.
SPEAKER_03:Certainly can, I will attest to that. Uh let's talk talk a little bit about the accommodation. Uh mostly small boutique hotels and and that kind of offering. There's and again, uh this is one of the charms about uh Loreto is there's not huge uh you know thousand-room uh resorts, all-inclusive resorts there. Most of them are small boutique and charming places to stay.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, uh that is one of the things that uh uh is the um well that Loreto has or have is the uh the small hotels. Um we have a bunch of uh boutique hotels and now they're I told you there are a new one, it's beautiful too. Um maybe ten uh rooms is not too much for other areas, but ten rooms in this quality of hotels that we have here. It's it's it's something for us. Um the the thing is downtown is small and almost all the boutique hotels are located near to the downtown, and that makes you to enjoy this town because you have to walk maximum 10 minutes to enjoy everything. To go to a restaurant, to go to your hotel, to go to the beach. It's um it's a small town, and really our town is very I say walkable. It's a 10 minutes or 15 minutes walkable town because in 15 minutes maybe you can cross all the all the city, all the the town. And that makes um special things. And the hotel we have some big hotels, or I I say big with 70 rooms. Um, I think the biggest in town has uh more than 150 rooms, but that it's other kind of hotel, and it's it's not in downtown, but it's close to all this area. And we have a couple of resorts here too. But those resorts are outside of Loreto town. The Villa del Palmar is one of them, it's 45 minutes to the south of the Loreto Bay area. And other hotel in the next neighborhood is called Nopolo, and the the hotel is Loreto Bay, actually, the name. And it's other resort with other 100 rooms or something like that. It's in front of the beach. But uh here in downtown is where the people like to stay, they like to uh well enjoy these small hotels that makes that you can visit, you can feel the the community, you can feel the town. It's I think it's one of the most special things that we have because uh the tourists when they are here they feel the community, they they la they are um leaving the community. We have um like uh the market, the organic market in Saturday morning, we have the entrepreneur market in Friday night, and that makes that the people and the tourists go to the main plaza or visit the downtown, and everything is alive music and food, the street food, and uh well, kids uh playing around the the kiosko of the plaza. Well, you know, it's everything is happening here in the downtown.
SPEAKER_03:Mm-hmm. And you're right, it is very walkable uh and very safe. Uh you know, for anyone who has maybe doubts of you know walking and uh you know at night or whatever, you don't get that feeling at all because there's people around everywhere and families around everywhere, so it's a very safe uh area as well.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, it's a very safe town. Uh it's a town that you can again walk until uh late at night. You can stay on the malecon walking, no one is gonna bother you, no one is gonna tell you something. Uh you don't you don't feel that necessity to have uh policemen around, or uh you have the feeling of security in every every area. Yeah, it's um it's a very safe town. It's a it's a family town, like you say. Uh the community uh loves to have families, and yeah, it's a very it's a very the the feeling of security is super super good.
SPEAKER_03:Well, it is one of my favorite area areas of Mexico. Yeah, like I said, if you like history, if you like adventure, if you like wildlife, if you like whale watching, uh that it's the place to do it. So I I do appreciate you giving us an update and and uh it was great chatting with you. Yvette Granados Marines is the operations coordinator with uh Visit Baja Seur in Loreto, the website loretto bcs.com uh for more information. I uh appreciate your time, uh Yvette. Muchas gracias.
SPEAKER_00:No thanks to you for inviting me to talk about my lovely town. I love Loreto, I'm not from here, but I I love it. It's uh it's amazing. It's I forgot to tell you, we have other two natural uh uh protected areas, okay, and uh on land that was as new, and we have the area of Nopolo, it's uh all this uh land uh part, it's now uh a new natural protected area, and the area of Juncalito and Puerto Escondido, El Quemado area, it's in the south part of Loreto, like 20 minutes from here, but it's other uh it's called Loreto Park 2, and that makes us uh the the Loreto loves to protect our environment and our nature. That is the thing that we like that people come to enjoy, and because we are worried about the environment, and we know that the environment is the the the our product, our jewel. And we are very, very proud to have these new uh areas, and we hope that the people come to enjoy it too.
SPEAKER_03:Just all the more reason to go to Loreto.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:I appreciate your time, Yvette.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you, Randy.
SPEAKER_03:If you have comments or questions, we'd love to hear from you. If you have a show ideas, and let's go as well. My email is Randy at free and formscrawers. If you like friends, check out two cowboys dot O R D means thanks for listening to feed and forms cowards.