After swearing off family travel forever, Morwenna flew the nest to see the world solo. Years later, she gave it another shot – and found the secret to family trips that are fun for everyone.
We’d just crossed a nearly arid riverbed in the pitch black of pre-dawn, our way lit only by the light of our head torches. The sound of a pack of barking dogs in the distance was getting closer and closer, and turning to my left I spotted at least 20 pairs of green eyes flashing back at me. A few metres later, I realised why – we’d stumbled upon a tree hiding a pile of squirming puppies, yapping for their mothers. It was something I’d normally stop and coo over, but dawn was breaking and we had somewhere to be.
I was in Ait Benhaddou with a handful of brave companions on Intrepid’s Southern Morocco Discovery trip, and we were trekking up a hill to watch the sun rise over the kasbah. The silence was magical as we watched the day break over the Old Town. The view reminded me of depictions of Bethlehem on Christmas cards but is probably more recognisable as the backdrop to Game of Thrones and Gladiator.
Enjoying this moment with fellow travellers was special. Even more special that two of them were my parents. It was the first time we had all properly travelled together since I was a teenager.
Are we there yet?
Rewind 16 years to me declaring that I would ‘never go on holiday with my family ever again’.
My parents, brother and I were lucky enough to be in Australia’s Blue Mountains in the middle of an exciting month-long adventure to connect with long-lost relatives across the country. It was the biggest holiday we’d ever done, but teenage me was desperate to be independent and travel how I wanted to.
Growing up in the UK, our family holidays mainly revolved around visiting grandparents in Cornwall and rainy walking holidays in Scotland, although we once even went as far as northern Spain (yep, you guessed it, more rain). A combination of the hit-and-miss British summer weather and the eight-hour-long ‘Are we nearly there yet?’ car journeys meant that our family trips were often punctuated with hangry meltdowns and were far from relaxing for anyone involved.
Perhaps we weren’t doing them right, but you could say we hadn’t yet perfected the art of holidaying as a family.
Solo trips and mother-daughter adventures
So, with a strong desire to travel ‘properly’, I went off and did a languages degree and joined the travel industry so I could spend the next 15 years jetting off on my own travels without the pressure of having my family with me.
A stint working for a tourism website in Spain sent me to a different corner of Andalucia each weekend to take in the region’s fiestas, tapas and beaches. Later, working for an airline meant I could hop on last-minute staff travel flights to a different European city every other weekend, from Berlin to Bordeaux. I hiked the Inca Trail in Peru on my first-ever group trip, then arranged to join some of those new friends in Vietnam. It was the ultimate taste of freedom. Travel turned from an interest into a passion, and I sought out every opportunity to visit somewhere new.
Fast-forward to 2022, when I got a job with Intrepid. With my parents semi-retired, with plenty of time on their hands and both fit and healthy, I decided it was finally time to try again. I wanted my parents to experience the joy of travel that I’d been so lucky to experience and to push them out of their comfort zones a little, in the hope it would inspire them to travel themselves.
That year, I took the plunge and invited my mum to Jordan for an adventure with me. Before we went, we were both nervous. We’d never done a trip just the two of us for a whole week before, let alone one with so many unknowns ahead. What would the bathroom situation be like in our desert camp in Wadi Rum? Were the clothes we were packing in our backpacks culturally appropriate? Would we get on with the group?
But as soon as we met our fellow travellers and our leader, we relaxed. We camped in Wadi Rum, hiked through Petra at sunrise with our new friends, ate copious amounts of hummus and had a lot of laughs along the way. By the time we got back to the UK, my dad was feeling quite envious and had decided he wanted to be invited on the next trip.
A new dawn for family travel
That’s how I found myself in Morocco, in my 30s, on the ‘next trip’, watching my parents get stuck into everything – donning colourful head scarfs while lurching along a sand dune on a camel’s back, dancing around a campfire in our Sahara camp, haggling in the markets of Essaouira for woven trays to decorate my London living room and searching for cats to photograph as they dozed on market stalls. My dad was even gleefully trying to sell me for 30 camels whenever the opportunity arose. And now, here we were, watching the sunrise together.
It was like I’d cracked a secret code. Small group travel seemed to take away all the pressure of holidaying with family. Someone else organises everything for you, removing much of the usual decision-making (including organising dinner every night, like our great leader Mohammed did) and, crucially, if you need a bit of time apart, there are plenty of other like-minded people to chat to. I could even go out dancing with my new travel companions when my parents wanted to go to bed instead.
And it’s not just me who feels like we’ve discovered a new way of travelling together – my parents are now converts to small group travel and Intrepid’s biggest fans. Whenever my mum spots someone carrying an Intrepid tote bag in the wild, she can’t wait to stop and exchange stories with a fellow Intrepid explorer, gathering inspiration for her next trip.
We have a big list of places we want to explore together on what has now become our annual trip. Next up we’re going hiking in the Dolomites. After that, who knows? My parents may decide they want to go on an Intrepid adventure without me… or maybe we’ll test the true power of a small group trip and invite my brother along too!
Morwenna and her parents travelled on the Southern Morocco Discovery trip. Filter all trips to find the right adventure for you. Have kids in the mix? Check out Intrepid’s family trips.
