This year’s biggest travel trend has nothing to do with an undiscovered city or a flashy hotel opening – it’s “grandma-maxxing”.
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it → have → city
For the uninitiated, the phenomenon involves adopting the lifestyle of an elderly matriarch – in many cases, an Italian nonna – while on holiday.
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phenomenon → involve → holiday
In practice, that means ditching late-night bar crawls, prioritising restfulness and leaning into analogue experiences.
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that → mean → experiences
In one recent survey, 76 per cent of travellers said they actively want to book a “grandma-inspired” holiday.
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they → say → holiday
I can proudly call this my area of expertise.
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I → call → expertise
I’ve been grandma-maxxing long before it was a trend; it’s a rather delightful way to see a new destination.
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it → maxxe → destination
But what does my grandmother think of travelling the world with me – a millennial who is admittedly obsessed with perfecting trip itineraries using social media?
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who → think → media
A second chance at adventures
A-Po – what I call my grandmother in Cantonese, my native language – was raised in a modest fishing family in China’s Guangdong province, and had little time or means to explore the world until she was widowed in her mid-50s.
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she → call → mid-50s
Now a sprightly senior citizen, she’s making up for lost time.
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she → make → time
My grandmother lives in Macau and I live in London, so we’re thousands of kilometres apart.
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we → live → kilometres
When she visits me in the UK, I add on a few European getaways, and if I fly east for work, I take her on short-haul trips in Asia.
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I → visit → Asia
This means we get to go on a big trip at least once or twice a year.
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we → mean → trip
Together, we have travelled to Portugal, the UK, Italy, Vietnam, Malaysia and too many Chinese cities to count, often, just the two of us.
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we → travel → us
A-Po and I have very different ideas for what sightseeing means – I’ll happily spend hours at a historic monument, while she’d rather inspect every fruit stall at the local market.
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she → have → market
“I like to experience how locals live, and the best way to do it is by hitting up the supermarket,” she says.
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she → like → supermarket
“You can compare prices with what’s back home by rifling through the aisles, which also helps me quickly understand a new culture.
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me → compare → culture
”
I make sure our itineraries leave room for maximising the grandma-friendly activities.
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itineraries → make → activities
Knowing how much she loves durian (a notoriously pungent fruit seen in South-East Asia), I took her to the Malaysian city of Penang during durian season in June, where she gleefully worked her way through different varieties and persuaded me, a former durian sceptic, to join in.
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she → know → me
As it turns out, millennials and Gen Z aren’t the only travellers obsessed with documenting everything for social media.
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millennials → turn → media
My grandmother is a bit hopeless with technology, but she loves documenting our adventures.
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she → document → adventures
A-Po is an avid poster on WeChat Moments, China’s answer to Instagram Stories, and expects me to collage her photos and ghostwrite her posts in real time.
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me → expect → time
“My friends are always saying how lovely it is that I have a granddaughter who takes me to cool places,” she explains.
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she → say → places
“I love posting every update on my trip – and let them be that much more jealous of me.
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them → post → me
Naturally, I try to give her plenty of bragging material.
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I → try → material
When we went to Suzhou, China’s famous garden city, I booked us a professional photo shoot, complete with hair and makeup service, with us posing in rented qipao (a traditional fitted Chinese dress).
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us → go → qipao
Any excuse to glam up – and have a bit of fun – goes a long way with my grandmother.
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excuse → glam → grandmother
Of course, travelling together isn’t always smooth sailing, as we both have our quirks.
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we → travel → quirks
A-Po is highly superstitious and terrified of ghosts, so she’ll sometimes rumple up a pristine hotel bed to dispel any negative energy before I’ve had a chance to take a photograph.
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I → terrify → photograph
She also leaves the bedside lamp on when we sleep as she’s scared of a pitch-dark room.
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she → leave → room
For my part, my fondness for iced drinks remains a constant source of her disapproval; in traditional Chinese medicine, cold beverages are thought to contribute to period cramps.
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beverages → remain → cramps
But our squabbles rarely last.
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squabbles → last → ?
Usually, I’d ask her to blow-dry my hair – just as she did when I was little – and we’d revert to our chummy dynamic.
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we → ask → dynamic
My grandmother is in excellent health, but she knows her limits, and any activity that requires more than 10,000 steps is usually her cue to sit things out.
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that → know → things
For instance, when we visited the Natural History Museum, she opted to wait and nap on a bench.
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she → visit → bench
On another trip to Lisbon, she tucked into a pastéis de nata in a public park while I ambled around Belém Tower.
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I → tuck → Tower
“A few years ago, I didn’t feel the strain of a packed schedule, but I walk a lot slower now,” she says.
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she → feel → schedule
“I don’t mind resting in public; even if I’m not looking around a museum, I like being physically in a space and soaking up the atmosphere.”
Travelling at her pace has taught me that a good trip isn’t measured by how much ground you cover in a day.
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you → mind → day
All things considered, travelling together seems to do us both good – proving grandma-maxxing benefits old and young alike.
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maxxing → consider → old
I join her on her morning tai chi routine, which does wonders for my technology-induced shoulder aches.
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which → join → aches
Her insomnia completely dissipates whenever we’re away together, since we’re doing so much during the day.
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we → dissipate → day
…and 7 more, not listed.
The Aporia
