The #AncestryEffect: Connect with Family in Europe

​There is a big trend right now in European travel. In 2017 seven out of the top ten most popular travel experiences in the world were in Europe. Historical and Heritage tours are up 98%! Let’s call it the #AncestryEffect!    

Our family has taken several multi-generational trips to Europe and have literally knocked on the doors of addresses from old pieces of paper and long preserved letters. It is always an amazing experience to connect to our past together as a family.

When I was 21 and graduating from College I was surprised with a trip to Germany and Austria. “We are going to take Uncle Carl and go find our family” was how the Graduation Card read. Uncle Carl was 83 and decided that he was ready to go back and see the countries where his parents immigrated from. So, a few weeks later off we went with three generations of family on an adventure of a lifetime. Find them we did, and through language barriers we communicated while exploring boxes of old pictures that told the stories we never knew. We even saw familiar, younger faces of our family who traveled with us. We left with gifts of granite from the region made into jewelry and bellies full of wiener schnitzel. 

At this point conjure up a picture in your mind of European Vacation and Chevy Chase.  Yes, some adventures along the way were like this.  We laughed a lot, we drove the wrong way into pedestrian areas, we stopped for an afternoon dessert in the countryside, realizing we were actually in a retirement home (only after they tried to keep Uncle Carl). We walked in the footsteps of our ancestors. I saw Cinderella’s Castle, Sleeping Beauty’s castle and I’m sure, that cutie Captain Von Trapp.    This first visit to Europe showed me that we are all so much more alike than we are different, and the world really is a small place.  

Since then I have been back to different areas of Europe many times and recently had the opportunity to take my daughter for her first visit to France.  Another multi-generational trip, we had a special visit. Each of us had something different to contribute to the trip and I like to think that we left our mark on Paris. My hope is that we were able to share the gift of adventure and confidence in travel with the girls, and that they will carry on that tradition throughout their lives. 
  
Whitney World Travel would love to help you plan your next adventure. It’s time for those bucket list vacations to happen. It’s time to see where you came from. We can help you make that happen. ​

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​About the Author:

Bethany Foster, Travel Advisor
​Travel is in Bethany's soul! Her parents were committed to making sure she saw the world-- that passion for making the big world a small place has spread into her adult life. Today she and her husband believe that experiencing the world through travel is one of the best gifts they can give their kids. Whether with the entire family or a romantic getaway, Bethany has personal experience traveling across Europe, the Caribbean and Hawaii in addition to extensive domestic travel in her previous career. Bethany is a proud Rebel from Ole Miss and lives in The Woodlands, TX with her husband Brad and three children.