Planning a family reunion: how to make it work with three generations

By the owners of Villa Palmview · Updated 20 September 2026

Step 1 — Pin down the date first, everything else later

The biggest mistake with a family weekend or multi-generation holiday: debating the destination endlessly first. Turn it around. Send one message with three possible weeks and let everyone cross out what does not work. The week with the fewest crosses wins. Outside the school holidays the choice is widest and the budget friendliest.

Step 2 — Choose a place where together and apart are both possible

Three generations in one house is lovely — for three days. After that grandad wants his siesta, the teenagers want their own corner and the parents want an evening without children. So look for a family reunion venue with separate living quarters. Villa Palmview in Jávea, a large family villa in Spain, has three of them on one estate: each family its own private wing with kitchen and bathrooms, and one shared saltwater pool and private sandy beach where everyone naturally finds each other again.

Step 3 — Think of the oldest and the youngest

A multi-generation holiday stands or falls on two things: can grandma stay comfortably, and is it safe for the littlest ones? Ask explicitly about a ground-floor or adapted room — at Villa Palmview one room is wheelchair-adaptable — and about the layout of the pool and the outdoor space.

Step 4 — Split the costs beforehand, not afterwards

Agree one calculation rule before booking: per adult, per family or per room. One person advances the deposit, the rest pay their share back within the week. That way nobody starts the holiday with a frown.

Step 5 — Plan one thing a day, not ten

One shared moment a day is enough: a long lunch, a barbecue evening, a trip to Jávea's old town. The rest of the day is everyone's to fill. The best reunion memories are made in the unplanned hours by the pool.

Step 6 — Capture it

Appoint one nephew or niece as photographer of the week. And keep the last evening for the family dinner at one long table — the moment you did it all for.

Want to know more? See the villa for families or the three wings.