How Traveling With My Daughter Was the Ultimate Bonding Experience

From sightseeing to secret-sharing, a mother-daughter trip is the perfect recipe for creating lifelong memories. Not only are you discovering new destinations, it can be a truly transformative experience. During these journeys, conversations and laughter often flows more freely, experiences become shared stories, and you can deepen your bond in ways that everyday life doesn’t always allow.

To find out why taking a trip together can be so special, we spoke with past guests of Insight, mother daughter duo Tammy and Vivian  An experienced travelling pair, they have plenty of reasons why you should choose a Mother-Daughter trip this Mother’s Day.  “I love travelling with my daughter,” says mum Tammy, “We often travel together, and she is my favorite traveling buddy!”

“We’ve been on a lot of trips together in the United States and outside,” elaborates daughter Vivian. “We’ve been on multiple European excursions with both Insight and Trafalgar and we have fun every time.”

For tours, tips and travel inspiration take a look at our Female Travel Guide.

Trying new things together strengthens our bond

“Trying new things and seeing places together brings us closer because we’re experiencing them both at the same time but from different perspectives,” says mum Tammy. “I can see it from her point of view because she shares it with me, and we’re very close. Then I can share with her my perspective, and she might see something in a new light—just like I can see things differently by looking at it from her side. Plus, we share a room, which makes us very close—and stuck together!

Daughter Vivian agrees, telling us “I love creating shared memories. It’s your mom – you want to do everything with them, and it’s fun to get to spend so much time [together]. It’s like they are showing you the world.”

Tammy adds, “At the end of the night, when we go back to the hotel, we can sit or lay in bed and chat about the day we had and what we loved about it. That is something special.”

We can really connect away from the distractions of home life

“At home, we’re both working and living our lives, but when we’re out and traveling together, it’s just complete attention,” explains daughter Vivian. “We’re not distracted, we just spend time together and experience new things. And I think it’s great getting my mom to experience new things with me.”

Mum Tammy agrees, telling us “I love traveling with my daughter because at home, she’s often in her own little world, doing her thing, and I’m doing my thing. So, even though we live in the same house, we’re not necessarily experiencing the same things together at the same time. When we’re on tour together, we are in the moment, just submerging ourselves in the culture or whatever. Wherever we are, we’re experiencing the same thing together. We’re like a joint force, two power houses together, bonding, meeting new people, making new friends. And it’s just fabulous. We love it.”

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Why a guided tour is helpful when traveling as a mother daughter duo

“I think taking a tour is better when you’re traveling with your mom,” says Vivian, “Mostly because sometimes we could have disagreements on what we want to do, what places we want to go to. A tour offers us the ability to go to multiple countries and see multiple cities. Then you have all these different excursions that we can [go on together], or one of us can go on, and the other doesn’t have to. And I think it just offers a lot more options for us to go out and see the world. It’’s great that we can make friends like with the same people and get to meet and create little groups and friendships and everybody gets along,”

“When you’re on a tour with your daughter, it means there are others around—people close to her age or new friends—so I don’t feel like I need to be with her every moment,” explains Tammy. “It’s reassuring because I know the group is looking out for her, making sure she’s where she should be and safe. If I want to sleep early, I can; she can go out and enjoy her night with new friends she’s met.

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What’s the best piece of travel advice you’ve been given?

“Once, when I was travelling with my son, I left our passports in the hotel safe, which I had to go back and retrieve,” says Tammy. “But our tour guide gave me a great piece of advice – put one shoe in the safe with the passports, and then when you go to leave the next day, you have to find your shoe. Then you remember, oh yes, it’s in the safe that’s where my passports are! That was probably the best advice I’ve ever received.

“I think my best piece of travel advice, especially as a younger person, is that we tend to be on our phones and on social media, and it’s kind of hard to be in the moment,” says Vivian. “So, putting away your phone and focusing – take the pictures, see the sights – but really taking it all in and seeing it in real life. Don’t focus so much on the social media and what other people are seeing, but focus on enjoying where you are.”

For a wide range of tours just perfect for that mother-daughter vacation, including a selection of women-only tours,  our female travel guide is full of inspiration.