25% of travelers now being their search with a vibe, or a feeling, rather than a destination – and for a growing number of us, that feeling comes with history. It’s the beach where your father taught you to surf, the town your mother used to visit with her own parents, the kids’ club where you happened to meet a family you’re still close to. The destination changes generation to generation but the stories only gather momentum.

And every place passed down started somewhere. And usually we find, the best places to spend time with all the family, are run and shaped by families themselves – hotels shaped by a family’s own idiosyncrasies rather than a brand deck or corporate board, full of the kind of sparks worth passing down – it’s learning about The Plough on an open plain, sheep shearing in the Hudson Valley, collecting shells in a cove once stumbled across.  The best itineraries are no longer researched; they’re handed down. And who better to hand it down than the families who turned their own history into the business?

Wildflower Farms, Hudson Valley, New York

The seeds for Wildflower Farm were planted for Phillip and Kristin Rapoport seven years ago, when they purchased a former dairy farm and tree nursery in Gardiner. Avid hikers and climbers, and parents to a young child, they wanted to build something for New Yorkers who felt like they had to go west to get their nature fix. And they built a property that is powered by connection: feed their chickens, collect honey from their bees, plant crops in the on-site greenhouses, visit the forest with their Falconer or undertake a bespoke antiquing journey curated by Kristin herself.

Müncher Kindl, Munich

Created by brother and sister duo, Peter Hütter & Christine Hütter-Bönan, run properties stretched across Munich, Heidelberg and the Austrian Alps. In Munich, their Münchner Kindl hotel is sixteen rooms, each with distinct and delicious interior inspired by colour and the city’s own artistic history. Christine will happily provide you her best itinerary to enjoy Munich, the way she does with her own family.

Hotel Lilien, Tannersville, New York

The original building dates to the 1890s, when the Manhattan-based Lilienthal family built it as Villa Meta, their upstate escape – named for their daughter Meta, who grew up to write a memoir recalling the summers she spent there. When The Lost Boys Hospitality Group restored the property, they renamed it Hotel Lilien in the family’s honor, keeping the original wood paneling, stained glass and hardware exactly as the Lilienthals left them over a century ago. And to continue that story, The Lost Boys have made it a family affair; David’s wife & sister are but it is a family’s house, shaped by the family who created it, and new owners who decided it wasn’t theirs to rewrite.

Perlée Vineyards

For over forty years, Tiffany and Grant Austin had seventy acres in Oregon that they weren’t sure what to do with. And this summer, after years spent visiting the world’s most storied wine and hospitality estates, they turned it into Perlée, a traditional-method sparkling wine estate, dry-farmed and organic, built on a hillside that was family property before it was ever a business plan. The result is a deeply personal expression of place, pairing the estate’s sparkling wines with an intimate hospitality experience shaped by the couple’s years of travel and appreciation for food, design and wine.