When Seth and Josh Meyers were kids, their family spent a week in Maine at a waterfront cabin, where their mother got bitten by a horsefly, developed a bad reaction and ended up in the emergency room.
“Her forearms looked like Popeye’s,” Josh recalled.
“I remember spending the entirety of the trip in a room with a bunk bed that was a billion degrees,” added Seth, the host of a late-night talk show and a “Saturday Night Live” alumnus.
These days, the brothers — both writers and comedians and the rare siblings who claim not to have fought over territory when they were young — mine similar vacation disasters for their weekly podcast, “Family Trips With the Meyers Brothers.” They interview guests including comedians, actors, musicians and even Bill Gates, about their memories of childhood vacations, many of which went awry.
“Family trips are high-stakes affairs. We have expectations that these trips should be special. We go into them with the intention of making memories,” Josh said. “And the further we get away from the doomed excursions, creepy hotels, car breakdowns, illnesses, bad weather and knock-down drag-out fights with our siblings, the funnier it all gets.”
We talked about the inception of their podcast, which turns two this month, aspects of childhood travel that they miss and what makes family trips, even disastrous ones, worth taking.
This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Tell us how the podcast came about.
Seth: A family trip sort of stress-tests the family dynamic, both for the good and the bad. I think you really find out a lot about the people you’re closest with when it’s an away game.
Josh: We hear about where our guests come from and what they were like when they were children. I think our guests like talking about things that they don’t get a chance to talk about very often or no one would ask them about.
You’ve heard about many family trips gone sideways. What are your takeaways on family vacations?
Seth: You never know as a kid whether or not like 20 or 30 years in the future, you’re going to want to have a good family trip story for the purposes of being a guest on a podcast. Even if you’re going through it and you wish you were home in your bedroom reading a book, it is valuable content for later in your life.
What sorts of family trips did you take when you were children?
Seth: We were very much within the 50 United States. California for Disneyland, a lot of Florida. It is very funny to have grown up in an era where you just had to trust the brochure. There was no one to get in touch with who’d ever been to a place. There was nowhere to read online reviews. Just had to make a leap of faith.
What was most annoying about traveling together when you were children?
Seth: Josh and I almost never fought. So I don’t have any bad memories of Josh during waking hours. The downside of Josh as a brother is we would share a bed in hotel rooms. Josh’s body moves like a clock hand over the course of an evening and just very slowly rotates and pushes you off the bed.
What’s the dynamic on your family trips now?
Josh: I’m savvier and I’m better prepared, I would say, and I also become a bit of a provider. I will try to get in before everyone else. I’ll make sure we have everything we need. I’ll get lists of what people want in the house if we’re getting an Airbnb. And so I’ll take care of all of that. Seth … shows up later.
Seth: Yeah, I wouldn’t say I’m a plus. I’m a real Good Time Charlie.
Are there aspects of childhood travel that you miss?
Seth: I remember being on an airplane and reading books the whole flight. Now when I’m on a plane with my kids and I’m reading books, everybody’s like, “You’re a bad dad. Pay more attention to your kid.” So I miss that.
Josh: There’s something I miss about looking out a car window and everything that’s going by. Now I feel like I’m almost always driving and so I have to watch the road.
You ask every guest whether they’ve been to the Grand Canyon and if it’s worth it, and you’ve made Seth’s aversion to it clear. What’s the deal?
Josh: I would say for those who’ve gone and thought it was not worth it, that they went into it with a bad attitude, which I can’t help. I’ve been. I’m desperate to go back. We went for our fantasy football draft last year. One of our friends brilliantly thought to have our draft in Flagstaff, Ariz., and one day we drove up to the Grand Canyon.
Seth: The canyon is fine. It was really funny that my friends picked it because I had established that I didn’t want to go and nobody could make me. And then they put this annual trip that I’m never going to miss there. But it is truly lovely. I just have a bad habit of seeing peril everywhere it lies.
Now that you’ve spoken to more than 100 guests about family trips, what have you learned about how families can travel together better?
Seth: You can never underestimate planning. Know what kind of family you are. Do you like adventure? Do you like to relax? Do you like to educate yourself?
Josh: I think a loose schedule benefits everybody. If you are desperate to be on a strict timetable, that will generate more stress for everyone. Have some things you want to knock out each day and then some free time or exploration.
Flying with kids is a challenge. How have you handled this aspect of family travel?
Seth: We limit the kids’ screen time in their daily lives, so part of the travel is we let them watch, but they carry their own backpacks. They have a responsibility to make sure they have their own headphones. They have their own waters. We’re trying to ingrain in them the value of being a traveler that takes care of themselves as opposed to one who is taken care of.
Josh: I don’t have kids, so I travel with noise-canceling headphones. If you’re flying and you’re upset about a crying baby, then that’s on you. That’s not the baby. Get over it.
Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2025.
Christine Chung is a Times reporter covering airlines and consumer travel.
The post Seth and Josh Meyers Are Here to Poke Fun at Your Family Vacations appeared first on New York Times.
