A family vacation is more than just taking the kids along. It’s all about shared experiences, and nobody “gets it” better than luxury tour operators who cater to busy executives. They understand this should be a vacation for every member of the family, carefully curated and expertly guided to assure everyone gets the most fun from their adventures. They take the devil out of the details.

Luxury family tour experiences include culture, nature, adventure or kick-back trips that range from dinosaur hunting and storm chasing to gladiator lessons and game tracking. Designed for different activity levels and interests, trips cater to all ages, from preschoolers to young adults, their parents and grandparents, in any combination. Many provide supervised activities for kids while adults enjoy some private time — perhaps candlelight dining or a private wine tasting.

Group trips work well for a single child or several children of widely differing ages, as they are likely to find others their age; bespoke itineraries might be best for larger or three-generation families.

Family tours can take you almost anywhere in the world, from your own backyard to Europe, the African bush or remote Bhutan. Austin Adventures’ 2014 itineraries include several multigeneration-friendly trips in the American West, including Yellowstone experiences for children as young as 5. Family tours include an extra guide and van, kids’ equipment and specially selected guides who engage with young explorers. Guests on the Montana Great Western Adventure live the tales of Custer and the Wild West at Little Bighorn; hike; ride horseback; and watch for wolves, bears, bison, elk and antelope in Yellowstone.

O.A.R.S. rafting on the Lower Salmon River in Idaho © O.A.R.S.

O.A.R.S. encourages families with young children to learn the joys of river rafting on the Lower Salmon River in Idaho, a wide and meandering waterway with beautiful river beaches. Activities include stand-up paddle boarding and kayaking, with plenty of whitewater thrills and a 10,000-year human history that includes Native American rock art. Ages 10 and up are welcome on Moab Adventure Center’s Family Multisport Adventures in Utah, where the four-day Cataract Canyon rafting journey combines exciting whitewater with the magnificent scenery of Canyonlands National Park.

Families explore Alaska’s pristine wilderness on an eight-day adventure with Abercrombie & Kent’s Luxury Small Group Journeys, with bear-watching, rafting, a flightseeing tour landing on a glacier, salmon and trout fishing, a whale-watching cruise and kayaking in the Denali region. Three-night stays at each destination minimize packing and unpacking, and activities are child-friendly. With groups of no more than 24, children meet and share experiences with other young travelers.

While any travel broadens a child’s horizons, some trips have special educational focus, such as Frontiers Elegant Journeys’ Walking with Dinosaurs Tour in the Canadian Rockies. Developed by BBC Earth insiders and paleontologists, the exploration takes families into Canada’s dinosaur country, visiting dig sites of leading dinosaur discoveries to understand how dinosaurs lived and behaved. Guests participate in fossil identification, experiment with green-screen technology and dinosaur animation and spend evenings at Canada’s largest living history museum and the Calgary Zoo.

Like western Canada, Belize is English-speaking, giving children a taste of another culture but in a language they can understand. New this year is JOURNEYS International’s Belize Jungle Discovery Week, one of a number of family trips it offers around the world. Seven-day itineraries include guided explorations of abandoned Mayan sites, paddling down an underground river and close-up encounters with rainforest birds and wildlife, with accommodations at ecolodges.

While International Expeditions doesn’t earmark departures especially for families, its Amazon and Galapagos voyages are popular with multigenerational travelers. Amazon expedition cruises carry no more than 31 guests into pristine jungles where families visit a local village and school, travel in dug-out canoes, kayak, go piranha fishing, learn to play Peruvian instruments and take a cooking lesson. On International Expeditions’ 10-day Galapagos cruise, families come face to face with animals that have little fear of humans, allowing for close-up photographs, playing with sea lions and even a picnic with giant tortoises.

AdventureSmith Explorations sails select cruises in the Galapagos geared toward active children on board three 20-passenger ecofriendly yachts, with naturalist guides, nature hikes and snorkeling. Ecuador’s first carbon-neutral cruise operator, AdventureSmith offers two eight-day itineraries which can be combined into a 15-day cruise. Shore excursions include hiking lava fields, snorkeling, scuba diving and kayaking, plus encounters with prehistoric reptiles, ocean creatures and unusual birds from penguins to massive waved albatross.

Walking trips offer a relaxed active vacation, and English Lakeland Ramblers will design itineraries for families in England and Scotland. Or teens can join a regularly scheduled tour. Child-friendly itineraries include one that visits the home of Beatrix Potter and the setting for her stories, or one exploring Emperor Hadrian’s Wall and its preserved Roman forts and settlements. The Neolithic Castlerigg Stone Circle, the precariously balanced Bowder Stone and a boat ride on Derwentwater are other highlights.

Family tours in Ireland are made easy with Sceptre Tours’ Villa vacations, escorted tours that include lodging in a 5-star villa in Limerick and chauffeur-driven tours each day to explore Blarney and two other castles, one with a medieval feast and the other with interactive exhibits within its 13th-century walls. Another day’s tour circles the Ring of Kerry, with the soaring Cliffs of Moher.

A gondola ride in Venice © Darwin Lopez | Dreamstime.com

Europe overflows with experiences for all ages, and nowhere offers more engaging options than kid-loving Italy. Zicasso Handcrafted Travel family tours include Rome, Venice and Florence, with interactive learning in mind. After a gondola ride, families visit Venice’s last gondola builder, then learn about carnival traditions while making their own masks to take home. Florence includes climbing a 13th-century tower, touring a gelato shop (with tastings) and shopping in a farmers’ market for ingredients before joining a hands-on family cooking class to prepare a Tuscan meal. In Rome, they learn how to make hand-tossed Roman pizza.

On the Tuscany Family Biking tour, Butterfield & Robinson takes families through the Tuscan hills by bicycle, stopping at luxury hotels and villas where children — ages 12 and up — learn to make pasta and pizza, and parents sample Chianti with an expert. Stops to swim in lakes, taste gelato or sample homemade prosciutto intersperse with van-supported rides tailored to different ages. A local art expert guides a tour of medieval Sienna. Separate children’s evening activities are supervised, and all equipment (including helmets) is provided in the all-inclusive trip. The company offers similar itineraries in Normandy and the Loire Valley.

Immersion into local culture is the goal of most luxury family tours, and Artisans of Leisure’s nine-day private tour of Japan features both traditional culture and contemporary Japanese pop style. While visiting Tokyo, Mount Fuji, Kyoto and Hiroshima with a private guide and driver, families stay in luxury hotels and an exclusive ryokan with a private hot spring. Between visits to the Meiji Shrine, Imperial Palace, museums and other cultural sites, families explore neighborhoods of cutting-edge youth culture, trendy teen fashion streets and an anime museum; watch sumo wrestlers; or attend a Japanese baseball game — even take private martial arts or anime drawing lessons. Lunch at a Buddhist temple, a private tea ceremony, calligraphy lessons, guided hikes or cooking at a private home are all possible, depending on individual interests.

Perhaps the ultimate family tour is an African safari. Cox & Kings offers itineraries in Namibia and Kenya, or multifaceted trips such as their private 12-day Cape, Safari & Mauritius tour. Beginning in Cape Town with a stay at the child-friendly Cape Grace, the trip continues to a luxury lodge for “Big Five” wildlife before flights to the tropical beaches of Mauritius. A private 14-day tour of Madagascar includes nature reserves known for lemurs, chameleons, bright-colored tree frogs and iridescent birds, as well as the beaches of lush Sainte-Marie Island.

&Beyond’s WILDchild children’s program © &Beyond

&Beyond’s new children’s program, WILDchild, creates safari experiences led by rangers trained to spark enthusiasm, and their strong conservation message forms connections between children and the land, animals and local people. Throughout the safari, the family’s ranger helps children fill a scrapbook with notes, drawings, stickers and badges for completing age-appropriate bush activities. At &Beyond Klein’s Camp in Tanzania, children might learn to shoot with a bow and arrow or to build a fire as the Maasai do. At Phinda Private Game Reserve in South Africa, they can learn tracking skills with a local Zulu tracker or go fishing in the Mzinene River.

Hands Up Holidays’ 2014 family programs add another dimension, enabling children to give back by volunteering. Families stay in sustainable, environment-friendly luxury accommodations and lend a hand to disadvantaged communities or help conserve environments and wildlife. New this year is a tour in the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan with stays at Aman Resorts, hiking, visiting monasteries and helping to renovate a school, a cultural immersion where children get to know the Bhutanese people. In Cambodia, guests can help build a house for a needy family between bike rides through the Angkor temples, spotting Irrawaddy dolphins and relaxing at Song Saa Island’s luxury resort.