Senior Travel

This is a reposting of an article I did last year.  I am taking a break, so will repost a few things from the past.

"A nomad I will remain for life,
in love with distant and uncharted places."
~ Isabelle Eberhardt ~

My husband and me
2 seniors at the top of Mt. Vogel
Slovenia

I am 65 years old, soon to be 66, and I am officially a senior, although most days I really don’t feel like it.  As the baby-boomers reach retirement, there will be more and more of us traveling. Today’s seniors are healthier and more active than ever before.  When I think about seniors traveling, I still think of people closer to my mom’s age.  My mom stopped traveling a few years ago; she is 94 and no longer up to making a trip.  But, as a travel agent, I had several clients who were well into their late 80’s who were still traveling several times a year, to all sorts of exotic locations.  I certainly hope I will still be traveling when I am their age also. 

There are companies that cater just to seniors.  When I worked at AAA we worked with a local company called Gadabout Tours.  They would actually pickup at your door and either take you to a central location where the bus tour started, or if you had booked a trip where you had to fly somewhere, they would take you to the airport. This was a nice feature, especially for seniors who don’t always have transportation available. They do day trips from the San Diego area as well as longer trips, even cruises and European vacations.  See your AAA travel agent or contact them at 

 www.gadaboutvacations.com

There are companies all over the country that cater to seniors and home pickup is a feature many of them have.  When my mom used to travel she would book her trips through the senior center and it also included home pickup.  She traveled all over the world with the senior center and a lot of the people on the trip with her were people she knew from the senior center.

Me in Durbrovnik, Croatia
age 63

Another good reason to book with a company that is specifically for seniors, is that everyone on the trip will be your age, and you will, hopefully, have a lot in common with them.  Also, if you are a single senior, they will pair you with another senior of the same sex, so that you can share a room and therefore, the cost.  It is not unusual for a senior to suddenly find themselves traveling alone.  They lose their normal travel partner, due to illness or death, but they still want to travel.  It costs a lot more to travel as a single, but there will probably be several people in that situation in a senior group, and they will make an effort to find you a travel partner to share costs.

Depending on how well you still are able to get around, you may not be ready for a senior group trip.  A lot of seniors are still traveling independently, and should continue to do so, as long as they feel comfortable on their own.  But for those who are starting to have some health issues or mobility issues, or find themselves suddenly without a travel partner, remember there are options and you can still get out and go.  You just may make some new friends along the way.