TRAVELING AS AN OLDER ADULT

Reasons Why You Should
If you needed reasons to take more trips as and older adult then you might be pushed to understand that older adult travel is now more popular. Travel packages now promoting ‘Age-Friendly Tourism’ as more older individuals than ever before are seeking to prioritize travel in their lives.

More and more middle-aged adults are retiring early since the pandemic. Midlife and older adults are traveling and opportunities are now more plentiful. The older budget traveler has many options available for travel.

It’s not just those looking to take early retirement or finally reaching retirement age who are fueling their own new desire to experience or enhance their own appetites for travel. An entire generation of midlife and older adults are longing for a well-earned lifestyle change.

Whether it’s bucket list travel, or the desire to have a midlife gap year. To live life more freely on our own terms. The world is seeing a resurgence in midlife older adults not sitting on the sidelines. At this time the line between working and taking a trip has been blurred with remote and nomadic working arrangements as well as midlife adult gap years.

Individuals in their midlife and older have more options to earn an income than ever. Versatile mindsets to remote work, retirement, and early access to pensions. Many will utilize their travel budget plans to assist in slow travel in taking a trip further and for longer. 

For some, it’s first-class travel, luxury hotels, high-end cruises, chartering private jets, and staying in resorts.
I’m an advocate of travel at any age and I want to show you that whether you are a budget or luxury traveler or anywhere in between. To travel in midlife or older and how those travel experiences can be a lot more advantageous and rewarding than in your younger years.

Long term travel and  Gap Years is no longer just for the younger generations
I’m not saying that travel isn’t a privilege, it absolutely is and it constantly will be. However it can be perhaps more available and most likely more cost-effective than you might expect to take a long trip in your midlife ‘golden’ years.

I wish to reveal to you through experience and by example how taking a trip is performed in midlife and even older throughout this site. If you are a little unsure or afraid and even a bit skeptical, then it’s all right. It’s only natural to have travel worries, particularly as we age, ask yourself if those worries are reasonable and can be resolved.

Travel Fear as an older traveler is natural
Understandably, lots of older tourists fret about health and wellness, and finances, and it holds true that travel can be harmful. The news media is full of travel horror stories. Let us look at travel fears in detail.

There really is a list of Unsafe Places to Travel in The World but there is also a list of Amazing Places to Travel

I see travel horror stories in the media constantly. Don’t travel here, don’t go there, and watch your wallet or purse. No shortage of bad news to consume.
The Fear of the unknown is easily countered by researching, making preparations, and good fashion common sense.

A 3rd of those over 50 years old are likely to have a ‘Bucket List’. Bucket list travel will be particularly popular with the older generations. Disposable income and the free time to travel are allowing older adults to make ‘Bucket List’ trips. The midlife over 50 travel market is more adventurous and daring than one may imagine. 

Children grown up and leading independent lives, parents in their 50s are now just as likely as those in their 20s to embrace a more flexible work, location independent working environment. Blending travel with ‘workcations’ and opportunities to work remotely as ‘digital nomads’.

Couples Travel, Solo Travel,  Group Travel exists for every style and budget. As an older midlife traveler myself I prefer solo travels. Surveys show that less than 10% of older adults travel solo. If that is fear then let me assure you that opportunities for the solo traveler are plentiful and rewarding. 

Travel in your 50s and 60s is possibly the very best age to take a trip!
Years of waiting and working for the freedom of the weekend? Throughout my childhood, I daydreamed about exotic locations. Novels fueled my imagination of foreign lands. I spent my 20s in the military.. My 30’s making a career and getting married. My 40s divorced and changing the direction of my life with more travel.
Now in my 50s, I have traveled more in the last 5 years than in the previous decades combined. The passing of my father inspired me to start traveling. Six months after my father’s passing I was hiking across Spain on the Camino de Santiago Pilgrimage. As I write this in 2023 on a midlife gap year in Thailand. That was my ‘kick in the ass’ moment to travel.

Living a life of travel and exploring as I get older has changed my life profoundly. Do not wait to take that trip!

THOUGHTS ON TRAVEL IN MIDLIFE AND OLDER

Unless you are lucky to have a huge pension, managing your dream of taking a trip around the world in midlife might come down to making some life changes, and shifting your priorities. I decided to sell everything, change my career path and reevaluate my life for long-term travel. I’m not stating that everyone should change their entire life like me but I am recommending that you make some choices on the direction of your life if needed for travel.

• Adventure travel helps your mind! Experiencing new places, languages, people, and cultures, has been shown to enhance cognitive function. Good for your older brain, so traveling in midlife  and older can keep your brain healthy. Keep your mind more alert for longer than if you stay at the house.
• A midlife gap year will make you see the world in a new way and form a new perspective. Time spent traveling expands the mind and expands both horizons and tolerance. It can make you view everything in a different way and realize that there is still so much to learn more about the world.
• Travel can offer a purpose in life. There are lots of organizations all over the world that motivate those over 50 and retirees to volunteer. Do some research and see if these opportunities are interesting to you. 
• Luxury or Budget? Options exist for everyone. If being older means you are more decerning and you now value your comfort. Hostels and bunk beds are not for you. Traveling, even backpacking, can be performed on a budget plan while remaining comfortable. You just have to learn some new travel hacks and become travel savvy.
• Age is wisdom. You have the benefit of maturity and  the wisdom of life experience. These are valuable tools when traveling around the world.
• Plan or not to Plan: Make your plans and live your dreams however don’t forget to leave room for spontaneity. Enable impulse journeys and benefit from unforeseen chances that may appear. In my experience, that kind of thing occurs all the time when taking a trip.
• Enjoy making and marking off your Bucket List! Make a list of all the locations you have actually dreamed of seeing with your own eyes. Do not forget to list experiences, and feelings as well.
• Share your Adventures! You can influence other midlife and older folks to be adventurous and travel. Start a blog, share your stories with friends and family. Inspire others to live out their travel dreams.
• Traveling in midlife can be a rewarding and life-changing experience. No one returns from a trip the same as they left. Travel will transform your mind, body and soul.