The cliché’s are true!
Travel does broaden our minds
A note from Johann
It is amazing how many people look forward to retirement because it is an opportunity to travel. During our full-time working lives, travel is mostly short and sweet, and fashioned around brief clusters of leave time. In retirement, we face an expanse of time and a proper opportunity to indulge the long held desire for extended travel. Travel remains one of the most popular retirement activities. Is it because we relish the thought of no longer being part of the daily grind or because travel offers us an opportunity to reinvent ourselves as we pursue adventure and exploration? Whatever it may be, the prospect of travel provides excitement and gleeful anticipation.
An inspiring example of a life dedicated to travel comes from our recent webinar guests, John and Bev Martin, the Retirement Travelers. They retired quite early after dedicated careers and were about to embark on an overseas trip when their plans were scuppered by global travel restrictions around COVID-19. Instead, they explored locally, and toured many parts of America, most notably the National Parks. This gave them the wanderlust that has propelled their travels since.
Their overseas travels first saw them heading to Central America, which helped build their confidence and also convinced them they could travel with minimal possessions. They have recently marked a year of full-time travel and are tackling Europe one city at a time and marking their travels through YouTube videos they post on their channel. They also plan on posting the many useful things they’ve leant on a website to help and inspire other retired travelers.
After such a yearlong experience, they have simply become more enthusiastic and have no wish to return to their lives in the USA just yet. Rather, they planning to head to Asia. They want a life of full-time travel. Though they miss their children and grandchildren, they do have many ways of keeping in touch and have even had family members join them on various legs of their journey.
It is the learning that they value and the excitement of discovery that gives them the drive to carry on. They say they want to leave a legacy of knowing the world for their grandchildren and will start traveling along with them when they are old enough.
Johann
Click here to watch the webinar on our Facebook page
Our top 3 article picks this week:
It’s Not Too Late to Travel Solo After Retirement
But Don’t Make These 14 Mistakes
Our take:
Traveling solo might seem daunting at this phase of life but there have never been more opportunities and resources to support it than now. This article looks at some of the pitfalls to avoid and also some of the great rewards to be enjoyed.
Article excerpt:
Embarking on a solo trip as a senior comes with its own set of challenges — and perks.
Choosing the Wrong Destination for Your Situation
Plan trips according to what’s best for you at this stage in life.
Flying Solo When a Group Trip Would Be Better
Based on your desired destination and activities, determine whether a visit is best tackled solo or within the embrace of a group tour.
Assuming You Won’t Meet Other Seniors Traveling Solo for the First Time.
Trying something new is often intimidating because you fear that others are seasoned experts who have been at it for years. But when it comes to travel, you’re not alone; many seniors are also traveling solo for the first time in their lives.
Not Starting Small
Another surefire way to get comfortable traveling on your own as a senior is to start small and stay local.
Overlooking the Single Supplement
Traveling solo can become surprisingly pricey when you run into the dreaded single supplement. Because most hotel rooms and cruise ship cabins are built to accommodate two occupants, solo travelers often encounter an extra charge that exists to compensate for the lack of full capacity.
Click here to read the full article on travelandleisure.com
20 Great Retirement Travel Ideas
Make The Most Popular Retirement Pursuit Your Reality
Our take:
This comprehensive article from New Retirement will give you plenty of fuel to fire your wanderlust. Though it cites man resources focused on the American market the ideas in the article might inspire you to search for your local equivalent if you’re from another region. It is focused specifically on retired travelers and proved many useful tips you might otherwise not have considered.
Article excerpt:
According to surveys of NewRetirement users, travel after retirement is clearly the most popular and desired pursuit for this phase of life. From day trips by car to round-the-world journeys, retirees have wanderlust!
Set goals, make a bucket list, think through where you want to go — with whom? Why?
Thinking about what you want to do in retirement is an important part of retirement planning.
Rent out your own home to fund retirement travel
In addition to offering you a great place to stay when you travel, Airbnb can also offer you an almost magical way to make money for travel (or whatever). It is easy to list your home on Airbnb as a rental for travelers who will be visiting your community. Depending on where you live, you might just get flooded with interest.
Go last minute and save
When you are working, travel gets squeezed into available vacation slots. For travel after retirement, you have a lot more freedom to take advantage of last-minute deals and opportunities.
Take time to plan (scientists say it is the best part)
According to the researchers, planning and anticipating your trip makes you happier than actually taking it.
Take the grandkids
If travel is the most popular thing people want to do after retirement, spending time with grandkids is probably second. So why not combine the two?
Click here to read the full list and article on newretirement.com
Try a Home Swap
You’ll Skip Airbnb and Hotel Costs and Vacation Like You’re a Local.
Our take:
There are many ways to travel within your own budget from keeping to local excursions to traveling in the off-season. One unique of keeping costs in check is by doing a house swap where you live like a local in someone’s home. They, in turn, stay in yours. This Market Watch article lists some resources and guidelines should you want to consider this option to help you travel further afield for less.
Article excerpt:
Here’s all you need to explore an eco-friendly extended stay in a house or apartment for free, and open up your own place in exchange
It all worked out in the 2006 rom-com “The Holiday,” in which Kate Winslet’s British Iris and Cameron Diaz’s American Amanda escape their own routines and love lives in a two-week, cross-Atlantic home swap.
Ask other home swappers, most with standard suitcases and backpacks and not so much romantic baggage, and they’ll tell you the same: It all works out. They saved money, briefly lived like a local in a new city, and their lives were changed for the better.
How home swaps work
The basic formula is a “reciprocal exchange” — a Denver family desires two weeks in Paris in the middle of June and that Parisian family wants to head for the Rockies at the same time. They swap.
There’s no doubt that peer-to-peer accommodation models, such as Airbnb, VRBO, and similar sites have mainstreamed staying in a stranger’s home. The major differences between those stays and a home swap lies with a cost: cost of the stay, the cost for cleaning, and often, a booking fee for each visit. Hotel and resort stays can be more transparent on cost, but even those options can have what the travel industry calls “drip pricing,” meaning the posted rate for a stay is discounted and attractive, but the final bill is dotted with add-ons.
The savings and convenience of home swaps
The advantage of home-exchange membership sites is you can explore options without first paying the annual fee.
But that’s it. The whole point is the actual stay is free. And depending on what you decide to exchange, a trip might include the use of a bicycle, kayak, or scuba equipment, a swimming pool on site — all features that will make your vacation easier and cost you nothing out of pocket. Plus, you can cook more of your own meals, perhaps enhanced because the host leaves a note with her favorite market and wine shop.
Be mindful of…
Be sure you enter into swapping with your eyes wide open. People — strangers! — will be sleeping in your beds, using your internet, and conversing with your neighbors. It’s OK to set guidelines, just be a fair and clear communicator.
Click here to read the details for each strategy in the full article on marketwatch.com
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Other highlights for the week:
Most Popular Daily Thought
I ever knew of a morning in Africa, when I woke up and was not happy. – Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway traveled to Africa twice and his trips to Kenya and Tanzania inspired his novel ‘Green Hills of Africa’. Being open to new adventures and experiences can take us to new places that speak to us and provide fresh inspiration for life in our third Chapter.
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Weekly Question
Last week’s question:
What is your dream retirement travel adventure?
Responses:
• Touring the Western Front battlefields
• Walking the full-length Camino in France/Spain
• Going overland from Cape to Cairo
• Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro
• Would love to do a road trip in a van converted home on wheels
• Island hopping in Greece
• Seeing the Northern Lights
• A long stay in a British village
• We climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro and we’re picking our next adventure now from several options
• To see as much of the world as possible
• America
• St. Michelle
• Portugal
• Europe
• Croatia
• Italy
• Paris
• Africa
• Cambodia
• Scotland
• New Orleans
• New Zealand
This week’s questions:
What specific song elevates your mood the most?
Click here to answer the question in our Facebook group
Lastly……
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