Retirement Travel
Retirement Travel: It’s Your World, Big or Small
Retirement and travel go well together. The open time you’ll have is a huge asset for retirement traveling – you can take advantage of off-peak fares, which keeps your retirement budget in line, go by ground (or even sea) instead of air and make the most of short or long trips. It’s your world, big or small.
Even with limited resources, you’ll have a wealth of options for satisfying your retirement travel bug. To make your retirement travel dreams a reality, it’s never too soon to start your retirement income planning.
The big questions to answer are where do you want to go, and why? Retirement travel can mean a year-long cruise to see great cities of the world, the occasional B&B getaway to soak in rural quiet, or regular trips to spend time with family. Start your research now – different dreams require different strategies. Are you good at digging up bargains online? Can you still get the experience you’re looking for if you go in the cheaper off-season? If you’ll be making regular long drives, what car and routes will make for the safest and most pleasant trip? Treat your retirement travel plans as seriously as you would a career move and, long or short, you’ll have a more satisfying journey.
You may also be thinking about the more long-term adventure of resettling somewhere. It’s definitely worth a research trip to see if you’ll really enjoy Arizona in August, or if you want the challenge of learning a new language in a new inexpensive country. Try your destination on for size before you start looking into real estate!
Retirement Travel: Building Relationships
When you leave behind your career community, you may want to focus on building a new one, and retirement traveling can be a great way to do that. An obvious first choice is strengthening family ties by making visits you couldn’t before.
Another way to build community into retirement travel is to include family members on that adventure you’ve been looking forward to. Taking a grandson or niece along – whether it’s a weekend in a national park or a week in Costa Rica – can forge a deep bond and give them an experience they’ll never forget.
Group trips and tours – aside from saving you the hassle of planning trip details – can turn retirement travel into a way to meet new friends with common interests. There are companies out there for every interest – from educational journeys to physical adventures – that can be as dynamic and exciting as you want them to be.
Another option is volunteering – combining travel with a public service mission can put you at the heart of a community, as well as start friendships that will enrich your retirement.
Strategies for Retirement Traveling
With profit margins thinning for the travel industry, many senior discounts, from airfares to hotel rates, are being discontinued. But off-peak times are still a way to save money, as well as to avoid crowds. And since your time will be more flexible, you can keep an eye out for last-minute deals – who knows, an unplanned bargain trip to Boise, Idaho might hold worthwhile surprises.
However unstructured the trip itself will be, the more planning you do before you leave, the better retirement and travel will go together. Reduce the risks around money by carrying a minimum of credit cards, and looking into whether there’ll be ATMs available where you’re going. Make sure your health needs are all covered – check out whether your insurance works abroad, and how to refill prescriptions if you lose them. Make sure the hotel offers the facilities you’ll need and bring climate-appropriate clothing.
Of course, one of the big planning questions is whether you’ll be able to afford the trip. To get help thinking through your retirement spending, take a look at these sections: retirement portfolio and retirement spending calculator.
