Traveling and Living

It’s a fact that seniors as a group have more disposable income and more time to spend it than ever before. If that’s true for you, what’s keeping you from packing up?

Perhaps a spouse can’t travel any more and you have no one with similar interests to travel with? Or perhaps you’re concerned about safety and health or problems with unfamiliar languages and cultures?

If it’s too scary to think of heading off alone, try joining a tour group the first time, one where you’re likely to meet people with similar interests. Find a group that allows for free time to explore on your own and follow your interests. Being alone in a group combines the best elements of solo and accompanied travel. You always have people in the group to talk with and eat with, but you can also explore on your own, close your door, and savor your privacy.

Solo travel arrangements usually require paying some penalties in the form of financial supplements. If this is a deterrent or you don’t like the idea of going with a group, look for an organization that will supply you with a companion of your age and gender (see Solo Travel Resources box on next page). The risk is that you may not “click” with that person. But think of it as a short-term commitment: you’ve at least got to where you want to go and you may even have found a longer-term friend.

Real solo travels—where you decide the destination, read up on it, get your own tickets, and head off alone—is another matter. This is where you weigh concerns for personal safety and where women feel especially vulnerable (nearly all the solo travel advice is directed at women). Read the rest of this entry »

Seniors have plenty of ways to cut costs if you know where to look.

Air travel is generally the biggest money outlay—and therefore the biggest deterrent to going anywhere. Consider some key ways around it. One is the extraordinarily low winter airfare to get to Europe that happens every year, usually between mid-October and March or April. Airlines offer transatlantic roundtrip fares of $400 or even less to London, Paris, Rome, etc.

Why would you want to go abroad in the winter? To see and do the same things as in peak seasons and without the crowds and high costs for museums, concerts, theater, language courses. Hotels and all-inclusive packages are generally cheaper at that time too. Book at least six months in advance and pay early to get low-priced promotional airfare, or, if your time is flexible, see what you can get at the last minute for a low price. Most major airlines have discontinued the senior discount fare, making the off-season rates especially attractive. Once in Europe, you’ll find more new airlines to provide cheap travel from nearly all the major hubs to wherever you want to go (see below).

Read the rest of this entry »

Ensuring you will enjoy your holiday starts with assuring the safety of your home while you are away. It seems we hear this warning time and time again, however statistics demonstrate that we often fail to take the steps necessary to protect our belongings left at home and also our possessions we take on our trip. When the safety of either our home or our travel luggage is violated, it mars our enjoyment.

People remain more vulnerable if they still operate on the premise of the days when they left the key under the mat or the house unlocked. Recently, I was visiting relatives in the US Midwest and was alarmed at their crime prevention attitudes. They routinely left their 3000 square foot home unlocked with patio doors open. Their opinion is that if someone wants to break in, they will. So why make it difficult; they will only damage locks and/or break windows. This is very foolish thinking. Criminals are basically lazy. If there are two houses side-by-side and one is locked and alarmed, even if they are high on drugs and looking for an adrenalin rush, they are more likely to choose the easy target! Read the rest of this entry »

Is it high time for a vacation or what? Summer is finally here again. It’s time to load up that car, folks. Fill up the trunk and toss in the kids, because it’s all about those adventurous beach vacations. Okay, well I’m not sure how adventurous they are, but they’re certainly a blast. We’re talking about the warm sun on your face and soft, soothing sand between your tired toes. Ah, can’t you just already taste those margaritas? Now, the first thing you have to focus on is the big plan. So, what is the big plan? You mean you don’t already have one? Oh, it’s no big deal. All you need to get started with contemporary beach vacations is your PC or Mac. Ah ha, and you thought it was sun block. Hop on your home computer and get a head start on your big summer getaway.

What kind of beach vacations sound ideal to you? Are you all into the east coast scene, or are you more of a California sands kind of guy? Or better yet, maybe you’re anxious to head off to the Bahamas or Hawaii. These are certainly ideal hot spots when it comes to summer beach vacations. Read the rest of this entry »

Most people prefer to travel by airplane or by car, but there are still some folks who prefer to use bus travel to see the sites on their vacations. Bus travel is not as popular as it once was, but you can still find routes to take you just about anywhere in the United States. Some use it because it costs less than a plane ticket, and they can see more of the countryside this way. You can miss a lot of things when you are concentrating on the road while driving, or worrying about driving directions.

If you are interested in bus travel, you can find a variety of routes depending on where you are going, and when you want to go. Some routes will have a lot of stops along the way, but they may not offer you a lot of time to explore the area. There are tour groups that use bus travel to host specialty tours. These tours may go through a certain part of the country to view the countryside, or may go to a specific destination like the Grand Canyon, or Niagara Falls. Read the rest of this entry »