5 weeks in Europe - talk me into it!

Try it once. Pay more for an airline ticket with flexibility to change plans to return earlier or stay longer on the fly. Book only places to stay where you can get your money back if you want to leave earlier than planned. Budget money for if you want to stay longer. Most are glad to have an opportunity to explore and visit. Hopefully you know of place over there where you can just relax and live like a local for a short time instead of doing a lot moving around. I plan to be on the beach by the Mediterranean Sea for 5 days this summer for example

Congratulations on your retirement!
2016 6 weeks in Europe
2017 two months
2018 almost 3 months

During most of the trips at least once but usually twice I choose a spot I’ve visited before and use it as a relaxation stop - not much sightseeing — more about chilling and eating and taking care. Nice is a good example. I like to rent an apartment and go to the market then cook. Stresa for walking the promenade, having a long lunch and watching the ferries go by.
I take the train everywhere except Tuscany and in a small southern town where I attended a cooking school.
I hope you will enjoy your newfound freedom and the RS tours.

I have been taking summer-long vacations. I enjoy the entire trip, though I feel a bit less energetic during the fourth month. The shortening of the days as I get into the second half of September is an issue for me (even at home), so I've been trying to start my trips in May and wind them up on September.

Long trips work best for me. I don't like rushing, and I dislike the idea of having to leave a city without getting to all the key sights I've planned. I don't have much of a B list or C list. Just about everything either falls into the "I don't care about it" category or ends up on my A list.

My current style of vacation is to go go go. I'm up at 6 or 7 and out the door exploring while my wife gets ready. Then at 8 we're usually out the door and may not come back until late. Rest is something we can do at home. That works for us over a two week holiday, but I'm doubting it works for an extended trip. I really wonder if I'm going to have to change my style upon retirement.

I love cities and one place I can see myself spending a month would be London, but when I think of the cost of staying there, then I start thinking I may be better of on the outskirts. But then I'm missing what I love about cities; the action and being in the middle of it. I loved my stay in Covent Garden, but is the noise and cost of that location sustainable over a period longer than a week?

I've decided I'm not going to know until I try. There must be more upside than downside to longer trips.

One of my best trips was shortly after I retired, a total of 7 weeks -- a 2 week RS Adriatic tour with a week before and a week after in Italy and then 3 weeks in Paris renting an apartment with a friend. I loved it and could have stayed longer. What helped for me was the variety of locations with nothing rushed and the balance of tour time, alone time, and then time with my friend. I would do it again in a heartbeat!
Now that I have more flexibility (rather than just 2 or 3 weeks off), all my trips tend to be longer -- 4+ weeks. I'm hoping for at least 6 weeks next Spring if Europe is doing more of its own vaxxing and they are really ready to open for us.

Congratulations on retiring! The more you wind up thinking about the possibilities, people might have to talk you out of going, rather than talking you into it. In 2018, I was retired, but my husband was still working. He got 5 weeks vacation per year, but was only allowed a maximum of 3 at one time. He retired on his birthday last year, but the Pandemic has delayed the big retirement trips - 2 were planned for the last half of 2020. In the words of the late, great ski guru Warren Miller, if you don’t do it this year, you’ll be one year older when you do. So take the 5 weeks, and go!

Back to 2018 - since he didn’t have further time available in the late fall of that year, I left my husband at home and headed to Europe. A girlfriend met me in Sicily and we toured around for more than a week. She went home and I went to mainland Italy for another couple of weeks. I’d always dreamed of taking an intensive course to improve my French, and so then spent 3 weeks at a French-only, full-day, five-days-a-week program near Nice. This wrapped up at the end of the year, and I flew to Marrakesh, Morocco, where my husband met me, with a fresh allowance of vacation time now that 2019 had begun. All in all, it was the longest stretch of time away from home I’d ever had - the trip of a lifetime. Hopefully, now that we’re both retired, we have a lot more trips of a lifetime ahead, but I got in a big one, while I had the finances and health to do it. If you have pets, you just need someone to do the caretaking. Same if there’s a home or plants that need tending. Put a hold on your mail, suspend the trash, turn down your heat or A/C for 5 weeks, and do it! If you don’t, can I go in your place? 😄

We keep our luggage and belongings to a minimum and use packing cubes which makes it easier to move from place to place. I can't really think of any vacation that I've really been ready to come home. Every time we go to Europe I am able to get my husband to agree to a longer trip. Our up coming trip will be almost 4 weeks. Before we were retired we felt like we had to cram a lot into those 12/13 day or so vacations. We have done one RS tour and one Viking Cruise. For each we tacked on our own travel at the beginning and the end. When we went to Italy, we had the Rick Steves Rome tour in the middle of our itinerary. Basically, that meant we had 6-7 days where we were in one hotel, and many/most of the logistics and decisions were made by someone else. Though a lot was packed into those days, it was a break of sorts.

In addition to keeping luggage simple, another thing that helps is to streamline meals. We try to book hotels that include breakfast, we tend to do picnic lunches (we love to pick out foods at markets and stores) and sometimes we'll just hang out at the hotel for dinner doing take out. It feels a little less scheduled that way.

We were just talking at dinner today, that at some point maybe we'd want to rent an apartment and stay in one place for a week or longer and feel more like a local. 5 weeks sure gives you an opportunity for a taste of something like that.

Go, report back!

I just got back from a 5 week (US) road trip. Before arriving at my last hotel, I was ready to cancel my last city and head home. Thank heavens I didn't!

That last hotel - immediately adjacent to a river greenbelt - was so delightful that I easily could have stayed there a few more weeks, taking walks each morning and evening along the river. It gave me a new perspective on how to spend my last week on a long trip - really relaxing somewhere fabulous. Still doing some sightseeing, but slowing it way down over my usual energetic pace.

As others have said, on longer Europe trips I schedule a mid-trip "vacation from my vacation." A couple of nights to recharge in a relaxing place, with very little planned.

We are not go-go travelers -- often have 4+ night stays in apartments (kitchen, washing machine, get to know the area) so 5 or 6 weeks total is ideal ... or maybe a little too short. Longer stays reduce the living-out-of-suitcase feeling.

Ummm John not to rush you but get your @#$& in gear. Sorry, but within 24 hours RS sold over 7000 tours. Their average year is in the 20-30,000 range. Tours are booking up left right and center. Fully refundable deposits through 12/31. So get your tours booked NOW and then debate 1 or 2 tours and length of trip.

Prior to the pandemic, I averaged two twelve week trips a year out of the country. (Sometimes three.) The key for me is to pace myself. I've also done some tours and found that it was best to schedule a few "slower" days after the rush-rush of the tour. And even without tours I would schedule about one day a week as a slower day where I could relax more than just be on the go. Sort of a way to recharge the internal batteries.

I also spent one summer (nine weeks) in London. It was great. I've also spent weeks relaxing and planning in Manchester, Dundee and Geneva.

And it's always the same on the day I'm scheduled to fly home......I wish I wasn't. I'd rather stay. But that won't be everybody. You'll have to find out for yourself whether or not long term travel is for you.

Since I've been doing this for a number of years, I'm used to living out of a suitcase. I never unpack as I've set up my bag to be organized and there's no need. (Packing cubes)

I would take longer trips but I can only get a 90 day supply of my prescription meds.

I am very lucky not to be an American - I started work with 6 weeks holiday- some jobs only gave me 4 - but I always managed at least 6 weeks away adding on things like easter or Xmas or taking unpaid leave.

Now I work for my self and my partner is retired so its easier logistically. He doesn't like going for longer than 3 months - I max out about 6 months

You need to vary the pace - you can't do intensive tours for weeks and weeks - I'd burn out totally. You need to plan longer breaks - I take a day off a week just to blob, do laundry- sit around and eat all day and drink LOL

We have 4 months planned for next weeks - that's 6 weeks independent in Europe a week in Hawaii and SF to start and then 2 cruises one SF-Spain and one back from Spain to Singapore.

See my other threads - 6 weeks is not very long when you want to explore a region - in our case EasternEurope

Wife Sandy and I retired last spring. One unexpected aspect of this new life is that it has been harder than usual to concentrate on sustained projects, since it has dawned on me that we can go anywhere, anytime, aside from the usual Schengen limitation. I feel swamped by possibilities, and have spent a lot of time, especially during the worst of the Covid months, planning trips--Greece, England, Ireland, even some Central Asia fantasies. One very long road trip, to the American SW, we actually did recently.

To get to the actual topic, 5 weeks would be a long time for us in Standard Travel Mode, where we try to "cover" an area that we have not seen. However, we're looking at spending the worst of the Maine winters in southerly places like Spain, Morocco, Italy, or Greece, and spending weeks in the same location, preferably a "hub", seems very attractive. We're even considering Edinburgh, which we love, whose winters are mild compared to where we live now. So, 5 weeks with extended time to relax here and there, absolutely.

Why spend a fabulous 5 weeks in Europe when you can stay at home and clean the house, mow the yard, trim the bushes, paint the baseboards, pick up the yard after the pets, watch tv reruns, wish you were still working, and generally be bored? I say forget Europe and revel in the drudgery of everyday life and perhaps even look for a stressful new job. Your entire vacation will be taken up by worrying about the stuff you need to be doing at home anyway so why go???

I gave up work at 51 so that we could travel more, but now Brexit and Covid have got in the way of our plans!

Unless I am going on a short city break (a week), I tend not to travel for less than a month at a time and usually longer. However, we are too young to go on tours, so we travel independently and always go with a large 20+ kg checked bag plus hand luggage. I don’t want to get hung up on rinsing clothes out every couple of days, so would never take just hand luggage, as that is full of cameras, binoculars etc.

We tend to stay in one place for at least a week, if not one base for the duration or we take our caravan. We always fully unpack. We prefer smaller towns or countryside to cities and we stay in cottages/apartments not hotels.

You need to plan a different pace for a 5+ week trip than a 1-2 week trip. Allow for down days.

We always hire a car so we rarely use local public transport.

Hi,

I agree with everyone else who has posted: GO! You won't regret it. You only live once. Plus, if the Pandemic has taught us anything, it should be that life is short. Who knows what will happen 2 years from now, especially with the variants?

I've been fortunate enough to visit Europe several times for anywhere from 3 weeks to almost 4 months and I love it. I always travel alone and would never go with a tour group. I like to come and go at my own pace, and go where I want to go when I want to go. If you are curious about life and the world, and it seems you are, you will NOT be disappointed.

You'll meet great, like-minded people who will open your eyes and broaden your horizons. Some of my very best experiences arise from taking advice from either locals or other travelers who have said "oh, you should visit this city" or "go here." Sometimes I like a city or country so much that I'll end up staying there longer than I anticipated.

Don't get me wrong, after three months or so, there were one or two momentary times when I said "I'm tired of living out of my carry on bag." But then I'd move onto a new city, town or country and would be invigorated all over again by its sites. If you plan well in advance for your five weeks, I wouldn't expect this to happen to you at all. There are so many different cities, cultures and countries over there that I expect you'll have plenty to fill your plate. As a final note, you should check out RS's book or video on how to pack, and live out of, one simple carry on bag. Whether you go for three weeks or three months, it can be done easily.

Good luck,

When I retired 4 years ago my husband was still working and only had 2 weeks of vacation and couldn't go. I ended up going to Australia for 3 weeks and then on to New Zealand for another 3 weeks, meeting up with friends for different portions of the trip. I packed just 1 small suitcase and did laundry in the sink along the way. I actually found that I could have stayed away for another week or 2 at the end, but it was a little surreal when I came home because I'd been gone so long. Since then I take 3 trips a year to Europe on my own and tack on an extra week or two to an organized tour. So my trips are an average of 3-4 weeks long each time and I'm never really ready to go home when they end. It really enables you to "get in the flow" of being in a new place and gives you the freedom to slow down and really take it all in without feeling you have to rush on to the next place or fit it all into a couple of days. Now you can stop by early afternoon, spend time in the park or in a sidewalk cafe reading a book, talking to people, and just absorbing everything around you. It's a special thing to have the freedom you now have to take your time and not have to rush back to work. I find it helpful to be sure all my bills are paid before I go, I bring a list of anything that needs to be pulled up online and paid while I'm away, and then you don't have to worry about any of that. And to avoid the "living out of a suitcase mode" - unpack when you get to a new place and spend a few days there so it feels more normal. And pack minimally with things that are easily washed/dried and don't wrinkle.

Most of all, enjoy your new freedom to travel as long as you want.

Longer stays reduce the living-out-of-suitcase feeling.

So true! Even if I don't fully unpack - just transfer the packing cubes and myriad of zipper bags to the hotel drawers - it reduces my transitory feeling, especially for my longer stays.

Is your spare 10 days between tours? If so, consider one place that affords numerous day trips, rent an apartment or aparthotel and unpack. An apartment surrounding allows you to keep some of your home routine to reduce homesickness. It means you don't have to search for every meal and you can eat what is normal to you for a while.
Others recommend every 6 or 7 days to have a no plans day. Maybe laundry but nothing else. Then you have a break from a schedule and can rest up.

All of the above. After retiring, my wife and I have taken several five-week trips and found ourselves tired and suitcased-out enough to be ready for home by then. But these were relatively intense sightseeing trips, i.e. sort of a typical two-week vacation extended to five weeks by adding more cities, or a cruise or something. Now that she is traveling less, I've been on a few three-week trips on my own. Maybe I could extend these for longer, but I miss her! And I tire myself out because I haven't developed the "downshift" capacity some of the other posters have.

So I'd say go for it, especially if you're single or have a partner who's ready and able to do the same. You might not like it, but you won't know till you try. And certainly slow down your pace (hard for me, but seems easier for others) to allow "days off" like others have described.

Most important thing is in the middle of your trip take two or three days for a vacation from your vacation. A few days of R & R work wonders. It helps in avoiding vacation overload!

Congrats from me as well on your retirement!

I did a "big trip" in 2014. I'd retired but then took care of parents for a couple of years. After their deaths (long and happy lives so not sad) and getting their house sold, etc, I decided my treat to myself was to take as many RS tours as I wanted. So...in late August, I set out for about 8 weeks. I did independent time in London, the 21 Day Best of Europe, Best of Paris, some independent time in Paris with a friend, then ended with Village Italy. I was NOT ready to come back home.

I learned a lot...I packed too heavy for one thing and could barely lift my RS convertible backpack onto my back at the end. I had to set it on the bed, put it on and then stand, lol. I did sink wash the whole time and had my wardrobe so that everything would dry overnight. After that I changed to a rolling bag - still 22 inches and with 2 wheels and this works well for me. I use packing cubes and that helps me stay organized.

I agree with the "vacation from a vacation" theme. I had 2 weeks in Paris in the middle (in 2 hotels) but the important thing for me was not moving every other day to another location/hotel. For myself, I liked the variety of some countryside worked around the big cities. I get a little overwhelmed with too many big cities in a row (except Paris and London, lol) and like the relief of country or smaller town vistas.

Which tours are you thinking about taking? Are you going to move around on your 10 independent days or are you planning a fixed location?

editing to add: The only down side to a long trip is that I feel the need to stay gone that long every time, hahaha!

I haven't read through all of the replies yet, but I will say that we went for six weeks once and the only downside was dealing with the accumulation of mail when we got home!

thanks for all the replies! I think I'll do it.