Changes in travel approach as you age

Oh so many changes in the past 16 uears for us! We are 73 and 82, BTW.

• Business Class over water
• Checked bags for a multitude of reasons: I cannot hoist anything significant over my head, convenience of being unencumbered in the airport, packing our trekking sticks; volume of stuff needed for 2 month trips like extra meds and clothing suitable for 40 - 85 degrees
• No stairs in lodging so ground floor or elevator (usually we rent apartments)
• Walk-in showers if at all possible
• We still love public transport but avoid buses when we have luggage and make use of taxis when the walk is more than a kilometer with luggage

I hate driving at home so avoid it overseas.

Well…the first thing I thought of is our change in mindset regarding money. We did take a few big trips before retiring 6 years ago, but most of our vacations for decades were trips to visit family, or to the beach. We lived well below our means and were able to sock away plenty for retirement (and we know we were very fortunate to be able to do that). Well, we’re spending our kids’ inheritance now! We’re traveling now while we’re able, and not squeezing pennies like we used to. On our last trip, we flew business class for the first time in our lives (previously we had used Premium Economy, a must for my 6’4” husband). There’s no going back — we’ll continue to fly business for any long-haul flights.

Of course we will ensure that we have enough for our needs in our later years, but we worked hard for a long time and were very prudent, so we’re enjoying the splurges.

Yeah, no stairs in lodgings - this is so important.

We were staying Carcassonne in March, and my wife arranged for a nice apartment - on the 3rd floor, 3 sets of stairs, 16 steps per set, 3 nights. Now we check very carefully about the stairs issue. When we visited Italy in 2022, the apartment in Siena was on the 5th floor. I couldn't do that today.

We have lived overseas for several years and visited over 80 foreign countries.

When young we had less money, so we did everything on our own and stated in budget hotels or B&Bs, taking public transportation like the London Underground, etc.

We are pushing 80 and for the past 5 years favor group tours. Group tours take care of most everything, lodging, transportation, tour guides, most meals, etc.

I have a bad knee, but can still keep up with the groups and walk up to 3 or more miles a day (since it is not done all at one time).

We have never paid for expensive lodgings, since we don't spend much time in the hotel.
We actually prefer B&Bs, but our group tours usually provide great lodging, most of the time up to a 3-4 star hotel. In places like Egypt or poor countries, we get 5 star top lodgings.

We always check our luggage, since we are not comfortable with what we can cram into carryon luggage. Never had any lost luggage. Delta has a great record on that account.

When I first started traveling overseas, I wanted to see historic places, but the more I traveled, I wanted to see scenic places and places with notable wildlife. We love our fjord cruise in Norway up to the North Cape, our cruise around the Horn of South America; our Alaska cruise; Galápagos Islands cruise; and our safari in Kenya and Tanzania.

the first thing I thought of is our change in mindset regarding money.

One of the unintended benefits I've gotten from this Forum since I found it 8 or so years ago it's to be able to look into the future to see how my travel style may need to change as I age. I'm 62 so I hopefully have plenty of years left before I need to consider the physical side of travel. However the money side has been a mental challenge. I've been retired for almost two years and earlier this week for the first time I had to take money out of my retirement savings. I spent 40 years with a save, save, save mentality and now to start withdrawing has been a bigger challenge than I expected. The money is there to be spent and to be drained over the next 30 years, but it's been a mental hurdle to be willing to do it.

The 70 milestone birthday is coming this year for me. Probably my two biggest changes in the last five years are taking multiple European trips per year instead of one and taking my light packing to a tenaciously lighter level. The first one is because the travel years are finite, and I would like to enjoy more while I am still very mobile. The second one is because I don’t want to risk an injury that could have been avoided.

I do have to balance my second point with situations like Christmas Markets and a Pastel painting workshop where my packing will be heavier. In those cases, I am bringing my 2-wheel carry on instead of my favorite Cotopaxi 35L and eliminating small B&B rooms that mention high floors.

Something else that’s changed, but I’m not sure if it’s because of age, my amount of travel and/or being a widow. The enjoyment of being in the moment whatever I’m doing vs. the feeling of “go, go, go” has definitely changed in the past years - although I still love changing cities very often. : ). Seeing the beauty of a location or site, pausing for a quick sketch, smiling at family life culture in the evenings in the piazzas - the peaceful contentment - “il dolce far niente”.

I am old and l leave it at that. I have.a bad knee as well as neuropathy in my feet. There is mobility issues.

I used to take public transportation from home to the airport and back again so as to save money. This is easy to do in Austin but the last few trips I have treated myself to a Lyft and I love the convenience.

When I search for a hotel, I plug in elevators to the higher floors. I will not book a hotel that does not have an elevator.

I do not rush in my sightseeing. I do not have to see everything. I greatly enjoy what I do get to see and do not focus on what i have missed. I am not the energizer bunny.

I sit more than I used to. I sit more at parks and I sit more in the museums. For my last trip which was a week in Paris, I took the hoho bus for the very first time. I really enjoyed the hoho bus. It worked well for me.

Once I walked several miles a day but I can no longer do so. I can still walk some but slowly and carefully with sitting down frequently.

I have accepted the aging process. I have accepted my limitations when traveling.

I have been taking one cruise every year but excursions have been presenting some difficulty. One Level excursions are not that interesting but Two level excursions are sometimes too challenging.

Last May, I went to Paris for a week, no cruise just land and in October i will go to London for a week, no cruise just land.. This is a change based on age and mobility issues.

To Everything There is a Season ....,

My husband and I are 68 and have developed some issues that will affect our mobility more and more as we age further, so our approach has been to try to do some of the more challenging trips while we still can, realizing that those we don't do now, we may never do.

So, in 2024, we went to Taiwan, Vietnam, and Cambodia. Walking around the ruins in the heat was a challenge.
In 2025, we went to New Zealand and Australia. (Challenging mainly because of flight length and because of snorkelling in the Great Barrier Reef.)
We just returned from primate trekking in Rwanda, and, if I'm being honest, we probably left that one a couple of years too long. I'm not sure we could have done it in another year.

We also travel Premium Economy on flights over 4-5 hours, bid for upgrades to Business Class when we can, and break up our trips whenever possible, although our return trip from Rwanda consisted of 2 flights, totalling almost 24 hours of travel, including airport time. (We did stay in Montreal for the weekend instead of flying directly home to Calgary, which would have added another 4 1/2 hours of flight time and 2+ hours of airport time to the trip. And we did successfully upgrade to Business on our flight from Kigali to Brussels.)

We still travel carry-on only, but that might change as our ability to carry bags up/down boarding stairs--fairly common, in our experience--and hoist bags overhead diminishes. We'll never travel with extremely large bags, though. I much prefer travelling light.

We still prefer public transit.

We do look for places without too many flights of stairs now, although a couple of flights is still okay.

We are more likely to book an extra night at our accommodation if we have a flight that arrives really early after a long flight. (We didn't do this on our recent trip, though.)

We are more likely to book some kind of short stay accommodation if we have an evening departure. Some airport hotels will do hourly bookings now. We'd rather wait in comfort and privacy.

I'm more likely to use just my phone for photos, to keep down the weight of what I carry around all day.

I definitely have to pack a pair of reading glasses with me now. I can no longer get by without them.

At some point, we might have to consider group travel, but I really don't think I'd like it, so I'm not sure.

Oh, and one more. We no longer feel the need to climb to the top of every tower or high point to see the view from there.

In 2019, when I was 52, I was in Rome. On a rainy day, I was walking on the wet sidewalks from the Vittorio Emanuele Monument to Trastevere when I noticed that people in their 20s and 30s were just blowing past me while I was walking carefully to avoid slipping and falling. That’s when I realized I wasn’t young anymore.

I was 52, in good shape, thin, and I walked about four miles a day for exercise, but you age without realizing it. Since I love to travel and could afford to, I retired later that year so I could travel more.

I remember hauling my Mamiya Secor Camera around Europe. I now have a Zillion slides that I have to use a small viewer to squint at them because my projector is old and needs a bulb. I know that you can have them transferred to Digital, but you have to sort them 1st. Now I just take shots on my phone. LOL!

We started traveling when I was 55; I was fortunate to retire early. That was 8 years ago, and while I'm still up for a good challenge, I have noticed my knees and feet have other ideas.

Packing lighter and paying for premium economy on long-haul flights, it is so much better, and if there are only 2 of you, like us, we love getting the 2 seats together so we don't need to worry about others next to us and just spread out as much as possible.

We were also die-hard independent travelers, with backpacks, doing it all ourselves, but now we join a tour for a week or two to take some of that pressure off making all the plans. Then we plan some independent travel around that tour. It has worked out really well for us. I do still really enjoy the freedom of independent travel, so it's a give-and-take.

Also, we have decided that we don't need to see everything; we had major FOMO on our first couple of big trips, and it can lead to burnout.

It is called making adjustments. Agree with nearly all of the above statements. At 84 things just don't work or bend as well as prior years. Mobility is an issue so am shifting more to organized tours. Still staying within the one carryon bag but shifting to rolling luggage instead of the back pack.

Using business class is almost an absolute requirement. Fortunately blessed with a son who is a master at obtaining business class for us. We often don't have a return ticket so are very dependent on that son getting us home each time.

And very fortunate that our retirement income has nearly doubled since we retired so it is easy to be more flexible than when we traveled thirty years ago on tight budgets. Earlier we were both tied to the education calendar but now the non-summer months are available to us. Our one regret is that we have lost a couple of our travel companions. We keep wondering how many. good travel years do we have left but at the moment we only plan for the next one -- Sep 11. We have never had a bad trip.

I agree very much with checking a bag now, and I try to keep my carryon small enough to fit under the seat if necessary. For checked bag, I start with the mindset of not packing anything I couldn't afford to replace while at my destination.

We too have turned to organized tours (RS #1) so as to avoid the planning and logistics. For free time, we've done our research enough to know what's there, but not plan everything down to the minute. We recognize plans change and sometimes spontaneity is better.

We're tired of museums and churches, unless there is something well-known or historic to see. Focus is on the contemporary life, beauty, and atmosphere.

I started out in my '20s going low-budget all the way, but now recognize there is more to value than money. We're considering business class our next trip.

I am almost 56, so maybe a little younger. Changes in my approach to travel may not be just a countdown on the calendar.

I started out my travels staying in hostels, transitioned to private rooms in hostels or standard hotels, and now focus on aparthotels. For me, this change in accommodations isn’t necessarily about aging out of budget travel, but rather about my introverted personality. I simply need a quiet space of my own.

My packing has evolved. I still pack with a carry-on only mindset for my actual kit, but I have started checking a second, completely empty, carry-on-sized bag. I got tired of having to be incredibly tactical about bringing things back from my trips. Checking the empty bag gives me the ability to bring home souvenirs without the headache.

The most significant impact on my travel approach came after my catastrophic accident back in 2022. Pulling myself back together left me with a lack of confidence regarding my physical abilities, vulnerabilities, and whether I could travel again. I became obsessive over seat pitch and legroom on planes and trains. On flights I switched to Premium Plus. Thankfully I could cope with standard train seats. It took a couple trips over to get confidence back. I am still the sort that would absolutely do a tower, I long to stand at the top of St Paul's again but I'm slow and I'm horrified that my slow one step at a time with a non-working knee, would hold anyone up or impose on anyone in any way. Sometimes I do have to remind myself of these changes.

I posted this thread on adapting when my routines get interrupted - https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/general-europe/adapting

I definitely have to pack a pair of reading glasses with me now.

I had to laugh because it's a sure sign of getting older; my wife now packs more pairs of reading glasses than pairs of shoes...

One other thing about my age - this year, this time, we are just mobility challenged. My knee is not being cooperative. So, I don't want to go on hills. The up is fine - the down is a challenge.

I also stick with regular paved surfaces. Forest trails are no longer do-able. Unexpected drops that I didn't set up for are very jarring to the knee.

Ditto on the "no longer climb the towers". I do not climb much of anything.

As many have stated already, to get there I spend more to fly premium or business, check my bag, and get a taxi directly to my slightly more upscale hotel. Once there I always get an unlimited metro/bus pass each day (even a 5 minute ride versus a 15 minute walk can make an afternoon). The only thing I haven't figured out is why there are no baggage porters for first class cars on the train!

We are 80 and 83, and have been traveling extensively for 27 years. Like many of you, we have graduated to business class, elevators, taxis. We light up airport metal detectors with our artificial joints, and are learning about walking sticks.

The older we get, the more we avoid crowds. We have no patience for tours … even on one-day bus excursions, waiting for people and standing in line and going where someone directs us, drives us crazy. And we’ve seen enough churches and museums and famous buildings.

So now we mostly visit smaller, less travelled places, especially islands. Like the smaller islands of Greece, or Croatia, or isolated places like Galapagos and the Falkland Islands. What keeps us going are long, annual visits to small villages on the island of Crete, where we can just watch the sea, and eat simple fresh food, and recharge. We return home restored and energized and vowing to stay healthy so we can go back next year.

I go off-season, pack less, put fewer places on my itinerary, stay longer in each place, and prioritize conversations and experiences over “sights”. I buy a more comfortable airplane seat whenever possible.

Allan you put it so well:

The money is there to be spent and to be drained over the next 30 years, but it's been a mental hurdle to be willing to do it.

Luckily, it gets easier with practice!

At 72 I have made many of the same adjustments listed above - slightly upgraded airplane seats, hotels with elevators, etc. For the last few years I have started carrying a cane for long lines and museum shuffles.

But the biggest impact to my travel style has been the heat. I have always been more susceptible to heat than most. I pack short sleeve tops while other folks on the street are in sweaters and coats! I also thought that as I got older I'd be able to manage heat better (all those folks moving to Arizona and Florida). But instead it seems to bother me more each year. And, of course, recent weather trends just make it worse. So . . . I leave the hotel early to walk around, plan for a long midday break in the room or a movie or a matinee. I collect a lot of park benches. Churches are great for a sit down and cooler temps. Lots of art museums, which have become a growing interest. And I'm shifting from my favorite travel months of May and September to earlier and later months.

My perspective is that whilst age and infirmity frequently coexist, the latter is not an inevitable consequence of the former. I am in my 70s, don't smoke or drink alcohol at all, walk 3-4 miles and do 80-100 bodyweight squats daily, weight training 3X/week, no significant health or mobility issues. Until and unless something changes I'll travel as I have for decades...hand carry only, equipped with a RS Back Door bag (includes my 3-kg camera bag/kit), a Civita daypack, adequate fluency in more than just English (ability to converse as opposed to simply communicate)...and a positive attitude.

But the biggest impact to my travel style has been the heat. I have always been more susceptible to heat than most. I pack short sleeve tops while other folks on the street are in sweaters and coats! I also thought that as I got older I'd be able to manage heat better (all those folks moving to Arizona and Florida). But instead it seems to bother me more each year. And, of course, recent weather trends just make it worse.

pippin789, me, too. I have more and more difficulty coping with heat (and humidity) as time goes on.

I'm well over 70 now and agree with many of the comments that have been posted so far. A few thoughts.....

• I've always checked one bag during air travel to Europe, and will continue to do that. However in the past I used a Backpack but I've now bought a medium size spinner and will use that from now on although I still think or have the illusion that I could probably manage a backpack. Sometimes it's hard for me to admit that I can't do some of the things that I used to do in the past.
• I'll continue to travel with a dSLR kit for longer trips but that fits in the carry on that I normally use for longer trips. Yes, it's a bit heavy, but I enjoy photography when travelling.
• Depending on the trip, I will continue to use public transit (ie: the Leonardo Express or whatever) or taxis for travel from the station to the hotel. On a local trip I took to Vancouver about ten days ago, I decided to splurge and hired a car for the trip from the airport to the hotel.
• I've always used hotels in Europe that are listed in the RS guidebooks and try to choose those with elevators.
• I've found that walking now is more of an effort as I've gotten older due to leg and back issues. I try to get to the gym three times a week both for weight training and cardio, but even so I don't seem to have the tolerance / ability desire to walk long distances anymore.
• For domestic flights there's generally only one class of seating available, but for international flights these days I always choose Premium Economy.

Hopefully I'll be able to continue travelling for a few more years.

As I'm getting older, and aquiring more health issues, I made the decision to do things that make life, and travel, as easy as possible.

It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks, or does, or what some "expert" tells me to do, I do what I want. And what I want is ease.

When I see someone suggest taking 15 trains to save $5, I think "good for them, I'm taking the easiest route and the most comfortable seat." If it costs me a few bucks more, so be it. Less to leave to someone else.

I now have to take some medical items with me which, quite often, throws me into the "too heavy for carry on" category on some airlines. Even though my bag is the right size, weight forces me to check the bag. Does that mean I leave this stuff home so I don't get lectured by someone? No. I check my bag and get on with it. (Although most of the health items are in my "personal item" and it weighs a ton.)

I tell people.."In my mind, I am not my age. But then my body reminds me that I am."

As to cameras, my wife forbade me from bringing the massive dSLR. Instead I have a canon PowerShot sx740. AiE of.a.pack of cigs. Very light , easy to use. I am doing everything in auto mode.

As for camera choices, back in the film camera days, I had a nice Nikon SLR with a good sized bag that carried huge telephoto lens; wide angle and more.
With the digital age, I decided to pass on having to carry a cumbersome camera with lenses, so I purchased a digital that was a compromise, it didn't have detachable lenses, but had a good telephoto feature. I still use it after over a dozen. years.

I do take a few photos with my iPhone, to text to relatives while on a trip, and have considered just using the IPhone instead.

Still, if taking scenic shots of nature, it is nice to have the better telephone feature on the camera.

As to camera kit, mine is a c.2013 Leica M digital body nearly identical to the film body I used since 1970, along with the same 21mm,35mm and 90mm lenses also used since the 70s. All in a discreet stealth low-profile nylon bag the size of a small purse. I did use Nikon and Canon SLR kit for several trips but found it unduly bulky and always returned to my current kit. Just can't seem to get on with a mobile phone as my sole travel camera.

Thanks Paul, this was a very interesting read. It was good to see how many people have admitted to checking a bag and upgrading to a better class of service when flying long distance!

We too have slowed our pace of travel, not only because we'd like a break after lunch, but also because we're just so much more interested in where we ARE rather than in what I call, seeing one more monument'. We have a joke about not getting past the first floor of a museum - We can easily spend 3 hours on one floor in a great museum, and did just that in the Naples MANN recently. I won't repeat the mistake of trying to see too much like we did at the Louvre again!!

I've extended my research beyond guide books and we tend to arrive having watched some documentaries about what we're going to see. It really makes a difference! (We were standing in front of the 'Calling of St Matthew' by Caravaggio without having researched the church, and I thought 'I bet this is REALLY interesting but I have no idea why'! So of course when back at the hotel we watched a video about it.)

Recently in Rome we'd left our hotel breakfast & 30 minutes later saw amazing pastries in a window - So we stopped to try them, why not?!? And we especially enjoy those great moments chatting with locals, if we're in too much of a hurry to get to the next thing, we would miss those moments!

Well, here is the viewpoint from someone younger and near 50 but who is adapting to travel. We are all aging at the same pace after all. I have been traveling abroad since my late teens, and at 20 I did a major backpacking trip in Europe, mostly alone. I no longer stay at hostels and, although still on a budget (but a bit higher now), I prefer my own space and bathroom. It's fine if it's small but well located (closer to public transportation). I can't afford first class but will pay up for a better seat in economy like comfort.

I've learned to travel light and prioritize essentials. I no longer carry a heavy backpack, but a lighter one paired with a roller carry-on due to some back/shoulder issues. And as the years go by, I prefer more and more a solo trip than one in groups where I can focus on what I want and the freedom to see things at my own pace, changing and updating my itinerary as needed.

Once I became a mother, so much of my time has been dedicated to kids needs, and I still enjoy our family trips, but I do appreciate the solo, introspective travels I do. And as a mother with kid in middle school, my travels now are also less adventurous and risky. I may not be bungee jumping or doing a waterfall rappelling, but I still climb the highest towers :-) . And I am entering a phase of not needing to see new places, but revisit old ones with new interests in mind, taking it all in with new eyes which make the place feel "new".

For older travelers, what has changed for you?

At 56, we started adapting our travel a lot over the past 10-15 years and even more so post-COVID.

We tend to spend more and focus more. Better flights, better hotels, and stick to one place for longer. And we go on more trips often for longer time.

We spent the past 3 decades "accumulating" - money, vacation time, ideas, & lists. Now we're working on using those to the max, which was the whole point of building it all up in the first place. Retirement beckons, and that will unlock even more options, but we've realized waiting any more is way too risky - health can't be taken for granted - so we have really started reprioritizing "now" rather than "later".

Tom, I think you are smart. We were on the edge of that "we will travel when we retire." trap. But stepped away. We delayed children for what we thought were appropriate reasons. Wife had a second son when she was forty. But we both lost parents earlier. My wife's mother died when she was in high school and her father just folded up his future plans. (Of course, if he had followed his plan we would have never met.). My father died two years after retirement and my mother lost all interest in traveling. So, in our fifties we did some reassessment, grabbed the two son, and hit the road. With both in education we did have the advantage of long summer months to travel and cruising became our thing as it was cheap and easy to do. Education salaries are not good but fortunately retirement programs are pretty good. So you should go when you can. Waiting for retirement may not be the best strategy. While our health reminds good, it can change so our trip planning rarely extends beyond the next 12 months are so. And we do buy insurance now. Good luck to everyone who is still moving.