European travel expectations after retirement: How have they evolved

I am traveling more than I ever thought I would.

I retired at 62, then immediately went in to parent-care mode which lasted for 2 years. After their deaths (they were both in their 90's and lived long productive lives) and the sorting out of their estate I started to travel. The first year I did one 3 week to Ireland and Belgium in the spring then in the Fall planned for my "retirement trip to myself".

I'd promised myself during the long caregiving days and nights that I would go everywhere I wanted to go in Europe, lol. My wishes were fairly modest and included Rick's 21 day Best of Europe. In that Fall, I wound up with 3 RS tours back to back to back - 21 day Best of Europe, Best of Paris and Village Italy along with some free time in between. I was gone 8 weeks and had an absolutely wonderful time! Since then I've done a bunch more Rick tours along with a bunch of Road Scholar tours and now have moved to Mark Seymour's small group tours that focus more on certain areas.

I'm 74 now and have had 10-ish years of wonderful travel. I am feeling pressure from myself to do the more strenuous tours/locations now before I "age out" of them. For this reason, I'm going back to Orkney and Shetland again next summer as these were fairly active tours. I have massive FOMO so of course I had to get on my hands and knees to crawl into chambered cairns and whatnot.

I try to travel a month at a time which is not too long for me although I know it's too long for some people.

Enjoy your retirement! Stay fit and healthy and travel. I think Covid also taught many of us to carpe the heck out of the diem!

Before I retired I hoped that most of each year would be spent in long term travel to Europe. I did quite a bit of research and also experimented with lengths of travel before and after retirement. For me, as a solo traveler I found that 4-6 weeks works best. Even as a mild introvert, I found I needed to talk to someone in U.S. English and about common interests every once in a while. Also when the stress of travel or unexpected stressors occur it is nice to have someone to share the situation. My solution was to embed a tour in my trip. I start solo, have the tour, then go solo again. I also found that being so far from family became a burden after 6 weeks or so. Before I quit European travel (due to age & increasing health issues.) I hope to experience a longer trip (maybe 2-3 months) probably mostly in one place and probably in Great Britain as that is where I feel most comfortable on my own. I think everyone's tolerance for extended travel, particularly non domestic travel, will be different. Research and experiment with different timeframes and different countries to find out what works best for you.

We have been traveling at least every few months.sometimes three or.four days within driving time from Pennsylvania. Twice a year we have extended trips of about three or four weeks. We have now decided three plus weeks is a.little too much so we divide our trips into two ten or twelve days at a time. we also plan our last day as a down day to do nothing but relax.before going home and that works out really well. I never thought we.would be able to.do this and are so lucky to manage what we do. Keep on travelling while you can as we don't know what tomorrow may bring.

My husband and I have been retired for about 10 years now. We have not done as much travel as I had hoped for several reasons: helping elderly parents (they didn't live with us) but needed our assistance, and finances. We took out loans to update and remodel our home. Our choice. We also paid for our children's weddings and college education. Our choice - we are very happy to have done that for them. So we typically took one or two 2-week trips to Europe. We would visit France once or twice a year because our oldest daughter and her family lived there for 10 years. They are now back in the US. We would take weekend trips or occasionally week-long trips to Cape Cod, near where we live in MA.

However, now that all our elderly parents are gone (and they lived long lives) and our mortgage is paid in full, we are going to experiment with 4-week or 6-week trips in Europe and on other continents. I hope our old bodies can handle it! :-) For example, we are spending 6 weeks in October/November in Australia and New Zealand this year. Then starting in 2025, we hope to take 2 or 3 month-long trips per year. Thinking of SE Asia, South America, and more of Europe, and the US. Keeping our fingers crossed it works out. We just need to stay healthy and alive!

And mid to late 50's does count as early! Good for you! Do all the traveling you wish because you never know what the future brings.

How much do you want to travel? If you have no time constraints, and no real financial constraints, then you can plan a trip exactly to your liking. No need to rush around to see as much as possible in two weeks. You can take your time.

I officially retired in my early 50's. By my mid 50's I was traveling full time. It's been nearly 10 years.

I have found it very rewarding because I travel the way I want, I see the things I want to see, I do the things I want to do.

It's probably not right for most people. But, I run into a lot of single retirees who love the fact that they are seeing the world at a slower pace than they used to travel.

I retired a little over four years ago. The first year or two I stayed at home because of the pandemic. Since then I have taken one three week trip to Europe, one 4 week trip to Europe, and I’m now embarking on a 5 1/2 week trip in early spring. All of the above trips have been independent solo travel.

But, like Laurie Beth, I’m thinking that 5 to 6 weeks might be the most that I want to take on my own. I really like her idea about mixing solo time with a tour in the middle and then more solo time. I’m taking a group tour in the fall of 2025 in southern France, and might combine that with a week or so of independent travel on either or both ends.

I’ve also had the same idea she does about spending several months in one location, like England. I think that could be a very interesting travel experience.

But ultimately, you have to figure out what works for you. Everyone is different.

I didn't have a specific expectation. Only that we would travel "more". While still working I had 5 weeks of vacation, but much of that was taken up by family trips or obligations.

Now, we are doing two one-month trips to Europe each year. One spring, one autumn. We don't need peak season summer weather to do what we like to do. Next week I leave for Germany in order to get to Cologne in time for their Karnival celebrations.

One change that I did not anticipate is that my wife and I would become comfortable with more seperate trips. For many years she had traveled occasionally with friends while I worked. We always traveled together when I took vacation. Once I retired we only traveled together, at first. Then, we began to also travel seperately as well. We have even overlapped trips to meet in the middle while enjoying seperate first orfinal segments to see friends, visit more places or get home early.

Frank II

I run into a lot of single retirees who love the fact that they are
seeing the world at a slower pace than they used to travel

I often travel solo even though I am still happily married. Any web sites or Facebook pages that you can recommend for connecting with solo travelers?

Reading with interest. I turn 60 this Summer when I'll retire or a better definition may be "working when I feel like it." We've never taken more than 14-17 days in a row and we're anxious to find out if we'll enjoy more. I love the adventure of travel but I also love my creature comforts at home. Our preliminary plan is 3 weeks this Fall to see how it goes and perhaps a month or more next Spring. I have visions of month long stays in London and Nice, but I am concerned that will result in a serious case of ants in my pants. I guess I won't know until I try.

Travel is a priority in retirement and we have spent a month at a time in Europe yearly with the exception of the Covid years.. We usually focus on one country at a time. The majority of our trips have been to Italy.
We also love Asia and, since it’s so far, will combine locations in Asia on one trip like Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand.
We gave South America a try but have no desire to return.

I took the early retirement, retiring when I was 59. Focusing on your specific questions, I would say that the frequency of traveling has been obviously more often, ie going over every single year pre-pandemic and along with last summer's long trip of 9 weeks, as was the first post-retirement trip in 2009. The Mrs. could go so long, so I went.

Since I had decided I would retire, the lure of a long trip buoyed me (basically , "Durchhalten") in the last miserable months at the job, and I mean miserable.

True, fewer restraints re: time and places to be tracked down, say in Germany, aside from the normally frequented cities/towns, now in the retirement trips the more unique, esoteric spots...Eutin/Holstein, Jena, Magdeburg, Schleswig, Kiel, Bad Ems, etc.

Likewise in France other than Paris getting almost all of the attention , going out Troyes, Rouen , Orleans, Bar-le-Duc, Maubeuge, Thionville/Lorraine, Soissons, etc.

It depends on your travel style, what you're willing to cope with, ie, your bare minimum of required luxury and all. I have no problems staying in a dorm of 6 mixed gender in a hostel (provided the place meets my other requirements), where the 5 other mates are 1/2 to 1/3 my age, just as I did when I was "their" age.

You need to plan out in more detail given the current travel variables. Basically, I travel more upon retirement.

We retired early 13 years ago and have traveled two to three times a year since then. Our trips last 3 to 4 weeks which is the most amount of time that I want to be away. While we enjoy Europe and still travel there, our travels since retirement have also included more far flung places - Africa, South America, Asia, the Arctic and Antarctica. After two years stuck at home due to the pandemic, we spent two months in Europe, 2 weeks in Costa Rica and 3 weeks in Antarctica. Last year we ventured to Svalbard and the Arctic and Alaska’s Inside Passage. This year we will be doing our 3rd African safari and, hopefully, India and Nepal. My advice is not to limit yourself to Europe. Do the harder places in the world while you are still young. As you get older some of these trips require more stamina and good health is not guaranteed.

Well, I have been retired for only 3 1/2 years and part of that time was during Covid so you know how that went. however, I have traveled extensively in Europe, America, Costa Rica and Mexico in the last 20 years, and usually the Travel has been solo. Even during my working years, I felt the need to get out and about, because why not. if I could afford the time away from work, and my health was good, I went.

Since I do travel solo, I usually book English-speaking tours, either in the middle, or towards the end of the trip, because I do want to have interaction with others that are like-minded. My trips are generally 2 to 3 weeks duration and focus on one or two countries in Europe or central America. In the future. I plan longer trips when it’s more feasible being away from family and my cute little kitty cat.

I’m seriously considering becoming a temporary resident of Portugal in the near future. but family obligations (granddaughters graduating high school, and my elderly dad and his health condition) will keep me home for probably another year or two.

My philosophy is GO when you are able bodied and interested.

I wrote this as a reply to a different post, but it applies to your question as well:

This year we did an amazing 66-day trip to Spain and Italy over the spring. Loved it, but 66 days was a lot, and it was a very ambitious itinerary. We then had a month in Rome scheduled for October, our first "stay in a city for a month" trip. But when Delta (surprise, surprise) changed our itinerary enough that we were entitled to a refund, we cancelled it. We called it our "get out of jail free card." We realized (we're in our 60s, btw) that two really big trips in a year was too much. But then, rather than just rebooking Rome, we really thought about what we wanted to do. We realized we weren't ready for the slower groove of just one city for a month, but we also wanted to reel back the ambition of the 66-day itinerary. The result? We decided to go back to Switzerland for a month over the late spring next year. Compact. Manageable. Easy. Wonderful. Expensive, yes, but doable. We'll move around in one-week increments. Assuming it goes well, we're already eyeing a similar structure for Belgium and/or Holland the year after that. We'll see...

So yeah, I think we overshot what we wanted to do in retirement, both in terms of the super-long, ambitious trip, as well as our willingness to park and stay put in one place for so long. I think we envisioned retirement redefining travel in these ways. But in reality, we kind of went back to our roots, with maybe just longer stays at each stop. In the working life version of an itinerary we might have done 3-4 nights per night. Now we'll do a week in each. But the basic approach and structure isn't that different, just slightly more elastic and stretched. (The same can be said of our bodies...!) 😛

Congratulations on your upcoming retirement! It is absolutely wonderful once you’re feeling you’re ready to do it. I tried to retire one year from engineering, but my company offered me a sweet deal of a sabbatical and 32 hour weeks if I would stay, so I lasted longer. When I left, I haven’t missed it at all! : )

Our first European trip as a couple was for our 25th anniversary with a RS tour. We did another RS trip and seven independent trips before we retired. Those were all 16-22 day trips. Travel planning had become one of my favorite hobbies, spending a lot of exciting time researching on the internet and reading guidebooks.

I retired in 2018. My husband wasn’t interested in going on our yearly trip, so I planned a solo retirement trip to Italy and had a fantastic time! We love traveling together, but this was an opportunity to have my own itinerary at my own speed and be able to know that I could do it!

2019 was a fun trip because we did a hybrid trip. I went solo to France for two weeks, and he met me in Paris for my third week to the eastern France region.

2020-2021 - Covid fallout.

2022+ Covid really did reset my thinking, along with other travelers. Our travel time is limited. Now I am doing month-long trips. Last year we combined my husband & my 2-week celebration of our 45th anniversary in the UK & Wales with me going solo afterwards to join the RS Adriatic tour.

This year we’re trying something new. Instead of going to Hawaii or Arizona for two weeks to get a break from Winter, my husband & I are heading to southern Spain for three weeks. Being retired makes the number of days available to travel much more flexible! Other than our dog and volunteer work, we can be pretty flexible. Also this year I am planning my 17th trip to Europe for May. I will be gone to Italy, traveling solo on the trains at the fast pace I love!

Something that definitely has changed with retirement is perspective. During our trip to the UK & Wales last year, we purposely were in the driver’s seat for each day’s itinerary instead of having the itinerary dictate our day. There were no “must sees” or “must do’s”. Everything was flexible…..well, except for my husband’s golf! : ). It was so enjoyable to just enjoy the time together and know everything on the possible list of ideas was just an option.

For me, the biggest change besides perspective is no longer being limited by the number of work vacation days. I’m attending two festivals in Italy that are a month apart this year. There’s no way I could have considered doing that when I was working.

Financially we could travel more, but we really enjoy living in this beautiful location at Lake Coeur d’Alene which is its own tourist US destination.

Just for fun, when I was preparing to retire, I made a page with columns with categories, like Volunteering, Family, Friends, Hobbies, New Hobbies, US Vacations, Other Vacations, etc. I listed anything I could think of that I might like to try - all of those things where unlimited time might make it possible.

My Type A personality needed something to fall back on in case I became bored or didn’t know how to transition into retirement- LOL!

I found the paper a few years later and enjoyed reading through the ideas. And it was interesting that almost all of them had been done or at least attempted.

My late husband and I retired in 2015. I was 55. While we were raising our two sons we traveled all over the US but not to Europe. So the following Fall we took a two-week trip to Italy and France. We had a great time but on the flight home he said, “we’ll, that’s enough Europe for me”. I couldn’t wait to go back so each year after that I took a trip, sometimes an escorted tour by myself, sometimes with other family members, while he stayed home. (He loved doing projects around the house and always had his own to-do list ready to go.) Our two sons and I did convince him to go to Iceland on a family trip in September of 2018, which I’m so glad we did because he passed away unexpectedly in March of 2020 (heart attack not Covid). I’ve started traveling again and the last two years I took two escorted tours to Europe and one trip in North America each year. This year I had planned to cut back to one trip to Europe (river cruise in France in June) and one in the US (New England/Canada in Fall) but now I’ve gone ahead and scheduled a trip to Sicily in March. Oh well I can do it now so why not. At this point I don’t like to be away from home for too long, my sweet-spot is actually only 10-12 days but I’m starting to think about perhaps trying a longer trip and/or going beyond Europe. I’m not sure what my expectations were before I retired but they have and continue to evolve.

The biggest change is the length of trips. We’ve extended them by about a week each.

I had big plans for travel once retired. While we did fit in trips while working of 3-4 weeks each year, our plan was to extend that to six weeks, then maybe 8 weeks, and then a second trip as well.

I did indeed retire early, not quite 59, but that was partly prompted by the Pandemic, so, no travel for over a year. Since then, we bought a second property with one of the kids, so lots of work and time. We have also had some of the parent care issues, and then a Great Grandson, for which we are helping with child care while a parent is deployed with the National Guard. To cap it off, I had a fall, breaking chunks of bone off my femur, which laid me up for a couple months and another three so far of recovery.

Still, we have managed at least one four week trip a year, in April I will do 4 weeks with my wife, then meeting my Brother and my Son for a two Week beer trip while there. Still looking at September, and then next year, maybe getting a longer trip of 6 weeks finally.

So yes, I think our original plan was realistic, just that life keeps getting in the way. We do need to work harder to simplify our lives, with pets, maybe some alternative housing, a care plan for a set of parents, each of those can throw a wrench in the works.

I'm curious if any of you in this thread have pets at home? My husband is retiring at the end of October. I have a very flexible remote job so we can travel if we want to. However, my husband hates to be away from our senior dog. We are taking a very quick five day trip to Amsterdam in March and that's about his max away from the dog. Neither of us has aging parents keeping us at home any longer, but instead we have an aging dog. Fortunately I am very comfortable traveling alone, so it won't keep me at home but I don't envision any multiweek trips anywhere with my husband until the rainbow bridge is crossed.

We have always had 2-3 dogs at home. Even with dogs, our typical trip used to be 18 nights away from home. But on the last 2 trips, we shortened the trip to 10 nights - not as exhausting for us, and easier on the canines.

Yes, we have a 3-year old dog. We had the perfect situation when we lived in Washington. Our neighbor didn’t have a dog and loved our previous dog! They were upset if we didn’t leave her with them. (Yes, they bought a dog after we moved.)

We use Rover.com and have some good relationships with the people matched with her. She is happy to walk up to their door when we arrive - always a good sign.

Fortunately, my husband loves to play golf in the summer at home, so he stays home when I’m in Europe or just comes for part of my trip. If we were both gone from our dog, we would probably shorten the trip time.

Such an interesting thread, because at 55 retirement is in my sights. !

I’m traveling as much as I can now, and have been for 20 years, I say go when you’re young and healthy….but limited to 2 weeks vacation at a time from work.

My dream has been to go and rent a house for a month in a new place in Europe every spring and fall, and just really get to know that area.

I also have a dog and elderly parents, so unsure if I’ll have that freedom. But it makes me happy thinking about it!

Hey Rob - I’m very excited for you guys to have the freedom to travel without a schedule. You know we like long trips. It saves money only having to get to Europe and back once instead of multiple times. I retired 6 years before Jim did and we still managed to do up to 6 weeks. Sometimes we were together the entire time, sometimes he met up with me, sometimes I just went without him. When he retired we were at first obligated to stay home for family reasons, and then Covid happened. In 2022 we finally were able to travel to Europe and we had two trips, in the Spring we went for 6 weeks and in late Summer/Fall we went for 10 weeks. I was a little concerned that 10 weeks might be too long, but it wasn’t. One thing we are able to do on these long trips is to take our time more. We have ideas of what we want to see and do, but we don’t feel the need to race around to check things off a list. This year I’m going for 2 weeks before I meet him in Switzerland and we will travel for another 9 weeks, so I’ve built in some longer stays so we aren’t constantly moving. I think trial and error will help you decide what works best for you.

I'm curious if any of you in this thread have pets at home?

Yes, we have two dogs and then a Koi pond. For the fish, we have a neighbor and an automatic feeder, the dogs have not been a problem, since my wife's parents watch them, and the dogs love being there. However, as the parents age, that is becoming more an issue, and the older dog is starting to have health problems. We have decided on no more pets until our travel days are over.

I’m interested more in the non health, non financial aspects.

OK, so this is financial, but it might be counterintuitive. We headed into retirement knowing we'd obviously have less income, and assumed our travel would have to be more budget-driven. But it actually hasn't worked out that way. It turns out working was expensive! Two cars (we have one now); daily gas consumption; parking; business wardrobes (i.e. more than sweatpants); lunches and work functions. It all added up. Not to mention major life expenses along the way that are in the rearview mirror: housing, education, furniture. We just aren't in an acquiring stage of life anymore. Between a much less expensive lifestyle and some decent financial decisions, we don't have less to spend on travel, we have more.

All of which is a long way of saying this: Unless you are trying to leave behind a big inheritance (we are not), you may find you are traveling more and taking longer, perhaps even more expensive trips than you thought.

My husband and I are counting the days to retirement in 2025 (59 for me and 65 for him). The longest domestic trip we have ever done was 11 days (and we had our dog with us at the time). The longest international trip we have ever done is 9 days. There is a lot we want to do--living somewhere in Europe for a month, as others have mentioned, doing a river cruise, and I am chomping at the bit to walk the Camino Frances. We currently do not have any dogs, but want to get one or even two after we retire and move, so we are trying to figure out what our timing will be with regard to travel and dog ownership. Even with dog sitters, we just don't feel we can be gone very long if we have them. What I am most looking forward to is being able to travel when we want to without having to seek approval from bosses. My husband is in fact going to Mexico this week on a trip that his boss approved but mine didn't.

This is such an insightful thread - thank you for posting the question. As ex- expats who lived in Europe (N Italy) in our 30s we see ourselves spending extended time back there since it’s a place with familiarity we enjoy returning to where we still have friends, know the language, etc - in addition to other places and experiences high on our priority list (Camino de Santiago, English countryside, back to Paris/ Roland Garros ) With kids we always traveled - but as soon-to-be empty nesters (52 and 61 yo) we look forward to traveling off season and more frequently. My husband has a flexible work schedule so time constraints for travel have never been an issue - we are used to staying 3-4 weeks when in Europe. Yet now aging parents is the biggest factor for considering extended time away and, from this thread, we clearly have company in this regard! Thank you again for posting - following with much interest and gaining much wisdom from the responses.

I worked for the NC DOEducation and had summers off and the odd week or 3. When I dreamed about retirement and traveling it was always off Season with no crowds. No rushing arounds, cheap airfares, discount hotels and no pre-booking. Just see a good deal, book it, pack and leave. Well, I know now that dream was just that, a dream. The airfares are high, hotels get booked up quickly every month (maybe not January) and we have to prebook the most popular sights early in advance.

Get up and go is limited because of family obligations which are numerous being one of 8 children - weddings, graduations, Communions, grandchildren, etc. Volunteer commitments are added in, and my Aunt, 95 and dad, 101 are still living, at home. My dad lives with my sister, about an hour’s drive away. I am her back-up and sanity relief. All others live out of state. This curtails longer trips.
That said, we take at least 2 trips to Europe each year, around 3 weeks. Last year we even got to Egypt/Jordan/Israel plus our two European trips.

Like others have written, we want to do the more strenuous trips now, we are both 66. And by strenuous, for us, I mean long flights. Looking at S Korea this year and Japan next April. A niece lives in Austrailia near Sydney and that will have to be sooner than later.

But, one thing I will mention which i didn’t see up above - we saved for many years for retirement. Good pensions and SS and 401k’s maxed out gave us a nice nest egg. Every trip we find ourselves splurging more and more, whether is be expensive hotels, nice meals, private guides, upgraded seats, first class train tickets. Every trip we realize it could be our last, noone knows. We were always planning trips with a couple we know since high school. Well, in janaury of 2022 he had a stroke. He is mobile, but not himself. Travel for them will be very, very slow and most likely cruises.

So we splurge whenever we can, if it is in your budget, think about it. Luckily for us our children have good Jobs and homes. They don’t need our money. They will inherit a paid off house and hopefully we will enjoy all that money we worked for all those years.

Retired in 2019. Solo travel. Longer stays.

Have a preference for traveling in the Fall months and on occasion during the Christmas holidays.

10 years ago went from Economy seating to Premier Economy and not looked back.

Grateful for good health. No debts.

Do have 20 year old cat but my helpful neighbors care for her when I’m traveling. Joke amongst us is she’ll outlive us all.

Thanks for all the responses. Just interesting to hear from people who love to travel and how they fit it in their retirement life. We’ve done two 3 and a half week trips over the last few years but now looking forward to our 8 and a half week trip this summer.

We are mid fifties and retired a few years ago. But, our traveling only changed in the time of year rather than the length. Time is spent of more fun things than expected (golf, pickbleball, beach, etc...). We did take a 5 week trip this past Autumn and found it was just too much to be away for that length of time. We were sick part way through and just plain tired by the end. While we expected to enjoy having the freedom to do the longer trips, that one was a tad long. Even though we're in good shape, we decided to leave the longer trips for when we are across the globe (Asia, NZ, AU). Three weeks is about the length of time we're comfortable with, body and mind!! I suppose it's different for every person and depends on what's going on in life. I'd love to do a longer domestic trip this summer, in addition to the longer Spain trip we have planned in September, but we have a new grandbaby arriving and decided to spend the time there instead.

We've discovered that our retirement is much more lucrative than we had expected. We didn't relocate as speculated as our state became more desirable to us in multiple ways. We instead chose aging in place with no mortgage with the resultant saving in property taxes. Pension, 401K and SS really did replace our income and medical expenses are somewhat reduced as well.

So.... more frequent/lengthier travel and premium select is the norm now and we upgrade to first when given an enticing offer. We also have combined 2 tours together with free days in advance, a long free period between tours and free days afterwards. That's how we handled our first 6 week trip in April-May 2023. We still felt compelled to see/do/experience everything possible and probably should have slowed down more during the free days. By the 5th week we were experiencing unusual aches & pains that cleared up after several weeks at home.

It seems that trips over 30 days trigger several issues for us regarding mail, home maintenance, pet macaw care, health, etc that might make multiple trips under 30 days each more appropriate. That of course means more time in flight per year which I don't find appealing.

I was talking about this thread with a couple buddies -- also retired; also travel aficionados. And one said something that really stuck with me. "For retirees, it is all about YOLO not FOMO."

In essence his argument was that for younger folk (Millennials, Gen Z), travel is driven by FOMO -- fear of missing out. They want their social media footprint to reflect travel akin to the "influencers" they follow and the live feeds their friends are posting from hither and yon.

As older generations (Gen X, Boomers) retire, we are driven by YOLO -- you only live once. It is less about the online equivalent of "keeping up the with Jones," and more about prioritizing our happiness, our life experiences, and our knowledge of the world.

First, I know this is broad brushstroke bordering on possible stereotypes. But I see a LOT of truth beneath the surface...

And, more importantly, I'm adding this to the conversation because looking back on our handful of retirement years thus far, I'm struck how much my buddy was right. Every year we become more and more YOLO. Others have mentioned that Covid was part of that mindset shift, and I agree. The cropping up of low-grade health issues also drives home the reality of YOLO -- you only live once, so travel while the living is still good. But I think it is also important to factor in your age and your generational experience. It turns out it is likely to become a big part of your travel experiences going forward.

History Traveler thanks for reminding me. When we retired we moved from the central coast to YOLO county in California. That is very much our travel attitude since retiring and having access to wonderful airports up here.

Rob, we just experienced another one this morning.

When we worked, any flight delay was awful. Limited days. This morning all of the smaller planes couldn’t land in Spokane because of heavy fog, so our airplane wasn’t available. So, we will arrive a day late to Spain. Retirement trips feel much more flexible, so we had a nice chat with the personnel and will be fine in lovely Minneapolis (LOL!) overnight and on our way to Europe tomorrow..

I've been working on my Retirement Travel Plan for the past 4mo. I will be retiring at the end of February 2026, just before turning 60. I plan on doing the Slow Travel, 5 - 6 months at a time between Europe/Asia, SE Asia & possibly Central/South America. Returning to the States for no more than a month in Spring and Thanksgiving/Christmas time. I have already begun my downsizing and plenty of research.

We did our longest trip to Europe prior to retirement: six weeks, two of which were spent in a villa in Spain which was "free" because of a family connection. Truly, the only bad thing about a trip that long was dealing with all the mail and other catch-up stuff when we got home. Go for it!

Retired 4 years ago. First year no travel (COVID); second and third year cruises. Last year I spent a month in Spain alone, and two more months with my wife in France and Britain. This year we'll spend a bit more than four months (!) In the UK and mainland Europe.

I guess we have the travel bug. Hope we stay solvent. The plan is to die broke, and we're well on our way to accomplishing that.

When I retired in 2014, travel wasn't in my plans. I planned to ride my horse more and maybe do a few dressage shows. Four weeks after retirement, he got laminitis and other associated ailments. Although he was rideable, he was not showable so not as I planned. I spend time and money managing his health. After finding a good trainer who was willing to deal with his drugs and therapies I was able to go to Italy. I thought that would be a one and only trip. Husband won't travel and horse's expenses were equal to a European trip.
Then covid hit.
I lost Logan (the horse) two years ago. While I still miss him, I won't get another horse. He was the perfect old lady's last horse. I now have money and time to travel. So far a trip a year, September and June. With that timing, annual insurance covers both. At 73, I hope I can keep traveling for a few more years, arthritis and eyesight willing. There are places I want to see and things I want to do.

@jphbucks, your post made me laugh! Good plan!

I never waited until retirement to begin European travel. My first trip was '70 when I was a sophomore in college. My wife and I have lost count on the European trips we've made and also on how many cruises we've been on. The only major European city we've missed is Lisbon, and we'll visit there on the next trip.

When we retired, we had no idea we were going to raise a 4 year old granddaughter full time and her 7 year old brother part time. And my wife had to retire at age 50 due to terrible arthritis.

We've continued to follow our dreams, and our granddaughter is a very well traveled 12 year old. My wife's had many surgeries throughout the years, however she's always looking forward to our next trip. Her hobby is finding cheap airfares online.

The past 3 years, my wife's been traveling with a folding personal electric scooter and it's been a Godsend. She rides it to the door of the airplane. And with a 10 plus mile range, she can get all over a city when visiting. At home, the scooter has kept her in church and able to shop normally.

We have learned to adapt to our personal situations in retirement. We've always got a Plan B in case something happens. We were going on another Baltic Cruise a couple of years ago and Russia's entrance into Ukraine stopped that. We just switched over to the Eastern Mediterranean on another cruise, for example.

We are to refrain from traveling to big, expensive European cities in the future. And we no longer travel on vacations in the U.S. We've been been there and done that. But there are many, many off the beaten path areas we're going to see shortly. And there are places like Slovenia, Croatia and Montenegro that we want to see in more detail. Happy Travels!