Slow Travel - Nearing Retirement

I've been spending summers in Europe since 2015. Forgive the brevity, but I need to be doing my online Christmas shopping right now. At a high level, these are among the subjects you need to think about:

• Assuring health-insurance coverage overseas (age+longer trip = more likely to get sick or injured).
• Purchasing evacuation coverage.
• Creating a packable medicine kit. I always get sick at some point on long trips.
• Determining procedures for getting sufficient supply of Rx medications.
• Scheduling medical check-ups around your travel period.
• Finding a way to handle your mail back home.
• Researching appropriate phone service for extended trip.
• Arranging payment of ongoing monthly/quarterly bills, including income and property taxes (I use autopay by credit card).
• Arranging payment of monthly credit card bills (I use direct debit from credit union account).
• Evaluating and replacing ATM and credit cards as necessary to assure low overseas fees. Consider value of mile-earning vs. point-earning credit cards for your situation; is your origin airport one from which mileage awards are essentially never available?
• Selecting travel wardrobe to span multiple climate zones.
• Choosing sturdy, newish shoes and clothing to avoid mid-trip replacement.
• Planning sun protection (I wear long sleeves, long pants and a wide-brimmed hat).
  
• Packing healthy-eating tools (sharp knife, study plastic utensils, plate-like object).

Acraven has some great practical advice.

I am not quite retirement age but my travel group does range in age from 52-66. We enjoy independent European travel but we definitely like to take it much slower these days. Running from train to train and lifting luggage gets tiring after a week or so. We have decided we would much rather slow down and spend at least three to five nights in a place before moving on. We also tend to keep to a few destinations in a relatively small area. We do not necessarily care to check off all the main tourist attractions. We also think more about the flight. Coming from the midwest we have to always make connections (which are expensive) so we may add nights into the main hub before catching a flight out in the morning. (such as Chicago, London). We enjoy our sleep too - it makes us happier travelers. I am close to retiring (3 years) and am anticipating that I will spend more time in Europe. Cottages throughout Europe are the way to go. Off-peak travel season, you can get some great deals. I have family in the UK - so it is easy for me to go back and forth. My plan is to stay for extended periods (I also have a UK passport). However, healthcare can be an issue. Just do a lot of research. Currently, I tend to stay in Europe for about 1 month at a time. (School vacation time). With good internet, I can carry on paying bills, etc with minimal problems. As long as you don't have animals to take care of and other family obligations - I think leaving for an extended time is a great idea as long as you are in reasonably good health.

A story about a long stay, a couple of months, in Venice.
https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/venice-april-2014-some-thoughts-1010595/

You may have already done so, but if you Google slow travel, there are many forums geared to just this type of travel. There are interesting stories and lots of advice.

This is how I live my life. I spend up to three months at a time in Europe. (I return to the U.S. only to get new prescription meds as my insurance company won't let me get more than a 90 day supply at one time.)

There are no rules as to how to travel slow. You can use any guidebook and then modify what you want to see. In some places, I stay a few days. In others, a few weeks. I decide by what interests me or what my goals happen to be. Every few weeks I like to get some downtime where I don't play tourist but use the time to plan future adventures. I have 3 hotels scattered in different cities where I do this since I have no home to go to. I"m at one of them right now.

The concept of slow travel is not to have to get up and out by dawn and stay out until the wee hours just to see everything. It's about having that second cup of coffee, taking a day off just to put your feet up and watch the world, and doing the things you want to do and not what you are told to do from a guidebook. The only "must see" attractions I go to are the ones I label as "must see" and not one labeled by a guidebook.

I use guidebooks and online resources to plan what I want to see. At what speed I see them is up to me.

The real adjustments you have to make have nothing to do with the travel itself. It's more:

--who is going to watch your house while you're gone? (If you plan to have one.)
--how are your bills going to get paid? (online....I do everything onlne.)
--what do you need to take with you for an extended period? (Packing is a little different.)
--what do you do on a daily, weekly or monthly basis that needs to get done while you are away?

If you need a guidebook like RS to tell you exactly what to do and at what speed then you need to rethink this. It's not about a guidebook telling you "it's Tuesday, so you can stay in and have that second cup of coffee." Slow travel is a lot about spur of the moment. It's about being flexible. It's about changing course mid trip. It's about getting up and deciding what you are in the mood to do that day. it's looking at the weather and saying, "I think I'll wait until there is better weather to do what I had planned to do."

Remember, lengthly travel and slow travel are not necessarily the same thing.

Stop thinking "what would Rick do." Rick doesn't travel slow. Start asking yourself what you want to do.

I've been doing this for over 5 1/2 years. Every now and then I take a multi-day tour and it reminds me what it was like for travel for only 2 weeks at a time. It's tiring.

I have always had a wanderlust and love of foreign travel. I had the opportunity to live overseas for 9 years (5 in Saudi Arabia and 4 in Germany). I was able to travel extensively while living overseas.

However, when I retired in 2010 then retire completely in 2011, my wife and I have done 2-3 overseas travels every year since then.

I have visited 78 foreign countries and still love it.

We have traveled in nearly every way possible:
1) Land tours
2) Self drive tours, either using our own car (while living overseas) or renting a car.
3) Bus tours
4) Rail tours or just using the trains (in Europe and Japan).
5) Ocean cruises
6) River cruises

I am in my early 70s and still love to travel. We even have been back to places that we have visited before. Still, some places, like Venice for example, we have visited 5 times, is off our list now.
Rome is my favorite foreign city, since I love ancient history. Favorite countries include Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Peru, Canada and Israel.

We have learned to pace ourselves, but still plan to see a lot while touring. We easily still do a full day of touring, but have learned a few things about travel.

I remember watching a movie in the 60s or 70s called "If it is Tuesday it must be Belgium." It made fun of Americans on European tours the hit a lot of places for short times on a heavy pace. We don't do that anymore, since we have seen much of the World and probably 80% of our bucket list.

For example, we did a great 4 week drive tour of S. Wales and England in 2017 and except for three days did not drive more than two hours on a single day. We spend an average of 3 nights where we stopped, but we did do a couple of one day stops, like one at Warwick, England while on route from Chipping Campden to York.

We usually combine a cruise with a land tour, either on our own or guided tour. We recently did a great land tour of Cusco, The Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu, Peru prior to a cruise from Chile to San Diego. We also like doing transatlantic cruises after a European visit. Enjoyed a great visit in 2018 to Australia and New Zealand, then took a transpacific cruise from Sydney to Seattle.

Cruises are also great in visiting many out of the way ports that would otherwise be a pain to get to by air or rail. Places like Dubrovnik and the Greek Islands. We recently had a wonderful cruise of Norway that went all the way to the North Cape, above the Arctic Circle. It was wonderful and we never had to change hotels the entire way.

River cruises are great choice, but a bit expensive for places like the upper Nile river in Egypt, Russia from Moscow to St. Petersburg or the Douro Valley in Portugal.

We did a lot of spontaneous travel while living in Germany from 87-91. We would go to the train station, and just take the first train to our destination. This was before the internet and we usually didn't even book a hotel or B&B in advance. It worked just fine, until one trip, we found no hotel rooms available for many miles and had to leave our planned area for another.

Now I plan ahead and book hotels, tours and transport in advance. I find that researching what there is to see helps you to save time when you get there.

Also, planning saves dollars.

We generally don't just book a vacation to a place and just stay there for many days. We still want to see more of the World. Still, we may find a great place to stay and use it as a base to visit nearby cities, towns or sites. We never just go somewhere to relax. When we were employed and had sometimes high stress jobs, that was OK, but we relax a home all the time and never just plop down in a place like the Caribbean for two weeks to lay on the beach. I don't need skin cancer and exposure to the sun is not good. Also, we live on an island in South Georgia with a nearby beach.

I'm also planning to retire in the next year or two. For many years my plan was to spend up to three months in Europe, in just one or two locations. But my thinking has actually changed on that. I've been traveling to Europe 2 (occasionally 3) times a year for 20 years and I've certainly 'slowed' down but I still enjoy visiting more places for less time than picking one place for an extended time. I do like a week or so in each spot (even though I still occasionally do 2-3 night stops, and even 1 night when they make sense in an itinerary). I've been spending 5 weeks every summer and 2 weeks in March traveling and just find that there are so many places I still enjoy discovering that to settle into just one for a month or two would be too limiting for me. And I have so many places I love that I want to keep returning to. I've been to Italy 14 times and plan to keep returning but there isn't one single place I want to go, but many. For example one trip I'm planning for early retirement is 5-6 weeks in Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica. So even though that's just one tiny piece of Europe, it's still large enough that I plan to move around every 3-6 days. Maybe spend a whole week in a couple of locations. So no more 'If it's Tuesday this must be Belgium" type trips, but not stay in one place and live like a local either. I find you can get into the 'local' feel of a place even if you move to another town in the same general region every few days. And even if you stayed put in just one place, you are still going to be a tourist so don't kid yourself that you'll get to know the locals. You get to know them on one level but I don't think you'll approach another level without buying property and living there for years. And some people who have done that say you really still don't.

On a practical level of course you want to make sure your health insurance covers you, you bring enough prescription meds if you take them. Although on one trip I misplaced a medication and went to a local pharmacy where I got a month's worth of a med that you need a script for in the US, without a script for one quarter the price that I pay with insurance in the US. Don't count on that working for all meds, certainly not narcotics, but point is they do have the same meds in Europe and you can often get them without even a visit to a doctor. But bringing a written script with you isn't a bad idea. Also, you can buy virtually everything in Europe that you can in the US, so I wouldn't worry about making sure you have everything you think you'll need for your whole trip. And things like bill paying, etc. are mostly done on line anyway. I would say bringing a lap top with you is a necessity (or at least makes things much easier) for extended trips.

You don’t need a guidebook these days that will be out of date before it’s been published, as the internet has far more information available than can fit into any book!

You need to ascertain when you want to travel e.g. do you live somewhere where you want to escape the depths of winter? Many seaside places in southern Europe such as Portugal that are summer holiday destinations offer great value winter breaks - if you stay in the apartment for a month, you probably pay for 3 weeks and get the 4th week free. Car hire off season is less a fraction of the peak season cost. Flights within Europe are also much more expensive when travelling in school holiday times, so avoid these dates and book tickets at least 3 and ideally 6 months in advance.

One limitation in the UK is that our home insurance only permits you to leave the house unoccupied for 60 or 90 days at a time. You need good travel and health insurance.

Stay at least a week in each location - if there’s not enough in a particular place to fill this time including some chill time, you have picked the wrong location.

Try not to cover too much ground in each trip - try to stick to just one country or region.

I've been very fortunate with my health in that I haven't had any serious ailments. However, as I have gotten older (now 68) I have accrued more and more annoying conditions that require testing, treatment and/or monitoring. Getting in to see a specialist can take an inconveniently long time, and there may be a significant wait for necessary tests or treatments to be scheduled. Sometimes one test leads to another, meaning further delay before you have the all-clear. An impending two-week trip would give you something to do while waiting for that future appointment (assuming you aren't dealing with a serious heart condition, etc.). When you're scheduled to spend 3 or 4 months away from home, you're in a pickle.

The bottom line is that I spend some extra money for medical check-ups, and I tend to have treatments (which can be expensive) done earlier than would be the case if I didn't travel much.

You've received some great practical advice from the other posters so I won't belabor their points.
On a more philosophical level, I would say that we were faced with the same situation when I retired about 15 years ago. Our retirement transition included a move back to the US from an expat tour overseas. Knowing that we wanted to travel a lot while we were still young enough to enjoy it we opted to rent a townhouse rather than purchase a home, the logic being that it would be less stressful to lock up a rental for 3 months at a time than having to worry about our own place for an extended period while we were away. Worked great for us and had the added advantage of having our landlord check on the place from time to time while we were gone.
Our choice of a retirement base was a compromise between wanting to be reasonably near the grand kids and wanting to be near a gateway airport for trips to Europe and the Pacific region, with the added attraction of maximixing the opportunities for non-stop flights ... something that we'd learned over the years was important to us.
Another consideration was the ability to save money (a lot as it turned out) by traveling during the low and shoulder seasons for whatever destination was in our sights at the moment. That, plus booking self-catering cottages, vacation homes, etc. allowed us to "eat in" for most of our meals and splurge on the occasional dinner out. That too has been a big money saver for us.
Our trips have been a mixed bag of either renting a car for stays in the countryside or using public transportation when we've opted to stay in any of the major cities. Both have worked out well for us.
Being able to extend in a particular location (2 weeks minimum in our case) has made for a leisurely and enjoyable pace wherever we were. Kept us healthy too, I might add, since the usual stressors associated with travel really didn't enter into the equation.
Finally, even though the RS community is Euro-centric, since you'll have something of a blank slate once you retire consider an occasional trip in the other direction, ie to Australia, New Zealand, and the Asian countries along the Pacific Rim - all of which are fascinating places in their own right and which would be a nice change of pace from repeated trips across the Atlantic.

Philosophy - Travel to me is to have new experiences in new places, and I love history, art, nature, outdoor sports (hiking, skiing). To me, slow travel is going somewhere and staying for two weeks and, as RS does say often (but the 21 day tours of Europe do not produce) try living like a local. They eat, sleep, grocery shop, do laundry, visit the local pharmacy, just like everyone else anywhere, and as you will do while you are there. Your difference is seeing the sights rather than going to work. My college roommate and his wife (who have been retired far longer than I) now plan only 3-4 places (usually cities) to visit each summer and rent AirBnB's in each place. They make day trips and overnights to other destinations from those bases. It is like travel in the US - a "home" and trips to other spots. That adds some cost, but not much if the home bases are booked early. Practicality - The downsides have already been mentioned, particularly arranging financial obligations, prescription drugs and mail.

Start soon and build your comfort zone of really living like a local.

That is how we travel: one or two weeks in most locations with transitional stops of 3 or 4 nights to explore new places, shorten a long day of travel. We go for 6 to 8 weeks at a time. It is lovely.

We return to favorite places but add somewhere new each trip.

• Rent an apartment or house for 4 or more nights. You’ll appreciate being able to go to your separate corners now and then.
• Cook for health and economy (restaurants get boring)
• Live. Just live. Go to the market, find “your” coffee bar (very important in Italy), take a walk before dinner like the locals do,
• Get a house sitter so you have no worries about security at home. Even if you have no pets, it is good to have the house occupied and have the yard/garden maintained. House sitters are at no cost, BTW.

We bring laptops, stream movies, keep up on finances and bill paying just like at home. I blog to stay in touch with family and friends, manage the photos on the laptop, etc. Ending a busy day (we hike and do country walks a lot so many miles), it’s nice to hang out “at home.” It is also fine, as Frank II said, to have a day-off and just read, regroup, go shopping, etc. if we didn’t do that, we would burn out.

We still pack light although in addition to our 22” rollaboard cases and day packs we now take a small duffle to accommodate our hiking shoes, trekking poles, and some food items. With 6-or-more week-long trips whether spring or fall, we invariably hit temps from 45 degrees Fahrenheit to as high as 80 degrees. Takes some layers.

You might enjoy Home Free Adventures. I read their book years ago and gained a lot of insight.

Thanks to all that have responded, especially those that have shared your experiences! Our prior "vacation" trips have typically been 2-4 days per stop usually at a local hotel or inn. The first step I believe is to simply take a longer stay in a small apartment and build from there. We'll try to cook a few meals to save a few $ and perhaps be a little healthier, but indulging in local restaurants has always been part of the fun! The "just live" comments are exactly what we are thinking.

If anyone would like to share their personal experiences in family/friend/neighbor relationships when gone for sometime it would appreciated. As an example when gone for a month or more, are you still "in the know" on what's happening back home, do you still try to make the monthly card game, what happens when you miss family gatherings, etc. The other side of this are comments on meeting and interacting with new people on your travels. One post mentioned not to kid ourselves on building relationships. I would say that I completely agree that we won't likely develop "best friends" while abroad, and have found that true having moved several times in the US - as well. I would say however that we have met new friends, albeit casual, in just a few short days that we still interact with over many years. It varies widely from an annual Christmas card, to "we'll see you for dinner next week" after not visiting for months or even more than a year. I'm hoping that should we extend our travels that we will be able to establish relationships, likely not too deep, but enjoyable enough - while maintaining healthy relationships back home with family and friends. I could easily vision a few days in a favorite spot each year visiting with our local friends, then on to our new adventure. Have you found this possible, is the effort worth it to you?

Most of Rick's recommendations are built for Americans who have a strict two week vacation. If you don't have to be back in two weeks, you have a whole world of possibilities. You can see the same things but take more nights at each stop or you can do some more research and see a lot more sights than the typical two-week traveler.

I'm fortunate to have a job that gives me both five weeks of leave and some flexibility on how I use it. I'll typically work during vacation times (when people with kids need to take vacation), then be out when most people are working and I'm not missed as much.

I'll retire in 2021 and am looking forward to more time to travel, which will allow me to spend more time to see things I'd normally have to skip.

About back home: I read the local newspaper daily to keep up on local news, politics, obituaries. Since the advent of our newspaper on line, I’ve noticed jet lag is lessened. As is culture shock: in 2000, after six months overseas, it took three weeks to readjust, but in 2007 and with my local daily paper, it took only a week after six months away.

We don’t schedule our flights around events taking place in the US, such as book clubs, annual parties, invitations, grandchildren’s school show...but we would schedule around major events or if we committed to child care during school vacations. Then we show up. However, when we are away, we’re away mentally and physically.

Have a long and happy life with upcoming retirement! I’ve now retired again (first 2 times weren’t permanent, but this third time is), and my husband’s retiring this coming year. I’d wanted a 9 month retirement celebratory trip in France, but Schengen length of stay limitations, and finances as well, made that a no-go. Instead, I had a 2 month stay in Nice, attending a French language school to take my French up several notches. Then capped it with a whirlwind 3 week visit to Morocco, a trip that previously got canceled in 2001, right after the 9/11 attacks.

Missing my husband (despite lots of time on the phone and WhatsAp chats), and our cats was the hardest. I made new friends thru the language school; a Nicoise woman came and stayed with us in Colorado this summer, and I’m keeping in touch with a woman from Manchester, England. We don’t have a lot of family left, sadly. Neighbors took care of our cats, as we care for their cats and dogs when they’re away. We’ve put our lives at home “on hold” for the times we’re away.

We’re taking a retirement trip for him next summer, although he’s not doing it solo. Just arranged this a week ago. We’re staying at a farm north of Edinburgh, Scotland for almost 2 months. Maybe a side trip or two to Edinburgh or Stirling, but otherwise, enjoying free time in the country. After that, 3 weeks in Scandinavia, first time in over 30 years for either of us.

An apartment, flat, or house rental works really well. Having a kitchen is essential, although niceties like a dishwasher may not be available. We look for a clothes washing machine, and also prefer a dryer, although the latter seems to be less available in Europe than in the USA.

Start your search with www.homeaway.com. In France, consider a Gite thru www.gitesdefrance.com. In Italy, maybe an Agritourismo? Those are farms that have lodging, sometimes in an upgraded building. Some are now more resort or spa than farm, but all let you get away from it all, and a side trip or two to a must-see destination is still doable.

I agree that if you find an apartment to rent, instead of a hotel, it is a good way to save on dining out and laundry.

However, when we planned two of our last trips to Europe, the UK in particular (we did a 4 week drive tour of Wales and England), we never found through AirB&B an apartment that was walking distance from the city center and most of the sights we wanted to see. Instead we booked mostly Bed and Breakfasts or small Hotels. That free breakfast was great. We found the apartments were not only away from the city center, but a bit more expensive.

Hello. I'm addressing this post: " when gone for a month or more, are you still "in the know" on what's happening back home, do you still try to make the monthly card game, what happens when you miss family gatherings, etc. The other side of this are comments on meeting and interacting with new people on your travels. One post mentioned not to kid ourselves on building relationships. I would say that I completely agree that we won't likely develop "best friends" while abroad, and have found that true having moved several times in the US - as well. I would say however that we have met new friends, albeit casual, in just a few short days that we still interact with over many years."

I agree with the sentiment to forget RS when planning a trip such as you are talking about. Tours travel quickly and that is the opposite of what you are discussing. I only used this website as a resource among many others when planning our trip. I made a list of things we wanted to see in each location and then looked up opening days/times for each.
We've only had one trip where we stayed long term in one location and that was for five weeks in Amsterdam from early December to mid January. We opted to rent an apt. and make day trips from there, mainly due to a schedule I had developed to visit Christmas markets around the Netherlands and then we hit up museums we wanted to see in that city on the same day. Here's what I found:

• We don't have children so only missed visiting with extended family for the holidays.
• We thoroughly enjoyed cooking our own Christmas dinner in our apt. and celebrating New Year's Eve walking around drinking gluhwein and visiting antique markets until evening festivities began.
• At home neighbors were happy that we had someone care for the yard while we were gone.
• We had our live in nephew (who is not always home) or else our neighbor take up mail at the beginning and then put the rest on hold until second day after we arrived back home.
• We developed no long lasting friendships with those around us. We did have interactions with others while touring but that was it. We were in late fifties at the time and most of the surrounding apartments were occupied by those in their late 20's/30's and had their own thing going on. We'd nod, say hello, have small talk in the hallway but that was all. We are both friendly people btw.
• We do have some Dutch friends that we visited for a few days who are wonderful hosts and guided us around Zwolle and to Arnhem for the Christmas open air market. Our bus driver and wife from our former RS tour came to Amsterdam and stayed a few days and we took turns playing guide - fun times!
• We hired trusted pet sitters to come in M-F and take care of our multiple pets because both were reliable and skilled at recognizing and treating illnesses. I've learned the hard way as well as read plenty of horror stories about allowing neighbors to care for pets during extended trips.
• I always take a tablet and read US/World news daily as well as interacted with friends/family on facebook or through messenger video so stayed in the loop.
• We had access to a washer and dryer in the basement so that meant we didn't have to sink wash or go to a laundry. I did laundry after we were in for the night so time from touring wasn't taken.

Were I to do a trip like this again and were not sticking to a particular schedule due to events like Christmas markets, I would opt for staying in some of the small cities that we visited for at least two-four nights on the front end of the trip and then spending the long term section at the end. We both felt we wanted more time in each of the cities that we visited. Other than that there was not one thing I would change about our trip. It was marvelous to be able to travel for an extended time and we would do it again in a heartbeat. If you can afford to do it I say go for it!

More good advice - again thanks to all. A few additional responses:

• I think we'll simply plan to take new relationship formation as it happens, rather than trying to expect too much. We tend to be outgoing, and sharing a table and meal with another couple, or possibly visiting a site or going to the market together would be good starting points. Yes, we'll still have plenty alone and down time.
  
• I also like the idea of friend-group travel that was shared. We've done this in the US and on a cruise, but not abroad. We have several couples that have expressed interest in joining us and think we might give this a try to see if it works for us. What we don't want is to be stuck worrying about the other couple(s) to make sure they are having a good time. I think we're ready for that at this point - learning from our prior experiences.
• As an operations professional, I tend to plan "way out". So we'll simply try to travel in periods where there aren't too many "important dates". For us that likely means both spring and fall shoulder seasons, which we hope will help the budget as well.
• With being a planner, I've already framed 11 Europe based "next time" travel segments (the dreamer in me!). Each is typically two weeks with two 3-4 day stops and one 6-7 day stop. Most are geographically/culture/language focused to provide easier focus for us and reduce travel stress. It would be easy to extend most stops or couple additional segments with another to create much longer trips as time and money allow.
  
• "And on the seventh day he rested". Again as a planner, we'll try to build in Sunday or Monday each week as a "travel-reset-business" day. We'll pack for a week, so we can handle two of the 3-4 day stops, or a single week stop before recycling clothes. On the "seventh day", we'll travel to our next stop, do laundry, make our family calls (we speak with our daughter at the same time on Sunday every week whether home or away). We'll have a "business session" to handle bills, mail, check those pesky prescriptions, make appointments, etc. If possible (and open) we'll hit a market to pickup a few things, then likely have a beverage, firm the next weeks itinerary and settle in. I know for some taking a day each week for this may seem like too much down time, but believe this will result in healthier and happier travel for us and allow us to have some consistency in connecting with those back home.
• So with all this planning, we are not all about rules and structure always keeping a balance of open time and spontaneity. We also tend to look left and right, not just marching straight forward to soak as much in as possible and have found diversions to our itinerary among our best memories.
• Yes we have plans outside of Europe as well. Australia, China, South America and Africa are on the list as well. We also have a few extended trips in the US and greater North America as well and at least one cruise to the Baltic to still consider. Again, time, money, sigh...

Again my thanks, and have found most responses to be encouraging. Hoping you have a great holiday season and that your travels continue to be fulfilling.

Well its great to learn that what we do is called "slow traveling". We discovered since retirement 6+ years ago that 2-3 weeks left us wanting. We're in our early 70's and combine a group "tour" of about 3+ weeks with independent travel of about 2 months. Over the last few years we've rented apartments for a month in Paris, Bologna and for slightly lesser periods of time on the Costa del Sol (Southern coastal Spain) Florence, Barcelona and other places. We'll take day and sometimes 2-3 day trips from these extended stay locations and otherwise we leisurely soak in our environment. Nothing suits us better than to throw on our back backs and walk and explore. Most of the time we've already done the "iconic" things on prior trips so we're not governed by wanting to fit this or that in.

As others have described we arrange house sitters, medical insurance, bill payment, wardrobe choices, health appointments/meds, etc.

Friends and neighbors often say how lucky we are and don't understand that we've made a lifestyle choice. Foregoing other things for the sake of travel. Keep traveling fellow comrades.

We retired in March of 2018 at 60. We decided the best way to see lots of Europe (mostly Italy) cost effectively was to live here.

While we decided on our retirement date a year in advance, like you, these pipe dream plans had been thought of and researched. It took about 17 months from the day we decided on the retirement date until we arrived in Italy with our long term visas to live. We spent a lot of time understanding the specific steps to obtain Italan visas, traveling with our Labrador, Barley, looking for potential places to live based on a list of must have criteria, understanding technology and how to stay in touch, tax implications, and much, much more.

We decided to rent our home in California, which covers all expenses, and provides cash flow. We mostly do everything online, but do have a PO Box, which is checked by a friend every few weeks.

The apartment we rented in Verbania is fully furnished, 2 br, 2 bath, huge balcony, in the town center for reasonable rent and is our home base in between our trips. Living in a small non-touristy city without a car is very inexpensive, compared to living in California with a house and two cars.

We find that our trip lengths here are 2-3 weeks, but condensed in a smaller geographic area than when we traveled to Europe for our once every two year vacation. Monday we leave by train for a 12 night trip to Salzburg, Budapest, and Vienna. Then in January a five night ski trip to the Dolomites. Planning a 2-3 week trip to Sicily in May.

We don’t have kids, and my husband and I have never lived near family in 33 years of married life, so that was a non issue for us.

A couple books I read that gave me inspiration were: Have fun working in your list retirement plan.
Home Sweet Anywhere
Happier Then A Billionaire living in Costa Rica
Moving to Italy