First off, let’s keep money out of this to the extent we can. If you had enough money to travel, would you? Where to?
My wife and I are getting close to retirement age. One thing many people say is that we’ll want to travel more. And I guess we’ve always sorta had in the back of our minds that we would at some time. But as every year goes by, with every trip we take, we find ourselves enjoying travel less and less. Especially air travel.
I guess we enjoy the IDEA of travel, but we generally find the actuality a hassle - even when things go pretty smoothly. Maybe we are just too comfortable in our home. Maybe we just prefer not being on someone else’s schedule. Maybe I’m not as curious as I wish I were.
I would like to say that I think there is a great value in experiencing how different people live. But as I approach the point where I have the time and resources to do so, we find ourselves less inclined.
The type of travel that DOES appeal to us more would be driving within the US, probably to US/state parks, with our dog.
And, even though I started off saying I wanted to keep money out of this - travel is expensive. We tend to live/eat very economically - tho we are happy to spend large amounts of money on things we want to. But hotels and restaurant meals really add up - out of proportion to the enjoyment we receive in return.
We are also close to retirement age and really enjoy traveling. I have to do a lot for work, but still enjoy trips with my wife (and adult kids when they’re available). Cities, beaches, mountains, I love them all. I know what you mean about the hassle of traveling, but with the right attitude we have embraced just going with the flow.
On the other hand, we also love being at home and just hanging out when we have time.
The TSA has ruined air travel for me. Arriving at the airport 2 hours early is not my idea of a fun trip.
Car trips are more enjoyable. Take a cooler with food and beverages. That cuts costs at restaurants. Most hotels will provide a mini fridge if requested. Restock food at local groceries as needed.
We always carry a camping stove. Hot food at a park is always a nice treat.
If I want to spend three days in NYC, I’m not going to drive from Washington State, I’m going to fly. I have TSA precheck, so I don’t arrive two hours early usually. When I do, I don’t mind having a glass of wine (or two) while we wait for our flight.
I love travel, and I’m always perusing Google Flights to find long weekend getaways or planning our next big vacation. I’m looking forward to retirement so we can spend more time away from home, longer trips that involve living somewhere for a few weeks to really get to know the area.
Flying is a small hassle, but it pales in the comparison to the experience of travel.
It’s not that I rule out travel, but it’s not a big motivation in my life. I desire to travel to friends and my dwindling family, but my allergies make journeys beyond that enormously stressful and logistically complicated. This notion that “when you retire you’ll want to travel” might be true for some folks but I’m not at all sure it will be for me. Just being older can make travel more difficult, but add in any health problem and it gets even more difficult.
Different strokes for different strokes. Don’t do it if you don’t enjoy it. Travel itself has no intrinsic ethical value - on the one hand, you can be a voluntourist who brings goodwill from other countries, provides badly needed assistance, and broadens their perspective; on the other you could be the “ugly American” who is doing nothing but leaving a huge carbon footprint and a bad taste in people’s mouths, while learning nothing.
I used to travel constantly, by both choice and necessity (I’ve lived in seven US states and five countries and long ago lost count of how many countries I’ve visited). One thing I noted, my first time living in a new culture, is that being a tourist isn’t all that informative. You can enjoy yourself and see the sights, but you won’t learn a thing compared to the insights you gain by living somewhere. So pure tourism is overrated, really.
Anyway, now I’m tired of it all. I’m 60 and living on Hawaii and quite seriously feel that, aside from the odd trip to Oahu to meet with some musicians there, and a few trips to the mainland for my son’s life events (college graduation, marriage, whatever) I have no desire to ever leave these shores again.
I always feel a tiny bit of dread when I have a trip coming up because the hassles of traveling are always on my mind. But once I am traveling, it is not so bad. And once I get to the destination, it is awesome.
That said, I don’t think I will be a jet setter in my golden years I do like visiting new places, but I can think of other things I would rather spend thousands of dollars on.
Likely my wife and I just lack that attitude, or the desire to try to summon it up. I guess we a preferring comfort and predictability ever more.
Also yeah - our attitudes towards TSA security theater are likely extreme and unwarranted, but they are what we perceive. A couple of years ago we changed to flying only 1st class, which helped somewhat. Not sure we could or would want to swing that internationally. But just having to go through such a wasteful, unnecessary process, bothers me more than it should.
Some people have irrational fears. I have an irrational hate for airport security.
I forgot coffee. Most hotels provide a coffee pot in the room. You can get one that plugs into the car.
We avoid restaurants for breakfast and lunch. Eating from our ice chest. Dinner is at a restaurant. It is a vacation and one nice meal a day is worth it.
We had an RV late in our working days and after retiring, mostly because my husband liked to travel and I hate to fly. Actually I hate to travel, although sometimes I don’t mind being somewhere. RV was good as basically I was still “at home” with my room around me. But as we got older he seemed to enjoy it less so we finally sold the RV. Now, he still goes places sometimes but lets me stay home and “take care of the cats”. Works well for us.
Short version: per the title, not a big fan of travel.
I’m 47 years old and have travelled a lot. In fact, I took a 1 year sabbatical when I was 37 and practiced for retirement, which included a lot of travel. As I age, I’m less and less interested in it. It’s a hassle logistically with flights and all that. I’ve also learned that 2 weeks is about maximum that I care to be away from home.
I like the concept of travel – the ability to see things I’ve not seen before, visit interesting places, and see different cultures.
That said, I’ve flown a lot for my job in the past 30 years, and I’d be content to never fly again. I’ll note that it’s not the TSA screenings that bother me – I have TSA Pre-Check, and I’m usually through security, even at O’Hare, in under 5 minutes. The issue, for me, is everything else that’s degraded the experience of flying in the U.S. in the past 30 years.
Planes are nearly always 100% packed. My fellow passengers are ruder now. Flights seem to be delayed more often, with fewer updates from the flight crew on what’s going on. Unless you’re willing to pay a premium (and I often am not allowed to when traveling on business), we have less room in our seats than we used to, as the airlines cut the pitch between seats to put in a few more rows. The airlines nickel and dime us for checking bags, for food, for an extra few inches of legroom, etc.
There is zero fun left in flying commerically in the U.S. I enjoy driving, and road trips, though I’d love to get back to Ireland (which I visited 20 years ago), and driving there isn’t practical.
I’m not a huge fan of flying but the hassle is what you make it. When I fly alone I pack one carry-on, I have TSA PreCheck, Avis Preferred, and I walk fast. I can show up to most airports 20 minutes before boarding and be fine, I sit in my seat, get to where I’m going, get off the plane, and next thing you know I’m there. It’s fairly pleasant.
When I travel with my kids it’s pure misery, even though they’re good travelers. It’s just so much more stuff.
We towed a little trailer with a motor scooter. Lots of fun. (In case you think scooters are too slow, we had a Moto Morini; very fast like a motorcycle but quieter and lets you sit upright.) Later, we got a fifth wheel travel trailer so we could park, unhook, and go places with the truck. The scooter was more fun but as one ages…you know that song.
ETA Moto Morini is wrong but I forgot the name of the Italian scooter we had. It was Aprillia.
I like beautiful beaches and nice resorts. I like spending time with people I might not get to see that often. I like traveling for retreats and workshops. I like cruises, especially those geared towards special interests, with lots of planned activities.
But going to a strange city with the family and working out the logistics of long days of sightseeing? That’s hell on earth for me.
I consider myself a “pampered tourist”. I’m not one who yearns to wend my way down the Amazon River sweating, fending off mosquitoes, and nervously looking out for Anacondas. Only A-list places for me like Paris, Italy, the Mediterranean, Hawaii, the Bahamas, etc. Also, I don’t fly coach/economy or whatever it’s called. I do top flight hotels in suites, not rooms, and I spend whatever money is necessary to see/do everything that can be seen/done. As long as all of that is in place, I’m on board.
I’m exactly the opposite of the OP. Travel is one of the things I am truly passionate about, and I wish I could do it more. In a few weeks I’ll be off to Greece…
Maybe because I like traveling so much, I honestly don’t mind the TSA and other aspects of air travel that other people complain about. I’m certainly not going to avoid traveling just because of the TSA.
And I kind of regret not traveling much when I was in my 20s. I wish I had done a “gap year” or something like that between college and finding a job, or studied abroad, or something like that. At the time I liked the idea of traveling and thought it was something I wanted to do someday, but I thought I needed to find a job and save some money first. Of course having a job means you don’t have the free time in which to travel. And I think I was less adventurous back then, and more afraid of the unknown. But I’m trying to make up for it in my 30s. When I was between jobs a few years ago I went on the trip of a lifetime to eastern Africa. And I’ve previously taken trips to Australia, and Costa Rica, and Scandinavia, and Cuba, and Iceland.
Which for me, is motivation for trying to do as much traveling now, when I’m still young enough to do it, rather than waiting until I’m retired.
