We have found that travel can be satisfying without being exhausting. But it has helped to follow these guidelines.
By Robbie Shell
Wall Street Journal, Aug. 20, 2024
Six guidelines that have made our travel a lot more fulfilling—and a lot less exhausting.
1. Travel offseason
Everyone knows that peak seasons aren’t ideal for traveling. But retirees have more of a commodity that working people lack—time for offseason trips. After all, you have flexibility for perhaps the first time in your life. Take advantage of it.
2. Choose ‘secondary destinations’
As retirees, we have found it easier to adopt a slower, more relaxed pace by focusing on destinations that aren’t always on the usual tourist grid.
3. Don’t be shy with strangers
One of the joys of traveling in retirement is unstructured time to enjoy casual, spontaneous conversations with people we happen to meet. Indeed, I find that impromptu connections with guides, drivers and even guards are often as memorable as the settings in which they occur.
4. Focus on just a few things
This might seem an obvious strategy for seasoned travelers, but it’s easy to slip, especially when enthusiasm for the day ahead is high after (in our case a substantial) breakfast. More can definitely be less when you’re traveling.
5. Stay at least three nights in each location
Packing and unpacking is a waste of energy. Cruises have the problem solved, but one way to approximate their advantage is to spend more nights in fewer places. By the second night, a hotel room or Airbnb is a moved-in place to rest. By the third night, it can become a familiar home-away-from-home.
6. Be prepared to improvise
When you travel in a la carte style, you are free to change the plans you made the day before for no particular reason. Maybe it’s the weather. Or perhaps you have a feeling that yesterday’s pace was too challenging or not challenging enough. Start the day whenever you want, and be open to impulsive detours to areas that aren’t on tourist bureau maps.
The travel experiences are a la carte approach which beats the prix fixe one. You are free to make tour own choices and find your own adventures as you look forward to where the next day will take you.