Travel in Retirement

[Dakota731]

Two-three trips a year is enough for me. I miss my dog, my house and my family if gone any more than that.

 

[crisi]

I am retired but my husband is not (yet). We have a bucket list of the kind of travel we would like to do:

2023 - Cruise (in April), WDW (in September)
2024 - Oktoberfest in Munich, visit Auschwitz (my DH's aunt was a survivor of that camp), something else ... maybe a cruise?
2025 - Galapagos cruise
2026 - Egypt, maybe a Nile cruise?
2027 - South Pacific, my DH wants to dive the Great Barrier Reef
2028 - African Safari

We just came back from our second safari. Both times we've done something like this in Tanzania: https://costco.ttc.com/en-us/vacation-brands/lion-world-travel/discover-tanzania/ Its been awesome. Both times we've gone towards the end of the little rainy season (late April, early May) when crowds are low. (I don't like crowds, so no Oktoberfest EVER for me). (That link takes you to a fairly inexpensive version of a safari - we've found the accommodations and food to be plenty good (and I'm sort of a snob about such things) and that is really the difference in pricing - if you book through Lion World/Costco - Elizabeth has been our travel agent.)

 

[robinb]

We just came back from our second safari. Both times we've done something like this in Tanzania: https://costco.ttc.com/en-us/vacation-brands/lion-world-travel/discover-tanzania/ Its been awesome. Both times we've gone towards the end of the little rainy season (late April, early May) when crowds are low. (I don't like crowds, so no Oktoberfest EVER for me). (That link takes you to a fairly inexpensive version of a safari - we've found the accommodations and food to be plenty good (and I'm sort of a snob about such things) and that is really the difference in pricing - if you book through Lion World/Costco - Elizabeth has been our travel agent.)

Thank you so much! I will remember Lion World Travel when the time comes. I have a friend who has been a number of times and I plan to ask her who she likes. I have another friend who went last year on a very expensive luxury tour. They probably spent that much per day ... I'm not going to ask him .

 

[_19disnA]

If you travel a lot who looks after your home while gone? Someone needs to cut the grass at least weekly and keep an eye on things. In our neighborhood they also randomly toss those newspaper ads in the driveway. You can drive through the neighborhood and easily tell who isn't home when 3+ of those papers are laying in the driveway. If your home looks abandoned tends to not be a good thing. Needs to be part of your plans if you are the type to decide to vacation at the last minute.

 

[shh]

If you want to do the travel do it while you can. The older we get the more of a hassle travel seems to be and the less we want to do.

oh man, is that the truth for me. I had big plans to travel lots of places, but somehow these days, just don't have the motivation to deal with the hassles and discomfort of flying, skyrocketing prices and crowds. I feel sad about that - just can't get the motivation rekindled.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

Nah, we're the opposite. After decades of working hard, raising kids, prioritizing our time for others - we've got too many things we want to see and do now. Of course, we have to watch the budget and funds, but we're certainly not planning to let a little house maintenance or airport traffic keep us from experiencing things now we just couldn't do when we were working and raising a family.

 

[wabbott]

Nah, we're the opposite. After decades of working hard, raising kids, prioritizing our time for others - we've got too many things we want to see and do now. Of course, we have to watch the budget and funds, but we're certainly not planning to let a little house maintenance or airport traffic keep us from experiencing things now we just couldn't do when we were working and raising a family.

After our last excursion (Apr, May, about 30 days), we pulled under the carport and noted that the doorknob had cobwebs on it. We thought it hilarious!!

 

[shh]

Nah, we're the opposite. After decades of working hard, raising kids, prioritizing our time for others - we've got too many things we want to see and do now. Of course, we have to watch the budget and funds, but we're certainly not planning to let a little house maintenance or airport traffic keep us from experiencing things now we just couldn't do when we were working and raising a family.

You're lucky to have energy, drive and motivation to go for it. I lost mine somewhere along the way - not sure why.

 

[gmi3804]

If you travel a lot who looks after your home while gone? Someone needs to cut the grass at least weekly and keep an eye on things. In our neighborhood they also randomly toss those newspaper ads in the driveway. You can drive through the neighborhood and easily tell who isn't home when 3+ of those papers are laying in the driveway. If your home looks abandoned tends to not be a good thing. Needs to be part of your plans if you are the type to decide to vacation at the last minute.

We sold our house two years ago and downsized to a 3BR condo. So now we just have to lock and leave. Our neighbor next door will water our big a** Christmas cactus on the first of the month if we're gone then. She has a key.

 

[dvcgirl67]

We're mid-50s, no kids, and while we've reached our retirement "number", we have decided to continue to work for another 4-5 years and reassess. The main reason being that my husband's father is nearly 92 and while he's in excellent health now, there are no other siblings remaining and so the bulk of kind of overseeing his life falls to us. We also have three dogs, two that are older with medical issues and not able to travel. So leaving the area now is kind of not possible.

Our desire is to spend our 60s being nomads, spending months at a time in places we'd like to visit. DH just received dual-citizenship with Italy and so we'd like to spend a considerable amount of time there. And we've been vacationing in other areas that are ex-pat friendly, like Costa Rica and also have an upcoming trip to Panama. We also have a bucket list trip to South Africa in 2024.

While we're sticking around in NJ we figured, why not keep working? We're making more money than we've ever made and while we've upped our travel game by staying at nice resorts and flying in the front the plane, we're socking away well over 50% of gross income. We also figured it's not a bad idea to get closer to 65 and medicare. We're unclear on whether we'll keep our home or sell it when we do head off to be nomads. Time will tell.

 

[James en2023]

My DH is starting to use the R word, and speaking of it happening by year's end. I'm interested in hearing from those who are retired or planning to do so in the near future. Did you budget an 'x' amount for yearly travel? Do you plan far out or are you finding that you're able to get and enjoy last minute deals? What about Disney - are you traveling there more or less often than when you (and the kids) were younger?

More

 

[James en2023]

We sold our house two years ago and downsized to a 3BR condo. So now we just have to lock and leave. Our neighbor next door will water our big a** Christmas cactus on the first of the month if we're gone then. She has a key.

agree

 

[James en2023]

We retired in the summer of '21 but we've only ever planned on WDW and Williamsburg VA as we have a home situation that doesn't make travel stress free. That said in 2022 we went to WDW 4 times, a Fall WDW/DCL vacation and I went to Europe with our youngest. During our December WDW vacation DH asked to slow down so this year we've only enjoyed a March cruise and have a WDW vacation planned for late October. I think we'll eventually settle on March, May and October WDW vacations and enjoy Williamsburg in December. Luckily we are only a few hours plane or car ride away from both. DH has talked about seeing more of the US but IDK if we have the knees, breath or brain health new adventures.

Good luck with your planning - heck planning is half the fun.

Have fun

 

[James en2023]

I’ve got six more years til I can draw my pensions and get Medicare. Until then I’m hoping to take several long vacations in the late spring, summer, or early fall each year. Once I can fully retire, my plan is to buy a used RV and take a couple of three to six month road trips to all the national park sites in the northern states and into Canada too. Once I’ve spent about a week in every state and province I’ll sell the RV.

Agree

 

[James en2023]

We have about 15-20 years but we're already mapping out our general goals when we're in the encore phase of our lives. We are estimating about 25-30% of our annual income would be for travel. Right now we spend about 10-15% or our income and this covers a variety of travel, ie- WDW, small trips around our region like the beach/mountains, visiting family, some misc travel for my husband's motorcycle hobby and one trip abroad. We are not yolo travelers staying at the four seasons, but we're also not sleeping in a motel 6 either. We have already started doing more travel to other destinations as our kids have gotten older and are planning to do that more as we can, but we'll always have WDW in rotation but I'd like to expand our travel portfolio significantly. We didn't travel as much when our kids were really little since we just didn't have the means. Our plans when we're retired include us traveling much more and also budgeting for taking our children/potential future family members/grandchildren on trips too. It's not going to be all the time, but our families (parents) could not provide that for us and we just think there's amazing memories to be had to provide that to our kids/their future families down the road.

However, we've already planned that once our kids are through with college, we'll start pre-retirement and travel more, with or without our kids. We have some friends that have recently retired and many have landed in situations with health issues that have prohibited them from traveling at all or as much as they wanted. I know we can't control everything but I can't see us waiting until we're 65 to start traveling more. We would likely try to do spontaneous trips especially since that is usually how deals are had, it's not the destination, it's the dates and cost of the deal, so if we don't have to worry about kids' schedules and what not, we'll travel when there are good values.

We have some big goals over the next 15-20 years that will impact all of this but we already live in retirement land so we have no where we really need to move to. Our home will be paid off well before we retire so that really is the biggest variable that will allow us to travel more and enter our cool years with no debt.

I agree

 

[James en2023]

I like your list! Married to a diver who has been retired 6 years, covid messed up a lot of his plans but he is back on 4-5 trips a year. Most are liveaboards I don't go on (hence my solo trips to Orlando) but the St Lucia resort trip I enjoy. Galapagos and African safari are on my radar also. He did a Red Sea trip last year and added on a few days to see the Pyramids and Valley of the Kings. I wouldn't mind seeing Angkor Wat

I agree

 

[James en2023]

I

Two-three trips a year is enough for me. I miss my dog, my house and my family if gone any more than that.

agree

 

[dvcgirl67]

Thank you so much! I will remember Lion World Travel when the time comes. I have a friend who has been a number of times and I plan to ask her who she likes. I have another friend who went last year on a very expensive luxury tour. They probably spent that much per day ... I'm not going to ask him .

You can *easily* spend that much per day on a Safari, much more actually. We're doing a splurgy one next year, but as I mentioned...we're still working and saving over 50% of our income, so we have decided to treat ourselves to some nice trips now while we can. This is a big bucket list trip for both of us, and I know we'll love it. I checked out the Tanzania trip above and it looks quite nice, especially for that price!

 

[thanxfornoticin]

After our last excursion (Apr, May, about 30 days), we pulled under the carport and noted that the doorknob had cobwebs on it. We thought it hilarious!!

Did it read "Some Pig" or "Humble"?!

 

[wabbott]

Did it read "Some Pig" or "Humble"?!

RADIANT. And come to think of it, I thought I saw a white pig running through the woods behind our house.