Survey: How much Traveling in Retirement?

[chinaco]

For those of you that have retired (or are planning), how much do you travel in retirement? This question includes anytime spent away form your primary residence. In other words... if you are a snowbird and go to your vacation home in Florida for 3 months in the winter, that is to be included. At the same time, do not include a short 2 day trip to visit the kids in the next town.

Here are some questions. Feel free to answer (none, any, all questions) and comment or just lurk and read!

1] Retired (Y/N) - If you are not retired, comments will be considered as what you are planning rather than what is occurring.
2] Current Age Range <40, 40-45, 46-55, 56-65, 65-70, 71-75, >76
3] How many weeks or months do you travel a year? (historic and current)
4] How many are short trips >= 1 week <= 3 weeks? (historic and current)
5] How many trips were > 3 Weeks?
6] Do you go away for 2 - 3 month period in RV or to condo or vacation home (including rentals)? (historic and current)
7] What is your favorite destination (one that you repeat or want to repeat)?
8] Do you travel with a group or alone (with spouse)? Commentary.
9] Has your traveling picked up as you age or tapered down?
10] Approximately how much do you spend traveling in a year?

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chinaco For those of you that have retired (or are planning), how much do you travel in retirement? This question includes anytime spent away form your primary residence. In other words... if you are a snowbird and go to your vacation home in Florida for 3 months in the winter, that is to be included. At the same time, do not include a short 2 day trip to visit the kids in the next town. Here are some questions. Feel free to answer (none, any, all questions) and comment or just lurk and read! 1] Retired (Y/N) - If you are not retired, comments will be considered as what you are planning rather than what is occurring. 2] Current Age Range <40, 40-45, 46-55, 56-65, 65-70, 71-75, >76 3] How many weeks or months do you travel a year? (historic and current) 4] How many are short trips >= 1 week <= 3 weeks? (historic and current) 5] How many trips were > 3 Weeks? 6] Do you go away for 2 - 3 month period in RV or to condo or vacation home (including rentals)? (historic and current) 7] What is your favorite destination (one that you repeat or want to repeat)? 8] Do you travel with a group or alone (with spouse)? Commentary. 9] Has your traveling picked up as you age or tapered down? 10] Approximately how much do you spend traveling in a year?

1) N. I am not retired yet, so my comments reflect my plans and dreams.
2) 56-65 (actually 58 )
3) 7 weeks, currently, I suppose. I travel about 10 times a year for work, usually a half a week at a time. I travel about 2 weeks a year for pleasure, mostly scouting out potential retirement locations. Historically 0 weeks.
4) all are short trips. I work.
5) none
6) no. That would be my idea of H*ll.
7) Springfield, Missouri (currently my tentative retirement location)
8 )My trips for pleasure are with Frank. My trips for work are alone.
9) My DESIRE to travel has always been zero. So, it has neither picked up nor tapered down. My need to check out retirement locations is recent.
10) nothing (Frank usually picks up the check on the pleasure trips, and work pays for the working trips plus I get per diem).

I have zero desire to travel at this stage in my life. As a child and teen back in the 1950's and 1960's, I grew up traveling the world (over six continents before I was 10) for much of the year and I guess I had my fill of it. As an adult, I really don't see the fascination people have with traveling (other than that it is yet another way to throw money out the window ). People are fundamentally the same all over the world. My desire is to grow roots, which I have never actually had.

[Moemg]

retired age 59
usually four to six times a year for visiting daughter or mother which usually includes side trips to fun places .
So and I usually do three one week or two week trips and a few quick getaways.
I would be interested in trying RV travel for a longer trip
Favorite place -Bermuda ,New England ,SanFrancisco ,St.John ,Boston ,
New Orleans ,London ,Sedona,Paris ,etc.etc.
I budget $10,000 for travel

[Eagle43]

Well, 29 years in the military didn't cure me. We take 2-3 trips a year, but have not done the extended stays, ala the Terhorsts or the Kaderlis. It's always better, somewhere else. Or as the military used to say, your best assignment was the one you just left or the one you're going to.

[kcowan]

1] Retired (Y/N) Y
2] Current Age Range 56-65
3] How many weeks or months do you travel a year? 4 months
4] How many are short trips <= 3 weeks? One
5] How many trips were > 3 Weeks? Three
6] Do you go away for 2 - 3 month period in RV or to condo or vacation home (including rentals)? Rental condo in PV for 8 weeks
7] What is your favorite destination (one that you repeat or want to repeat)? PV MX but also planning Tuscany/Provence for the springs
8] Do you travel with a group or alone (with spouse)? Groups on cruises otherwise always individual
9] Has your traveling picked up as you age or tapered down? Picked up since retirement, e.g. first year was only 3 months, could get to 5-6 months
10] Approximately how much do you spend traveling in a year? $12k using airline points

[unclemick]

Hmmm - looking back 13 years(retired Jan 93) there doesn't seem to be a pattern other than do what floats your boat at the time:

in the 90's sort of did what we did while working only more so - hook up the camper and hit the road(sometimes flip a coin at the end of the driveway and go right or left until we got bored), Reno, PacNW(usually fly into Portland) and visit relatives.

Interspersed with entertain at home - we lived in a 'vacation area' with easy access to the French Quarter/Bourbon Street - so 'got visited' a lot during certain times of the year.

Some years - no trips to speak of - and 5-6 trips other years - no set pattern.

Last year - with no heavy planning - West coast, Florida twice, New Orleans, Mexican cruise, Alabama near Chattanoga(TVA Lake).

This year no plans: - but looks like another wedding in New Orleans in July - still have my suit(Salvation Army) from last July's Kansas City wedding.

So I don't travel - unless I agree to - or want to - that's ER.

heh heh heh

[SamHouston]

When I stepped off the plane on March 22, 2002 upon arriving in Houston from Hassi Messaoud, Algeria, I swore that I would not fly again until airports were back to "normal." I was sick of bomb scares and all the extra security that resulted from the 9-11 murders. I've kept to my word, and since airports may never be the same as they were before 9-11, I may never fly again.

My motto is: "If I can't drive there, I'm not going."

I do love road trips and have taken at least one long one each year since 2002, usually to music festivals or to tour several major league baseball parks or to revisit Civil War battlefield sites. Each of those trips ends up costing me somewhere in the neighborhood of $1500 or less and I hope to keep making them for a long time to come.

[lazygood4nothinbum]

1] quit working at 48
2] currently 50
3] i can almost count the days on my fingers & toes
4] all short road trips
5-6] see 4
7] no real favorite though i always have fun in tampa
8] solo
9] i'm gay; i don't age.
10] so far just a fraction of what i originally budgeted.

so far i've only been doing short road trips (longest was 10 days) to blue ridge mountains, a few times to tampa & sarasota, the keys, orlando and daytona. i don't care much for staying in hotels though my last trip was better since i thought to bring my blender and protein shake stuff.

i worry about the house when i'm gone. i have trouble sleeping in strange beds. i bring my pillow with me.

the first year of retirement was watching mom die so that didn't really count, vacation-wise. also, so much of my supposed-net worth got wiped out in the housing bubble burst that i've been very careful about spending & am currently in reassessment mode.

i originally thought i'd have an easy $10k/year for travel but now it is more like $7-10k depending on how i play the numbers. or travel can be much of my entire budget if i become a vagabond which is now very much in consideration.

i want to like travel more than i do. i think if i stay in a place for 6 months to a year that i will get more out of the experience and it will be less like travel and more like actually living in a place. i am hoping that i will be more comfortable with that than i am staying in hotels for a few nights here & there. the more i think in those terms, the more i consider my house to be an encumbrance.

my plan is to keep the house a few more years and to get myself to take continually extended times away. living in florida it would be ideal to spend a few months in an apartment in northern climes like toronto, seattle, etc and explore those areas. but i'm afraid to leave the house alone during hurricane season. still, i need to do this to see if i actually like vagabonding before committing to the lifestyle.

i won't start that until the inherited house sells as i'm still not comfortable spending much money. i'm planning only one more road trip this year, to new jersey for the unveiling of my mom's stone. will spend time with friends there, just outside of new york. will visit in n.y. relatives on the famous side of my family who i've never met before, will visit my very famous uncle's gravesite. will also spend time with friends in phili, a cousin on capital hill and hit savannah on my way south.

[chris2008]

1] Retired : No
2] Current Age Range 46-55
3] How many weeks or months do you travel a year? current: app. 6 weeks
4] How many are short trips? current:1-2 short trips of 1 week; 2 of 2-3 weeks
5] How many trips were > 3 Weeks? 3-5 (historic)
6] Do you go away for 2 - 3 month period in RV or to condo or vacation home (including rentals)? Historic: No, planned for in retirement
7] What is your favorite destination (one that you repeat or want to repeat)? Do not have a favorite - will decide on that once I have seen more of the world
8] Do you travel with a group or alone (with spouse)? With spouse.
9] Has your traveling picked up as you age or tapered down? Has always been stable
10] Approximately how much do you spend traveling in a year? 5k

[Goonie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SamHouston My motto is: "If I can't drive there, I'm not going."

That's my motto also! I used to like to fly, but like you say, airports are too much hassle for me! Besides, I'm never in a hurry, and I like to look at the scenery!

While w*rking I traveled about 6-7 weeks a year, and don't foresee any major change in that. I like to travel, but I also like to stay home and enjoy the serenity of our garden estate.

One of our favorite places to vacation is Florida, and we spend at least 2 weeks there every February to early March. We also take at least 1 or 2 week-long vacation each year, as well as a few 3-4 day trips. And we do LOTS of 1 day trips throughout the year.

We have a local tour company that we like to travel with. The owners and most of the employees are good friends of ours. They always do a top-notch job of planning and executing their trips, and ALWAYS stay at very nice hotels, and eat at good restaurants. We've met some very nice folks on these trips, and look forward to seeing each other on the next trip! They have a nice fleet of Prevost motor coaches (all fairly late new). The coaches seat 56, but they won't book more than 34 people on a trip, so you have room to spread out and be comfortable....many times there are only 20 or 25 people aboard.

We usually travel 10,000 to 12,000 miles per year, and we spend about $5K to $6K total.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I havent been on a plane since I retired. We went back to the 1970's method of travel...anywhere we can drive. Which isnt that much suffering given we live in northern california and can drive to dozens of 'vacation destinations'.

[MikeD]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lazygood4nothinbum i have trouble sleeping in strange beds. i bring my pillow with me.

I had a pillow from my youth for over 30 years. I loved that pillow. I left it in a Holiday Inn in Arkansas. I called the next day and they said that they found it in the room and put it on the pile with all the other "left" pillows. It had a distinctive pillow case on it. I described it to them. They found the pillow case but IT HAD BEEN REMOVED FROM THE PILLOW. Some helpful but bored employee went through a pile of over 30 pillows and removed all the pillow cases and put them into a separate pile. They sent me my pillow case back and some random pillow they "thought" was mine. It wasn't. I called Holiday Inn headquarters to complain but they rudely told me since the motel I was having a problem with was a franchise I was outa luck.

I haven't stayed at a Holiday Inn since 1991 when this happened.

Mike D.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Personally, I'd be a little bit frightened of a 30 year old pillow.

[Khan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chinaco For those of you that have retired (or are planning), how much do you travel in retirement? This question includes anytime spent away form your primary residence. In other words... if you are a snowbird and go to your vacation home in Florida for 3 months in the winter, that is to be included. At the same time, do not include a short 2 day trip to visit the kids in the next town. Here are some questions. Feel free to answer (none, any, all questions) and comment or just lurk and read! 1] Retired (Y/N) - If you are not retired, comments will be considered as what you are planning rather than what is occurring.

Y

Quote:

2] Current Age Range <40, 40-45, 46-55, 56-65, 65-70, 71-75, >76

56

Quote:

3] How many weeks or months do you travel a year? (historic and current)

0
Haven't been more than 20 miles from home for several years.
Haven't been on a plane since '97 (when that jet exploded near NYC)

Quote:

4] How many are short trips >= 1 week <= 3 weeks? (historic and current) 5] How many trips were > 3 Weeks? 6] Do you go away for 2 - 3 month period in RV or to condo or vacation home (including rentals)? (historic and current) 7] What is your favorite destination (one that you repeat or want to repeat)? 8] Do you travel with a group or alone (with spouse)? Commentary. 9] Has your traveling picked up as you age or tapered down? 10] Approximately how much do you spend traveling in a year?

see 3

[sgeeeee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chinaco 1] Retired (Y/N) -

Yes

Quote:

2] Current Age Range

46-55

Quote:

3] How many weeks or months do you travel a year?

20 to 24 weeks per year.

Quote:

4] How many are short trips

almost all of them.

Quote:

5] How many trips were > 3 Weeks?

at most 1 per year

Quote:

6] Do you go away for 2 - 3 month period in RV or to condo or vacation home

no

Quote:

7] What is your favorite destination

someplace new

Quote:

8] Do you travel with a group or alone (with spouse)?

with spouse. We avoid groups, tours, cruises, etc. We do our own research and pay local guides for personal access if required.

Quote:

9] Has your traveling picked up as you age or tapered down?

It is still increasing each year.

Quote:

10] Approximately how much do you spend traveling in a year?

Although I keep track of my spending, I do not categorize it this way. What do you consider travel spending? gas on a trip or total car expenses times ratio of travel to total mileage? Grocery costs related to camping trips? restaurant expenses while traveling? . . .

[chinaco]

1] Retired - N
2] Current Age Range 46-55
3] How many weeks or months do you travel a year? about 3 weeks. Intend to make that about 3-5 months when ER
4] How many are short trips? 3 until ER. After ER number will increaser
5] How many trips were > zero intile ER
6] Do you go away for 2 - 3 month period in RV or to condo or vacation home (including rentals)? No. Will rent when we ER
7] What is your favorite destination (one that you repeat or want to repeat)? St Martin, Rome, Palma Mallorca, Cannes, Barcelona.
8] Do you travel with a group or alone (with spouse)? DW and I travel, but often travel with Sibilings and their spouses.
9] Has your traveling picked up as you age or tapered down? Not sure yet.
10] Approximately how much do you spend traveling in a year? Not sure yet.

[TravelGirl]

1] Not retired. Have another year to year-and-a-half to work.
2] Current Age Range: 46-55
3] How many weeks or months do you travel a year? Six+ months--gone on average 16 days per month from home.
4] Most are a week to ten days in duration. Almost all for work.
5] Longest recent trip was to Europe last summer for three weeks.
6] Plan to buy a travel trailer once we retire and hit the road for a month or more at a time.
7] Favorite destinations are outdoors--national parks, scenic wonderlands.
8] Prefer traveling with live-in boyfriend. Not a fan of group travel but have had fun on some cruises.
9] It's about the same. Spent many years as a travel write/tv producer and thought the travel schedule would taper down in my older age but it hasn't.
10] Almost all of my travel is paid for by my home office but I still spend about $3000 a year for vacation travel. Last year's Europe trip was a big exception--a mix of fun and work and it still cost the two of us $10,000--but we went first class all the way. And that's the only way we travel overseas anymore. Guess those trip$ will be few and far between...

A couple of posters have noted that they don't enjoy flying. I'm with you there. Have spent so much time on airplanes that I don't care to anymore. Especially long flights and nowadays that's anything over 3 hours. Very much prefer to drive these days. And...call me paranoid but I still don't think our airlines are all that secure.

TravelGirl (formerly "Traveler")

[tangomonster]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Want2retire . I have zero desire to travel at this stage in my life. As an adult, I really don't see the fascination people have with traveling (other than that it is yet another way to throw money out the window ). People are fundamentally the same all over the world. My desire is to grow roots, which I have never actually had.

Wow--Want2Retire---a kindred soul! You too, Khan, saying you haven't been more than twenty miles away for a couple of years. At this point in my life (53, retired 10 months) I just don't have the travel bug. People are so disappointed when they find out we're retired and have no travel plans.

In our thirties, we did travel, at least twice a year (a week at a time). Not being beach people, we did mostly city vacations (we did go on a number of cruises when living in Florida, but that wasn't our thing for several reasons) such as Boston, San Francisco, Montreal, Toronto, London, Hong Kong, Belgium. Just didn't enjoy it all that much. Definitely not relaxing to run around and try to see a city in a week. Too much touristy stuff. And sometimes we went to a place (such as Belgium) not because of a burning desire to see it, but because there was an inexpensive deal (and we were terribly bored in Belgium).

In our forties, were care taking my two elderly parents, trying to keep them at home, so couldn't travel (had a trip planned to the Netherlands, but had to cancel a day before when mom was hospitalzied).

Now in our fifties, reasons for not traveling include our elderly cat, me being a vegetarian and having trouble being accommodated (steamed veggies gets awfully old after a day or two), not being great sleepers and liking to be in our own beds---and the money it would cost. We do have a lot of money saved, but spend $1000 a month on health insurance. Based on my parents longevity, I may need our money to last forty or more years!
And right after retiring, we decided we had to move because our condo after twenty years was going downhill fast and actually upsized to a place that cost nearly twice as much.

I actually am intrigued by foreign things. I watch more foreign movies from all over the world than American, read foreign books, and eat more Asian and Mediterranean food than what would be considered typically American.
But as a tourist, I didn't feel like I was really experiencing anything different. Superficial things, like some European countries charge for using a bathroom or only serve bottled water. But nothing really major. And even back years ago when we travelled, a moderate hotel room, air fare, meals, and expenses could be $3000 a week---which was as much or more than our monthly salaries combined. It just didn't seem worth it: working a month for a week's vacation that had its enjoyable parts but wasn't all that wonderful.

We are still adjusting to/enjoying ER and aren't bored yet. If we become ancy (and especially once (if?) we get Medicare), we may reconsider. We did always enjoy Canada and think that Vancouver could give us a lot of natural beauty while offering great Asian food, so we may try that.

[audreyh1]

We are retired - have been for almost 8 years.

I'm still in my 40s.

Traveling steadily increased during retirement to the point that we "chucked" the fixed homestead (house), and became fulltime RVers. We are traveling year-round!

In two years we put 18,000 miles on our motorhome, and 28,000 miles on our jeep for a total of 48,000 miles - or 24K per year. That's pretty amazing even to us!

The first two years we did a lot of group travel so that we would not have to manage trip logistics, etc. It was a good way to get started. But after that we became anxious to "do our own thing" - just us as a couple. Our travel expenses then dropped dramatically, even though we were traveling more.

What surprised me most about traveling and retirement, was I expected that we'd get traveling "out of our system" in the first two years of retirement, and then drop back. Instead, that initial traveling just whetted our wanderlust, and it kept getting "worse" until we rearranged our life to do it all the time!

Even when we get "done" with RVing (it'll take several more years), I anticipate that we'll enjoy other modes of travel extensively - maybe more overseas stuff and more traveling by ship.

Audrey

P.S. Some people are gypsies by nature.

P.P.S.S. Flying anywhere stinks to high heaven. That's one thing easily avoided when you have an RV (limited to the Americas, obviously). We have only flown one time in 4 1/2 years, and that was to visit the factory where we ordered our RV. Oh yeah - we hate motels and car rental too. And not having own bed/kitchen/bath/food. RVing solves all those niggling travel inconveniences/discomferts.

[jerryo]

For those of you that have retired (or are planning), how much do you travel in retirement? This question includes anytime spent away form your primary residence. In other words... if you are a snowbird and go to your vacation home in Florida for 3 months in the winter, that is to be included. At the same time, do not include a short 2 day trip to visit the kids in the next town.

Here are some questions. Feel free to answer (none, any, all questions) and comment or just lurk and read!

1] Retired (Y/N) - If you are not retired, comments will be considered as what you are planning rather than what is occurring.

Not retired

2] Current Age Range <40, 40-45, 46-55, 56-65, 65-70, 71-75, >76

57

3] How many weeks or months do you travel a year? (historic and current)

6-8 weeks

4] How many are short trips >= 1 week <= 3 weeks? (historic and current)
5] How many trips were > 3 Weeks?

10 3-4 day trips
4 1-2 week trips

6] Do you go away for 2 - 3 month period in RV or to condo or vacation home (including rentals)? (historic and current)

Not since college and grad school

7] What is your favorite destination (one that you repeat or want to repeat)?

France
Greece
Portuagl
Spain
Canada (algonquan canoeing)
Tahoe/Salt Lake/Whistler (skiing)
S. Africa

8] Do you travel with a group or alone (with spouse)? Commentary.

spouse/fiance; kids

9] Has your traveling picked up as you age or tapered down?

tapered down (used to travel 6-8 more weeks on business)

10] Approximately how much do you spend traveling in a year?

$20,000 for vacation travel