Long trips?

[meleana]

Everyone is different. We are homebodies. We like to travel but 2-3 weeks would be enough. Heck- we are good with one week here or there.

Since retiring just as the pandemic hit we haven’t traveled at all. We retired in a vacation area in a new state and we have been content with exploring our own state and enjoying our new community and friends.

Only had a few things on the travel bucket list and with all the airline trouble and virus restrictions if we have to give them up so be it.

 

[brett]

Up until 2017 I thought I didn't like traveling. But that has changed after I went on a fully organized 2 months long solo trip to South America. I realized I didn't like short trips - I only became comfortable about 6 weeks in when moving around became a lifestyle. And then the trip was over...

Now I still travel solo but prefer being spontaneous - just buy one way ticket and go. It's usually a mixture of being a tourist and staying somewhere for a few weeks to get a taste of a local life. So last year I spent the whole winter in Portugal - mostly in Lisbon with a country road trip sandwiched in the middle. I'm going back to Europe for two months on Monday and then plan winter in South America.

Traveling became my retirement lifestyle and I wouldn't change it for anything. The thing I like the most is living without a clutter and a routine, Every time I come back home and look at all the stuff I accumulated over the years I feel depressed. And not having a routine gives me the illusion of my time being stretched. All the stimulation builds a mountain of new memories so I feel like a month away from home is comparable to a year or more at home.

Feel the same way.

Prior to retirement we traveled but it was very structured. As was my business travel.

We started retirement with a 6/7 month trip. The only firm plans were late booking med cruise in Sept, an African safari in November, and a one month condo rental in Costa Rica. Everything else was spontaneous.

It has been much like that ever since for our 8-9 week trips.

 

[skyking1]

It takes two of a like mind to make that happen, or the solo travel that tenant13 did.
I could do that but DW would struggle. She talks of me taking vacations without her in the future, for various reasons.

 

[imnontrad]

The longest, so far has been 5 weeks away from home. I am getting ready for ~ 4 weeks away soon and hopefully at least 2 months this winter. if that goes well, I'll consider longer times away next winter.
I found that around the 2 week point I "crash" and just need to spend a day recharging. Then I was ready to go again. I deliberately brought only my phone and access to one email account. It took me a little while when I got home to sort through the mail (mostly junk) and go through emails in my other email accounts but honestly, I did not miss anything.

 

[2017ish]

Your 3-month South Pacific diving trip sounds intriguing. Where did you dive and was there a favorite? We’ve been to Fiji, Indonesia, and Palau. Never been to Great Barrier Reef, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, or the wreck dive places such as Yap.

No wreck diving for us either.

That trip was: Fiji live aboard (the Nai'a) solomons (marovo lagoon), new Ireland island in new guinea, Sydney for a civilization break, vanuatu, Fiji again, this time with land-based operation, and concluding in Tonga on the Nai'a again (snorkel with humpbacks in the day, with night dives).

The humpbacks were mindboggling and it never got old when they were close to you. Diving in marovo lagoon probably was our favorite for strictly diving? But talk about off the beaten path.

But Fiji is also a favorite of ours, and how can one dis new Ireland?!

We've not yet done Indonesia, but are putting together a long trip there beginning in April 2023.... (GBR, we dove for about 2 weeks in 1990. Not as good for us as other south Pacific destinations--but we were newbies then and still in the "look at that big fish!" mode.)

 

[tmitchell]

Up until 2017 I thought I didn't like traveling. But that has changed after I went on a fully organized 2 months long solo trip to South America. I realized I didn't like short trips - I only became comfortable about 6 weeks in when moving around became a lifestyle. And then the trip was over...

Now I still travel solo but prefer being spontaneous - just buy one way ticket and go. It's usually a mixture of being a tourist and staying somewhere for a few weeks to get a taste of a local life. So last year I spent the whole winter in Portugal - mostly in Lisbon with a country road trip sandwiched in the middle. I'm going back to Europe for two months on Monday and then plan winter in South America.

Traveling became my retirement lifestyle and I wouldn't change it for anything. The thing I like the most is living without a clutter and a routine, Every time I come back home and look at all the stuff I accumulated over the years I feel depressed. And not having a routine gives me the illusion of my time being stretched. All the stimulation builds a mountain of new memories so I feel like a month away from home is comparable to a year or more at home.

This is inspiring! Sounds awesome

 

[CalTex]

We are leaving on Monday for four weeks in the Netherlands, France and Spain. Its our longest trip ever and was made possible by the demise of our beloved Labrador. I am very apprehensive both about what could happen abroad (getting Covid) and leaving our house vacant for so long. I think this will be a life changing experience: we'll either love it or hate it. We have already put down a deposit on a new puppy to be born about the time we get back and are having second thoughts about being tied down. Anyway, it will be an adventure.

 

[Scuba]

No wreck diving for us either.



That trip was: Fiji live aboard (the Nai'a) solomons (marovo lagoon), new Ireland island in new guinea, Sydney for a civilization break, vanuatu, Fiji again, this time with land-based operation, and concluding in Tonga on the Nai'a again (snorkel with humpbacks in the day, with night dives).



The humpbacks were mindboggling and it never got old when they were close to you. Diving in marovo lagoon probably was our favorite for strictly diving? But talk about off the beaten path.



But Fiji is also a favorite of ours, and how can one dis new Ireland?!



We've not yet done Indonesia, but are putting together a long trip there beginning in April 2023.... (GBR, we dove for about 2 weeks in 1990. Not as good for us as other south Pacific destinations--but we were newbies then and still in the "look at that big fish!" mode.)

Sounds like an awesome trip! When we went to Indonesia, we stayed at Gangga Island Resort for a couple of weeks in 2013.

https://www.ganggaisland.com

 

[Out of Steam]

Before retiring we set ourselves up so we could "lock and leave", selling the house, setting up all bills online and moving into an apartment complex.

We bought a single-family house when we retired. Despite having no pets to limit us, moving into a place that we can lock and leave is coming to mind lately. With the house, we feel limited to two weeks or so.

But, other than visiting family/friends and my hiking, we're feeling less than comfortable with travel within the US at the moment.

 

[GrandmaHoo]

Definitely get homesick after about 3-4 weeks. Miss the family and grandkids. Miss my "nest" - home, bedroom, lazy boy chair, screened in porch, gardens, etc. We even owned a condo in Florida for awhile, so it was our home away from home, and I would still get homesick! Just finished a month long trip out west, where we skipped around a bit. It was enjoyable but tiring with all the travel. I like the idea of trying one place for several weeks at a time. We'll see what's next!

 

[brett]

We are planning our snowbird trip. It will be 2 months. Probably a week or more in each place. Thailand and a week or so in Malaysia. Maybe finish up in Australia. Our out of country medical covers us for 60 days per trip. Otherwise we would probably go for 3 months.

Probably our last trip. Air is a killer.

Then we will switch back to Mexico or Costa Rica. Much shorter, direct flights.

 

[Zona]

We are planning our snowbird trip. It will be 2 months. Probably a week or more in each place. Thailand and a week or so in Malaysia. Maybe finish up in Australia. Our out of country medical covers us for 60 days per trip. Otherwise we would probably go for 3 months.



Probably our last trip. Air is a killer.



Then we will switch back to Mexico or Costa Rica. Much shorter, direct flights.

We would like to do a similar Asia/Australia trip next year, adding in Vietnam and Cambodia, while visiting friends that live in Singapore and Malaysia. We are planning this to be one of the longer trips we’ve ever done, maybe 2-3 months in the SE Asian countries, then 2-3 months in Australia since DH has never been there. Planning for ideal timing/weather in each location is a challenge though, especially since we try to time trips to be away during the AZ summer, so the opposite of a snowbird trip.

Usually when we do long trips, we go for a max of three months at a time (mostly due to Schengen limits) so this will be a good test of how long we can be away since each country on this trip will have a separate “clock” on the stay limit.

I always enjoy your posts about your travels Brett, because we don’t know too many other people who enjoy long trip traveling. When you say it will be your last trip, do you mean you won’t go to those destinations anymore, or that you won’t go for as long a time?

 

[Koolau]

We would like to do a similar Asia/Australia trip next year, adding in Vietnam and Cambodia, while visiting friends that live in Singapore and Malaysia. We are planning this to be one of the longer trips we’ve ever done, maybe 2-3 months in the SE Asian countries, then 2-3 months in Australia since DH has never been there. Planning for ideal timing/weather in each location is a challenge though, especially since we try to time trips to be away during the AZ summer, so the opposite of a snowbird trip.

Usually when we do long trips, we go for a max of three months at a time (mostly due to Schengen limits) so this will be a good test of how long we can be away since each country on this trip will have a separate “clock” on the stay limit.

I always enjoy your posts about your travels Brett, because we don’t know too many other people who enjoy long trip traveling. When you say it will be your last trip, do you mean you won’t go to those destinations anymore, or that you won’t go for as long a time?

It sounded like brett was struggling with the long flights. We often do 9 hour flights and that's just about our limit. Sometimes, it's broken up into two flights which makes it more bearable but that adds problems of its own (two flights which must actually fly and be more or less on time.) YMMV

 

[audreyh1]

We bought a single-family house when we retired. Despite having no pets to limit us, moving into a place that we can lock and leave is coming to mind lately. With the house, we feel limited to two weeks or so.

But, other than visiting family/friends and my hiking, we're feeling less than comfortable with travel within the US at the moment.

With no pets it’s pretty easy to leave a house for several months.

Our neighborhood takes care of all the yard maintenance and we have no houseplants.

 

[DireWolf]

How is Ljubljana?

I was just in Trieste.

Considered driving to Ljubljana and Lake Bled as day trip but the car rental company said only certain cars could go into Eastern Europe and I wasn't willing to pay the differential for a day trip.

Alternatively I could have done a van tour but for some reason, it's 9 hours, compared to about an hour drive from Trieste to Ljubljana according to Google Maps.

I’m not who you were responding to, but I found Ljubljana really great.

I spent last month (and a bit more) cycling solo across Europe (my 2nd time doing so). Slovenia ended up being my favorite country this time. Lake Bled was gorgeous, as were the Julian Alps in the vicinity of Kranjska Gora. Ljubljana was my favorite big city. Loved all the people out and the vibe in the core in the evening. I rode through Trieste twice, once heading from Ljubljana to the coast near Piran, and again heading to my final destination on Venice.


After two long bike tours and two long cross-country road trips in the States since I retired, all involving moving and camping nearly every day, I’m ready to slow down and spend some time in just one or two places. The constant go, go, go and packing/unpacking, setting up /breaking down camp, just gets to be a bit much.
I think next year I want 2-3 weeks kicked back at a beach, and then a week or two in a fun bike destination (Probably Bentonville or Pisgah, both places I’ve MTBed before).

 

[brett]

We would like to do a similar Asia/Australia trip next year, adding in Vietnam and Cambodia, while visiting friends that live in Singapore and Malaysia. We are planning this to be one of the longer trips we’ve ever done, maybe 2-3 months in the SE Asian countries, then 2-3 months in Australia since DH has never been there. Planning for ideal timing/weather in each location is a challenge though, especially since we try to time trips to be away during the AZ summer, so the opposite of a snowbird trip.

Usually when we do long trips, we go for a max of three months at a time (mostly due to Schengen limits) so this will be a good test of how long we can be away since each country on this trip will have a separate “clock” on the stay limit.

I always enjoy your posts about your travels Brett, because we don’t know too many other people who enjoy long trip traveling. When you say it will be your last trip, do you mean you won’t go to those destinations anymore, or that you won’t go for as long a time?

We will still travel for two months at a time. Not certain about long flights to SE Asia or Africa though. We still have Africa down for another visit...this time for an extended snowbird trip. Not certain if it will happen. We are currently shopping for Bangkok flights. They are expensive now but typically go down. We note that Singapore fares a down, down, down. We may book there and then head up through Malaysia to Thailand. A ten hour flight is a bit of a doddle for us. But when it comes to two in a row with a 2 or 3 stopover in between it becomes tiresome.

We very much enjoyed Vietnam. My spouse was not keen but after a few days she loved it. We entered Vietnam by land from Cambodia. Started on the island of Phu Quak (sp) and then spent 30 days making our way north. Air, bus, train, ferry. There is a possibility that instead of heading south to Penang, Malaysia we may pick up a flight and spend a few weeks in Vietnam. The country is changing so much that we want to go before the change is complete.

Flights from SE Asia to Australia can be very inexpensive. We just shopped a flight from Krabi, Thailand to Gold Coast Airport (near Brisbane) on Scoot, the discount airline of Singapore Air. We paid an amazing $188 CAD fare three or four years ago. Looked at a Feb 22 (spouses birthday) 2023 fare....it was $188 CAD three days ago. Higher on other days. We have done the same flight on Air Asia from KUL for $300 CAD. In general flights within Asia are very inexpensive.

Although we are in our ealy 70's we do not want to spend our winters in a condo in Florida or Arizona. We prefer to knock off more interesting (to us) foreign destinations that are on our respective bucket lists. If we eventually cut down on air travel I see us doing more winter trips to Mexico and Costa Rica, etc. We can fly direct in five hours which is a snap for us.

 

[brett]

We would like to do a similar Asia/Australia trip next year, adding in Vietnam and Cambodia, while visiting friends that live in Singapore and Malaysia. We are planning this to be one of the longer trips we’ve ever done, maybe 2-3 months in the SE Asian countries, then 2-3 months in Australia since DH has never been there. Planning for ideal timing/weather in each location is a challenge though, especially since we try to time trips to be away during the AZ summer, so the opposite of a snowbird trip.

Usually when we do long trips, we go for a max of three months at a time (mostly due to Schengen limits) so this will be a good test of how long we can be away since each country on this trip will have a separate “clock” on the stay limit.

I always enjoy your posts about your travels Brett, because we don’t know too many other people who enjoy long trip traveling. When you say it will be your last trip, do you mean you won’t go to those destinations anymore, or that you won’t go for as long a time?

Several years ago we flew United to Singapore from Canada. We were routed to SFO and then a 17.5 hour flight to Singapore. We we booked standard economy.

BUT...a few weeks prior to the flight we were able to upgrade to the lay down business class seats for an upgrade price that was significantly lower that what it would have been had we booked this on our original booking.

We very much enjoyed Singapore. We flew to the Philippines for what was to be three weeks. After a week we had enough and were thankful to fly to Thailand.

 

[tmitchell]

Several years ago we flew United to Singapore from Canada. We were routed to SFO and then a 17.5 hour flight to Singapore. We we booked standard economy.

BUT...a few weeks prior to the flight we were able to upgrade to the lay down business class seats for an upgrade price that was significantly lower that what it would have been had we booked this on our original booking.

We very much enjoyed Singapore. We flew to the Philippines for what was to be three weeks. After a week we had enough and were thankful to fly to Thailand.

We just booked a 3 week trip in January to Thailand & hitting Singapore for a few days as well. What are your recommendations for Singapore?

 

[explanade]

I've only been to Singapore once.

My recollection is that because it's so small most of the attractions are cultural, like Chinatown and the various dining options, from low-priced food halls to fine dining.

It has a beautiful skyline but it rained a lot during my visit so I mostly stayed inside. Even when it's not raising, the humidity drives people inside. There are many passageways between the skyskrapers, which are air conditioned, with a lot of shopping malls.

There was this beautiful walking track which was like an elevated walkway going through a lot of wooded areas, near the southern coast, where there is also an island that seems like a theme park.

Never got a chance to visit those because of the weather.

 

[NW-Bound]

We cannot match the stamina of earlier posters who can go for a month or longer through crowded Asian cities.

I am currently on the 3rd week of a month-long trip through Northern Italy. Lots of open space. Yet, we are getting tired. We have done these long trips before in Europe, and have gone even much longer on RV trips.

Old age is catching up with us, I think. Won't be long now before cruising is all we can do. Sad.

 

[Marita40]

Good to hear about Slovenia! I’m headed there next week for the first time.

 

[braumeister]

We just booked a 3 week trip in January to Thailand & hitting Singapore for a few days as well. What are your recommendations for Singapore?

I'll be happy to hear your report on that trip. Singapore has been on my bucket list for years.

 

[brett]

We cannot match the stamina of earlier posters who can go for a month or longer through crowded Asian cities.

I am currently on the 3rd week of a month-long trip through Northern Italy. Lots of open space. Yet, we are getting tired. We have done these long trips before in Europe, and have gone even much longer on RV trips.

Old age is catching up with us, I think. Won't be long now before cruising is all we can do. Sad.

We spend very little time in 'crowded' Asian cities. Two or three nights in Bangkok to recoup from the flight and then we head south to some uncrowded beaches well away from the usual tourist areas.

Same in Vietnam, Malaysia, and Australia.

It is the same in Europe. We might do a five weeks on the Greek Islands, a few weeks in Cyprus or Sicily, Portugal, etc.

The one or two nights at the most in our departure city.

 

[explanade]

So you're not near amenities like restaurants or supermarkets?

I've spent time in small villages or staying at a place away from the center, where you're at least a kilometer away from things you'd need daily like restaurants.

Go to markets often but never cook anything.

I guess on trips that last a 3-4 weeks or more, one might be more inclined to cook some meals.

Also the more remote the place where you stay, the less likely there are interesting places to visit or see nearby.

 

[brett]

We are always near restaurants. Often open air family restaurants. And very often place that cater more to Thai rather than tourists. So not unusual for us to take the train south from Bangkok to place like Baan Krut and then work our way south to Penang in Malaysia. Then back on the other side through some islands, stopping in Kho Lanta and Khao Lak. In the past we have spent enough time in Bangkok, Kuala Lumper, etc. We always spend a few days in Georgetown, Penang.

No, we do not cook for ourselves. Hardly worth the effort when we enjoy local Thai , Vietnamese,etc. food.