What are the downsides you have found to traveling

[truenorth418]

I love travel and spend over 40% of my time away. That said, there are a few things I don't like about it:

1. I travel alone usually. So I get lonely sometimes.

2. I don't get to work out very often or as well on the road vs when I am at home. I physically feel my muscles soften and dystrophy after being away a few days.

3. It's hard to eat well when I travel. I hit McDonald's etc a little too often.

[athena53]

For me it's the airports. Getting through baggage check-in and the "security" lines is a huge unknown. It could take 15 minutes. It could take 2 hours. I can feel my blood pressure drop once I'm landside. Of course, most boarding areas are crowded and chaotic with periodic beeping carts and announcements so if I'm faced with a long layover I buy a day pass at an airline lounge.

Now that I'm retired, I frequently pad the itinerary with an overnight in both directions since there are no nonstops to Europe from my home airport- typically I transit through ORD, ATL or DFW. It saves stress over whether I'll make mission-critical connections. I'm going to Iceland from Boston in August and spending overnights in Boston both ways.

In general, though, I love travel and have managed to find ways around some of the most annoying aspects.

[eleighj416]

We have noticed that time zone changes affect us more in the last few years. Just got back from a multi-week trip to India with a cruise to Athens. My body felt like it was on UK time for 4 weeks.


Ed

[HadEnuff]

As far as domestic air travel, the biggest downside is being treated like a piece of cattle by an industry that doesn't have enough competition to care about customer service. At least flying out of semi-rural areas served by one airline.
Terrible schedules, being bumped, and gouged on prices.

Internationally, you can take all of that and add customs, and long flights and having my reservations magically disappear. I will say that all of my misadventures have been caused by US companies. Once I was in the hands of non US airlines, I was treated much better.

I largely limit my travel now to driving. I fly to see my kids once a year. What I don't like about driving is that traffic seems to be continually getting worse, and my back bothers me more than it ever did, so I need to be more mindful of resting, and not trying to drive long hours, which puts me into motel rooms longer than I really want. But at least that's under my control.
A couple of years ago I had the experience of being on the tarmac for 5 hours, waiting to take off for a 5 hour flight. We couldn't get back to a gate. WE couldn't move around. My back was spasming. Some lady fouled herself because they wouldn't let her use the lav. Freekin' torture.
At least if I'm driving I can get off the road and rest, or call it a day.

[Danmar]

Been retired almost 11 years (67 years old). Still travel a lot and love it. However, have to admit that the flights are not enjoyable. I have to laugh when they say "enjoy your flight". How? So basically only fly business class usually purchased with "points". Also, the time zone differences seem harder to get over now so we always set aside 2-3 days at a nice hotel or resort when we first arrive to get over the jet lag. Insist on workout facilities at all places and really spare no expense to get first class accommodations. Too old for "roughing it".

[brett]

We tend to be slow travelers.

One thing that has significantly improved out travel experience has been the switch to carry on luggage only since retiring. We can each easily physically handle it under all circumstances and we do not have to rely on others. Especially good when we miss airline connections since the first question asked is 'do you have any checked bags'.

This may be coming to an end soon. We travel with ipads. Not certain if the travel restrictions will extend from laptops to ipads.

[meierlde]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HadEnuff I largely limit my travel now to driving. I fly to see my kids once a year. What I don't like about driving is that traffic seems to be continually getting worse, and my back bothers me more than it ever did, so I need to be more mindful of resting, and not trying to drive long hours, which puts me into motel rooms longer than I really want. But at least that's under my control. At least if I'm driving I can get off the road and rest, or call it a day.

Actually the amount of traffic depends on where you are going. Recently I drove from Central Tx to KC and going found a nice way (US 177) to bypass Oklahoma City. Very little traffic except thru Stillwater. In the east unless you are going to a specific big city there are rural routes to shunpike around the cities. (Or to go a bit further drove thru the Flint hills of KS and they where positively empty.) A couple of years ago drove accross central IL on US 136 and no traffic in fact it got to be a good distance between gas stations. This does mean reading a map and ignoring gps directions which seem to love freeways. (Anyway the US from interstates is dull in the east just lots of trees and the things at exits are all the same). Getting off the interstates there is more variety in the small towns.

[Amethyst]

We were never big travelers, but sometimes one yearns for something different, and travel certainly provides that.

We appreciate organized tours because I hate staff work - the curating of every little detail - yet Mr. A. wants structure and predictability. The downside of organized tours is the same as Sartre's view of l'infer, c'est les autres gens. The last tour we went on had 24 people, mostly 65-75. Twelve wanted to sit around all night drinking; we like alcohol, but can't hold our own with big drinkers. The rest were such stunning bores, I am surprised no one has ever shot them for it. I certainly wanted to, and I am usually patient at drawing people out about their interests, etc. But after one woman went on and on and on about her broken refrigerator and difficulties with the appliance service contract they'd purchased, and the other one went on and on about the hard life of a medical coder, we decided that we were eating on our own from then on.

[Teacher Terry]

If we take our RV we travel from 2-4 weeks max. If we fly it is anywhere from 1-3 weeks. We usually take 2 trips/year. The time zone thing is getting worse the older we get. We hate organized tours so do our own thing. Which means if we are tired and need a nap we take one. We also do shorter trips closer to home so we drive. We visit family occasionally and usually stay for a week.

[braumeister]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Souschef What happened to us was we gave up organized tours. What we do now is to follow a tour's itinerary, BUT at our pace, No bags outside at 7 on the bus at 8, etc.

+1
I've always hated tours. Too many people, too regimented, too little free time.

When we go someplace new, I research it to death online and make my own itinerary. Sometimes DW and I will have completely different interests when visiting a new place, so we part company after breakfast and meet again for dinner. Works great for us.

Recently, we've had to put up with the organized nonsense a couple of times (Alaska/Denali and Galapagos) but by choosing a high end outfit (Lindblad/NatGeo for both) it was quite bearable.

[Fedup]

We don't do tours but my husband usually goes where I go. But I take his and my interest in mind when I plan my trip. We plan our trips way ahead.

[Bamaman]

I've been traveling extensively since 1970 when I went to college in Austria. I also traveled all over the U.S. when working (before ER). We've been to virtually every Caribbean island except Martinique--even the tiny places few have heard of. We've also been to all the major European cities 2, 3, 4, 5 times even. There are few U.S. major cities I care to visit.

The downside to being ER'd: When you've been just about everywhere you want to see, the thrill of travel is just not there every trip. Now, we just travel when the trips are really, really inexpensive. And with the internet, bargains abound.

The other side to traveling often is every time we leave town, some major calamity happens with our needy daughter that has poor judgement. We come home to problems of some kind.

Now my wife's having mid foot arthritis and is going to have surgery in August. She'll be completely off her foot 7 weeks. We have no idea what her travel future will be. We may be limited to traveling North America by automobile in the future. But there's nothing really wrong with that. There's plenty of scenery to see here.

[kcowan]

We travel Westjet non-stop from Vancouver to PV each year and then VCR to Europe via international carrier (this year BA, others KLM and Lufthansa). We have taken Air Turkey and Vueling for intra-Europe travel. Will try Air Berlin this year.

We also have a wind-down day upon arrival and then a stock-up day. Because we are in airbnb in 3 cities, we will probably travel with condiments. Sometimes we do walking tours through CruiseCritic referrals.

Quote:

Now my wife's having mid foot arthritis and is going to have surgery in August. She'll be completely off her foot 7 weeks. We have no idea what her travel future will be.

When we returned from Mexico with my left foot in a cast, we booked wheelchairs with the airlines and they were great. Actually more convenient than regular travel. By the time she is in a walking cast, travel should be bearable.

[HadEnuff]

Quote:

Originally Posted by meierlde Actually the amount of traffic depends on where you are going. Recently I drove from Central Tx to KC and going found a nice way (US 177) to bypass Oklahoma City. Very little traffic except thru Stillwater. In the east unless you are going to a specific big city there are rural routes to shunpike around the cities. (Or to go a bit further drove thru the Flint hills of KS and they where positively empty.) A couple of years ago drove accross central IL on US 136 and no traffic in fact it got to be a good distance between gas stations. This does mean reading a map and ignoring gps directions which seem to love freeways. (Anyway the US from interstates is dull in the east just lots of trees and the things at exits are all the same). Getting off the interstates there is more variety in the small towns.

yes you are correct. In fact, where I live, in Upstate NY there is relatively little traffic, which is probably why I find heavy traffic so annoying. Most of my longer trips are down the Eastern Seaboard to South Caroline, Georgia and Florida and that is pretty heavily travelled, even at the best of times.

[DrRoy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by novaman I have noticed a few downsides to all this traveling, though. 1- I'm tired a lot. 2- I am getting sick more often. I contracted travelers diarrhea in Honduras, food poisoning in Puerto Rico, and I caught a cold at the end of my trip to Iceland. 3- It's tough to jump back into life back home. Anyone else have any downsides they have noticed and some things they have done to minimize these negatives?

We just fully RE'd 2 months ago, age late 50's, but have been travelling extensively for 8 years. Last Sept. for example, we spent 2 1/2 weeks in Norway. We don't have as much energy as we did when we were younger, but we pace ourselves more and plan a little less per day to account for it. We have not found that we are getting sick more often. Perhaps in Honduras, you need to avoid the local water like in Mexico. If travelling is fatiguing you it can make you more susceptible to catching something, so if you fix #1 it might help #2. Before RE, we liked to have at least a full day home before going back to work. That usually let us get back to normal. You could leave more time.

[Bamaman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by athena53 . . . . . . . Now that I'm retired, I frequently pad the itinerary with an overnight in both directions since there are no nonstops to Europe from my home airport- typically I transit through ORD, ATL or DFW. It saves stress over whether I'll make mission-critical connections. I'm going to Iceland from Boston in August and spending overnights in Boston both ways.

We recently flew back into Boston from Oslo and had to spend the night after an early p.m. arrival. We found Boston airport hotels outrageously expensive with the cheapest place @ $212 per night after taxes.

We'll be looking for less expensive alternative cities to fly thru next trip.

[athena53]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bamaman We recently flew back into Boston from Oslo and had to spend the night after an early p.m. arrival. We found Boston airport hotels outrageously expensive with the cheapest place @ $212 per night after taxes. We'll be looking for less expensive alternative cities to fly thru next trip.

I use Hilton points- I rack up enough from e-Rewards (filling out marketing surveys) and from Hampton Inns on my occasional road trips. Good use of points.

[folivier]

We've been enjoying "slow traveling" for a few years now. One thing we do when gone longer than a month is to fly back "home" for a few days to catch up on family and grandkids. Non-retired friends think we're totally nuts when we do that, but what do they know?

[kramer]

Just to offer possible answers for some questions on this thread:

* Trouble logging into brokerage account from abroad
One solution is to pay for a VPN service -- I do this due to living abroad as I use it to access all my financial accounts in the US anyway. I can also run it on my phone. On my laptop, I just double click something and my VPN is on, I can choose which country it will look like I am located. I also always have a sim card with good data access, indispensable for travel -- my phone has an option to turn into a WiFi hotspot so I can use that bandwidth for my laptop.

* If you get traveler's diarrhea (or worse food illness)
The first thing to try is not immodium (which just slows the flow) but Ciprofloxacin -- this is the first tier anti-biotic recommended by the CDC for traveler's diarrhea and food illness. Second tier is Azithromycin. You can get these over the counter in many overseas countries, I always stock up just to have some with me for travel sickness. I do use immodium (loperamide) if I have the runs and need to get on with my day or travel.

* For snail mail I use a mail forwarding service
They scan any mail I request, I get a picture of any snail mail I receive in my email inbox the day it arrives. This is not for everyone, just a possibility. I do not receive mail at my residence.

* For workouts
I like to go for a run and/or go to the gym when I can. Usually I will research where a running path is in a city before my vacation (relative to my hotel). Same goes for nearby gyms that I might be able to pay per use. I have not found many hotels useful in suggestions for this. But yeah losing this routine is one of the drags for me about travel. I also know some less rigorous workout stuff I can do in my room or a park.

* For preventing sickness
I am rigorous about washing my hands on the plane, not touching my face frequently, and usually bring alcohol-based hand rub. I have also brought nasal saline solution to keep sinuses moist in the dry air, makes you less susceptible to illness. I got tired of getting sick from flights.

[joeea]

Quote:

Originally Posted by novaman Anyone else have any downsides they have noticed and some things they have done to minimize these negatives?

Airline travel sucks far more than ever. If I could drive to the destinations in a reasonable period of time I would.

I minimize it by traveling as seldom as I can while still making my wife happy. We both like being there, but hate the journey.