What are the downsides you have found to traveling

[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]

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]

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.

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]

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]

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]

. . . . . . . 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]

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]

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.

 

[kramer]

I have been retired for 10 years (now age 51). My first 5 years were long travel, many months at a time, and I also tried living for a period in 4 different countries. But I got tired of such long travel. For me, that was a phase of life, I don't regret it and I learned a lot, but I am in a different phase now.

Now that I have settled down (Philippines), I like my place and my routine. I find that anything over a 3 week trip is long (besides my annual 6 week trip back to the States). Sometimes I have ambition to travel longer, but I listen to myself now. Last year I had the trip of a lifetime to the Middle East (Israel/Jordan/Turkey), it was unbelievable ... but at 5 weeks it was too long. This year I am going to Japan for 2.5 weeks -- I know I can easily go back to see more when I am ready (just a 4 hour flight for me). And I always plan rest time in there -- my travel buddy and I are taking two long rest days in luxury in the middle of our Japan trip and we are careful about not trying to do too much.

Re: Loneliness
I am an introvert. I have found day tours help you find friends ... this really worked for me in Israel and Jordan last year...I really was never lonely. I also tried staying at a hostel for the first time in a long time and I met some nice people ... After my tours I ended up hanging out in Jerusalem for a couple of evenings with someone from a similar background. Another solution is to find a travel buddy ... I found one a few years ago and we took trips to Turkey (she joined me after my Israel/Jordan leg of my trip) and Myanmar and we are meeting again in Japan this summer. We are both easy going.

 

[sengsational]

When viewed from an historical perspective, the ability to travel was limited to those with significant means, so captured an aura of ... je ne sais quoi. Let's just say talk of trips to far away lands often put one above the rest. I often wonder, without that historical boost, if the ability to travel would be viewed differently. Just look at this thread to see it can have some serious "no fun" moments. My Dad used to day "If you want all the comforts of home, then stay home."

As to the downsides, I share much of what has been noted so-far, and won't put my spin on those, but one additional thing that I don't like is that there are too many decisions! I'm not a decisive person, neither is DW, so what to do, where to go, what and when to eat, all of those trivial things, can get trying. To alleviate problems here I like to have solid/researched plans before we leave. Or you can pay once for "everything" (ie a cruise or all-inclusive) and be done with decision making. That means being less in touch with the places you visit, though. And, like others here, I'm not into the group travel thing as it's too regimented.

 

[OldShooter]

... I'm not a decisive person, neither is DW, so what to do, where to go, what and when to eat, all of those trivial things, can get trying. To alleviate problems here I like to have solid/researched plans before we leave. ...

If you arrange a private tour, you can participate in the planning to whatever extent you like. At the end, you'll have a written itinerary for whole trip. The more you participate the more exactly tailored the trip will be. Photography? Culture? History? Hiking? Bicycling? Whatever and whenever you like.

If you're interested in Africa, these folks do a great job on custom tours and have become friends of ours: South Africa safaris | South African tours | South African safaris See the "What We Do" section; this is typical of custom tour organizers. Usually they will have sample tours as jumping off points for planning, as does Bushbaby. Their "Northern Explorer" example is actually based on a trip we designed with them a few years ago.

... Or you can pay once for "everything" (ie a cruise or all-inclusive) and be done with decision making. That means being less in touch with the places you visit, though. And, like others here, I'm not into the group travel thing as it's too regimented.

Agree completely on cruises. To us, it's like traveling in a bubble. Leave the bubble in a homogeneous herd for a few hours a day, then back into the bubble. IMO staying home but going to a four star hotel and watching travel videos is about the same experience. The food will be better, too.

 

[W2R]

My Dad used to day "If you want all the comforts of home, then stay home."

Great quote!!

 

[Ally]

While I still love to travel, the preparations are getting old. Also paying about $100 a day to kennel our three dogs and have someone feed our two cats, is getting old. We tried several house sitters for all our pets without success. All had issues of some sort.

Plus, I don't feel the need to escape as much as I did while working.

 

[ItDontMeanAThing]

For several years now I've taken 5-6 week trips in April-May to get out of Hua Hin during the hottest time of the hear, and 4 weeks in Sept - Oct to miss the worst rain.

Fatigue and jet lag are 2 biggest issues. Gave myself a business class flight for my 60th birthday because my after-tax account was obviously going to last far beyond turning 59.5 yrs old. They say a luxury once sampled becomes a necessity*. It soon did because of how much less fatigue and jet lag I experienced.

I've lost muscle mass as I've aged. Realizing it affected travel fatigue motivated me to resume regular exercise besides walking. Beginning about 2-3 months before a trip I add walking hills and stairs, lifting a 10kg cabin bag from floor to overhead, and carrying that bag up and down 3 flights of starts at my apartment.

I hate the aggravation and wasted time of hunting for essential answers during a trip to questions I could have known before leaving home. Googling produces answers that I store in a wiki on my phone and laptop. Takes a lot of time buy saves a lot of in-trip aggravation.

*After my third trip with long business class flights I realized it’s time to switch to another quote. Last year I read about the discovery of a walled off section of a NYC subway line. It contained the deteriorating remains of one of the best known and most opulent private subway cars from the era when the system accommodated them. The author found a quote by the owner from the period she was using the car. When asked if a private car was an acquired taste, she replied, ‘No. One takes to it immediately.’

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

One of the things I was looking forward when retiring was more travel. However, I have found that I just don't enjoy it that much anymore. The DW and I just got back from a trip to Mexico and it was really a living hell. The getting there and back was a huge pain in the ass (over 2 hours waiting for customs in MX) and the number of inconsiderate, immature, idiotic Americans that are out there traveling is nauseating.

In retrospect, I think all the travel I did in the Air Force must have beat me into submission. I kinda thought that when I could travel on MY schedule (as opposed to following Uncle Sugar's itinerary) that it would be much more relaxing and enjoyable...instead it's just misery and it reminds me of the Expedia commercial from a few years ago that asked, "Do you need a vacation from your vacation?" We are going BACK to MX in a few months for a family wedding and I am already dreading it.

I am now thinking that a nice secluded cabin on a remote lake a couple of hours away is more my style.

 

[braumeister]

I think all the travel I did in the Air Force must have beat me into submission. I kinda thought that when I could travel on MY schedule (as opposed to following Uncle Sugar's itinerary) that it would be much more relaxing and enjoyable

Funny, but I've had the opposite reaction. Like you, I spent an entire Air Force career traveling very extensively, but I have to confess I mostly enjoyed it.

Now, we travel on our own schedule but we avoid the typical tourist routine and do our own thing.

Example: Earlier this year, I was offered round trip business class seats to Zurich for just frequent flyer miles. Neither of us had ever been to Switzerland so we grabbed it. Delta also offered a promotional price on a great little hotel in a perfect location so we took that too.

Did a minimal amount of research and found a few things to check out there, but mainly we planned to just spend a week relaxing and exploring the city at random.

We had a fantastic time and very quickly grew to love Zurich (although it's very expensive) and would go back there in a minute.

When you don't have a "must" list, foreign travel can be relaxing and enjoyable. I can think of at least a dozen European cities we have visited this way and I have nothing but wonderful memories of each one. No pressure to see the sights, no fixed itinerary, just take it as it comes.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

We thought we would downsize and travel but instead have stayed in our current house and got a dog. We don't like to leave the dog so we're doing more day trips and driving vacations where he can come with us. We do go out a fair bit more than when we were working but it is more local kind of events like a music crawl on the weekend and a play in the city last night.

 

[iloveyoga]

I recently was gone more than half of the days in a one month period and I found that was too much for me. Since retiring I have found I like my down time and my sit around time. And we have our house fixed up "just right" for us. I still love to travel, but I won't make that mistake again.