We are in our late 60's. We have not done many cruises since retiring. They don't often go where we want to go, and when they do there is not enough time for us and far too many people in the area. Nor do we want to stay in a standard hotel room cabin for days on end, come back from a crowded shore tour for our roast beef dinner at a cost of missing out on the local charms, culture, food, etc.
After many years of very structured/organized business travel most of our travel is spontaneous. We sometimes book end with flights but in between is usually only booked 3-5 days in advance. We avoid the tourist traps and for some more popular spots we only visit on shoulder season. We do two longer trips a year, 2-3 months each. Next month we fly east to visit relatives for a week then fly to Athens. Seven weeks later we fly home from London. London is a great hub. We did not have our itinerary sketched out but this works well. Besides, the airfare was incredible. Plus, we only travel with a 20" carry on roller each. Everyone we know heads south to Arizona, Florida, TX, HI etc. but this is not for us.
No tours yet though we will occasionally take tours with locals. I may do my first group tour to India in the near future. Mys spouse is not keen to go so I may sign up for a 2 week tour plus a week of independent travel either before or after.
Travel is not as expensive as one might imagine. We tend to stay in smaller family owned hotels or B&B's. The trick is not to expect to always stay in 4/5/6 star US style hotels and eat where and what the locals do. Every year in Thailand we see people spending bags of money to stay in large hotels and eat western meals without every eating the fabulous local food. So instead of paying $15 for a wonderful meal for two they spend as much as $40 for a few very mediocre hamburgers etc at some 'hip' place that caters to foreigners. Why even bother going? Exact same, different cost, in Europe.
How do we select. We have our favourites in the winter...Thailand, Vietnam and Europe the fall...Greece, Italy, Croatia, Turkey, Spain, Portugal, where ever really. Selecting really comes down to a convoluted intersection of our respective bucket lists, currency, weather, flight costs or routes, etc. And always very much subject to great last minute travel offers that we do not want to pass up.
We changed our lifestyle. Downsized to a home that is lock and leave. No pets, no plants. HOA does all the gardening and snow removal. Kind neighbour checks the house. Everything possible has been moved to the web instead of hard copy mail.
It is not for everyone and perhaps it is a crazy way to travel at our age. But this is what we are doing for now....already discussing the winter trip even though the Sept/Oct trip needs some work.
