Advice to those from 30-50 (2013, international flights, Spain, trips)
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When I retire hopefully this year, I am going to miss the many thousands of dollars that I spent on vacations, but I don't regret them. It's gotten harder as I got older due to health changes. I have known a few older couples that travelled a lot, but I've also known some that couldn't. It's a risk to wait.
Awesome advice.
My husband and I just turned 50, and we already have regrets about places we didn't go, and things we didn't do.
You still have time! I think that's Gentlearts point, and it's a good point. My hubby and I are in our 50s and realizing we should be traveling and experiencing things now, not putting it off. Y'all just turned 50, do it now. No regrets, 50 is nothing.
Once you have kids, except for a few trips to the beach or Disneyworld, it is too much of a hassle. Also, when your kids hit middle school age, sports take over all the school vacations.
I think if travel is important to you and you are willing to do the planning, work and be flexible then it is totally not too much hassle. And sports don't have to take over all your vacations. My kids are in travel sports but we still manage to take big vacations 1 or 2 a year. And yes, they have missed some games, but I think it's all about balance.
My kids are young teenagers but we have taken them all over - four trips to Hawaii, two to Costa Rica, Alaska, Paris, Italy, Grand Canyon and Yellowstone. We are heading to Australia this summer. We took the kids at 2 and 4 years old to Hawaii and they did great, even on the plane. They had both flown before and we had plenty of snacks and toys and timed the flights to coincide with naps.
But we definitely plan a trip that works for the kids. We did beach type trips when they were younger and didn't take them to Europe until they are 9. The only big mistake we've made was we took my son at 5 to the Grand Canyon and he was too active and young. We ended up leaving a day early because we were staying on the rim and neither my husband or I felt safe with him near the canyon.
We always get condos when we can, especially when they were young to limit the number of restaurant meals they had to sit through, plus gave us some space so they could take naps. We limit the number of hotels and cities to one or two at the most. And we plan plenty of downtime as well as activities that they would enjoy. Lots of toys, snacks, and movies. We spend hours looking for flights (we do frequent flier with credit card points to save money) to get the best itinerary. When we did Hawaii we found the best flight and called American and looked for open tickets anytime in 2006 on those flights.
I think that every hassle (and meal we've eaten take out in a beautiful place because the kids were tired) has been very well worth it for our family memories and for the kids global view. My kids are fantastic travelers and love going places. I expect both will travel a lot as adults and it is something that I am very happy to imparted to them.
Okay....so why not plan the more strenuous and adventurous trips for pre-retirement...and allow for other types of travel after retirement? I don't want to overly "deprive" myself saving for retirement but I want to do more than sit at home when I'm 65.
Yes to this. While I'm still working full-time, and then when I get my pension pay-outs a few years from now, I'm holidaying in North America, and hope to go to Chile as my retirement treat. After that, when I'm in retirement, I'll look at coach trips to Europe.
Long international flight?? First of all, flying to Peru isn't exactly the same as flying to Hong Kong. Hell, it's a shorter flight for me to Lima than it is to Seattle. Secondly, and even more to the point, what exactly is to endure? You're sitting in a chair eating, drinking, and watching movies. Or perhaps, even sleeping! How difficult is that? Now I can understand other aspects of the trip being too much for someone who is elderly and/or has health problems, but the length of the international plane flight itself is not really relevant.
I'm really envious.
Sitting in a cramped seat in the cattle class is a torture for the vast majority of travelers. Even worse, the fear of flying could make it a nightmare when the turbulence is really bad.
Flying to Hong Kong also gives you the jet lag problem, which is a big deal for some people.
If you have some available funds, traveling when you are younger is fun and really seemed more stress free. I lived in Europe for a few months as a teen so I was always ready to go back, jump on and off trains and enjoy the food and cultures.
This was back in the day when there were swarms of college kids around Europe and yes, people really did have guitar singalongs on the trains while passing wineskins around. Wouldn't change those experiences for anything now.
DH and I also did long road trips, including from Maine down to the Keys hitting interesting sites along the way. When the kids arrived, we would rent an RV and fly out West and travel around the National Parks during summer vacations. That was priceless. Combined with trips to Hawaii, a few cruises, Disney (of course) along with trips to historical cities and sites, these form some of our happiest family memories.
DH and I still take a major trips but 6-7 hours in a plane is about our toleration limit. Travel seems like more of a hassle now but still worth it. We plan to go to Alaska, back to the British Isles, South Pacific (cruise) and maybe some river cruises but I know we could not recreate our past experiences now or enjoy them as much.
I know too many people who waited and sadly their time never came. No regrets!
My husband and I are in our mid-thirties and make it a priority to travel now. We aren't guaranteed a tomorrow as other posters have mentioned. We're also not guaranteed good health or a good financial situation. Right now we have the health and the money to do some budget traveling. Sure, vacation time is limited but we take "quick trips" which are 3-4 night trips tied to a weekend.
If we make it to retirement age and are healthy/have money we will do some light traveling. But we certainly won't spend a day mountain hiking, walking 10 miles in a new city, a cramming as much as we can into one trip. The time to do that is now.
My husband and I are in our mid-thirties and make it a priority to travel now. We aren't guaranteed a tomorrow as other posters have mentioned. We're also not guaranteed good health or a good financial situation. Right now we have the health and the money to do some budget traveling. Sure, vacation time is limited but we take "quick trips" which are 3-4 night trips tied to a weekend.
If we make it to retirement age and are healthy/have money we will do some light traveling. But we certainly won't spend a day mountain hiking, walking 10 miles in a new city, a cramming as much as we can into one trip. The time to do that is now.
Exactly!
Some forms of travel are more expensive while others are physically demanding.
I plan to do a lot of hiking/kayaking/cycling in the next 5 to 10 years.
Financially it's perfectly possible that I'm going to be better after a decade but my health isn't likely to be better as I'm getting old. If everything goes well, I'll do more travels that are more costly but less physically demanding when I'm really old.
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