What travel have you done recently or planning? (move, Canada, friendly)

[Wwanderer]

This has been suggested as a continuing thread, related to seniors travel and the challenges and joy.

I was in Portugal this spring--6 days in Lisbon and 2 in Porto. Loved it, although Lisbon is a city of hills, very steep ones, and Porto was basically built on the edge of a cliff. Part of the trip was business for my husband, but the rest I planned myself.

I'm planning our trip to Barcelona in November, which will be entirely independent (ending in a cruise), and a 2-3 week trip to Thailand/Cambodia/Laos next winter--this one will involve private guides in each location, but also plenty of free time to explore.

[TuborgP]

Just got from Aruba almost two weeks ago. We loved it and had no rain this time.

[Fran66]

I haven't gone anywhere. And I'm not going anywhere.

Oh, I hope people give details of their trip(s) and post pictures!!

Thank you for starting this.

[sweetana3]

Just returned Sunday from 24 days in Japan. Visited from Tokyo to Nagasaki up to Hokkaido and back down to Tokyo. Took every form of transportation (including the magical bullet train at 200 MPH). Visited the famous hot spring resorts and was one of the lucky 28% of tourists to see and photograph Mt. Fuji under perfect conditions. Not more expensive than here unless you want all western size hotels and food.

Japan is clean, friendly, well organized, on time (always), and full of delicious foods. What a contrast with our own country. They can tell you within inches on train platforms where to stand to be exactly at the door of the right car and it will be there exactly on time.

Negatives: Cities like Tokyo are incredibly busy and crowded. Subway there is 5 times bigger and more complex than London. You have to give up that you will be able to read most of the signs. Just enough English to help but very limited. Still, I feel comfortable there.

[Wwanderer]

Okay, so why was Portugal wonderful? Hmm. Second time I'd been there, spent a week in northern Portugal and Porto a few years back.

Anywhere in Europe is terrific, as far as I'm concerned, because it's so different from N.A. So much history, so much sophistication I guess, the "weight" of all that history perhaps. I like seeing how other people live. Portugal is cheaper than many places in Europe, has amazing architecture, churches, castles, beautiful little villages and towns, quite a distinct culture, interesting food...

The food--a challenge. I find that even when I was young I tended to be kind of, uh, shy sometimes to try something new, or barge right in and ask about something. So I missed out sometimes. In Portugal the cuisine is very good, but it's quite different--we have little exposure to it in North America--it's not a cuisine that has "caught on" like Italian or Chinese or Thai, or French food. So it's a little intimidating, frankly.

But we were lucky enough to be hosted for our first several days in Lisbon by colleagues of my husband (he's a retired university teacher, and he was speaking at a conference.) They were lovely, gracious people and they took us to places we would have not have otherwise gone, and exposed us to the cuisine. Fish, fish, and more fish. Plus pork. Cooked usually with sauces, and simple vegetables like carrots and potatoes. I love fish, but felt I was turning into one after a couple of days! One charming young girl told me that Portugal is the only country whose national dish comes from across the ocean (cod, from the Grand Banks off Canada.) They get their cod now from Norway, by the way.

We had "comfort food" in Porto, a specialty of the city, called Francesinha (little Frenchy), which is like an old-fashioned hot roast beef sandwich with gravy, but with several kinds of ham and sausauge in it, huge slices of thick bread, gravy, and topped with tons of melted cheese. A real artery buster! Then again, we also tried the European Portuguese version of "feijoada", which is almost the national dish in Brazil. It's almost like a cassoulet, with white navy beans, baked in a casserole with onions, spices of various kinds, and meats, mostly pork--several cuts--ours was made with wild boar.

BTW, I read before I went that older women in Portugal dress very conservatively, so despite travelling directly from Florida, I made sure to take a wardrobe of subdued colours, mostly black. Even so, I was the only woman in Lisbon wearing sport's sandals I think--David said after a long day of sightseeing that all the women that day were staring at my feet! One of the nice things about age--I don't care!!

[Wwanderer]

And just to tie this firmly to the Retirement board--I wear sports sandals whenever I can to walk on cobble-stones because they are comfortable and have good traction! Any other kind of shoes leaves me terribly foot-sore at the end of the day, or gives me crazy-stiff calves.

A hint for old legs in Lisbon--take the trams and trolleys. But we did climb all the way up to the castle and ride back down on a trolley, which was kind of stupid in retrospect. Our second hotel in Lisbon was in a very hilly district--we saw old folks (about our age) hoofing it up and down those cobbled streets like it was nothing!! And here we were pausing to catch our breath and wheeze!

I don't have any pictures from this trip up on a website yet, so can't post them here, and I have precious and limited bandwidth right now where I am (at my summer cottage). But I will try to do that soon.

[StealthRabbit]

I have been home only about 10 days since Oct, so travel most the time and have a lot of fun doing it!. I have to stay home awhile to mow the lawn and a few fields. But will manage to escape to Colorado next week, then Nebraska, San Diego and back home to mow the lawn (I need a goat (a few goats)). Rain / mowing will come to a stop about 1 day after 4th of July fireworks, then I will be more free to travel, but PNW is worth hanging around in summer.

Thailand, China, Malaysia, and Singapore last month; NM, AZ, CA last week.

Need to renew Visas, so will be BANNED from international travel for a few weeks. (Passport needs to go to Visa Renewals)

Plan to do the Round-the-world venture (12 months / 12 stops + connections) and end up living / renting places in countryside Europe. Also will end up living in Asia part of each yr for Healthcare; at least till I'm old enough for Medicare.

Lived in Spain, Singapore, and a Canadian Island - great life while it lasted.

[earlyretirement]

We LOVE traveling and it's one of our biggest passions in life. So far this year we spent time in Vail, Breckenridge, Buenos Aires, Rio, San Francisco, just got back from Palm Springs. In 2 weeks we're heading to Maui for 2.5 weeks. Then heading to Bora Bora in August then NYC in December to celebrate the holidays and NYE.

[Lodestar 77]

I went on my first cruise in March. I wrote a report about it in the Cruise forum.


I just returned from my first cruise (Central America). My ship was the NCL Star. I can now say "been there, done that". Please do not let my opinions and feelings affect your interest in cruising if you have not experienced a cruise yet.

My stateroom was fine, I have no complaints about the size or the size of the bathroom. My youngest granddaughter (5) was registered with me, but she spent most nights with her parents and sister (7). I had both girls twice and one girl twice. My Deck 8 stateroom slept 4, two twin beds, a top pull down bunk, and a trundle bed. Nobody used the upper bunk, and the trundle was used once, but there was plenty of room even with 3 single beds in a row. Had 2 portholes/windows but an obstructed view due to the lifeboats. I knew this going in, and could still see the water, so no complaints. Room service was free except btwn midnight and 5am, I didn't use it until after 7am most mornings, and I LOVED it! Hot tea and pastries delivered right to my door at the specified time. The food was disappointing for the most part , the "cover" restaurants were better but still had a little room for improvement in taste, IMO. I am a "food snob", I don't eat much but what I do eat I want to be good quality. The "cover" restaurants I went to, two of them, were comped by my SIL's title as a "tier 7" gambler, otherwise I would not have paid to eat on a cruise that provides included "anytime" food when I can pay to go to an upscale restaurant at home.

I went on 2 of the 4 excursions my family took. The first day docked I wandered around trying to get acclimated, and was terribly disappointed that nothing onboard was open until later that evening when everyone was onboard ready to set sail. C'mon, open the gift shop at least. I got pretty bored. The second excursion day I did not go on with my family was rained out, they came back pretty much right away. The girls actually wanted to go to Kids Camp every day/evening, which impressed me. But being spring break there were alot of kids onboard and the staff were great with them.

Activities, lets see....not to my taste or expectations. We are in 2013, can we lose the old days of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and sock hops and move on? Karaoke, several shows, and bar music were all guilty of being stuck in the old days. Heck, I'm old and this era/music is older than me! Bingo actually ticked me off, there was a set time, cards should have been being sold as people arrived. Nope, there had to be a sales pitch first on the different packages, then line up to buy, explain to just about everyone the same speech on what costs what for what, my daughter and I could not stay as we had somewhere else we had to be so we didn't have enough time. Played "Deal or No Deal" the first night, what a joke! Attended a sales pitch, oops, I mean a seminar on shopping in the 4 ports we were stopping in. All had the same stores, all sold the same booze, cigarettes, perfume and jewelry in each port as well as on the ship. The Art Auction also was a major disappointment! My oldest granddaughter is very artistic, and she found a painting she really liked that was going to be auctioned off. I wanted her to see and experience a real auction, and to see how much her choice sold for. What a joke! Again, lots of lip-service, wasted time, we never did get to the auction part of the event. I went back alone a little later, for the champagne, never got any and never did see any of the auction as it still was not happening. I did enjoy the acrobatics show, the magic show and the folding towels into animals demonstration that I attended with my granddaughters, and the circus the Kids Camp put on.

I did not like being out in the open water at night, pitch black, with no land, lights or other signs of life in sight. It was not only a bit scary, but very lonely to me. This was the first night, the last night there was another cruise ship on the water in the distance (I loved seeing it all lit up in the night) as well as land because of the lights onshore. Being on the water is similiar to being in an airplane, the "turbulence" is apparant and makes me very aware I am not on solid ground. So, I don't know if I will take another cruise or not. There are too many places in the good old USA I haven't seen, and I want to travel to them before I go out of the country again. God Bless America!

I am thankful I was given the opportunity to experience something I have never done before, and that I didn't think I would ever do. God is good!

[tijlover]

I was always lived in fear I'd never live long enough to do some foreign traveling, when retired, so I got all my foreign travels out of the way, and I'm glad I did, because foreign travel can be very exhausting.

Now I'm just doing domestic travel, and with my developing hatred of driving a car, I just fly to the cities that have a good inner city rail/mass transit system in place, anything to avoid getting behind the wheel of a car!

Last 3 months, 6 trips to San Francisco, Sacramento, L.A., Reno and 2 weeks ago to San Diego where I spent a couple days in Tijuana.

Living in the low humidity desert transforms the body where you become increasingly intolerant of humidity, so my choices are rather limited here for me in the summer, no trips east of the Rockies! No deadly collisions with high humidity!

Want to take a 5 day trip the end of the month, but where? And I don't want to drive a car! But I may just cave in and drive over to SW Colorado/Durango/Telluride to see some mountain streams. No rivers/streams in Las Vegas!