Will you travel when you retire?

[Storm4star]

Having read a few threads about retirement, mainly people discussing pensions, and also from real life conversations. People will often say they need a certain amount of money in retirement so they can still travel or, in some cases, start to travel!

Now I can understand more if people like beach/poolside holidays where you literally just laze all day and maybe eat out in the evening. Or a very gentle cruise. Of course you can still do that at 75 (health permitting). But I genuinely hate those kinds of trips. I like to be doing activities or going off exploring for hours. If I want to just chill I'm happy to sit on my sofa with a book for free!

I just feel that by the time I'm in my 70's I just won't have the energy for long haul, or intense busy trips. I already feel a difference in energy levels/tolerance for jet lag etc in my late 40's compared to in my early 30's so I can only imagine how tough it would feel at 75.

So I guess I'm asking when people say that about travelling, are they talking about just continuing their usual fortnight in the sun or whatever, or something more strenuous? In which case do people think they would have the energy for major worldwide trips?

I do know a couple of people IRL who say they will go on major trips when they're old, AIBU in thinking they're kidding themselves a bit and should do it now while they can enjoy it?

Well I was planning on backpacking Europe when I retire but that has changed and anyway it will be quite a while till I retire .
I do want to do proper trips as I did for a year, so will probably do a couple of months in one country doing home stays and then move to another

Yes I want to keep travelling as long as I can and then it may revert more to a low key relaxing holiday. I am trying to see as much as I can now rather than wait until retirement as my parents planned to do this and my dad died within 3 months of being retired at 65. He had never been anywhere abroad.
I like going on tours which are often quite full on but I agree when you are older it might be too much.

I want to...But I know we'll be too skint.

My parents certainly haven't stopped travelling, camping etc. Their walks are slower and shorter, and they do less in a day, but they are still managing.

I know a few retired couples who sold their house, downsized and then bought a place overseas. They seem to have the most amazing lives spending 6 months here and 6 months over there. My in-laws did it last year and they seem a lot happier and healthier. They are having fantastic time. I have lived abroad in 4 other countries including the country I want to retire to.

I am already scouting the place to find an area I want to live in. I hope my health stands up to be able to do this.

I went on a Ramblers walking holiday in Greece a couple of years ago, and I was the youngest and least fit in the group. I was early 50s at the time, and everyone else was retired. It wasn't mega-strenuous but it was certainly an active break, and a lot of my fellow holidaymakers were doing several such holidays a year. I would absolutely love to have that to look forward to. Unfortunately, with retirement ages going up, it's less likely - most of the people in the group were in the tail end of public sector workers managing to retire at 60 with final salary pensions. But I'm hoping to have a few years of exciting holidays in my late 60s if I can afford it.

Well a lot of the members of my mountain group are well past their retirement age and are going on epic adventures in the late 60s and late 70s.
Someone has just cycled from Lisbon to Seville, a sub group are climbing in the Alps, others are doing very long distance walks. They are much fitter and more active than me!
Fair play!
I hope I'm still like that in 20+ years!

DH and I are retiring in approx. 5 - 7 years (hopefully) - we will be mid 60s - and fully intend to travel - our main plan is a 3/6 month road trip around the USA.

My parents (85 & 87) are currently in Italy on a fairly active walking holiday. They are obviously fortunate to have good health and the finances to afford these sorts of holidays.

They went on a coach trip last year but said they didn't like it 'as it was full of old people' .

I hope to be fit enough to see the world. I'm hoping that all the energy I use for working and looking afger the children will be put into travel. There are also companies that, whilst not my first choice of travel, take a lot of the stress and lifting stuff Even my elderely, unfit mum who has had a lot of chemo has done coach trips round China. I'm hoping maybe they'll be a few years between stopping work and being properly too old to move.

ive got 4 years to retirement and intend to see any places i havent while im working, have seen most places i want to go to anyway, but we have a huge tent and lots of equipment so when we retire will probably go camping when the weather is good or buy a touring caravan

My parents are retired and have just come back from trekking through the jungle in Thailand. They have also recently been to Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia and are off to Nairobi in a few weeks.
Both well into their 70s.

DH is retiring at the end of this year, with one boy just about to start uni and another in the 6th form it will be a year or two yet before we can please ourselves. When we say going travelling we mean visiting places we haven't before or eating our way round the worlds Michelin star restaurants.

God, I hope I’m still active enough to have adventures in my 70s! I certainly intend to! My mother was very active right until her mid80s. I’m 50 and, if anything, am more active now than in my 30s.

God no. I think travel is highly overrated (and I've done a fair bit). Don't want to do it much now, let alone when I retire.

Absolutely. Our plan is to spend between April-October mainly in Greece (we adore it and have a great network of Greek friends there made over the years) but with the option of going elsewhere if the whim takes us. The rest of the year back in the UK but I hope to include mid week city breaks etc.

It's about 10 years away but we talk about it often to keep it alive but mainly to get me through the day in the job I detest

That's the plan. Hoping to retire early to see more of the world or just sit in the sun. I've lost both parents before 70, so darent leave it to chance. My GP sold a big house and spent over ten years travelling and living abroad over the winter. When my grandad died, my GM was flying abroad on her own late into her 80's, she was still resentful in her deathbed that she'd never got to China! Not unlike PIL who have hundreds of thousands sitting in the bank and have been no further than the same B&B in Devon for the past thirty years.

Definitely. We do lots of long haul trips now and plan to do more. My parents and sister live in Belgium, DH’s parents are in Canada and his sister in America. DH would like to move to America but I won’t live there and our DC’s are at Uni in the uk and plan on staying here. I’d like to get a property in France and spend the summer there.

Definitely, I cannot wait to travel more. My parents have been exploring the world more and I definitely hope to.

Your tastes may change as you got older. Before having children I thought that spa days were weird and pointless. Now that I fi have children (and haven't slept properly in years) I would happily pay fir someone to do my nails/wash my face properly/exfoliate my general body (haven't done that si CE before I became a mother!). As you get older you may find a gentle cruise more appealing..

I would love to. I don't think I'd want to do backpacking but we used to do a more comfortable version pre DC and would love to go back to that. Yes age will reduce energy levels but on the other hand I won't be working and looking after small DC!

Actually I'm really hoping we can start those kind of trips when the DC are older ie 10+, that way we should still be in decent health. But will be restricted to 2 weeks max realistically until retirement.

Of course all depends on pension, finances...

I do like chilled hols by pools with a book and a boozy lunch/siesta ...... I couldn't do this at home as I'd be sitting in the garden thinking "that could do with a trim/weed" etc, or on the sofa "should just run the hoover round really". I just find it hard to completely chill in the daytime at home.

But I also love exploring new places and being busy on hols so I hope me and DH do travel when we're retired. His parents are loaded but do nothing, it seems such a waste.

This is why youth is wasted on the young.

I am now fucked physically so keep looking ar holidays and thinking 'nah, I couldn't do that.'

I do. Desperately. As soon as DC are out of uni, DH and I plan to downsize the house and travel to all the places we've never been able to afford. But neither of us are long stay travellers. We like a couple of weeks - a month max - here and there then home, so that shouldn't be too tiring. I want to see China, Sri Lanka, India, Egypt if it's ever safe again, Israel ditto, Costa Rica, parts of USA, maybe New Zealand and Oz. As I get older I'm less inclined to be mega intrepid and put up with extreme discomfort, so not likely we'll be heading for base camp.

depends what you mean by travel.
I have two pensions, one at 60 and one at 65. I will get a lump sum with both. I plan on doing two long haul trips, probably Africa, about 8 to 10 weeks each.
Other than that I plan on pootling around the UK, places I've never had time to visit, staying in YHAs, b&bs, with the occasional last minute deal to Greek Islands, Spain, Portugal. Nothing too flash. I'm quite happy with cheap and cheerful

So long as I'm still getting a free bus pass, I shall travel. I'll be able to get all the way to Gateshead.

Yes - we do, lots of long haul, book it all ourselves, would go mad with boredom after more than two days sitting by a pool. My husband is planning a Central America trip for us and has just asked me to assess my horse riding standard, so this sounds fun ! I think. Not sure I’d want to repeat the overnight Malaysian sleeper trains, though. Too many cockroaches and going over the points sounded like dustbin lids...... My daughter calls it our never ending Gap Yah. Mixture of very budget travel and accommodation and up the front flights and 5 stars hotels courtesy of my husbands accumulated FF and hotel loyalty points from constant business travel.

I have one older friend who has crewed on schooners, travelled the trains in India, backpacked all over the world on local buses - and her 70th birthday celebration last month was epic.

Getting to a certain age, and not constrained by the timetables of children anymore, makes you realise that it is now or never, time isn’t endless and our current good health can go go at any point so why not?