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?

I'll actually be better off when I retire and I'm hoping to travel. There are a number of places and things I want to do . Luckily DH and I both have the same ideas, apart from South Africa.

My DPs (early 70s) are currently road tripping around the States. They book flights, a car and their first night then wing it with a rough idea of where the want to go wending their way to wherever their flight home is booked from. They've done this sort of holiday since retirement about 10 years ago and have seen most of the world. I do worry about them, but they FaceTime regularly and I have their rough itinerary (not that that'll help a great deal but it makes me feel better).
I love that they're spending their money, living their lives and seeing the world, seeing as they didn't even get to go abroad for the first time til they were in their late 40s.

It’s great, and inspirational, to hear of people doing these things in their 70s and 80s. But I notice a lot of posts of people retiring at 60 and then travelling, and I think this is the thing for me. I’m unlikely to retire until 68. I hope not to have to work full time in my 60s but will have to do at least part time I think, if I do want to try and have more money for 70+
I have noticed a big difference in relatives health/energy at 60 and then 70, if that makes sense? I also sadly know of a few people who have died a year or two before retirement, and they were “healthy” people who didn’t drink or smoke, ate healthily etc. Two had severe heart attacks and a few had cancer. So I am firmly in the camp of travelling now whenever I can.

My reason for starting this thread I guess, is that I don’t have a great retirement package. It’s enough, I can maybe holiday once a year in retirement, if I make it to then! But I spend a lot on travelling now that could go into retirement if I was so inclined but I would rather spend it now, while I know i’m fit enough to travel still rather than take the gamble and wait. It just means that if I do retire, and am lucky enough to be fit and healthy, I just won’t be able to travel then as much but will have to just suck it up and stay home! But definitely in my friendship group I seem to be in the minority on this view.

I want to travel until I won't be able to. I love travelling and really work to find my holidays. I think I will work 5 years more then retire. I am looking forward to travelling off peak and not paying a fortune for holidays because of school holidays! 😊

we are planning to do Europe in a boat! Think Pru and Tim but not quite so elderly, although they are a real inspiration in their eighties and still at it!

To that end we are practising on a small narrowboat until dh retires officially, and the children become properly self sufficient, and Brexit sort their arses out and we know where we are!

After that it'll be UK waterways, that's a good couple of years right there, and then at Pru&Tim's age we will be hopefully signing up for the OldFolks cruises to cover warmer climes

I planned to travel when I retired.
Then I got ill, had to retire early, my son died suddenly. I am getting more disabled. Already my options are limited.
I would now advise anyone to travel while you are fit and well.
None of us know what could happen without warning.

Everywhere is crowded enough at the moment, but the next swathe of retirees... you won't be able to move . So many tourist spots are now absolutely ruined, especially with those massive cruise ships disgorging thousands of trippers, and even "we found this little place" spots are now full of people due to TripAdvisor.

Even Mt Everest is infested with people tromping up the initial gentle ascent. And I saw the Gt Wall of China on television, and there were literally thousands of tourists in cardigans and sandals shuffling along.

There is something called "Paris Syndrome" coined by the Japanese, whereby somewhere you have dreamed of going turns out to be a huge disappointment. Paris is not An American in Paris, with artists and writers round every corner and chic people in polo necks smoking Gitanes on the Left Bank.

I would have liked to have travelled in the 1930s, I think, where everywhere in the world was very different. Now I think Time's Up for tourism. It's a scourge.

I go to places now that I want to see rather than waiting for retirement. If I am still fit and healthy and have the money then yes I will continue to travel. But no one knows for sure how their future will pan out so I never think 'I will wait until I am retired' to do something. My DM was diagnosed with a terminal illness a few years after retiring so you just never know.

My DGM is 89 and still does a coach holiday every year, albeit that she restricts herself to the UK these days. My other grandparents did lots of globetrotting with Saga well into their 70s.

As long as you maintain your health and mobility my experience is it's perfectly possible to keep travelling well into retirement.

DH and I took early retirement last year. I'm 62 and he's 57. We've budgeted for about 10 years of travelling, health permitting as I have worsening arthritis. This isn't for backpacking or cruising, just the normal holidays, city breaks and visiting children and friends that we did when we were working.
And we can now choose to go at different times of the year, week etc so hopefully it might turn out to be more economical!

However we have older retired friends who seem to be away all the time, visiting children and friends abroad, rarely spending a weekend or evening at home and they have separately said to me that they are feeling quite tired!
Also when they visit their children abroad, said children take the opportunity to go away themselves leaving my friends to babysit the grandchildren!

I've never had a bucket list of places to see before I die, I'd rather try and carry on enjoying my life with DH while we can.

We have made plans to be able to retire around age 60y and yes, we intend to go away on holidays more, and without the constructions if school holiday ties (I teach.)
I hope to be fit and gestalt for a while after retirement and hope to make the most of it. I already have arthritis and warmer and dryer weather does help - so I'd love to spend much of the winter months away from the U.K.

Obviously time will tell, and it's another 15+ years away.

But we have made financial plans to enable this if that's what we still want to do.

Oh, and we aren't into just sitting around a beach even now, so won't intend on that type of holiday when we first retire anyway. Though so enjoy a lazier winter sun break, which we may well just extend.
But my parents are in their sixties and still enjoy busier holidays and still go long haul. I'm hoping to still have the energy to mange that.

Not likely.

I’m doing it now, whilst I have the money and the health to do what I want.

I expect to get to retirement and have run out of easy places to go. I’m already doing that now and am off to more off the beaten track places.

I'm hoping to retire at 60 and do a couple of years VSO. There's a posting in Rwanda I quite fancy at the moment.

Until then, there are too many places to visit and I can't wait, so we are doing them on a budget as best we can.

My in laws still go interrailing. They're 70.

I'll still travel hopefully, but take it at a slower pace, with more time at each place we stop at.

I don't expect to retire, tbh. I'll be 68 before I can access state pension and my work one is shit. I don't own a house and it's not likely that will change, or if it does, I'll still be paying a mortgage into my late 60s. I imagine working less in old age, but not retiring in the way my parent's generation do.

I doubt I will be able to retire before my 70s. My parents are 62 and 65 and still working full time. They aren't even in great health, but they don't have much choice. They are scrimping trying to work out if how they retire and just afford to live (they don't own a house--housing association).

It's a lovely idea, and lots of 50s people at my work talk about it, but it's not for lots of people.

I think you are right in that you can't predict how healthy you will be in retirement.

My DF was superfit as a 72 yr old, non-smoker, not over weight, ate healthily, loads of exercise. Then he got cancer, spent 2 years having treatment and died.

My DM is now 77. Until last year, again she was the same, travelling as she could on her budget, totally independent. She then got hit with severe autoimmune disease, has had 3 admissions with life threatening sepsis, a broken arm which she will never regain function in, severe fatigue and can only walk v short distances with a stick. She had months when she never left the house and had a carer.

So you as you age things can change and change fast. For both my parents they essentially changed overnight from very fit to massively disabled.

Oh and DH and I are both professionals in public sector jobs and "gold plated" pensions-Well not anymore.

We'll be working at least until 75 I reckon.

Aunt and Uncle have prioritised travel in their retirement. They’ve visited South America, New Zealand, Australia, Sri Lanka, South Africa and many other exotic places, returning to many. Aunt is now late 70’s and Uncle early 80s and only how are they cutting out long haul due to some health issues of uncle’s. They will focus on Europe and river and sea cruises. They have no dependents to fund and are enjoying their hard and long earned money. They don’t buy designer clothes, jewellery or do Michelin starred restaurants. They’ve been in the same house for 25 years. Travel has been their big shared indulgence.
They are an inspiration to me.

We travelled long haul earlier in the year to several countries and combined with a sport. I don't expect to be doing such an active holiday when I'm 70+ if I make it that far. I'm so glad that we have been able to see and do so many wonderful experiences so far. I will be happy to do a different sorts of holiday in the future - hopefully. Holidays are our luxury.

I’m travelling now, not waiting until I retire. There have been too many family members die young or have poor health in retirement to leave all my travelling until then. My mother has fairly severe arthritis and can’t go travelling even if she wanted to.

Having said that, if I have the money and my health is good I’ll certainly so some longer trips once I don’t have to worry about work.

My parents are both early seventies. Still in great health thankfully. They have travelled extensively in the past ten years. Lots of it has been done on cruise ships but they also tend to stop off and stay in lots of places. They are doers, they've done zip lines in Canada, walked the Sydney harbour bridge, bern skiing, dog sledding etc! I go on holiday to chill, they do anything but!

Try not to save all your travelling til you retire though if possible. Im 61 and retired from teaching but no state pension til im 66. I go to USA and Far East once a year to visit my sons and grandchildren and in between enjoy a cruise and short breaks with my husband but cant walk as much as I could ten years ago due to arthritis in my knees.
I am not giving up though! Just adapting the sort of holidays we do.
This is the first time in my life I have enough money to travel! Yes youth and good knees are wasted on the young!!!

I have an aunt and uncle in their 80's who spend at least 50% of the year travelling, often to places like south America, China or the Canadian Rockies. They've literally travelled to every far flung corner of the world, no idea how they do it! Personally I envisage maybe a long let somewhere in the med in the winter months, not a huge fan of travelling itself so can't see me doing long haul.