
Discover the liberating world of solo travel for seniors, as I share personal stories about newfound independence and adventure. This episode paints a vivid picture of why more seniors, especially women, are seizing the opportunity to explore the world on their own terms. With 84% of solo travelers being female, the adventurous spirit of senior women is truly inspiring.
Journey through practical advice for senior solo travelers, from overcoming language barriers with translation apps to understanding the essential role of travel insurance. Learn how to stay safe by sharing itineraries and avoiding the pitfalls of carrying valuables. I’ll guide you through selecting accommodations that match your individual needs and preferences, ensuring that your travel experiences are both enjoyable and memorable. And don’t miss the chance to stay connected with our monthly newsletter, filled with travel tips, industry updates, and opportunities to share your own stories. Whether you’re a seasoned traveler or dreaming of your first solo adventure, this episode is your passport to inspiration and practical wisdom. Safe travels!
Transcript
00:00
Hello and welcome back to the Traveling Fool. I’m your host, Bob Bales, and today we are talking about solo travel for seniors. Now, I’ve traveled solo for many years, off and on and for a lot of different reasons, and today you will find that there’s a lot of seniors traveling solo. In fact, I met a fellow a couple of years ago. He had worked his whole life in the same job, living in the same city, had never traveled outside of his own state, he was married but didn’t have any children, he said shortly after he turned around 66 or 67, I believe, his wife, who had been married to for over 20 years, died unexpectedly. He told me, after sitting around that empty house of his for almost a year, he decided to retire from his job and start traveling and seeing the world. He told me he travels for a couple of months at a time, and he goes back home for a couple of months, and he’s traveled outside of the country, which he never thought he would do, and he is living his best life. He said when he travels overseas, he likes staying in those hostels because there are so many people around and everybody starts talking. And he said believe it or not, people are interested in his story because he’s a little older than most people staying in a hostel. So that’s just one of the people that has decided to live his best life by starting to travel, and travel solo.
02:09
Now I will tell you in my own case. The reason I travel solo a lot was for many years I worked overseas as a contractor and, due to tax benefits, I could only be in the States so many days a year. So, what was I going to do on the rest of my time off? Well, I traveled to other countries for a week or two at a time and then I would go back to my contracting job. And since I stopped doing that, I still travel solo a lot.
02:37
And yes, I’m married, and the reason I do is that me and the wife have totally different thoughts about travel. Her idea is she likes to go to a nice resort or an all-inclusive. Wake up around 10 o’clock in the morning, maybe have something to eat, take a nap, get up later and go hang out by the pool, have a few snacks, go to dinner somewhere and maybe once or twice during the trip, wander off the property and go see something. My idea is travel is totally different. I don’t care where I stay, as long as the place is safe and clean and has hot water. I like hot water. I hate cold water showers. I wake up in the morning around 5 or 6 o’clock and I leave, I go out and explore the town and I don’t come back until around 10 or 11 o’clock at night, go to sleep, wake up the next morning and I’m gone again. So, I really don’t care about the hotel. Now, nice hotels are nice, and I will spend some time in one, but my idea is to get out of the hotel and go see things, and she just does not want to do that. So, our ideas for travel are totally different.
03:42
But nowadays you will find that more and more seniors are traveling solo, and there’s a couple of reasons for it. Well, seniors have more freedom, more time and more resources since they retired. It’s just easier for them to travel. I looked up a few statistics and 25% of women aged 65 and up travel solo. In fact, 84% of solo travelers are women, so the women are leading the way. They’re getting out there and going places on their own. 63% of travelers 50 plus are planning to travel domestically in the next year or two.
04:25
Now, when it comes to the most popular destinations or the most visited destinations for seniors who travel or travel solo, or even just seniors in general, I cannot find any stats. I found a whole lot of articles that said here are the best places for solo seniors to travel. Here are the best places for seniors to travel, but it was just made up. I mean, it was based on their opinion. You know, one article stated the top domestic destinations for seniors in 2024 included Florida, California, Las Vegas, Chicago and Michigan. Now, where they got the stats from, they don’t tell you, so I’m not sure how they’re coming up with these lists. I know Europe is a planned destination, with Italy, Spain and Great Britain are all hot, and you can get that information from places like kayak and booking sites, but that still doesn’t tell you the entire story. And, like I said, I found a lot of articles stating where someone thought the best destinations to travel were, and each one was either a list of places where they may have been, or a list based on some made-up criteria for what they thought seniors needed. So here are my thoughts on the best places to travel for solo travelers.
05:46
I’ve traveled to Asia and Europe and all over the United States solo. So, there’s your list. It’s basically wherever you want to go. There is no best place. Some places are a little better than others. I’ll give you an example.
06:03
I went to Nepal, beautiful country, always wanted to go there. I actually went there a couple of times and it is challenging for someone like me who has bad knees. My knees are shot. I mean, they are in tough shape. Walking on flat, straight ground, I’m all right. Going up and down hills it tears them up, so it is a challenge. In Nepal I just wore knee braces. But there are some places that are a little easier to get around and that’s what you have got to look at.
06:38
When you travel, what do you think you can physically do, physically not do or just not interested in doing? If you’re the adventurous type, there’s all kinds of places you can go. When I was in Thailand, I saw a lot of solo travelers, male and female over 50. When I was in the Philippines, I saw a lot of solo travelers, male and female, and a lot of senior couples who were there. Same thing in Europe. I spent 30 days in Prague. One time the wife flew over and met me for about a week. Then she went back to the States, and I spent the next three and a half weeks just roaming around Prague and the Czech Republic just seeing everything I wanted to see, and I met a lot of folks there who were traveling solo, both male and female.
07:24
So, there is no good place or bad place to go. It’s where you want to go. What’s on your bucket list, what have you always wanted to see and just never gotten a chance to do it? Well, here’s your chance. Just do a little research, look at where you want to go, take a few things into consideration and hit the road. There’s no better time to do it Not getting any younger. And there’s group travel. I mean you don’t have to travel solo. You can go in small groups that are designed to go places, and they usually build in time for you to take time off and explore things on your own. And there’s meet-up groups that you can meet up at your destination own, and there’s meetup groups that you can meet up at your destination. You’re not alone when you travel.
08:09
But traveling solo does have a lot of benefits. First of all, you get to create your own schedule, and you follow your own interests, and you move at your own pace. Like my wife, her pace is wake up at 1030 in the morning, grab something to eat and maybe take a nap. That’s what she wants to do. God bless her. It drives me absolutely nuts. I’m like we travel all this way. We’re in this beautiful destination, let’s get out and see something. Oh, I don’t know, maybe later this afternoon, all right, well, you have a nice nap, I’ll see you later and I’m out the door. So, you get to create your own schedule.
08:50
When you’re traveling solo, you don’t have to abide by anybody’s schedule. You can do what you want to do. You find a really cool museum? Well, go back another day and see it a second time. You want to skip an early morning hike? Well, that’s entirely your call. I mean, somebody says you got to hike up this mountain to see this absolutely gorgeous monastery and you’re thinking, not today, my knees hurt, maybe tomorrow. You can do whatever you want to do. You’re not bound by a group doing something.
09:22
Traveling solo also fosters independence and encourages you to try new things. If you’re out there by yourself, you get to interact with locals, whether it be in the state somewhere or traveling overseas. You get to mingle with people. You get to ask them questions about where’s a really nice place to eat lunch at, or where would you suggest I go. If you had a friend visiting from out of town, where would you tell them to go? And you will find that they have just a wealth of knowledge that you’re not going to find in some guidebook somewhere. Also, I found that when you travel solo, you’re more approachable, making it easier to connect with the locals and experience destinations authentically. People have a lot easier time coming up the locals and experience destinations authentically. People have a lot easier time coming up to you and saying you’re not from here, where are you from? And you just strike up a conversation. I’ve had great conversations with people all over the world that have told me about some fantastic places to go, to eat, to see, places to experience that I would have never known about, had we not had that quick chat.
10:30
And if you haven’t traveled much, some people get really nervous about traveling overseas, especially if you’re traveling alone. You’re like well, I don’t know the language, I’ve never been there. Trust me, it’s not that difficult. I have never had a problem traveling anywhere in the world. You just take some safety precautions. I mean, that’s just normal. I don’t care if you’re traveling to Houston, Dallas, San Antonio or Manila, Philippines, or Bangkok, Thailand or London, England, it’s all the same, just take some safety precautions.
11:08
But as far as language barriers and things, you will find a lot of people overseas international locations. They speak English, or they speak enough English that they can get by, and there’s nothing stopping you from learning a few words in the language of the location you’re traveling to. If your goal is to travel to France and you plan for eight months to take that trip to France, well, you’ve got eight months to learn a few words of French so you can get around. And with all the apps and software out these days that help you learn foreign languages, it’s not that difficult. And with the phones these days, there’s translation apps built into your telephone. I’ve got one built into mine. I can say something in English. It translates it into the foreign language. So, there is really no excuse for language being a barrier.
12:05
And remember when I said that it fosters independence when you travel solo. Well, traveling to a foreign country definitely fosters independence, because you decide where you want to stay, whether you want to stay in a hotel, a nice one, a medium-priced one, a condo, a weekly rental. How are you going to get around town? You’re going to walk, you’re going to hail taxis, you’re going to rent a car for the week. It gives you a lot of freedom when you’re traveling solo to do what you want to do and experience what you want to experience. And you will find, at the end of it, you’re going. Man, I never knew I could do all that stuff in a foreign country by myself.
12:44
Like I said, all you have to do is take a few precautions into play when you’re traveling solo, especially for seniors. Like I said, my knees are shot, so that’s always a concern. I’m not going somewhere where I’m climbing 200 stairs. If it’s got a road, I’ll take a car, I’ll meet you at the top, but I’m not climbing stairs, not going to do it. But there are a lot of senior-friendly, solo-friendly destinations.
13:09
What you want to look at is it a safe area? Is it a walkable city? You know, Houston is not a walkable city. A lot of cities in the United States aren’t, because they’re spread out, they’re built for cars and traffic. You go to Europe, you go to Asia. There’s a lot of walkable cities. You could be close to downtown and walk around the entire town. Is it an English-speaking country? Now, we’ve already said that you can get apps, you can learn the language, but it does help if they do speak your language, but don’t let that be a deterrent to go just because they don’t speak English.
13:48
Like I said earlier, the destinations I’ve traveled solo all over the place, so there is no right or wrong destination, it’s just does it fit your needs? Like I said, I’m not walking up 200 flights of stairs Domestically. Well, national parks and state parks are always friendly places to travel solo. You can rent cabins; you can go out camping and there’s all kinds of towns in North America that are good places to go for solo travelers who are over 50. But if you’re traveling solo, you want to stay safe. You want to keep connected with the family. Give them your itinerary, not what you’re going to be doing every second of every day, but tell them where you’re going to be. Hey, I’m traveling to London. I’ve got a reservation at this hotel. I’ll be there for a week. Here’s my phone number in case you need to reach me. Here’s my email in case you need to reach me. In fact, I’ll be gone for two weeks. I will check in with you once a week just to see how things are going back home. That way, you’ve got a connection with your family back home.
14:49
You don’t want to take a lot of valuables with you. It always amazed me when people travel, they carry all their jewelry with them. I’m really not sure who they’re trying to impress. You don’t need to take jewelry with you unless you’re going to a gala somewhere. I mean, why take necklaces and earrings and rings and jewelry and expensive watches? I’m not sure who you’re trying to impress the more stuff you take like that, especially to a foreign country, you’re just begging to be robbed. Why take it? Leave it at home, okay. Whatever valuables you do take, keep them secure. Keep them secured in your hotel room. Keep them locked in your luggage.
15:34
Make sure you use travel insurance, especially if you’re traveling overseas. Travel insurance plays a huge part. It covers everything from interrupted trips to emergency evacuations in case you get ill or injured, you name it. I mean there’s all kinds of policies out there. Find a good one, they’re not that expensive, and just name it. I mean there’s all kinds of policies out there, find a good one, they’re not that expensive, and just get it. And, like I said, there’s apps for translations. There are also apps for navigating your way around town. There are apps for emergency help. There are emergency apps that you can download that’ll tell you if there’s anything in a political situation that might go wrong. It notifies you hey, there’s trouble over here or whether bad weather is breaking out. So just download the right apps and stay alert. As far as accommodation goes, whatever suits you the best.
16:25
I’ve stayed at guest houses where I had a blast. I mean, I stayed at a guest house in Macedonia. I think it’s called Northern Macedonia now or something, but back then it was Macedonia right next to Kosovo, and it was fantastic. They were about my age, man and his wife. They turned their house into a guest house, and they lived downstairs, and the upstairs was four rooms that they rented out. I wound up having great conversations with him, drinking homemade wine that he had made, and he told me all about the town and what used to be there and I had a great time. I rented condos because they were less expensive, bigger and I could cook my own breakfast in there. I could stay at a condo for a week a lot and I could stay at a hotel, and it was nicer. So, there’s all kinds of different options you have. But look at things like guest houses or boutique hotels, because you do get to meet a lot of the locals that way and you can join a tour at the destination, you’re at.
17:31
You don’t have to just wander around on your own and discover things. When I was in London, I went on a walking tour of Jack the Ripper’s haunts. There was a guy who was hawking a sign outside of the Tower of London. It was a Jack the Ripper tour. I asked him how much. It wound up being something like $10. And it was a one and a half hour walking tour of Jack the Ripper’s haunts. The guy doing the tour was a retired Scotland Yard detective and his hobby was researching Jack the Ripper. It was a fantastic tour and there were about 10 of us. We did a walking tour, but I was traveling solo in London at the time. So, you can find little tour groups whether they’re day tours or something else where you can interact with people and go places with a group. You don’t have to experience everything on your own.
18:22
So, the bottom line is get out, do a little traveling. You’re not getting any younger, don’t have to worry about traveling solo and if you have somebody to travel with, fantastic. If you don’t get out there on your own, it’s not going to kill you, you’re going to have a blast. If you’re a little worried about making a big overseas trip, travel solo somewhere in the States for four or five days. Dip your feet in, get your toes a little wet and get ready to do some international travel. Next, just figure out, you know where you have always dreamed of going, and then go there, because there’s nothing stopping you. You might want to go on a small solo trip. Just research your destination. Join, maybe, an online travel community, ask for some recommendations of where some good places to go or good places to eat or good places to stay are. Do your research and then hit the road.
19:18
Now, if you’ve ever traveled solo and you’re a senior, drop me a line. Tell me how it went your first time. Tell me what you learned, what you liked about it. If you haven’t, drop me an email. Ask me questions about it. The email is editor at thetravellingfoolcom. Oh, and here’s something else before we go.
19:39
If you haven’t subscribed to the newsletter, please do.
19:44
I only put it out once a month and sometimes it doesn’t get out, so you get one every two months. To subscribe to the newsletter, just go to thetravellingfoolcom, sign up for it. When I send it out, it’s full of travel news. Everything from what’s going on in the cruise industry, the hotels industry, sometimes stupid passenger articles that people have done A little bit of everything Travel news. And then I also list travel contests that you can sign up for and get that dream trip that you’ve been dreaming for years. It’s not very long. Like I said, I only put it out once a month, so sign up for it and if you have any questions, drop me an email. If you have questions about traveling solo, where to travel, or if you’ve got a trip planned and maybe you want to know something about it, chances are I’ve either been there or I know somebody who has, and who knows if you share your story about some place that you travel to solo. We might feature it in one of the upcoming episodes. So, until next time, safe travels, thank you.
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