My original inspiration for starting a blog was being laid off from my job of more than 20 years. It hit me that 1) travel was what has made my dreams reality throughout my life, and 2) I had never written about any of my travels. For 20 years I wrote and edited encyclopedia articles that were about everybody and everything except me. And so I began to write about my own 50 years of travel.
Mind Travel is Easy, Pandemics are Not
In a strange way Covid contributed to my inspiration to write travel articles, although I could not go anywhere. It drove me to my memories of going out into the world when I was young and up for adventure. This was at a time when the world was (relatively) safe enough to provide it. Memories of Travel became my driving force over the past year, and Travel in my Mind became my major mode of transportation.
Gather Those Rosebuds, Over 60
We were sequestered and out of the world for so long, and my cohort of 60+ women now seems to have flooded back into planning for travel. Tours are full, bucket lists have proliferated online, and I have heard similar stories from friends and fellow travelers. Many women with whom I’m in touch have vowed to make the best use of the time they have to travel before another germ escapes or a knee or hip breaks down. Seize the Day!
With renewed interest in travel, I have also come to realize that I am open to new ways to experience the world. For four decades I mostly traveled solo. I liked being forced to communicate with people in the places I visited and to seek out fellow travelers. I always liked overcoming challenges and testing myself. There was nothing to compare with the feeling of satisfaction of making it though a tough journey and just sitting in the sun and remembering.
But I have changed, both physically and emotionally, and now I want to be open to the variety of ways in which people my age travel. I have seen that there are many more older women who are now setting off on their own, often for the first time. I have also read about women who are trading solo travel for travel in small groups, on day trips, or by finding a travel partner.
Change is Inescapable: Dogs Must Learn New Tricks
My first group tour (when I was 71 years old) was to Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. The tour provided security, a group of travel mates, and more information and explication than I had ever had as a solo. If that spirit of adventure and overcoming obstacles was absent, it was replaced by a different kind of enjoyment and feeling of gratitude about what I experienced.
Over the next year, I am going to be trying out different kinds of journeys. I will experience my first group tour with my husband (to Greece), and I’m wondering if two aging dogs can develop new tricks. I am also going on my first small-group tour to India, after years of either going alone or with an Indian friend who lives in Delhi. The trip is being led by someone I know, and I trust her to provide structure as well as inspiration.
Responding to a Powerful Cohort
So these days I’m writing about, among other things, how 60+ women may be traveling in new ways in the future, whether alone, with a partner, in a group, or with day trips. The diversity of travelers and of possible ways of navigating the world has grown.
Here are links to some recent articles I wrote, about the ways in which women are traveling these days and how some travel groups and companies are changing to respond to the growing desire for 60+ women to take to the road:
My Latest Articles About Travel, Published in TravelAwaits magazine:
10 Ways Travel Companies are Attracting 60+ Women Travelers
Tips for Finding the Perfect Travel Partner
My Favorite Social Media Travel Groups
Aging, as I have written before, has been a series of revelations—I remember walking into a chair yoga class and realizing that the elderly folks there were my age. I began to understand that if I wanted to get to the places I wanted to see, other kinds of travel might be worth a try. So group travel, staying longer, and traveling slower are possibilities….as is not going quite so far. There are many different kinds of travel, with new and old friends, family, or even solo. It’s the curiosity about the world that counts. As Susan Sontag said, “I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.” Still.
