Travel might seem like another one of those specific interest topics that may not warrant being a separate category. But travel, especially international travel, remains a bit of a Holy Grail for most of the retired people I speak to, so probably merited.
International travel is an area in which I have had wide-ranging experience. Over the years I have had the opportunity to travel extensively for business and pleasure, including; extended stays in Australia, a four-month journey around the world using an “around the world” airline ticket, and several two and three month trips through Europe and Asia.
The Love-goddess and I have developed our own little set of travel strategies that allow us to travel comfortably and at a reasonable cost. I will be sharing these with you. I’m not talking about strapping on a back-pack, living on street food, sleeping in hostels, and breaking out your old Europe On $5 A Day guidebook from the 1970s. It is more like, travelling lightly, regulating when meals are eaten in restaurants, staying in great little independent and chain hotels and AirBnB rentals, and finding a series of guidebooks that work for you.
And, we like to think we’ve seen it all and experienced it all — theft, dealing with people with no shared language, scammers, mystery food situations, figuring out how to get from point A to point B, booking accommodation on the fly, and perhaps most challenging of all, living with another person — ostensibly a loved one — in a single room for long periods of time.
We have just returned from a two-month trip in Europe to kick off our now shared retirement — and lived to tell the tale. One of my first full Travel posts will look at the logistics and costs involved in a trip of that length.
