Let’s see if this has any legs. May it be as popular as the MOG/MOB dress topic! 
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This year our big travel plans are for our daughter’s destination wedding.
I think I have everything booked. We are staying for a week. Would stay a big longer but since it’s in June and we like summer where we live, we will be anxious to get home.
Most of the trip is wedding related but will have some free time. Both my and my husband’s siblings will be there so that’s fun.
My husband promised me that this trip will be our only travel this year.
Next year, I want to plan a Mediterranean cruise. Haven’t booked anything yet, will wait until after the wedding. We want to explore more of Italy and Greece.
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Habitat for Humanity 2 week RV Care-a-Vanners build soon. Was so much fun last year- repeating it this year. And nearby visiting D/SIL and grandkids!
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We have a destination wedding in Ireland this August and we will be swinging by northern Italy beforehand. Milan, Como, Verona then Dublin, Limerick.
The next week, we drop off S24 at UMd and we are officially empty nesters. So, of course, we’ll need to take more vacations immediately. 
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I forgot about our tentative fall plans. Will visit one kid for a weekend, will drive to a golf destination, maybe Myrtle Beach. Visit other kid the next weekend.
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We are currently making up for the early retirement travel we didn’t do during COVID. We head to Key West next week. We’re going to San Francisco and Napa in September, and then Utah in October (bike trip including multiple national parks). In December we are going to Grand Cayman for 2 weeks (one with our “kids” and one to recover from the week with kids). In February we go to Hawaii for 2 weeks (we haven’t been since before the Lahaina fire). Haven’t planned anything else yet, but a Rick Steves Italy Trip may be calling my name sometime next year.
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Since there’s a lot of discussion about travel in the retirement thread that’s not really related to finances, here’s a place to discuss travel in our senior years on and beyond family trips etc.
I had mentioned thinking about escorted travel and Rick Steves was recommended. So I started looking at one just to get an idea. Whoa, 2 to 4 miles walking? 2- 6 the next day? 2-8 the day after? Yikes! My feet do not like extended periods of walking and tell me so the next day. And Rick Steves expects a certain level of activity, for example:
Our tours are physically active! It’s an essential part of the Rick Steves tour experience. On our Best of London in 7 Days tour — among other things — you’ll need to happily…
- Carry your luggage up several flights of stairs to reach your hotel room.
- Be on your feet, walking and standing, for up to three hours, indoors and outdoors, in all weather conditions.
- Sleep with street noise and no (or weak) air conditioning.
- After orientation and transportation lessons, be able to navigate around the city on your own.
- Be able to climb many flights of stairs in and out of the London Underground system.
I would not happily be able to do this day in and day out. I’m not at all feeble, but due to arthritis and such there are some limitations of what I am happy doing. But I don’t want to limit myself to cruises - or groups of wheelchair bound travelers.
Has anyone done escorted trips where you walk some but not for miles, don’t have to stand for three hours in all weather, and don’t have navigate all over by yourself?
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We have a few weddings this summer/fall. We are going to do little mini things around those. I have a conference in Seattle the first week of December and I think that will be a ten day trip.
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I believe there are guided trips that would meet your requirements. If you Google “guided trips for retirees” that will get you started.
There are lots of companies vying for your $$$$.
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We have a lot on the calendar this year. First up Portugal and Spain in May. A lake trip in summer with our kids and grandkids(we will drive). A trip to watch one grandkid while our daughter travels (her husband will be home but has work). A long weekend to a vacation home a few hours away, hoping the kids join us. A camping trip in late August up the coast a few hours. My in-laws will meet us. A weeklong sailing charter trip in December with some of our kids minus grandchildren. My husband is also hoping next winter to get a few snowboarding trips in.
We are independent travelers but we have started taking day tours in alot of the cities we visit in Europe. My husband doesn’t think he would enjoy traveling with random people he doesn’t know. He also prefers travel with just me or with our kids. I would like him to consider a food tour in Italy with someone I follow on Instagram. Her tours are expensive but I think it would be worthwhile. I just have to convince him.
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We have used Supera and AirandSea Travel. The former is more upscale and expensive than the later. The later flies from and back to HNL with you, shepherding though customs and immigration.
Most of the tours include pretty much all meals. They make sure they to help with luggage whenever possible (warning you of rare times you have to port your own luggage).
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Wow that Rick Steves thing sounds more like punishment than fun to me. “Get off those video games or I’m sending you on a Rick Steves trip!” 
I’m still working for a few more years, but we’ve started doing one extravagant vacation a year on the premise that we’re not getting any younger and the financial outlay isn’t really needed for the retirement accounts at this point.
Last week we did 3 weeks in Italy combined with a 9 day cruise around Southern Italy, Greece, and Croatia. Right now we’re in the 3rd week of a trip to Spain - Madrid, Barcelona, and San Sebastián. We’re trying to figure out what to do next year, possibly Eastern Europe like Hungary, Czech Republic, etc.
I love 3 weeks as a minimum for international trips, with at least week per city. Once I’m actually retired I could see increasing it to 4 weeks at a time.
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I think there is something for everyone.
We like active vacations. We like to be busy and we like history. Rick Steves tours are exactly what we want. The walking would not bother us one bit.
My husband isn’t that interested in a biking vacation (sorry @1214mom) but other activities, great.
I know we will be snorkeling this summer. My husband likes to dive. His brother and our nephew will be there and if the opportunity comes up, I know my husband will be there. One of the wedding activities is a snorkeling trip.
What my husband doesn’t like doing. Sitting in a cafe having a cocktail. Nope! Not him! I on the other hand would love that.
What’s your bucket list trip? For me, for a long time? it was to visit Russia. Probably won’t happen
My new bucket list trip. A safari. First class all the way. May happen in the future.
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Marylin, Try Rhodes Scholars. Much less walking and friends do their tours all the time. Can’t vouch for the lodging though but you can google for reviews.
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Rick Steves himself is of Medicare age.
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@Marilyn - we took a tour of Spain and Portugal last fall with Trafalgar and we did not have to do any of these. We walked on tour sites, but not extensively and certainly not for 3 hours at a time. We never had to navigate for ourselves (unless we chose to during free time) and the bags were handled for us. H has a back issue and he skipped some of the excursions because he really has trouble walking more than a block or two. He still enjoyed the trip.
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On our river cruise, we sat with an amazing group of women. Their next trip was going to be with Collette tours. Vacations, US Tour Companies, and Guided Travel | Collette
They liked to be active but not too much. Did the leisure groups on our cruise which are less walking more shopping. They talked about the great cafes that they visited.
As far as traveling in a group, it’s very dependent on who you meet. We’ve been very lucky to have met such interesting wonderful traveled people.
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We retired in 2021. Since then we have taken a cruise in New Zealand/Australia together as well as the Spain/Portugal trip. We have taken domestic trips back to DC to see friends and to Southern California to see family (and we love it there).
I have also traveled to Sweden, Germany,Mexico and NYC without H.
Upcoming: this fall we will be on a tour of Italy which has been on the proverbial “bucket list” for years. We have a deposit on an Alaskan Cruise (Viking) for 2026. I was hesitant to cruise again after seasickness on the last one, but this time we should not be on open seas. And we have wanted to do the Alaska Cruise for awhile.
Other possibilities: returning to the South of France (we both loved), and possibly more of France. Possibly a river cruise in Europe to see several countries. I would like to go to Iceland, but I don’t think H will go, so maybe with S.
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I’m officially jealous!
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Just got off a 10 day Viking tulip cruise a couple of weeks ago, extended by 2 extra days in The Hague. In September we head to Montreal to do an 11-day trip up the St. Lawrence and around the Gaspe peninsula, ending up back in Montreal. Dear wife’s late uncle was a tour director in the 60s and 70s (he was a teacher, did this in summer) and this was always his favorite itinerary.
Next June–Alaska cruise with Viking coupled with a land tour of Denali, ending in Fairbanks.
We were doing one big trip per year (starting in 2017) lost two years of traveling while in good health due to COVID, so we said, life’s too short, let’s travel twice per year!
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