You like a balanced approach to travel. Walking two to three miles over the course of a day is no problem for you. You can partake in a two-hour leisurely walking tour, covering up to two miles (with included breaks). You can handle a variety of terrains, from cobblestone streets to moderate hills with relative ease and without assistance. You can climb two flights of stairs with ease. There may be 1 to 2 days on this tour when walking tours can cover 3 to 4 miles over uneven terrain. You can handle altitudes up to 6,000 feet.
DH is not retired yet, so those super long travels will need to wait a few years. Until then, 10 days max typically.
We just got back from a mini surf trip at Cocoa Beach with friends.
We’re heading to Oahu in October for our 40th for 9 nights. We were there in 2018 with our sons for 6 nights. DH loves to surf. I’m not sure how we will fill 9 days, since I can only sit on a beach a couple hours a day. I’ve already been to Pearl Harbor, Kualoa Ranch and a day trip around the island.
Recently got back from a great trip to Spain (Madrid, Toledo, Barcelona). We have plans for a long weekend in the Berkshires this summer (for a wedding but staying a day or two longer) and a few days in Long Beach Island with friends. Next big vacation is to the Galapagos.
Definitely do not do a Rick Steves trip if you don’t like walking a lot. Last trip we did, we averaged 16K steps every day for 14 days. Some of it was our choice, of course. Funny thing is, you never feel like you’re walking that much, because it’s over the course of a full day, and everything is so interesting. Europe has hills and stairs, too. Plus, I think our guides decide that we’re pretty healthy, so we always end up with the hotel room with the most steps to get to. I lose weight every Rick Steves trip I go on, even though I’m eating things I don’t eat much over here, like pastry, pasta, pizza, too much wine. It’s not like everyone on these trips are ultra fit at all, but if you aren’t interested in walking much, and if you don’t like wine, this is not the trip for you!
Wait, what? You have to enjoy a nice drink sitting at a table with a view after all the exercise on an active vacation. Not like you’re going to do it all day, but you need to get your hydration.
We spent 28 days in New Zealand earlier this year. We enjoyed it a lot, but getting to see multiple parts of the islands meant lots of time riding in a van/bus or driving (mostly on 2 lane roads, on the opposite side from what we are used to). We did a an active group tour for half of our trip, and the other half we did on our own. We and others on our tour, who had all been on trips like this before, were surprised by some of the things on the tour.
All that to say, before you sign up for a trip, think about what will be acceptable to you vs not, and what’s really important to you. A friend just got back from a Road Scholar trip, and she thought it was “too educational” in parts. Some people don’t realize they are going to be in a large bus (with or without a bathroom) for hours a day, and the tour group is huge. Some people want 4 star hotels or better, and some don’t care much about accommodations at all. If you are a single traveler and there are only a few couples on the trip besides you, that may make you uncomfortable. Some people care a lot about food/drink, and some are happy to eat cold pizza and drink warm beer. Trips can be centered around art, food, exercise, etc. Look at several and read reviews before signing up.
This sounds much like the activity of a Rick Steves tour, so you might look at reviews closely, if you don’t care to walk too muuch. In fact, some of the Rick Steves tours are far more sedentary than this, they have a range from fairly low activity level, to high activity level.
is the St Lawrence trip also via water? When we were kids, my parents took us to see all the locks along the seaway, etc. My grandparents were from Montreal, Quebec, and New Brunswick. DH has suggested we do this trip ourselves once he retire in a couple years.
H & I travel a lot. Sweet spot for us is 2 weeks (give or take). We’ve done several high-end small group tours to areas that having local guides and everything handled was worth the splurge.
We add some days before to adjust to the time change and ensure travel delays don’t make us miss the start of the tour. Rick Steves’ walking tours (free in his app) are excellent to follow while exploring new places.
We’re mostly on the same page for travel. Checked off the “bucket list” places (African safari, Iceland, Galapagos, Vietnam and more.) Most are one and done, but I’d like to go back to Tahiti and a few other places.
Not retired yet (15 more months to go). That being said, our travel plans for the rest of 2024 are as follows:
1st 3 weeks of July-trip to UK. Highlights include 7 days walking the Speyside Way (average mileage 12 miles a day), playing tourist along Hadrians Wall (including 13 mile hike) and redoing a day on the Coast to Coast Walk (walking someplace between 12 and 14 miles) . I suspect on many of the non-hiking days we will walk 5+ miles.
Early September–weekend trip to Cleveland
Early December-- week in Portsmouth England. One of my favorite bands is retiring and we are going to one of their last shows. No formal hikes currently planned.
After I retire, we will likely do some sort of multi-week roadtrip
I didn’t include all of my trips, I guess. I’ll be in Cleveland for a week in July. Then the Jersey Shore for a week on September. Then a trip back to CLE for a long weekend in October. A trip to Maine sometime probably end of September again…hoping to see the Maine CC lunch crew again.
Nothing exciting for sure, but a lot of moving around.
My mother did many trips with Colette and Trafalgar and loved it. They had fantastic guides and it was wonderful for her. Just enough “tour” time with unstructured time to explore on your own. That said, I am grateful my daughter is the chief planner for our trips together. Until H has his knee replacement, traveling is tough for him. Soon, hopefully.
This summer I am headed to Paris for the Olympics with D. We took a trip to Paris together back in 2019, I think. Her French is terrific (mine is admittedly very rusty). Our hotel is right on the Jardin des Tuileries and she obtained tickets for the opening ceremonies, women’s gymnastics, swimming, rugby and beach volleyball. We’ve made it a bit of a tradition to have a fancy tea on our trips so evidently I will be having tea at the Ritz as well. I am very excited.
In October, H and I are headed to Chicago. I am crossing my fingers that I’ll be running the marathon there, but if I’m physically not able to, I’m excited to be a spectator and see all the big names. Chicago is one of my favorite cities and I am looking forward to reconnecting in person with friends from my college days.
My hope is to plan a trip to Italy next year with H. Friends of ours just returned from a fantastic trip to Tuscany and I am hoping to get some travel tips and advice from them.
I have been going on tours with this group in the last few years.
It’s a wine, food and culture tour. Sam finds many out of ordinary places that you would t normally go by yourself. He provides all private transportation on the trip. A lot of meals are I clouded, but there is enough alone time that you could explore by yourself a bit. The hotel rooms are 4 stars, so not to expect four seasons. They go out their ways to help with your luggage’s. There is some walking/hiking, but most people could do it. What I like about it is I could get a single room at a reasonable rate. The tours are not as expensive as others, so you could go on 1 or 2 a year.
On the website there is only one listed now because all of them are booked for 2024. I just came back from a Porto Portugal trip, and it was great.
Next year he is doing Provence and possibly few other places in France along with some Italy tours.
I hate to recommend it because the operations are quite small, but if you like wine and food you may want o check it out.
My MIL died one year before official retirement age, and my mom was diagnosed with ALZ around the same time. As such we’ve been of the mind set of not waiting until retirement to travel and we tend to do a splurgy trip once/year. Since the first of January, we’ve been down to FL, to Arizona, and to France and Italy. Upcoming is a trip to North Carolina to help our D move but also to explore, and then hopefully out to the Pacific Northwest this Fall. We need to figure out 2025 travel plans.
We are young-ish retirees, who’ve been retired for awhile. We were doing two long trips (~3 weeks each; 1 to Hawai’i and 1 to Europe). This worked for us because we had siblings who could be “on call/care” for our aging parents while we were away. (Shoutout to my brother who came from CA to IL.)
My mom passed last year and now with only my MIL (and a local SIL here) we are doing longer trips. Hawaii was about 5 weeks and Japan will be a little over 5 weeks. Yep, the Japan thread got me…it will be my first trip to Asia!
DH and I are also taking two other shorter trips…1 for a wedding, the other to see the Cubs on the road.
With that said we’re thinking about investing in new backpack carry-ons for each of us. Our 10+ yr old Ospreys, while still in excellent shape, have two issues we’re going to address with the new purchase. One issue is the lack of a luggage sleeve. The second is the size. Ours is 45 L. It serves a purpose but when full is a bit too heavy for me to walk comfortably with through an airport like Heathrow.
We’re looking at this one so if anyone has any experience with it, I’m eager to hear your opinion. It’s expensive, but with the amount of use it will probably get, we are seriously considering it.
I did a big backpack comparison last year, and we wound up with the Osprey Fairview and Farpoint. (I think they are 40L). I also got the day pack that attaches (the more expensive one that has a couple of extra features).
We considered and ordered multiple brands, including Tumi, Cotopaxi, Northface, Patagonia, REI brand and I don’t remember what else. We ordered many from both Amazon and REI.
I went so far as to come up with a version of what would be packed in them, and tested the real contenders to see which held more and was more comfortable to carry.
A luggage sleeve wasn’t one of our criteria.
Thank you! We are in the “research/watch lots of review videos” phase. We have traveled enough that we’re much better with the quantity of clothes we take and know our “travel style”, so to speak. I’m confident we’ll find somethIng that works, but are trying to avoid buyer’s remorse.
We have done tours with Collette (Iceland, Canadian Rockies), Trafalgar (Ireland with their Brendan division, and Switzerland), and CIE Tours (Scotland, England/Wales) and all were excellent.
In the fall we are doing the St. Lawrence/Gaspe with Globus Tours. Our travel agent doesn’t deal with Globus but vouched that they are a solid company, has been around forever. We booked the trip ourselves, so we’ll see. It’s an itinerary that literally nobody does that has attracted us for years.
One thing to look for: with Collette and CIE Tours, all excursions are included. Trafalgar has included and optional excursions, and some of the optionals are “don’t miss”, so you have to factor that into cost comparisons. Cannot figure out if Globus has optionals or not. May have to ask them that in a chat.
ADDENDUM: Did an online chat with Globus–pretty useless, told me some tours are all inclusive, some have optional excursions, but she could not tell me whether or not my tour in particular had them or not! Some companies are great RE: customer service, others less so.
