Travel may be an option soon

 Within a year we will be willing to travel more than we do now. COVID will be more understood, and restrictions will start to ease and most importantly, people will be willing to travel.

Whether you want to drive across the country for a few weeks or just visit a neighbouring town for the day, road trips are one of life’s greatest pleasures. Here are a few great resources for finding interesting diversions along the way:

Swimming Holes:  Listings of 1,600 swimming holes in the United States and Canada.

Roadside Attractions:  Put in your route and find wacky roadside stops.

The Outdoor Project:  Maps with great hikes, campgrounds, adventures, and more.

Roadfood.com:  Jan and Michael Stern are probably the most famous of all roadside dining aficionados. Their site, RoadFood.com helps you find casual, affordable local restaurants, cafes, diners, and more featuring regional specialties.

GasBuddy:  An app that helps you find the cheapest nearby gas station.

RoadTrippers: This also is an app, helps you find cool attractions along the way.

There are more options than ever for affordable vacation lodging.

Airbnb  and  VRBO:  Airbnb and VRBO are popular services that enable you to rent apartments, condos, houseboats, tree houses, single-family homes, and even compounds.

You will be amazed to see that all kinds of homes are available in all the remote corners of the world. Best of all, the amount you pay per night is often much less than what a hotel would cost plus you get a kitchen and more sometimes the homes even come with cars or other transportation perks.

Home Exchange:  HomeExchange is a service that matches homeowners for a housing swap. Thousands of people exchange houses every year and love the experiences and connections that are made.

Hostels:  You might think that hostels are just for young, drunken kids. However, hostels are trying to cater to older (and more sophisticated) travellers. Some hostels even offer private rooms and great amenities (if bunk beds aren’t your style). If you are interested, check out: Hostelworld.com.  You can see descriptions, reviews, rankings, and even see availability and make reservations.

In addition to offering you a great place to stay when you travel, Airbnb can also offer you an almost magical way to make money for travel (or whatever). It is easy to list your home on Airbnb as a rental for travellers who will be visiting your community. Depending on where you live, you might just get flooded with interest.

When you are retired, you have a lot more freedom to take advantage of last-minute deals and opportunities.

There are quite a few websites and apps that can help you with these spurs of the moment trips:

Hotel Tonight: Hotel Tonight is an app. They get unsold inventory from hotels for that night and make it available to app users at a big discount.

Kayak.com/explore: Kayak has a feature on their website that lets you see a map of the world and the lowest airfares from your city to anywhere and everywhere.

Intrepid Travel: Intrepid Travel books tours. You can review their last-minute deals.

Groupon: Groupon does all kinds of discounts for many different types of experiences. They also have some last-minute deals.

Lastminute.com: This site focuses mainly on European last-minute deals.

Travelzoo: Travel zoo aims to offer the best deals from the best companies.

Google Flights: Watch out, this can get a little addictive. If you plug in your departure city and dates but leave the destination blank, Google Flights will return a list of the lowest airfares available for you.