My wife and I spent months travelling in our first year of retirement. We had waited decades for the freedom to go when we wanted, stay as long as we wanted, and return when we felt like it. And we discovered something that surprised us.
Retirement comes with a travel superpower that no points program
can replicate. It is the ability to fly on a Tuesday in February, return on a Thursday
in March, and not particularly care what the weekend rates look like.
The entire pricing architecture of airlines, hotels, and cruise
lines is built around the constraints of working-age travellers. When those constraints
disappear, so do a lot of the most expensive travel choices.
Hotel and flight prices respond directly to demand, and demand
peaks on the same predictable schedule every year: school holidays, summer weekends,
the week between Christmas and New Year's. Travelling off peak not only avoids crowds,
but it also saves money.
A Caribbean cruise that costs $2,500 per person in January costs
$1,400 in May. A hotel in Lisbon that runs $250 a night in July runs $140 in October.
These are not marginal differences achieved through deal-hunting. They are the standard
market rate for the same product at a different time of year.
Retiring from a schedule that locked you into peak-season travel
is one of the more consequential financial upgrades of later-life travel. And most
people underuse it.
The practical move: identify the destinations you want and look
at shoulder season pricing before assuming a trip is expensive. For Europe, late
April through early June and September through October deliver the best combination
of weather, lower prices, and thinner crowds. For the Caribbean, May through early
December is hurricane season, which requires some attention to forecast patterns
but also explains why prices drop considerably. The best weeks are typically May
and the first half of December.
Medicare covers almost nothing outside the United States. This
is a fact that surprises a startling number of first-time international retiree
travellers. If you require emergency hospitalization in Italy or a medical evacuation
from anywhere abroad, you are going to pay for it out of pocket unless you have
travel insurance that covers it.
A medical evacuation back to the US can cost $100,000 to $200,000.
A hospital stay in a major European city runs several hundred to several thousand
dollars per day.
Travel insurance with adequate medical coverage is not optional
for international travel in retirement. It is just something you will have to factor
into your costs going forward.
This is especially true if you have pre-existing conditions,
and most travellers over 60 do. You will need a policy that includes a pre-existing
condition waiver. To qualify, you typically must purchase the policy within 14 to
21 days of making your first trip deposit. Buy it later than that window and the
pre-existing condition waiver often disappears, meaning a health event related to
a known condition will not be covered.
Minimum coverage of $250,000 in emergency medical evacuation
and at least $100,000 in emergency medical coverage is recommended. Higher is better.
Squaremouth and InsureMyTrip are solid comparison tools for finding plans that actually
cover what you need.
The landscape of senior travel discounts has thinned over the
years, with airlines in particular having scaled back programs that were more generous
a decade ago. But the deals that remain are worth knowing about and worth asking
for explicitly, since they rarely appear automatically.
The America the Beautiful Senior Pass from the National Park
Service is one of the best pure-value deals in American travel. Available at 62,
it costs $80 for a lifetime pass and provides free vehicle entry at more than 2,000
federal recreation sites, as well as 50% off camping fees. Standard vehicle entry
to a single national park typically runs $35. The math works in your favour after
two or three visits.
Amtrak offers a 10% discount on most routes for passengers 65
and older. It applies to the lowest available rail fare on most trains.
AARP membership, available at 50 for approximately $15 per year,
unlocks a set of travel discounts. Car rental discounts through Avis and Budget
run 20 to 30%, with additional perks like free additional drivers. Hotel discounts
at Best Western, Marriott, Sheraton, and others range from 5 to 15%.
Cruise lines including Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, Carnival,
and Viking River Cruises offer discounted fares for travellers 55 and older on select
sailings, with AARP membership often unlocking additional onboard credits.
The conventional wisdom in travel is to book early for the best
prices. That is true for most people most of the time. It is less universally true
for travellers with genuine flexibility.
Airlines discount unsold seats, particularly on Tuesday and
Wednesday departures, typically within three to ten days of travel. Cruise lines
discount unsold cabins at 60 to 90 days before sailing. Both represent real savings
for travellers who can genuinely go whenever availability opens.
Retirement creates the conditions where last-minute booking
is actually viable and occasionally delivers prices that planned-in-advance travellers
never see.
One of the least-used advantages of retirement travel is the
ability to stay longer and amortize the fixed costs of getting somewhere across
more days. The airfare to Portugal costs the same whether you stay four days or
fourteen. Hotels and meals cost more per extra night, but they cost less per night
than the flight did.
You have time. Use it.
A Few Practical Tips
- Pace yourself.
Building in a rest day or a slower day every three to four days on a longer
trip is not conceding anything. It gives your body a break and lets you absorb
and enjoy your destination. You are no longer a tourist; you become a traveller.
- Proximity
to good medical care. Not a reason to avoid adventure, but worth factoring
into where you stay on a multi-week trip. Staying in a major city with a known
hospital system, even for a day or two at the beginning or end of a rural or
remote itinerary, is a sensible precaution.
- Airport assistance.
In the United States, contact TSA Cares for airport assistance. The TSA's helpline
for travellers who need additional assistance navigating airport security is
free, requires 72-hour advance notice, and connects you with a Passenger Support
Specialist on the day of travel. In Canada, contact the Canadian Air Transport
Security Authority (CATSA), which provides assistance for passengers with disabilities
or medical needs at airport security checkpoints.
Travel in retirement is not just about seeing new places. It
is about reminding yourself that you are still curious, still adventurous, still
capable of wonder. It is about proving to yourself that the best stories have not
been written yet.
When you travel, you are not just a tourist. You are an explorer.
And explorers never stop discovering.
