After years of hard work, retirement is the natural phase of life many people finally encounter. Some of them may be overwhelmed by this sudden expense of time, yet you still can make those days a blissful period of life, for example by learning some new skills or exploring places you’ve never visited before. It’s very important to keep the flame inside you burning because becoming less active and social during retirement brings negative impacts for both your physical and mental health.

Research from the National Institutes of Health in 2022 describes that the frequent social, mental, and physical activities are associated with cognitive benefits and delayed onset of dementia in older adulthood. It means keeping your body moving and mind occupied are the best ways to protect your health, boost your mood, and maintain your quality of life.

One activity you can realize in your retirement is fulfilling your travel dreams. Exploring foreign places/destinations offers many benefits, such as reducing stress and anxiety, improving cognitive function, enhancing overall well-being, and broadening your horizons. In other words, traveling is one of the right methods to make full use of your retirement’s freedom and time. Despite all those flexibilities, you still need travel plans in order to ensure smooth and enjoyable trips, so to help you get to do this, we’ve covered several travel guides special for retirees below:

The first important point you have to do before traveling in your retirement is setting travel goals, since it helps you identify destinations and activities you seek for. Besides, it assists you in pointing out your priorities, including health, interest, and budget, so please read on some ideas below to discover yours.

Cultural immersion isn’t just an appreciation, but it needs you to be actively surrounded by the culture and engaged with the locals. Especially for retirees, it gives lots of benefits: increasing social skills, cultural sensitivity and understanding, as well as encouraging empathy and mutual respect. Cultural immersion experience can be realized in many ways, such as participating in cultural events, trying on local cuisines, and exploring historical sites. Several top destinations you can consider visiting for the cultural experience are Japan, India, Thailand, Australia, and Bali due to their heterogeneous history, diverse landscapes, and lively food culture.

Educational travel has become popular among retirees, since it offers in-depth learning experience combined with excursions. It’s good for expanding minds and fostering a sense of intellectual rejuvenation for older people. Educational travel can be carried out by participating in organized tours, workshops, or language programs. They allow you to delve deeper into your specific areas of interest, engage with the experts, and interact with others sharing learning passions. At the end, you’ll understand that learning is beyond textbooks, lectures, and the confines of traditional classrooms.

During years of work, you might have lost precious time with your family, but now that you’re a retiree with a wealth of time and leisure, it’d be a great idea to create multigenerational memories and bondings by taking them to travel together. You can also share stories about your love of exploration to your grandkids. Some popular family-oriented destinations are Disneyland, Universal Studios, LEGOLAND, Drayton Manor Resort, and many more.

Seniors are undoubtedly one of the most fragile ones in our society, so health has become an essential thing to give thought to. Older people need to take care of themselves by consuming healthy food, taking part in fitness activities and mental health services. Health wellness and spa retreats are programs for elderly to get engaged in physical and mental well-being. Several destinations offering this retreat are Bali, Vietnam, and Thailand. In addition to health improvement, you can also experience increased socialization, better confidence and self-esteem, and finer life’s quality.

Cruise trip is one of the popular options as people reach the milestone of retirement. They want to properly celebrate this new phase of life by taking a long trip abroad, without the hassle of constant packing and unpacking. While crossing waters with luxurious and fully-furnished ships, you’ll also get an experience of viewing scenic and historical landscapes; and dining an array of on-board dishes. Danube River Cruise, Melaka River Cruise, Meridian Dinner Cruise, Chao Phraya Princess Dinner Cruise are several options of cruise adventure to fritter your work-free years away.

Don’t let old age turn off your adrenaline; whether or not you’re a thrill-seeker, you need to attempt adventurous travel, at least once in a lifetime, you’ve never undergone during years of work. To embrace your sense of adventure in your advanced years, you can do mountain/forest trekking, water sports, like diving, snorkeling, kayaking, paddleboarding, etc; or ballooning. However, make sure you are in good physical and mental conditions before planning this type of travel.

The second thing to prepare before going on trips during retirement is budgeting. It’s important to measure the expenditures and avoid the unnecessary expenses. Here are some tips for you to create budgeting for retirement travel:

Assessing finances includes evaluating your retirement incomes and savings. You also have to understand your monthly cash flow and count how much you can comfortably allocate for the traveling budgets. You can start by listing your current expenses, like housing, food, healthcare, entertainment, and some occasional ones, including gifts, periodic property repairs, maintenance, and upgrades. This step is principal to adjust your expenses for retirement travels; once you get them well-planned, you can also regulate savings and investments approaches correspondingly.

During the retirement travels, there are at least 4 major points you have to create clear budgets for, they are:

Now that we’ve discussed tips to arrange travel budget on the travel needs, below are some strategies to minimize expenses:

Being flexible on your budget adjustment is not less important than the aforementioned tips. It requires you to be willing to align your travel plans based on your financial situation and unforeseen expenses; you also need to regularly recheck your budgets during the trips and be familiar with improvements. This is a method you should do in order to achieve your travel goals while maintaining your financial stability simultaneously.

The third principal point for your travels during retirement is choosing the right travel insurance. Traveling is one of the most favorite activities to do by many people around the globe, so the travel disruptions have increased over time. To protect you from financial losses and other travel risks, travel insurance is your best investment. Therefore, make sure you choose the right ones; several things you can consider within this process of finding are: (1) travel destinations–where you’re going, (2) travel durations–how long you’re going for, (3) activities you want to try on during the trips, (4) age and health–check whether you have pre-existing conditions, and (5) the insurance’s coverage of your baggages and valuables.

In retirement, health and safety while traveling are more critical and become things that need more attention. This is why choosing travel insurance covering medical emergencies, trip cancellations, and delays is essential. However, since we’ve discussed travel insurance already, here are several other tips for you during the trips in terms of prioritizing health and safety:

You’ve come at the end of the guides, so why wait any longer? Brand new and exciting adventures have been waiting for you on the other side of the horizons! Secure your flight and accommodation tickets now via Traveloka!

Also read: Travel mate or soulmate?