Low Cost Retirement Travel

Folks who are retired or who are anxious to retire often express a desire for more travel. Lots of them do not actually follow through on the “more travel” dreams. Cost is a major impediment and likely will continue to be a limiting factor for many of us.

However, if you know what you are doing and are willing to adapt your travel habits and style, cost does not need to be a barrier. The key is learning low cost travel tips from people who actually retired to travel, including younger folks.

That’s why I was happy to find this post: Travel Full-Time for Less Than $14,000 per Year. It was written by Nora Dunn, who retired from the cubicle environment and started traveling full time at age 30!

Nora does not limit herself to the mainstream discount travel sites that we are all familiar with. Nor does she think of the work-travel-return routine in conventional terms.

These are the tips that I thought would be most useful to baby boomers.

Use Travel Search Engines that Include All Budget Airlines

This is what the author writes:

If you solely use the big online search engines to book your flights, there is a good chance that you are overpaying – sometimes dramatically. 

Nora then uses a case study to show how searching less popular budget travel sites can result in even greater savings. One of those that I did not know about is Which Budget that includes budget airlines that the mainstream sites ignore.

Nora’s post also reminded me of Seat Guru, a site which I had forgotten about but is very helpful in picking a good seat on your flight.

Stop the Souvenir Shopping

A second tip from Nora:

One of the easiest ways to save money while you are traveling is to steer clear of the souvenir shops. Most often, the goods are mass-produced in another country entirely, and lack the authenticity that you are probably looking for.

How true this is. Equally important to baby boomers is that we do not need any more stuff crammed in our downsized homes. Retirement travel is for the experience, not the stuff to bring home.

A third tip that I think is particularly appealing to baby boomers and retirees:

Travel Slowly to Save Money

I never really thought of things this way:

The more flights you take, the more money you will spend. The more you have to pack up, hop on a bus, a train, or a taxi, and find a new place to stay, the more money you will spend. Want to keep your travels free or almost-free? Consider traveling slowly.

When we were younger and traveling with kids and using limited vacation time, it seemed it was often go-go-go, to try and fit it all in. Not only is that stressful, it adds to the expense. I really like the concept of “slow travel,” as in get there in a hurry but then take your time after you’ve arrived.

I strongly recommend that you read the entire travel full time article. It may convince you that your travel in retirement dreams can be fulfilled.

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