We understand that not everyone likes to travel. No doubt it can be challenging, but there are significant benefits if you choose to liven up your routine with a little excursion. Here are some of the benefits to travel after 50 and how the experience can enrich your life at any age.
Traveling makes you smarter.
From the beginning of choosing a location, packing your suitcases and figuring out the logistics of who will water your plants or sit for your pet, traveling takes you out of your routine. Anything new and different like this which engages your brain, causes new neurological pathways to grow.
Learning a new language, taking a cooking or painting class while on your trip, or meeting new people all place you in unique situations, and your brain strengthens.
Traveling is healthy for you!
Traveling makes you strong.
For some people, all these new patterns outside the everyday routine can be perceived as a hassle. Yes, and that’s good! We learn flexibility, creativity and self-reliance from breaking from our everyday routines. Those are great attributes to have and they are useful to daily living.
Flexibility of mind, finding new solutions to new challenges, and our sense of who we are and how we cope all get stronger.
Traveling helps you become an interesting storyteller.
When things don’t go according to plan, those seemingly challenging circumstances make for the best stories!
If everything goes perfectly on your trip or vacation, and people ask “How did you enjoy yourselves? How was your trip?” All you can say is “Great!”
But if you lose your luggage in a foreign country, an unexpected hail storm hits your day outing, or your boat’s motor konks out, it’s then you have stories to tell! Like when our coaster bus had three flat tires on a trip from El Salvador to Guatemala.
Don’t fret, go with the flow!
Traveling opens your mind.
One of the biggest benefits of travel is the widening of perspective.
When you visit other cultures, engage with the people, their customs, their food, their language, and the different natural surroundings, you can’t help but gain perspective.
That internal road to opening your mind has benefits for you when you return home.
Traveling helps you lighten up.
When you take a trip, you realize that you can’t bring everything with you in your suitcase. It’s just not possible.
So, when you live out of a suitcase for a month or more, you come to realize that all the “stuff” you have at home might not be as necessary as you once thought. How many pairs of shoes do you need? How many sweaters, shirts, and change of clothing are crucial to a comfortable life?
Did you survive not seeing your favorite TV programs? Did you miss that ball game?
The encounter with minimalism that travel requires is refreshing.
Take a chance, take a trip!
So you see, the exotic and the new that you encounter when on the road has measurable and significant benefits for you.
Grow your brain! Expand your mind! Lighten up on stuff and take a trip!
And maybe you’ll meet us on the road less traveled!
About the Authors
Billy and Akaisha Kaderli are recognized retirement experts and internationally published authors on topics of finance, medical tourism and world travel. With the wealth of information they share on their award winning website RetireEarlyLifestyle.com, they have been helping people achieve their own retirement dreams since 1991. They wrote the popular books, The Adventurer’s Guide to Early Retirement and Your Retirement Dream IS Possible available on their website bookstore or on Amazon.com.
Hello Honey,
I was just sitting at my laptop researching various places to travel next year when your email popped up about the benefits of travel. You are absolutely right, travel has many benefits. We love to go on 10-15 day guided tours. For example, we went to Italy for 12 days starting in Venice and ending in Positano. It was fabulous! We learned so much and saw so many things. Tours help you manage your time so you can see as much as possible. I am looking to do a similar tour through another country or region of Europe, or maybe Peru or Costa Rico. I just can’t determine where to go! They all sound great! We’re not interested in cruising, so at least I can eliminate that option, but we want to be immersed in learning, history, beauty and great food. Not interested in sitting on a beach. Do you have any recommendations or can you tell of a trip you have particularly enjoyed?
Thank you for all your wonderful articles.
Happy Holidays,
Gail Arena
I would go to Machu Pichu in Peru. I would skip Costa Rico. In Europe, I might suggest starting in Paris and then drive to Versaille, then to Monet’s Garden and then onto the Normandy Beaches. We traveled to Venice and Positano. So fun. We are thinking of taking a deluxe train trip from China to Russia and follow the silk route. Thank you for liking my articles. Warmly, Honey
They all are good and more traveling in the United States is easy and loaded with interest. I recommend it!!
Thank you, Sandy. Hope to run into this season. Happy New Year. xo Susan
Hello.This article was really interesting, particularly because I was looking for thoughts on this matter last Sunday.
I am very glad you needed this article and it appeared before your eyes. I am smiling. Warmly, Honey