As this 70-year-old pair Bucked Convention World

As this 70-year-old pair Bucked Convention World -

traveling When I saw him at the inn, I could not help but smile. He was a man who could have been my grandfather, hanging with college age backpackers and the time of his life. The younger travelers were in love with his stories of past trips and his ability to drink under the table. No one he took care in his 70s was. Age did not matter one bit.

I believe that most of my advice on this website is universal. Perhaps as an elderly couple or family you will skip hostels or avoid CouchSurfing, but if we land in Paris, we all face the same costs and list of possible activities, regardless of age. But I think especially here in the United States there is a belief is that you simply do not travel if you have or have medical problems 70th And while there are a few things to more aware, when you get older, I disagree that there is a special category called "Senior Trip." The differences between how I travel and like a 70-year trips are really minimal.

So when Don and Alison approached me about her story, I had to share it. Because here is a "senior" couple, limited by some medical issues, in adventure engagement I only dream. I think her story can teach a lot of us and inspire

Nomadic Matt :. Hi guys! Tell everyone about yourself
Don:. I am a 70-year-old retired neuropsychologist. Two years ago I made a decision to retire because I had developed a number of medical problems due to stress from work. I was working even in illness. Alison (my wife, who is 63) and I did not have enough savings to keep our home and do to the kind of world traveling we wanted to do. We agonized about what to do for a long time, until it became clear that it came to the question "Do we want to have a home, or do we want to have a life?" So we decided to sell our house. We have now been on the road, with occasional travel to our hometown replenish our supply base and back for two years to see our friends, and plan a nomadic life for the foreseeable future to live on.

[ What inspires nomads to be
Don: Originally, the desire to see the places that were buckets at the top of our list, and to see by how much of the world as we could before we got too old to travel

Alison .: inspiration came from Don first daily "morning papers" (Julia Cameron [writing the way of the artist [1945004aufderSuche]) some answers to retirement / income dilemma. One day out of the blue, he suggested to me that we sell the apartment and go on trips. I did not immediately say yes to this, but it was a seed until it grew by itself one day, we realized that's what we would do. I had a beautiful life at home, but Don was with work and struggling to keep going. It had to be something

Where did your travels ever done
Don:.? After selling our home we went to Europe. In connection to that, we went to Tiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu, India, where we for 10 weeks remained to spend time at the ashram of Ramana Maharshi meditate. From there we went to Bali, then to spend time in Australia with some of Alison family and friends. We also returned to India, in Southeast Asia, and more recently, Mexico.

been Have your friends and family you think this crazy do?
[1945006Don] Probably, although no one said that on our faces. Everyone was surprised, some of them seemed perhaps a bit shocked, and many of them told us that we had a lot of courage for this step and encouraged us to go for it.

Do you feel that your age in any way a problem or limitation
Don: When we started traveling, I was concerned about my health, and whether I would be able to stay healthy, especially when traveling in third world countries. However, as we have traveled, I realized I can overseas, appropriate medication sick and get well again. It is not as hard as I thought to get the necessary care when traveling

Alison .: It's never occurred to me that age has nothing to do with anything , I am young, fit and healthy, and above all, do what I need to do to stay that way. At the same time, I am aware that Don has a few manageable health issues that we need to be careful, but nothing that really prevented us that to do what we want to do. He is so much healthier and happier than when he was working.

have said that we do not have our body Cavalier. We know that things sometimes take longer than to cure when we were younger. For this reason, we draw the line at things like whitewater rafting. Aside from the fact that none of us are experienced, we know that a good jolt could result in whiplash, might take the weeks to heal. Nevertheless, we have moved in quite difficult terrain, was driving with elephants, gone kayaking, riding camels at dawn in the desert and swimming climbed volcanoes in the dark.

As you have saved money for your travels
Don: I for many years had money in a Canadian Registered Retirement Savings set plan. These savings and interest on them are tax-free, up to the time when I start to take it off. We sold our house at what is now the highlight of the property market Vancouver appears to have been, in August 2011 and put the money to work in investments. We also have a monthly pension of a Canadian federal government receive plan that I helped from time to which I was in my early 20s, until I retired.

How do you manage your money on the street?
Don: we budget for our accommodation per day about $ 50, plus another 50 for meals and entertainment $. Recently we have started to stay in places for a long time and have begun apartments rent instead of staying in hotels. The price per night is often the same as a hotel room, but we save money through our own meals to make. We splurge regularly on guided tours or hikes or major events such as the Guelaguetza Festival in Oaxaca.

Many older couples and individuals that are around the world travel for young people feel. What would you tell them
Don : Please do so anyway, while you do not have the health and strength to do it. We are more than Flashpacker backpackers we usually stay in three-star hotels, because we do that on our budget, and the rooms that we have Wi-Fi and a private bathroom for rent. We book hotel rooms or apartments online with Agoda.com, Booking.com, Wimdu.com or Homeaway.com

Alison .: I think there are a lot of myths about "old age "that people live in. I do not understand the idea that adventure and a love of life are only for "the youth." We have a full-of-life hit 92-year-old, who learned to play the violin in the seventies and regularly jams with a group of friends, a 78-year-old woman who says that if it is to be ready 80, her house go sell and when traveling, and an eighty-something woman who was traveling alone in Myanmar. We love role models like these. Life is what you make, and you only get one chance to live this life.

Staying in hostels? If you meet young backpackers on your journey, how do they react? I usually find that they tend to get excited about older travelers. It is a "cool" thing.
Don: We have not in hostels for two main reasons were: the first is because of my concern for the safety of our belongings, and the second is that we would like the luxury of a private Bad. That being said, the young backpackers we met on the street are doing very positive about what we do at our age.

Did you have any fears about traveling before starting
Don: Alison has always been much more adventurous than me, so when we I had sick in Third first trips began world countries a lot of fears about. Well, we sent there to have been almost two years on the road, many of these fears are gone because we were sick and recovered without back to Canada

Alison .: I do not like to fly. It's one of my biggest fears. As long as things are going smoothly and I can in a movie in order I am immersed. But any turbulence and I'm a white-knuckle chaos. [Matt says: me too!] Apart that I do not think I've ever had really scared because I had done so much traveling, when I was younger.

What was the biggest thing was you have learned so far from your trip
Don: that the mind really does enhance travel. We have found that people are people wherever we go and that the vast majority of them are friendly and helpful. If you approach people in a friendly and frank manner, it is what you most likely to get back. We do our best, with a feeling of respect for the people we come on our trips to meet, regardless of their circumstances. We have also found that bother a few basic words and phrases of the local language does wonders to learn to connect with the people of a country!

I am much happier and healthier than I was before two years. Now I know from personal experience why people love to travel. The world and its peoples are much friendlier and much less scary than various government websites have us believe

Alison . Everything Don said, and always learn how to say "I'm sorry" in the local language. And presence. There is no past, no future. Only now. The longer we travel to the more this truth is actually lived. Whenever I vulnerable I feel back to the present, because it is here that life is lived.

What advice would you give to people who are looking to do something similar?
Alison: do not go blind. Do your research. The more information you collect before you go, the better you will be prepared, and you feel less vulnerable to. At the same time, organize themselves not in a tight schedule. Leave room for spontaneity. Trust yourself and go for it. Until you do, you can not even begin, the rewards to imagine that come from such a life. The world is an amazing place and the people are open-minded than you would ever believe from watching the nightly news. Oh, that's another thing - stop watching the news: it gives a very negative view of the word

Don and Alison are a real inspiration !. They found a way to travel to make work for them, and it even made Don a healthier and happier person! I love her story really as good as what they had to say about their experiences. The couple has set up a blog about their trips, which you can read here.

If the next success story

is one of my favorite parts about this job travel stories do people. You inspire me, but more importantly, they also inspire you. I travel in a certain way, but there are many ways to finance your trips and travel around the world. I hope that these stories show that it will reach more than one way to travel, and that it is within your reach your destinations. Here is another example of people who a little later a priority in life made the world travel:

• Why a 50-year-old couple sold it all over the world to travel

we all come from different places, but we have one thing in common all: we all want to travel more

to the day Make today a step closer to travel - whether it is buying a guide, unfortunately. a hostel, an itinerary, or go all the way to create and to buy a plane ticket.

Remember, might never come tomorrow, so do not wait.

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