Trip ideas - travel like a backpacking student even if you're over 50
Most baby-boomer trip ideas are reserved to the tame and easy travel. Sure, if you are suffering health problems are have challenges walking, certainly a cruise or bus tour might be something you need. However, today’s older generations are getting younger in both outlook and physicality.
The 60’s are the new 50’s and the 50’s are the new 40’s. There is a definite trend among older folk to be active and healthy way longer than their own parents and grandparents.
For many, age is a relative term and as long as they feel fit and healthy, why not extend the pleasures of youth and seek some more adventure in life?
Backpacking is considered to be the student way. For most of us, we imagine this as a vacation of roughing it, taking on some homeless persona as you explore the four corners of the earth in some hippy like earthy fashion with dirty jeans and a weathered hitch-hiking thumb. But is it?
"If you think staying at a hostel when you're over 50 is a bit like going to a teen rave in ripped jeans, think again"
Go stay at a hostel
Ok, before you say that would be totally age inappropriate, that’s not the case at all. In fact, with the economy the way it is these days, many well matured adults head off to the hostels. It’s cheap, most are clean and you have a roof over your head. In fact, with the increasing popularity of hostels with the older generation(s), many hostels have upgraded with private rooms, bathrooms, private suites and more, You can even get Free internet, laundry service and decent meals – way better meals than you may have got on the flight over! Many hostels are not at all like that image you may have of a dormitory with bunk beds and drug addicts stealing your shoes.
Student travel does not have to be this way at all. Sure, take some of those youthful romantic elements and adopt them – why not? But you can still stay clean, sane and not have to get grungy and become a replica of a roadside bum. Backpacking is a great choice – and it need not just be for the fresh out of college or gap year brigade.
Hey, if you’re healthy, fit and ready for adventure, you can don a backpack and travel the world no matter what age you are. This is a senior trip idea that offers some exciting alternatives to the standard safe bets out there. Having said that, you do not need to have a backpack to adopt some of the savvy styles of money saving that the veteran backpacker has in their arsenal.
Backpackers know a thing or two about smart budget travel.
Do some walking
Walk! Seeing a city is not about being a mole and traveling the underground all day/night. If you want to capture the essence of a city, you need to walk. Try and stay on terra-firma as much as you can – not in it or above it. If you can catch a train, a bus or rent a car this is a way cheaper and more fulfilling alternative. 
Walking tours are available in most cities and many are tips at discretion – if the guide’s good, give them a generous tip. If not so good…a little something for effort. Walking tours can be way more interesting then some glorified double-decker bus ride with bad P.A and unintelligible tour guide muttering from the front of the bus.
Pack light and travel easy
Take a look at a veteran backpackers ensemble. They have a multi-functional wardrobe a combo aspect to everything – shorts that adapt to trousers, shirts that are light and breathable, toiletries that basically double or triple up as shampoo/body-wash/conditioner etc.
If you do not mind doing your own laundry, it’s a simple case of getting detergent and washing stuff in the sink. If you prefer, laundromats are very common in Europe and most places in the world.
Eating on the scrimp
Certainly Europe can be an expensive place to eat. Head off to a restaurant and you may quickly discover that your entire weeks budget just got blown with that one cheese burger and coke.
There is another way. Use a little imagination – bread rolls, fresh tomatoes, cheese etc….an authentic meal to enjoy in a park someplace at a fraction of the cost it would set you back in an establishment.
Fresh produce markets, bakeries and vendors can provide a buffet of choices. So, all this talk of traveling like a backpacker….what if you’re alone and have no companion to share this with? It’s quite amazing how you can quickly find people just like you on your travels – people that want to explore the world and have fun. You’ll meet them at the hostels, on the buses and trains. They are everywhere.
The rugged aspects of travel such as this bring with them an amazing dimension of different experiences that you would probably never have had by simply booking into some hotel for a couple of weeks. It is this more earthy approach that will feed your soul and mind with memories long after the trip.
Travel Tips for mature travelers deciding on a Hostel
Make sure that you carefully read reviews across the Net and research the hostel, it’s curfew policies, facilities and fine print.
Location is very important. Make sure it is in an areas that is safe and easily accessible with public transport
Wi-Fi is almost a requirement for travelers these days. Ensure that yuour chosen hostel provides this either FREE or at a minimum charge
Become a member of HI – Hostelling International. This can assist you in offers and help reduce your hostel stay costs.
Backpacking Through Europe: 5 Things You Will Love & Hate About Backpacking Through Europe
More travel tips for the 50+ group
It’s no secret that the baby-boomers, percentage wise, carry the most clout financially, are owners of their own homes and are either pre-retirement working or have retired.
This group generally travel to see family or friends or are out and about trying to accomplish their bucket list goals.
But baby-boomers travel. And going on a cruise is not the only thing they do. The trend is a definite turn towards more adventurous pursuits and a resistance to the idea that their age should dictate their pace.
Now the travel tips and ideas for the more senior of our population is far more broad and encompassing.
Here are a few travel ideas that may be of interest:
Ideas for travel if you're over 50 or any age and active
- Take a cruise to Antartica
- Travel to Peru and trek to Machu Picchu
- Go to Africa and take on Mt Kiliminjaro
- Visit China and extend your stay for the walk of the Great Wall
- Head to Iceland and enjoy the spectacle of the Northern Lights
- Take a trip to Morocco and visit the trading city of Marrakesh
- Explore the Darwinist roots of the Galapagos islands
- Amble aimlessly through the streets of Paris, France. ...
- Take in the sites of Russia with an incredible train journey - the Trans-Siberian railway
- Witness the Great Migration in Kenya or Tanzania
- Journey to India and witness the splendour of the Taj Mahal
- Go down under, to Australia and check out the Great Barrier Reef
- Go and visit the gorillas in their natural habitat in Rwanda.
- Take in a visit to Egypt and see the Great Pyramids at Giza
- Visit Jordan and discover theAncient Ruins of Petra