RESOURCES FOR DECIDING

TRAVEL BUDGET

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Expenditure Interview Survey, average travel expenditures on domestic and international trips were $583 and $3273, respectively, in 2013.  For some retirees, travel is a significant expense (averaging $11,077 a year) that has to be budgeted.  If you have a limited budget, consider the following suggestions:

• Identify and prioritize those trips that are physically demanding and pursue senior discounts, including (1) AARP membership benefits highlighted in the AARP Travel Center for hotels and car rentals to maximize your budget, and (2) the National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Pass Series’ annual or lifetime Senior Pass for U.S. citizens or permanent resident 62 years or older.  See our article on How to Decide Whether to Buy a National Parks Pass for more information.
• Stay flexible with your destinations so that you can pick the destination that is the cheapest option for you at any travel time.
• Add up the cost per night of the various lodging options to determine if those costs will affect the length of the trip and itinerary.
• Check the exchange rate to determine whether your money will go much further in one destination over another.

For tips on how to save money when booking flights and lodging, see the BOOK tab on the AWAY-DO page.

Now you are ready to draft a basic itinerary identifying what you want to do/see and how many days to devote to your trip including travel and any jet lag time.  This part is a lot easier if you are going on a cruise or taking a group tour.  If you are thinking of taking a group tour, check out our tour group resources on the GROUP SIZE tab (above).

RESOURCES FOR ITINERARY PLANNING

A.  Interview People

When someone has just returned from a fun trip, ask them to go out for coffee to see their pictures.  You’ll have solid, timely trip planning ideas from someone you know and trust.  I also quiz fellow travelers whenever I’m on a group tour and store my notes on my phone using the Google Keep app.

B.  Trust the Experts

While there are many online tools to help you create an itinerary, the plethora of online options, especially for a long/ambitious itinerary, can be overwhelming.

Many of the resources available on the AWAY-DREAM page will also be helpful for itinerary planning, but you might also consider comparing tour aggregators’ itineraries for small groups even if you don’t plan on going on a tour.  For example, we compared ten general itineraries of major tours to get a handle on what those companies advertised as the “must do” sights/activities in Scotland. 

If you start to spin your wheels when creating your itinerary because there is just too much to see/do in the allotted time, go to your local library or bookstore and buy a travel guide that ranks destinations.  It will be worth every penny.  Apparently, the folks at Rick Steves agree and offer a helpful guide comparison here.  I also think that the 1,000 Places to See Before You Die books can be especially helpful in itinerary planning.

C.  Consult Online Travel Guides

In addition to local tourism websites for your chosen destination, you can get detailed itinerary planning advice by using the travel guides at the following websites:

• AFAR – Travel Magazine and Guide (travel guides)
• Condé Nast Traveler (the places)
• Departures (city guides)
• Fodor’s
• Frommer’s
• Lonely Planet (places)
• Smarter Travel (destinations)
• Travel + Leisure (travel guides)
• tripsavvy (itineraries under destinations)

TripAdvisor can also be very useful in building your trip itinerary if you don’t get overwhelmed.  In addition to reviews, members also contribute to city guides.  For example, see this Rome Travel Guide.  On our AWAY-DREAM page, we’ve identified some blogs that you might enjoy following.  You can search their websites for articles by destination to help with your itinerary planning.

D.  Contact a Travel Advisor

Just because you can research and book your own trips, doesn’t mean that you should.  Although airlines no longer pay commissions to travel agents, travel advisors still receive commissions from most hotels, cruise lines, car rental companies, and other travel service providers.  Therefore, for a trip planning fee, consider consulting a trusted travel advisor when (1) your plans include large groups, complicated itineraries, expensive international flights, or luxury travel, and (2) you are interested in saving time, money, and frustration by accessing their hotel or cruise line perks or their help during your trip when plans fall apart due to flight cancelations or other events.

TIPS ON ITINERARY PLANNING

I (Amy) have been creating itineraries for about 35 years, and my process is still evolving.  For many people, the concept of anything more than a loose itinerary is stifling.  I do understand the desire to be flexible and for the pace of travel to be enjoyable.  The more research that I do at home, however, reduces unnecessary stress on the trip when weather or other factors force us to pivot.

Let’s face it, time and money are precious, non-renewable resources that should be spent wisely.  If I’m going to spend time researching a computer, I am going to spend a reasonable amount of time researching my trip itinerary that will far exceed the cost of the computer.  But that is just me — feel free to wing some or all of your trip if that’s what makes it fun for you.  Spontaneous discoveries are some of the best travel memories that you can have!

I use my draft itinerary to determine (1) how many days that we want to devote to a particular location or the entire trip, and (2) whether we are interested in joining a group tour.

Once we have booked everything, I create a detailed final itinerary:

• I create a custom map at Google My Maps because that gives me a better idea about the distances between sights and can easily be saved and shared with travel companions. 

• Then for each day, I group activities, record the days/hours of operation and ticket costs, and identify which sights are free.  I shoot for having balanced experiences meaning that, if we go to a museum on Monday, we will go on a boat ride on Tuesday because variety is the spice of life, isn’t it?  I also create a list of Plan B activities for wretched weather.

• For each day of our itinerary, I used Google Maps and the “Nearby” button to search for restaurants close to where we will be touring.  I then identify a few restaurants for each meal/day, copy their website links into a list, and email it to Howie for input.

• Before we leave, I consider buying sight/event tickets and make restaurant reservations (if necessary or highly desirable).

• When I’m concerned that our Internet access might be spotty, I will also use Google Maps directions to choose the best route for the particular date and time on our itinerary, print out the directions at home,  and staple them to any tour tickets for that day.

Before booking a trip, the next question might be whether you plan to travel independently or take some group tours.

SOLO

Don’t let the fact that your family or friends don’t have the same travel desires or funds limit your options.  There is no reason why you can’t travel alone or join a tour group if you enjoy socializing. The tour aggregator Stride Travel includes a filter to identify solo-friendly trips.  There are also a number of blogs geared towards solo travel that you might enjoy following for tips:

• Big Travel Nut
• Hole in the Donut Cultural Travel
• Luggage and Lipstick
• Otts World
• Solo Traveler
• Solo Travel Girl
• Solo Trips and Tips
• Women on the Road

DUET

This is one is easy.  Once you’re past the solo realm, you know that you have to discuss and/or negotiate a lot of your travel decisions, but it’s fairly easy to make everyone happy.  The more people, however, the more complicated that can be.

GROUP (3+)

By joining a tour group, you will not feel like you are tagging along on anyone else’s vacation and will not have to negotiate the itinerary or most meals.  It can be the perfect solution for a memorable vacation.  Pick a tour and invite some family or friends to join you, and you’ll have even more fun.

Tour group sizes can vary considerably affecting their cost as well as the experience.  For help comparing tour bus companies, see Rick Steves’ tips.  We have been on two European small group tours (one with 15 and another with 28 people) and have the following observations to share:

• smaller groups tend to move faster and do not overwhelm coffee/gift shops, restaurants, and restrooms; and

• larger groups mean that you will probably sit next to different people at meals every day and will still be meeting new people at the end of the trip.

In our article on Scotland, we go over what we found to be the pros and cons of taking a small group tour of Scotland.  If you have a big enough private group (for large family/friend groups, clubs, reunions, or destination weddings), you should also consider negotiating discounts for your hotel as well as planning a custom group tour.

Did you know that there are online tour aggregators that you can use to search the offerings of various tour companies?  Here are a few helpful aggregators to start your search:

• Stride Travel includes tour filters for group size, group age (50-64 and 65+), and activity level.  They also have pages for 50-Plus Travel Tours & Trips and Senior Travel Tours & Trips.  Note that you can sort by tour operator to see the number of tours offered by the company in a particular area.

• TourRadar includes tour filters for group age (50+, 60+, or 70+) and has a page devoted to the Best Tours & Trips for Seniors.  Note that you can sort by tour operator to see the number of tours offered by the company in a particular area.

• Adventure.Travel provides a search engine of trips for a curated list of adventure tour companies.

• Viator focuses on bookable activities including sightseeing tours, day trips, events, and attractions.

• Project Expedition allows you to book excursions, tours, and attractions in destinations around the world.

Based on our research, the following tour companies specifically focus some or all of their tours on the 50+ age demographic:

• Adventures Abroad
• ElderTreks
• On The Go Tours
• Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT)
• Road Scholar
• World Expeditions

There are many other tour companies, however, that do cater to the over 50+ demographic (by default when students are in school), so take a look at a company’s website to get a better sense of the age range that you are likely to encounter if you’ll be traveling in the summer or on school holidays.  Our handy spreadsheet of tour operators (that you can filter by group size) is available on our CACHE page (subscribe to our newsletter for the password).