Where do I fit in?

Packerjohn

Packerjohn

Packerjohn
Location
Canada
First, let me state that I am 72, pretty good health & have traveled to about 65 countries over a period of many decades. I have done the Trans-Siberian to China, down a part of the Amazon, traveled via motorcycle in Europe, spent winters in Texas, Mexico & Portugal, etc. etc. etc.

Now here is the problem. When I look at Lonely Planet books they advise doing "silly" stuff like sky walking off the CN Tower in Toronto, volcano boarding down Nicaragua's Cerro ***** Mountain or zip lining in just any country in the world. It seems that travel has now become a nonstop "adventure" for young urbanites who generally lead boring lives otherwise.

Now when I investigate travel for us seniors out there the choices seem to be: 1. Bus trips to Casinos, 2. Bus trips to Branson, Missouri, 3. Cruises on ships holding 5,000 passengers (cattle cars, if you ask me) 4. Guided bus trips ("if its Tuesday, it must be Belgium"). All these options make me a bit tired of the advertising in travel.

I have been independent most of my life when it comes to travel & generally cannot stand groups; makes me feel like a sheep told to be nice & follow the shepherd. I have tried a couple of travel clubs & love meeting the locals & staying in their homes. Unlike the late 60s when I started to travel, I feel that travel has just become "big business" & there are just too many people traveling about who maybe shouldn't be.

People who sit in bars in Asia & listen for the 100th time to "Hotel California" or watch football on the telly which they could watch at home. Or the young mother taking her month old baby & "doing Europe or Asia". Any good advice on what you think I might enjoy on future trips before I "kick that bucket?" There must be a nice some place for this ole' packer.
 

I don’t know how it would fit for you, PackerJohn; but one of the best trips that I have had was just going cross-country on Amtrak from north Idaho (where I lived) out to Virginia to visit my daughter , who was stationed out there at that time.
I spent the days up in the Vista Dome (or observation car) and looking at all of the scenery.
I actually had all three seats on my row to myself until we got to Chicago, where we picked up commuters headed for Washington, DC; so I had enough room to sleep comfortably. However, you can also get a roomette, which has a small bed for easier sleeping and more privacy.
If you do that, then one meal per day in the main dining car comes along with that ticket. I packed lots of protein bars, and had my morning coffee in the dining room with a food bar, and then got some kind of sandwich from the snack room for my evening meal because I was just in the coach and not in the private room.

Amtrack has scenic routes that they take, so you can book a trip to almost any area that you want to see. One that I would really like to do goes across the southern part of Canada and through the Rocky Mountains up there, and another one goes all the way down the West Coast, from the Canadian border to the Mexican border.
If you look on the Amtrak website, they show the different vacation trips, as well as the discounts you can get for traveling as a senior, or former military.

I don’t suppose that I will ever get to do something like this again, but if I were able to travel on a vacation, this would be my idea of the perfect trip.


Here is a quick overview of some of the Amtrak vacation trips that they offer, and Youtube has lots more videos if this is something you would enjoy doing .

 

It's interesting that you should mention large cruise ships. The Shetland Islands are the most northerly part of the UK, and have deep water harbours that can accommodate these large ships. When they arrive, they more than double the population of the main town. There was a documentary on TV recently about this and it was amusing how some passengers didn't even know what country they were in. One thought that they were visiting Dublin, and wanted to know if there was a bus to Edinburgh (a 2 hour flight away)

This convinced me that I didn't want to take this sort of holiday - but then one day, I spotted what looked like a modern 3 masted schooner. On doing a bit of research, I found that there were a number of companies that did cruises for a relatively small number of passengers on modern sailing ships. I find this more appealing.
 
Greeting Happyflowerlady: Thanks for the lovely video. I have travel via rail from Poland to the Pacific (Trans-Siberian), 2 months in China by rail & 2 months in India via rail. I have also done a lot of rail travel in Europe but not in North America. I love rail travel as it is a good way to meet people & it is relaxing. So relaxing that I want to keep traveling but not arrive. Thanks for you assistance. I will check into rail travel. Would love to go to Yellowstone but the accommodation there is getting to be just for the rich & well off. Not like the "good ole' days".
 
Well, I first noticed that you originally joined in Nov 2014, but have posted very little since. Just wondered why there were those saying "Welcome" to you, since you aren't a new member.

Anyway, from what you are wondering about with travel and vacations, both have changed considerably since move of us done it. It definitely cost more, but then again, professional people today make a much nicer salary than we did years ago. There are also the "adventurous" and "thrill seeker" types today.

There are places, in Europe, that my wife has been to ,before we met and married, that I'll never go to due to our finances. Would love to, but "finances" always, always rule when it comes to having fun and traveling. But, we have been on a 4-day Bahamas Cruise out of Cape Carnival in Florida, been to Yellowstone National Park, Mt. Rushmore, Las Vegas and Key West.

Our next, long-distance trip will be flying back to Colorado and visiting Cheyenne, Wyoming. Use to live in Parker, CO and absolutely loved it and have also been to Cheyenne for the big rodeo and loved that as well. Our plan is to move back there next year. Jacksonville, FL and/or Florida just isn't for us anymore. We will both be in our early 70's when we move back.

Thing is, since we are the "Western/cowboy/rodeo" type, you probably wouldn't be interested at all in where we recommended you traveling/vacationing to.

If you haven't guessed it, we are really the "Western/cowboy/rodeo" type of couple.
 
Packerjohn said:
Greeting Happyflowerlady: Thanks for the lovely video. I have travel via rail from Poland to the Pacific (Trans-Siberian), 2 months in China by rail & 2 months in India via rail. I have also done a lot of rail travel in Europe but not in North America. I love rail travel as it is a good way to meet people & it is relaxing. So relaxing that I want to keep traveling but not arrive. Thanks for you assistance. I will check into rail travel. Would love to go to Yellowstone but the accommodation there is getting to be just for the rich & well off. Not like the "good ole' days".
Click to expand...

When I went to Yellowstone (it has been about 20 years ago), we didn’t actually stay overnight at the park itself, because, even then, it was pretty expensive, at least for my budget.
We stayed until in the evening and then drove on through the park and south into Wyoming until we came to one of the little outlying towns, and got a motel there.
It would have been nice to be able to have spent a longer time in the park itself, but even just spending the day there was exciting, and now that I am older, I couldn’t do all of the hiking around that we did back then anyway.

Another idea for your upcoming trip might be to look on Youtube and watch some videos for places you think you might like to visit, and that would give you some good insight on where might be the most interesting place to go.

When I was visiting my daughter out in Virginia, she took me to historic Williamsburg, as well as where Jamestown had been, and we looked at many of the old historical buildings that had been there since the 1700’s and before.
Some old structures had cannonballs from both the Revolutionary War and the Civil War !
We went on a midnight walking Ghost Tour, where they showed us some of the houses that were supposed to be haunted (done at night by candlelight, of course), and then down the James River on a ferry type of boat, to see some of the haunted houses along the river.
I really loved seeing the early “roots” of our country, because growing up out west, we really didn’t have much history that was before the 1800’s like they have on the East Coast.

Also, many of the older cities here have an underground city that was built over at some early point in history, and they have tours of the underground.
Seattle Underground is maybe the most famous tour, but there are other places where there was a fire (or other disaster) that destroyed the early city, and the new one was built over top of where the old one was.

I envy you the ability to be able to plan and go on one last tour, and I am looking forward to hearing about where you decide to go, and seeing some pictures posted here once you have gone on the trip.
 
Both my cousin and ex-sister in law were talking about senior travel groups they belong to. Both offer group travel, where you can tour places with a small group, or go off by your self. For folks who cannot afford to get a hotel room alone, and do not have a travel partner, they will budding you up with a same-sex co-traveler to share hotel expenses with. Many of these offer options for single travelers.

https://seniors.lovetoknow.com/senior-travel-groups
 
I just checked with my cousin. She goes through AAA, and the group is called The Solo Club. She does not know if all AAA's have it, but you could check.

 
There are several companies that offer small group tours. Windjammer tours comes to mind. I think one is called Adventure Travel? Maybe? A friend of ours went with them on a safari. Only about 20 people in the group. But you will pay for your thrills. So if money is no object.....
 
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Does anyone take driving/camping vacations any more ??

That is what my family did every year... camp out as a family or group of friends
in the mountains, deserts and national parks... to see and experience nature and
the natural beauty of North America [and elsewhere] at your own pace.

.
 
We do not go on megaships. Holland America has ships That carry about 1400 passengers. When looking at a cruise, the very first thing I look at is passenger capacity.

In Arizona there was an RV club in the 55+ community where we lived. We went on many caravans from there to Mazatlan, Cabo san Lucas, up to Alberta plus many shorter trips. It was enjoyable traveling with friends. We all had CB radios and could talk as we traveled. You didn't need a humongous motorhome, we had the smallest rig in the club and we enjoyed the same places as the folks with the big rigs.
 
Packer, the best tour I ever went on was a small group tour of Cornwall, England. It has a maximum of 14 people, gives people plenty of individual freedom to do what they want, and provides excellent
tour leadership by natives of the area. The hotels are excellent, and the places visited are fascinating. The tour leaves from and returns to London.

Look them up at Dacey's Cornish Tours.
 
Thanks for the timely tip, Sunny. We are off to Quebec next month but will be doing "dear ole' Cornwall" in May, 2019. Want to see all those lovely bluebells one last time. Will contact Dacey's Cornish Tours this morning.
 
I've never really had the opportunity to travel much but since retirement I've been exploring my own back yard. I discovered a web site called Atlas Obscura. It's world wide and it really favors sights off the big touristy trail. I've discovered so many unusual, quirky, haunted, weird places through this website which has become one of my favorite sites. Happy travels. I understand about not wanting to do the whole bungee jumping, zip lining thing.
 
What about Australia have you ever been here? PJ Australia has many beautiful places to see, you can hire a motor home or a car and travel, to your hearts content in the bush or cities or maybe go on “sheep mustering tours” as I call bus trips for seniors :)
 
There must be a nice some place for this ole' packer.

I get the impression that there isn't much left of the planet for you to visit Sir, but may I suggest a simple idea. If you haven't already, why not do an in depth study of your home area, walk the streets and look at the buildings and the history of the place. I did precisely this myself a few years ago and was staggered to discover so many things about where I grew up.....:thumbsup1:
 
I have wanted go to Australia since I started back packing in 1970. I was on my way but then I got sick in Turkey. I still want to go but my wife has no interest in the trip, so we are off to Quebec on August 30th & will travel all over the place for 33 days. Thanks.
 

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