# Retirement travel plan & budget.



## maylok89 (Jul 12, 2018)

Hi All,

We are going to retire in a year or so and are planning to travel when retire. 

Could you share your retirement travel experiences, plans and budget such as: 

1. How long is the travel: week? month? season? 
2. When did /would you travel? How often? how many times a year? Are you snowbirds?
3. Where did/would you travel to: Canada? US? or Oversea? Caribbean? Sun destination? Europe? Asia? or anywhere else? 
4. Did you go with the tour or DYI ? by car? RV or plane? all inclusive resort or cruise? 
5. How much is the travel budget? for how many people? luxury? economy? Do you own vacation home? 
6. What age range were you when you travel ? when did you or do you plan to slow down in travel? 
7. For any long trips, what are everyday activities ? 
8. Cost of travel insurance? 
9. Anyone joined the oversea volunteer group? 
10. Any pros/cons /thoughts for each travel? where did you enjoy the most? 

I'd to get away in the winter months to somewhere warm and here are what I'd like to plan :

1 . a month or 2 in the winter months or off season. Travel in the summer is too hot, too expensive. We can not go too long since our elder parents are still in town. 

2. 1 or 2 trips a year, 1 family trip per 2 years

3. There are too many places to go, it is hard to choose. We've been few places in US, Canada, Hawaii, Europe, Asia, Australia, all inclusive, cruises but mostly just quick /condense /hopping places. I've seen HGTV shows such as Caribbean life, Hawaii life, house hunter international and love all the warm destinations.
Much as I hate winter, I don't think we would permanent retire somewhere warm since all the siblings, families, children are in town. Thought about buying a vacation place in Florida, but I missed the good timeframe when the price was cheaper & Canadian dollars was higher. I also heard about the tax complex, taking care the property when you are not there, tied up with 1 place that you go there every year etc ... Maybe later, when we decide to staying there longer and the children with own family will have the good use of the property.

4. We've done all of them , but for tour, we only take the short tour after we arrive to the destination. 
When we still healthy and have a energy, we would do DYI travel, more planning, take the subway, train, walking. Or even joining the volunteer group to help out. Travel with friends or group of friends or siblings would be nice.

5. I think 15000-20000 /a year for 2 people. For me, the most spending is accommodation, we often found good deal air tickets, we enjoyed street food, we stayed in airbnb. I read staying in Asia, south America or Portugal or Spain is more affordable, but renting 1 month not a whole year is still expensive? What your thoughts about home exchange? 
Of course we would like to go to the luxury places (who wouldn't ?), business air tickets to somewhere far would be nice . But reality, we are OK to go to affordable/comfortable places, stay in airbnb/apartment, do some quick cooking, take time to travel or driving around, getting to know the local people, culture. We are not that young for backpacking, hostel or some thrill physical activities though.

6. I think later (around 70), we will take time drive down to Florida, stay few months in the winter, or go cruises, to all inclusive resort or tours, I heard after 75 the travel insurance is very expensive? 


Thank You all very much and looking forward hearing from you.


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

Travel desires and plans will vary as much as there are people on this planet, and available budget of course. Not much one will be able to get a consensus on I suspect. A few comments though for us (70 year olds):

- At least one winter vacation per year to get away from the frigid (which is anywhere in Canada) north. We are not into snowbirding to the same place.
- Travel insurance definitely starts to get very expensive at age 75 and beyond. A number of 80+ couples we know have stopped traveling ex-Canada for any length of time (short trips across the border is all).
- We have gotten into a rhythm of 2 major travel destinations per year. Annual spend varies depending on destination from about $25k - $50k. We travel well i.e. no econo stuff for us.
- There are more items on the bucket list than we will ever be able to check off
- We traveled (vacationed) pre-retirement as well but not at the same expense level


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## maylok89 (Jul 12, 2018)

AltaRed said:


> Travel desires and plans will vary as much as there are people on this planet, and available budget of course. Not much one will be able to get a consensus on I suspect. A few comments though for us (70 year olds):
> 
> - At least one winter vacation per year to get away from the frigid (which is anywhere in Canada) north. We are not into snowbirding to the same place.
> - Travel insurance definitely starts to get very expensive at age 75 and beyond. A number of 80+ couples we know have stopped traveling ex-Canada for any length of time (short trips across the border is all).
> ...


Thank You very much, I need to increase the travel plan budget to at least $25k-30K then , do you go far for the winter vacation? and how long is each vacation? did you stay in hotel or the apartment? restaurant food everyday ? and I guess business tickets (nice, I luv it!!) Thanks


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## ian (Jun 18, 2016)

We started our retirement with a seven month trip. Europe, Africa, Europe, Florida, Costa Rica (one month in a condo, two weeks touring in a rental car), and Florida/Louisiana (rental car). Then home and three months in a furnished apartment in town. Since that time it has been summers at home then time in Aug in Ontario (Kawarthas) with inlaws, then six weeks or so in Europe. A last minute AI in Mexico-usually late November/early December. Then anywhere from 2-3 months, more recently 2 months, somewhere warm. So far four winters in SE Asia (mostly Thailand) with some Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Australia, and one winter in South America (cruise and land travel) and then Panama and Costa Rica.

We have done numerous last minute cruises during those trips. Booking anywhere from a 45 days out to 3 days out. We no longer to far ahead-mostly a few days in advance other than perhaps bookending a trip with air out and back home. If we like somewhere we may stay longer. If we don't, then we simply leave. We have a general idea of where and when we want to go. The rest is spontaneous except when we required a visa for entry (Vietnam) or solid booked dates for a SA safari. We do car rentals, trains, ferry rides, buses, local air...whatever. We take advantage of travel offers whenever possible. Our lodging varies from condos, B&B's, one star through to five star hotels depending where we are.

We do not have a set travel budget. It is what it is. My spouse does not like to be away for more than two months so now that is our limit at one go (I would be happy to go out for 4 months, twice a year). This also matches our out of country medical coverage that is part of my pension. If we need to extend that, we do. We are fairly careful travelers who look for value. In the past we have spent time in Florida, AZ, etc. We much prefer to spend time in Thailand even with the long flights. Many of hotels,etc, where we stay include breakfast. We may have some fruit at lunch but that is about it. In Thailand for example, we have a great meal for $12-15 dollars...includes beer and water. This is at a local restaurant with local food....which is very much our preference.

We have been grounded since we came back from Thailand in March. Had to cancel a short 8 day trip to China in May because of medical issues. IF we get the all clear in late Aug we are looking at Ontario, then perhaps a few weeks in Spain/Morocco. Spouse will come home. I will go to India and do a 16 day escorted tour that she has no interest in doing. Nothing planned as yet, it will all be fairly last minute.

Prior to leaving for seven months after retiring we moved everything possible to email. We subsequently rented a condo(lock and leave) for four years and have recently purchased in a retirement HOA area. Grass and snow is taken care of. Our neighbour checks the house. No house plants, no pets. 

Best things we ever did were downsize, unload our previous family home, rent, downsize even more, and then buy four years later in an HOA community that sits a block from a Provincial Park. Some people think that we are nuts. We will continue to do this while we have good health and bucket lists. Later, we may do more cruises or perhaps rent a winter home for a few months instead of moving about.

We travel with carry on only. We each take a 20" roller, about 8KG in weight. Not because we do not want to pay for bags but rather because it is a physical requirement for us when bouncing around on trains, cars, boats, whatever. We only take what we can each easily physically handle. Other than the first year of travel, our subsequent after tax burn rate has been 6-6.5K per month, net of tax installments. That has been fairly stable for the past six years. We do not carry any debt-no mortgage payments. We expect this to increase since we are splurging out more on travel and may spend several months in Australia this winter (expensive)


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

maylok89 said:


> Thank You very much, I need to increase the travel plan budget to at least $25k-30K then , do you go far for the winter vacation? and how long is each vacation? did you stay in hotel or the apartment? restaurant food everyday ? and I guess business tickets (nice, I luv it!!) Thanks


We've typically done California, Hawaii (multiple times), Costa Rica/Panama, and are heading to Vietnam/Cambodia this January. It is mostly* condo living unless it is a week or less....then 4+ star hotel. 4 weeks is about our limit before we (especially DW) wants to come home. That is all right though I'd prefer to miss all of Jan/Feb in the Okanagan. Like Ian, we don't really have a travel budget per se. We find what we want to do and just do it albeit I think I'd choke somewhat if I found our travel bill hit a big number like $100k in a given year.

*example: One winter we spent one week in a hotel on the Big Island in Hawaii and then 3 weeks in a condo in Maui. So it depends.


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## milhouse (Nov 16, 2016)

We're not retired yet but this is kind of how we're planning things out:

We want to try to travel about 6 months a year. It's keeps our provincial medical coverage active and we want to enjoy summers in Vancouver. 
I can't see us travelling 6 months continuously. On the long end, I'm thinking we'd travel for 4-6 weeks. That would allow us to maybe save on accommodations with a longer term rental in some situations. On the shorter end, I'd like to see us taking more long weekend or week long road trips or short hops from Vancouver. 
We like taking advantage of shoulder season and getting away from the wet weather so I can see us focusing longer trips in Sept to early Dec and mid Jan to May. Road trips will typically be more enjoyable in the summer though. But at the risk of higher travel costs, I'd like to visit during some interesting festivals and events too. 

I've broken down the travel destinations into 5 categories: US/Canada, Asia, Europe, Cruising, and Other (Central/South America, Africa, Australia/NZ/South Pacific, etc). It'd be nice to rotate through those destinations throughout the year. 
For 2-3 week trips, our total cost per couple has been about $300/day/couple for international trips and about $400-450/day/couple for cruises. That's what we're using for travel budget purposes. However, we're hoping to reduce the cost with cheaper longer term accommodations, spreading the flight costs over more days, doing some cheaper re-positioning cruises, cheaper road trips, etc. However, we currently have travel insurance through our extended health coverage at work so that would be an additional cost. And we'd like to upgrade to biz class flights one day. 

Depending on the trip, we'll do the odd paid attraction but the majority of our time is spent exploring the city and seeking out markets and cheap local eats.


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## Eder (Feb 16, 2011)

Ahhh...nothing better than traveling once retired. We bought a large rv shortly after I retired...after 2 years of traveling everywhere across Canada , USA, Mexico we arrived back at our house and parked in the driveway.
I went into the house to turn on the hot water etc, after an hour I noticed my wife was not to be found. Looking around I finally found her on the couch in the rv. She said she didn't feel like moving back into the house so I called a realtor and quickly sold our home.
We used the proceeds to buy a nice sail boat and pretty much spend all year traveling on either the rv or boat...cost vary but not owning a home saves a tremendous amount of money.
We'll do this till I croak I hope...no plans for another house etc.


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## maylok89 (Jul 12, 2018)

Ahhh...You all are so lucky could travel so much, I am jealous !! reading this I want to retire NOW to travel !! Or should I work more to increase my travel budget !! 
Wow, 7 months around the world! Ian ! and you are also the travel expert, travel with carry on, just like the young people ! Wish we can travel like you! I will ask you more detail for all the destinations. Yes, SE Asia is cheaper, BKK, SiemReap, ChiangMai, we can stay longer , have not been in Malaysia yet, I heard Penang is nice & not expensive either. 
Yeah, downsize, another big subject I need to need tackle. So your expense with travel is about 6K /month? pretty good , I guess not owning the house can reduce a lot of expense. Yes, Australia is expensive, but I got a good price of a big 2 bedroom fully kitchen suite up in the north coast in Oct, go to New Zealand, I like it a lot better than big city in Australia; air b&b & hotel are also cheaper. Are you federal pensioner ? The fed pensioner has 45 days out of country/province health cover .
AltaRed , I love Hawaii ,I like to come back there any time, is it expensive to rent a month in Hawaii? Cali is nice too, you are right , it is expensive plus CAN$ is very low. Panama is in our bucket list, some friends took the cruise and really liked it , I heard Costa Rica is the popular place for retirement. 
Milhouse, good suggestion! Good that you could travel 6 months while working. The longest travel time we had was 4-5 weeks. 1 good thing travel while working is I never calculated what is the total cost, I don't know it is a good or bad thing!!
Eder, very nice travel living, RV & boat, perfect !! a couple in our area has the small class B RV, very compact, I like it & checked out the price, ouch , it is not cheap ! we used to have the class C RV long time ago when the kids were young and we had a very good use of it At that time, the gas was a lot cheaper though. 

Again, Thank You all very much


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## ian (Jun 18, 2016)

Since downsizing a number of years ago we find that experiences are trumping possessions in our lives. A lot less shopping, a lot more travel!


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## maylok89 (Jul 12, 2018)

ian said:


> Since downsizing a number of years ago we find that experiences are trumping possessions in our lives. A lot less shopping, a lot more travel!


:encouragement: It will take a looong time for me to clean up. And I don't know where can I put all my stuff though :nevreness: But I for travel, I will do it !! Thanks Ian.


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

maylok89 said:


> :encouragement: It will take a looong time for me to clean up. And I don't know where can I put all my stuff though :nevreness:


Hard work but relatively easy to do if one thinks holistically. Consider a 8x8x8 ft storage locker for things you feel you must keep (which you really* don't after-the-fact) and get the stuff in there. 

Then if you are the type to want some control, put different coloured stickers on the rest. Example: Red for Goodwill/Thrift Store, Green for ReStore (Habitat for Humanity), Yellow for a big Waste Management bin in your driveway for the rest. And bring them in one day at a time.

OR what I would prefer. Call in Goodwill first and tell them to take anything they want in that 8 hours. Then have it scheduled so that ReStore comes in the next day to do the same thing. Whatever is left on Day 3 (or 4) is for the Waste Management bin or 1-800-GOT JUNK. It does not have to be complicated. 

Once before on an estate, I had a second hand dealer come into the house and make an offer (bid) for the lot, but it had to be for everything. No cherryvpicking. Don't care if the stuff might have been sold for twice as much...by the time the labour cost was calculated in, there would be minimal difference.

* I have seen many examples of ex-pats who have put a ton of stuff in storage to go work in a far off place for 2-5 years. In every instance when they came back, they wondered WTF did they keep most of the stuff for. Lives move on and material stuff just doesn't matter much.


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## ian (Jun 18, 2016)

^We did all of that. Large, furnished house to start. 8X8X16 storage. container to finish. Last thing we did was squeeze our mattress in and pull down the container door. Not sure that you could have put a piece of paper in that box.

It took four sweeps to do it. By the fourth time we were somewhat ruthless. Even after that, we downsized later by donating some of the contents of the container to a Calgary flood victim and her family.

Do we, or did we miss anything or regret not having it. NO!


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## Eder (Feb 16, 2011)

maylok89 said:


> :encouragement: It will take a looong time for me to clean up. And I don't know where can I put all my stuff though :nevreness: But I for travel, I will do it !! Thanks Ian.


We invited our kids & friends to come help themselves to our furnishing,tv's etc etc. Everything not taken was thrown in a 40 cubic yard dumpster parked on my front lawn. Liberating.


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## maylok89 (Jul 12, 2018)

Yeah, I guess the 1st year I'll be busy cleaning/planning/purging. 
Big house in almost 20 yrs accumulate soooo much stuff. I love my kitchen stuff & toys though. 
I'm coming from a big family, we gathering eating together all the time. And I want to keep that tradition with my kids and my siblings family (I don't know for how long), but a townhouse with small yard I think is good enough (as long as it has enough storage for my kitchen stuff :nevreness. I need big giant step then maybe more than 4 sweeps !
Thank You All!


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## Longtimeago (Aug 8, 2018)

When people ask about a travel budget, the obvious response is that it all depends on how you want to travel and where etc. First class to somewhere half way around the world or a 2 hour drive up the road to a cabin, etc. People travel on just about any budget you care to suggest. A $100 a day or $1000 a day will do if what you really want is to travel rather than just travel in a certain way.

As for stuff in storage, the question there is do you 'possess' possessions or do they 'possess' you? If you are reluctant to get rid of things, the answer is obvious.


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## ian (Jun 18, 2016)

Since downsizing to a container and traveling we find that we no longer keep things around the house that we previously would. We no longer keep many books. If we finish one we either give it to someone who wants it or we drop it off at the library. No more of this stuffing unwanted or unneeded items in the spare room, the basement, or the garage in order to avoid the 'should we keep' decision. We no longer buy future garage sale inventory when we travel. We typically return home with nothing, or the odd item of clothing that we required while traveling. One benefit to doing more on line shopping is that we buy less, really what we need, and typically get better selection and pay less in the bargain.

We are starting to think about a winter trip. It will be to somewhere warm. Probably Thailand/SE Asia again. It keeps drawing us back.


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## Longtimeago (Aug 8, 2018)

When I first retired, I rented a storage locker and pre-paid for a year. After that year, I had not returned to take out anything and I had obviously not missed anything. So I had my brother and sons go and empty it out. I told them to keep what they wanted and sell, give to a charity shop or throw in a garbage bin, the rest. I still haven't missed anything that was in that storage locker. LOL

I used to be an avid sailor as well as an avid backpacker and as such, you learn that there is a real difference between what you need and what you want. When you have limited space on a boat or in a backpack to carry everything, you learn to do without. You also funnily enough learn that you are not actually 'doing without' anything that really matters usually.

I still remember a couple I sailed with in the Caribbean, who lived on their boat full time. I remember the wife telling me that if she bought a new t-shirt, she had to throw an old one out. There was no room for 'excess'. She might have been exaggerating a little bit but not by much.

Downsizing is a word that has different meanings to different people. I lived for a while in a condo. There were storage lockers in front of the underground parking spaces for each unit. The lockers were 4x9 ft. The couple who had the space and locker next to mine were complaining about there not being enough space in their locker when they moved into the building. Among their storage items were 3 large(say 2x2x1.5 ft.) plastic bins full of Lego. I asked what that was for and the answer of course was for when the grandkids visited. I don't call that downsizing. LOL


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## robfordlives (Sep 18, 2014)

Haven't read any of the responses but you mention Asia...you can rent a penthouse in Thailand for like $1500 per month so accommodations can be pretty cheap. No thanks to owning some place in a foreign country. My mom owns in Mexico and it's been a nightmare from a number of respects and you then are forced to go to the same damn place very year


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## robfordlives (Sep 18, 2014)

As far as budget we have 12-15K pegged per annum when we retire. I do alot of tax returns on the side and 75% of the seniors I deal with go NOWHERE and their travel budget is zero. It's abit mind boggling to me to see that but also mind boggling to see anything north of 20K for an annual travel budget. We are not into cruises so scratch that. We would be good with 1-2months someplace warm in winter and then a 2nd trip later in the year during shoulder season and only booking flights if it is a deal or utilizing travel hacking.


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## gibor365 (Apr 1, 2011)

> and are heading to Vietnam/Cambodia this January.


 Alta, I;m curious, do you go on your own or with tour? I know that Gate 1 Travel has pretty reasonable packages.... Was planning to go this New Year, but my wife doesn;t want to leave our Grade 12 daughter alone .... maybe next year... would appreciate if you can give your travel details


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## Big Kahuna (Apr 30, 2018)

robfordlives said:


> As far as budget we have 12-15K pegged per annum when we retire. I do alot of tax returns on the side and 75% of the seniors I deal with go NOWHERE and their travel budget is zero. It's abit mind boggling to me to see that but also mind boggling to see anything north of 20K for an annual travel budget. We are not into cruises so scratch that. We would be good with 1-2months someplace warm in winter and then a 2nd trip later in the year during shoulder season and only booking flights if it is a deal or utilizing travel hacking.


I am sure you know this but be sure to deduct all expenses you would have spent had you remained at home for the travel period to get your net travel expense-for a long period this will be material.


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## Longtimeago (Aug 8, 2018)

As I wrote in my first response on this thread, people travel on any budget, it just depends how you want to travel and to where. Often posts in travel forums veer towards focusing on cost and ignore the question of where you want to go.

There is no point in telling me that it costs $100 a day to visit X if where I want to visit is Y. The prime example of this that often pops up in travel forums is suggestions to visit Southeast Asia because it is cheap. But that assumes you have any interest in SEA. I prefer to visit the Swiss Alps and hike there. I cannot do so for the same cost as someone visiting SEA for the same period of time. There is no point in going somewhere you have no interest in going. 

So robfordlives, you need to say *where* you are interested in visiting on your $12-15k per year and then you can get relevant responses based on where *you* are interested in going, in regards to how your budget will work or not work. Posts telling you where someone else likes to go are irrelevant.

Travel is about your interests, not just cost.


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## gibor365 (Apr 1, 2011)

> As far as budget we have 12-15K pegged per annum when we retire.


 If you are planning on travel to Europe, imho it's not enough.... I usually don't calc total costs of our trip, but this time I calculated. Just came from Ireland, travelled with my wife and 17 yo daughter. Below is split (8 nights trip, 3 base locations):

Air fare	2168.46
Car	451.35
Restaurants and entertainment	1405.04 
gas	287.1
supermarkets (food)	391.17
accommodation	1585.7
Leap card	90.25

Total 6379.07
We ate mostly in mid-range restaurants and in apartments.

Without our daughter .it would be still more than 5K.

P.S. We got lucky that visited most expensive castles Rock of Cashel and Cahir on some Heritage day . Only Rock of Cashel admission is 40EUR/per person


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

gibor365 said:


> Alta, I;m curious, do you go on your own or with tour? I know that Gate 1 Travel has pretty reasonable packages.... Was planning to go this New Year, but my wife doesn;t want to leave our Grade 12 daughter alone .... maybe next year... would appreciate if you can give your travel details


We use packaged tours for the most part in non-English speaking countries, usually the demographic is senior/empty nester, and the tours have an experiential/educational component to them. A number of offerings come from tour operators who peddle their products to university alumni organizations. They are not inexpensive but if we are going to make the effort to fly significant distances, the tour package better be a first class experience. For the most part, the packages range from $7k per person to $15k/person (not including air fare because we always travel business class) depending on where and for how long.

For Vietnam/Cambodia, we are on a 22 day Scenic Cruises package that includes a 7 day river cruise down the Mekong, Ha Long Bay cruise near Hanoi, etc. 

Generally, we prefer the 5 star treatment in small groups. I have heard about Gate 1 but have not researched it....yet.


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## robfordlives (Sep 18, 2014)

gibor365 said:


> If you are planning on travel to Europe, imho it's not enough.... I usually don't calc total costs of our trip, but this time I calculated. Just came from Ireland, travelled with my wife and 17 yo daughter. Below is split (8 nights trip, 3 base locations):
> 
> Air fare	2168.46
> Car	451.35
> ...


Oh we definitely plan on Europe but not every year. Your accommodation costs for such a short duration are extreme. You can airbnb in Barcelona for an entire month at that cost (just an example). We are from Northern Italy and you can find properties for 500 Euro a month that are a short train ride away to Venice (the going rate for a local is about 350 euros). The Dolomites are an hour away to get your hiking fix. Airfare cost would be a fraction quoted given travel hacking, certainly not anywhere near the amount posted.

Edit: I see Airbnb is effectively banned in Barcelona. Ok no problem let's pick another major city in Europe which has a depressed economy and score a deal. I did quickly see there are monthly rental options in Barcelona still available around that price point that are not airbnb although unclear on legality. Slow travel has alot of cost benefits given accomodations are much cheaper versus hotel (on per night basis)


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## robfordlives (Sep 18, 2014)

AltaRed said:


> We use packaged tours for the most part in non-English speaking countries, usually the demographic is senior/empty nester, and the tours have an experiential/educational component to them. A number of offerings come from tour operators who peddle their products to university alumni organizations. They are not inexpensive but if we are going to make the effort to fly significant distances, the tour package better be a first class experience. For the most part, the packages range from $7k per person to $15k/person (not including air fare because we always travel business class) depending on where and for how long.
> 
> For Vietnam/Cambodia, we are on a 22 day Scenic Cruises package that includes a 7 day river cruise down the Mekong, Ha Long Bay cruise near Hanoi, etc.
> 
> Generally, we prefer the 5 star treatment in small groups. I have heard about Gate 1 but have not researched it....yet.


But would you agree that you could build this yourself for a fraction of the cost? Part of the high cost is the convenience factor and that must costs $x. For me if I'm retired I would have the time to plan out these things and score a deal. No I do not want to go to SEA every year but there is always a deal somewhere and we would base our travels on these flight or package deals. TravelZoo is great for this stuff.


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

Not for a fraction of the cost, but most likely at a considerable discount to what I pay. We travel with at least one other couple about half the time and we are there to focus on the fun part, leaving all the responsibility of transfers and logistics and such to someone else. Just the way we want to travel on big trips. We will do a number of our own excursions on some of these trips but the bulk of it we want to leave entirely to someone else. 

We do look for 'deals' from the various providers we consider but we've not been aware of Travelzoo until now. We will take a look so see what their 'standard' is.


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## robfordlives (Sep 18, 2014)

First class is something I doubt I will ever experience unless it is with points. I just can't justfiy spending the thousands more per ticket. Yes I imagine the comfort and experience would be fantastic but I can live with the annoyance of steerage class for one day of travel. I suppose if I got to a sub 2% SWR spending rate I would consider splurging or had gold plated DB pension plan that never would run out


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

Neither do I really want to spend business class money, but it obviously depends on one's mobility and what one is willing to sacrifice on the far end. Neither of us can sit in a cattle car seat for more than 4-5 hours any more at age ~70 without something affecting us, and when we get off the plane, we are wanting to do something rather than crash for 24 hours to get our functions back. Our cash flow allows us to do this a few times per year and that is more important than some other things we could spend the money on. Really no more complicated than that.

Added: We are potentially only about 5 years away from not wanting to do long distance travel any more, so it is a matter of doing it while we still want too.


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## Daniel A. (Mar 20, 2011)

Longtimeago said:


> As I wrote in my first response on this thread, people travel on any budget, it just depends how you want to travel and to where. Often posts in travel forums veer towards focusing on cost and ignore the question of where you want to go.
> 
> There is no point in telling me that it costs $100 a day to visit X if where I want to visit is Y. The prime example of this that often pops up in travel forums is suggestions to visit Southeast Asia because it is cheap. But that assumes you have any interest in SEA. I prefer to visit the Swiss Alps and hike there. I cannot do so for the same cost as someone visiting SEA for the same period of time. There is no point in going somewhere you have no interest in going.
> 
> ...


The fact is you could not travel on any budget anywhere be it 5000.00 or 50,000.00 thats just you.


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## heyjude (May 16, 2009)

robfordlives said:


> Your accommodation costs for such a short duration are extreme.


$200 per day for three adults is certainly not extreme. It would be quite a normal price for middle of the road accommodation in Ireland.


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## Longtimeago (Aug 8, 2018)

Daniel A. said:


> The fact is you could not travel on any budget anywhere be it 5000.00 or 50,000.00 thats just you.


I have idea what you are really trying to say with this comment. Your sentence simply does not make any sense. Clearly communicating a point doesn't seem to be your strong suite.

People travel on budgets of $10 a day. https://www.google.ca/search?q=trav.....69i57j0l5.9656j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

The Frugal Traveller writes for the New York Times about experiencing a $1000 day in a place for only $100. You can spend the $1000 for a day if you want.
https://www.nytimes.com/series/frugal-traveler-budget-travel

Just what budget is that you think someone can't travel on?


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## Longtimeago (Aug 8, 2018)

heyjude said:


> $200 per day for three adults is certainly not extreme. It would be quite a normal price for middle of the road accommodation in Ireland.


People often use their own criteria when looking at someone else's criteria. LOL

Robfordlives is talking about monthly Airbnb rental costs in low cost countries and comparing them to gibor365's daily hotel costs in a popular tourist location. Simply not comparable obviously. Unless, you choose to ignore that they aren't comparable. LOL


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## ian (Jun 18, 2016)

We are now back to travel planning and have made some changes. We had to stay home while DW had a medical issue attended to. Present plan has in in Toronto area to visit son and inlaws. Plan to return to Calgary via three weeks in Cancun. Probably Puerto Morales, Playa, and Isla Majures. TBD. Working on a winter trip. It will probably Ly be two months in Thailand.


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## maylok89 (Jul 12, 2018)

ian said:


> We are now back to travel planning and have made some changes. We had to stay home while DW had a medical issue attended to. Present plan has in in Toronto area to visit son and inlaws. Plan to return to Calgary via three weeks in Cancun. Probably Puerto Morales, Playa, and Isla Majures. TBD. Working on a winter trip. It will probably Ly be two months in Thailand.


Thank You Ian, so Mexico instead of Europe/Indian trip ? Maybe I will ask you more info about Thailand later . Hope your wife is getting better.

Thanks everyone for the inputs.

Again If you could 
share your retirement travel experiences, plans and budget such as: 

1. How long is the travel: week? month? season? 
2. When did /would you travel? How often? how many times a year? Are you snowbirds?
3. Where did/would you travel to: Canada? US? or Oversea? Caribbean? Sun destination? Europe? Asia? or anywhere else? 
4. Did you go with the tour or DYI ? by car? RV or plane? all inclusive resort or cruise? 
5. How much is the travel budget? for how many people? luxury? economy? Do you own vacation home? 
6. What age range were you when you travel ? when did you or do you plan to slow down in travel? 
7. For any long trips, what are everyday activities ? 
8. Cost of travel insurance? 
9. Anyone joined the oversea volunteer group? 
10. Any pros/cons /thoughts for each travel? where did you enjoy the most? 

Thank you very much


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## maylok89 (Jul 12, 2018)

gibor365 said:


> If you are planning on travel to Europe, imho it's not enough.... I usually don't calc total costs of our trip, but this time I calculated. Just came from Ireland, travelled with my wife and 17 yo daughter. Below is split (8 nights trip, 3 base locations):
> 
> Air fare	2168.46
> Car	451.35
> ...


Same here , I usually did not calc total cost , but last time I kept track of the spending , 4 people 9 days in Spain, visited Madrid, Barcelona and few cities between. 

Air fare $3550
accommodation	$1,300
Transportation $600
Eat $950
Entertainment $800

Total around $7200 , under my estimation of $8000 
We rented the car to go between 2 big cites and to visit few towns between, took the taxi, subway , bus and walked a lot in the big city . 
We stayed in the airbnb in the big cities, hotels in the small town. 
But the big saving was eating, we bought food for breakfast before head out, packed lunch or quick lunch in the market and eat out in the dinner. Some days if we were tired of restaurant food , made a quick meal in the apartment, good wines (very cheap in Spain) made everything taste good  :subdued:

For 2 people ; I guess would be less in airfare, entertainment (2 tickets instead of 4) but we might join more tour which is a lot more expensive. Not much less in eating, accommodation, or transportation ; so yeah, I would say around $5000-$6000 . 
But we would stay longer than 9 days !


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## ian (Jun 18, 2016)

No Europe/India. Spouse has needs R&R/beach time so we decided to go south. We were unable to leave Toronto until Oct. 10 for family reasons so that does not leave much time in Greece. Instead, we currently plan to go in spring-be in Corfu for Orthodox Easter, then tour some islands we have not visited before. Then perhaps to Morocco. Six-seven weeks in total. We arrange our flights in and out, then work everything as we go so to speak. Our plans are always subject change based on a great offer poppping up. We booked our first winter in Thailand based on an air offer we saw in early Jan. Booked that day and flew 10 days later. But, Thailand was on our bucket list.
We do not really have much interest in Florida, Texas, AZ any more.

We anticipate 3 weeks in Mexico IF the weather is good (no hurricanes, etc). We will spend 2 months in Thailand-mid Jan to mid March. We are snowbirds inasmuch as we travel for 2-3 months every winter-to warm climates for the past five years. We have traveled throughout Europe, some Africa, SE Asia, US, Caribbean, some South America, Panama and Costa Rica, Australia, NZ and Pacific Islands. US-all over. We do everything depending where. Rental, rail, bus, ferry, air, etc. No RV but have years ago. Yes, we do the occasional AI, either as a last minute or prearranged with my daughter and family at Christmastime.

No travel budget. We travel on value. It could be B&B's to five star depending on location but usually smaller, family run hotels. In SE Asia, Bangkok, Kuala Lumper, Penang for example we always go with five stars because of their price/value. We do not own a vacation home. It is a consideration. We have looked but so far the only place in the future might be P. Vallarta.

I have traveled since I was 19 or so. Friend and I bought a VW van and traveled through North America. Did the same in Europe for a few months with my spouse in the late 70's/ When I retired, sold our house and traveled for seven months. Lots in between plus businss travel.

We are now turned 65 so travel insurance is expensive. I have 60 day out of country medical as part of my retirement package. DW does not like to be gone longer. In the past, when we needed insurance I was able to buy an extension to my work plan. When we traveled for seven months we bought a policy that had a 5K deductable. Premium was $800 at that time (2012) for six months. Forgot what I paid for a month last time.

We are now slow travelers. We do not rush from place to place. We can easily spend a few weeks in Rome, London, etc. Usually the minimum stay for us is 3 days, often 5-7 in one spot. We take advantage of last minute travel offers on air, AI's ,cruises, etc.

Favourites would be Thailand/Vietnam/Malaysia or Costa Rica/Panama in winter, Greece, Italy and Turkey in Europe. We prefer Southern Europe. The only tour we have been on was a safari in Kruger, South Afica. After that we toured SA by rental car on our own.

Slowing down? Yes. Last winter we planned for a few weeks in Philippines as part of a longer trip. We did not like it. Poor infrastructure, internet, etc. We left after a week and went back to Thailand.. I suppose at some point we may start renting a condo for a few months at a time. We do cruises from time to time. 

Air from Toronto-Cancun-Calgary will be $450ish BUT we would spend $300 to fly home to Calgary from Toronto. Air to Thailand will be about $1000 each and then we will spend another $200 each flying around Thailand. Perhaps more if we decide on a side trip to see friends on Australia. Not certain what we will spend in Mexico. I expect $100 day for accommodation. Thailand accommodation will average about $75. Food about $20. We avoid places like Phuket in favour of less popular areas. We will do some island hopping in the south towards the Malaysian border. 

This year has been an exception. In general we do two trips a year. We also do shorter trips-drive to Vamcouver, Montana, Washington, Oregon, etc plus we typically grab a last minute AI in late November/early December. Prices are too good to pass up. We each have a bucket list. We watch prices and currency. Delaying a trip to South Africa for a year saved us 15-20 percent simply because their currency dropped. We traveled extensively in Greece during their debt crisis and in Europe when the economy cratered.


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## maylok89 (Jul 12, 2018)

Thanks very much Ian for such a detail post. 
Wow you've been traveled a lot , wish I could travel that much. how long ago did you start retire-travel ? 
One thing I think good thing of travel when retire is not have to rush or tie up with special schedule . 

Why do you not have much interest in Florida, Texas, AZ any more ? Because Asia /Europe are cheaper and more interesting ? 
Do you find travel to Asia too far /too long in the plane? I am OK for a long flights . I'd like very much get away the winter cold for a month or 1.5 month. For now, I do not want to go for too long since we have elder parents in town. 
Where do you find the rental when staying for longer time? local or online ? I find monthly rental in airbnb is not that cheap though. 
How is Malaysia /Kuala Lumpur/Penang compare to Thailand? Do they have nice beach? I went to Krabi beach and like it I heard it is cheaper that Phuket. Did you go to the beach in Philippine? I also heard Panama/Costa Rica are very popular for snowbirds. For sure I like to try it. May I ask you more information later when we going to SE or SA ? 
What do you do when staying long in one place? travel around ? any problem for language with local people? 

Did you see if any kind of volunteer activities with local people ? if I stay in long in 1 place, I don't mind doing any volunteer works , but I am worry about safety /security issues 

You are so good finding the good deal ! how did you find it ? . thru web sites or google flight ? Toronto-Cancun-Calgary for $450 is very good price.and $100/day stay+ eat is very good. Next time , when you find a good deal, please let me know :cocksure:

Are your retirement travel insurance package from the fed government? $800 for 6 months is very good rate , is it the total travel time in multi trips or just 1 trip? some credit cards only have free travel coverage for 65 -. 

Again , Thanks very much, would love to hear from you later back from the fall/winter travel and best wishes to your wife health.


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## gibor365 (Apr 1, 2011)

heyjude said:


> $200 per day for three adults is certainly not extreme. It would be quite a normal price for middle of the road accommodation in Ireland.





> comparing them to gibor365's daily hotel costs in a popular tourist location.


Extreme?! In Ireland?! Yeah, you can find much cheaper if you at youth hostels or some shitholes 
We didn't book hotels, we booked Dublin suburbs via AirBNB , 1 bedroom family run townhouse in Midleton and 2 bedroom Aparthotel at Galway suburb (30-35 min walking to center). 

Obviously you cannot compare 2-3 days rental in Ireland (more expensive country than Canada) with "monthly Airbnb rental costs in low cost countries". On the other hand , air fare was very cheap comparing to other countries/cities for end of August.


btw, just got email. Direct flight to Lisbon Dec 2-10 for $570! Very cheap, but my wife as usual cannot take vacation ....


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## gibor365 (Apr 1, 2011)

> Favourites would be Thailand/Vietnam/Malaysia


 we want to visit those countries, but not sure if better to go with a tour (Gate 1) or independently.... if you have time, can you describe how did you travel within those countries? Did you rent car? Took buses? etc


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## My Own Advisor (Sep 24, 2012)

Great, inspirational thread!

We're not "there" yet like some very well to-do CMFers but here is our plan....FWIW

1. How long is the travel: week? month? season? We intend to travel x2 per year with major trips, likely away 4-6 weeks at a time; once in winter, once in spring or fall. We intend to enjoy our summers and travel locally in Ottawa. We currently take 1-2 international trips per year, for 1-2 weeks each while working. In our mid-40s. We hope to stop full-time work in our mid-50s.

2. When did /would you travel? How often? how many times a year? Are you snowbirds? Not snowbirds yet but don't really intend to be. I figure being out of Ottawa for most of January to mid-February will be ideal long-term.

3. Where did/would you travel to: Canada? US? or Oversea? Caribbean? Sun destination? Europe? Asia? or anywhere else? We've been fortunate to visit Europe many times, South America once for Argentina for 3 weeks, Central America many times. Our plan is to do Barbados this winter for 8-10 days. We hope to go to Asia when we start working part-time. I figure we'll need ~ 3 weeks for our first trip there.

4. Did you go with the tour or DYI ? by car? RV or plane? all inclusive resort or cruise? We typically do B&Bs, Airbnbs and other good accommodations when we travel. We've taken the odd AI resort vacation but as we get older I find I have less tolerance for people who complain too much at these things on vacation no less. 

5. How much is the travel budget? for how many people? luxury? economy? Do you own vacation home? No vacation home, I'd rather have someone else have the liability and drama to deal with  We intend to spend ~ $20k per year on travel in retirement, about $10k or so for each 4-6 week vacation. 

6. What age range were you when you travel ? when did you or do you plan to slow down in travel? See above. 

7. For any long trips, what are everyday activities ? Hiking, biking, touring sites, walks, rental cars for seeing country-side, tickets to festivals, shows when in major cities. 

8. Cost of travel insurance? Currently covered via work and credit cards. I suspect it will cost us a few thousand per year in our 60s and 70s.

9. Anyone joined the oversea volunteer group? Not yet!

10. Any pros/cons /thoughts for each travel? where did you enjoy the most? Gosh, too much to mention. 

Enjoy the planning!


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## maylok89 (Jul 12, 2018)

Thanks very much My Own Advisor, You are doing good for mid 40s !! I never thought about retirement or could travel that much when I was mid 40s ! 
But never less, I think we think alike :cocksure:
1. I too enjoy summer here, save the vacation time to go in the winter or spring (sometime we still have snow in March or April , too long) or fall . Summer is too expensive and too hot to travel, summer is vacation time for family with school age kids. 
2. same , January to end February will be ideal long-term 
3. Never been in Barbados, (is it expensive? ) or south American, for central American , only common vacation spots: Cancun, PV and some islands from the cruise. Would love to go Eastern Europe, south of France or Portugal etc... 
4. Yes, only took AI with a big groups , family /kids. Maybe later , when we plan to do nothing , just eat and ...drink . AI is for unlimited drinking :cocksure:
5. I am thinking about the same 20-25K 
6. I am thinking after 65 or 70 , just cruise or AI or Florida 
7. I am not that good in biking or long hiking, renting car driving to country side is more of my style!

Thank you again for sharing.


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## milhouse (Nov 16, 2016)

gibor365 said:


> we want to visit those countries, but not sure if better to go with a tour (Gate 1) or independently.... if you have time, can you describe how did you travel within those countries? Did you rent car? Took buses? etc


Not an expert by any means but we've been to Thailand about a half dozen times and Vietnam twice (missus thrice) and wanted to share some thoughts.
We traveled independently to the both Thailand and Vietnam but did take advantage of some tours within the countries. Thailand has a very developed tourist infrastructure and while Vietnam is somewhat newer, you can travel fairly independently.

From a very simplistic perspective, break Thailand into the north (Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai - very cultural, great food) which , central (Bangkok - typical big Asian city), and south (Phuket, Krabi, Koh Samui - beaches). Most flights fly into Bangkok (note two airports) and you then connect to Chiang Mai or Phuket. There are some direct flights skipping Bangkok though. They've got cheap LCC airlines servicing Thailand like NocAir and Air Asia.
Would not rent a car. Traffic in the cities/towns is crazy. Within the city/town there are enough options like metro in Bangkok, songthaews, Grab (similar to Uber), taxis, and tuktuks, all of which are generally cheap. However, you do need to know your pricing to make use of some of the options without getting excessive tourist pricing. We took a bus from Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai. 
We've rented a car and driver to do a day trip from Chiang Rai to various sites in the area, did a visit to an elephant sanctuary, did a group tour to islands around Phuket, etc. Don't think you can easily get around doing a tour for some of the things. Some of the tours are typical jam as many tourists as you can on the boat type situations so you need to choose wisely. 
Hotels are very inexpensive if you are ok staying at very nice "boutique" hotels instead of big name chains. 
English widely spoken at all the places a tourist would typically go. Might have to get creative at some markets. 

Vietnam was a bit of a secret maybe a decade ago but it's rapidly being touristed. 
Similar to Thailand, you can very simplistically break Vietnam into the north (Hanoi - historic communist preserved, Sapa, Halong Bay), Central (Hue, Hoi An - very cultural), and the south (HCMC - typical big urban Asian city). 
We flew to the big centres. I believe there is a rail system you can take to traverse the country but I don't think it's very comfortable nor recommended if you have limited time. 
We used taxis and Grab to get around (on top of walking). Again, you have to be careful of taxi scams which are easily avoidable if you do a little reading (ie only take Mai Linh and VinaSun taxis). Personally, I would not rent a car. 
We did group tours to Halong Bay from Hanoi and from HCMC to the Mekong delta. Likely can do independently but there is a bit of a cost trade off. You also have to choose tours wisely. 
Hotels are also very inexpensive if you stay at very nice boutique hotels. 
English slightly not as common as in Thailand IMO but there seems to be a youthful population working a lot of the tourist sectors that speak English. 

In summary, Thailand and Vietnam can be done independently supplemented with some tours. And there's a lot of info out there explaining how to get from point A to B using various options. But, with all respect, if you are not willing to do some research, cannot handle bargaining, and handle some sketchy business practices, you might be better off with a tour. 

Great resources for independent travel:
Travel Fish
WikiTravel


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## Plugging Along (Jan 3, 2011)

We won’t retire u TIL our kids are done u I seriously, but here’s what we envision knowing everything will probably change. 

1. How long is the travel: week? month? season?
It will depend on the trip. Most trips somewhere around a month or two we tend to slow down our travel a bit just because we will have time. I am generally a on the go person so don’t like staying at places long. Maybe that will change when I have the time to stay in one place, but I don’t think so. The exception would be if we are visiting grandkids I fthere are any. 

2. When did /would you travel? How often? how many times a year? Are you snowbirds?
Lots of assumptions here. At least 3 vacations a year 
We would visit each child at least once a year for two weeks to a month, depending if our son in laws and kids want us that long. Probably in the summers so we can maximize out time with future grandkids. We will fly where ever they are 
Then at least one other trip a year we would travel. If there are no (grand kids or kids stayed in town) we will go on another vacation and see if the kids families want to come. We would fly in low season, but it will be location dependents.


3. Where did/would you travel to: Canada? US? or Oversea? Caribbean? Sun destination? Europe? Asia? or anywhere else? 
All of the above. I am one of those travellers that can find something interesting wherever I go and believe there something interesting to see everywhere. We do have lists of areas we really want to see. Some we may have already seen by the time We retire.

We have some 
Bucket lists places in Asia, Europe, and South America, plus I have always wanted to to a cross North American road trip perhaps in a Re. So those will be our first destinations if we haven’t done them yet. 

I have never been one for sun destinations, but will go if we find a good deal. I also imagine we will go where ever invited or the opportunity arrives. The retirees in our families get invited to trips a lot with friends, family, and associations, so they often go to places I never even considered, not exotic but a little ‘weird’ like a bus ride to some little casino in another province. We will do these not because of the location but rather the company. 

4. Did you go with the tour or DYI ? by car? RV or plane? all inclusive resort or cruise? 
We plan larger trips where we don’t speak the language or there large cultural differences to be on tour. 
Car and Re for North America 
Plane for where we need to
Bus trips when we are in one of those little senior groups. 

5. How much is the travel budget? for how many people? luxury? economy? Do you own vacation home? 
We are planning $30k a year for two people and when we pay for our kids. The plan is to alternate between more expensive places 
We tend to be mid line when we travel, but will mix it up. We will spend more on tours to get exactly what we want, but when it’s diy we tend to be a little less economy. We never skimp on food or experience. 
We actually own a vacation home now, and Will sell it before we retire. 

6. What age range were you when you travel ? when did you or do you plan to slow down in travel? 
We travel now already but work around school and work schedules. We will travel until our bodies can’t take it or insurance be comes too expensive. 

7. For any long trips, what are everyday activities ? 
For us, the travel will be more touristy travel, exploring the local culture or visiting with friends and family. 

8. Cost of travel insurance? 
Not sure. 

9. Anyone joined the oversea volunteer group? 
This is in my plans but not when we retire but as a family. It’s one of this things I want my kids to do so we are looking into this for the next few years. 

10. Any pros/cons /thoughts for each travel? where did you enjoy the most? 
I have travelled fair bit both for work and personally and in different ways. We just came back from Latin America on a luxury private tour where it was just our family We could have done it lot cheaper but it was worth it. The confidence and care was next to none. When the roads were washed out due to heavy rains, they called the airlines to try and hold the flight, picked exactly what we wanted to do, but got great recommendations. Because it was private, if we wanted to make a little detour or change they would do it. The down side is the cost. Our tour costs were almost $30k for a family of four, not including flights, or all meals. If I had the money to do this more frequently I would. Though I do plan to use this tour tour company again. 

My dad and older sibling just went on another rseniors bus tour. It was with his organization. It was cheap, they did a lot of things, and the company was what he needed. The cons were They were on the bus a lot for long periods of time and up early and they stopped for the washroom every two hours. 

For us, we don’t have set travel plans other than the few bucket list items, but we plan to be heavily funded to do so dor whatever comes.


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## marina628 (Dec 14, 2010)

We do 6-7 weeks in Newfoundland in summer ,Vegas for 5 days in October ,Florida/Cruise for 10 days Xmas/New Year then Vegas in Feb and a cruise usually March Break.We have a almost 16 years old so in a couple years we likely will spend much more of winter south ,Barbados is wonderful for wheelchairs so one of our favorite spots and helps that we have family there.


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## gibor365 (Apr 1, 2011)

milhouse, thank you for info



> I am thinking about the same 20-25K


 Same here 



> Would love to go Eastern Europe, south of France or Portugal etc...


 For Eastern Europe, I'd recommend Czech Republic....easy accessible, we flew to Frankfurt and rented car there ... 4 hours and you in Karlovy Vary. We drove almost all country for 3 weeks.....amazing country and excellent food (esp. beer ). You can also combine it with Austria and Germany. imho. Prague together with Moscow and Petersburg are the most beautiful cities in the World. 
2 years ago toured South France, also very nice .... but North France (Normandy, Brittany, Picardy) we liked even more.... Also Loire Valley is must visit!


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## ian (Jun 18, 2016)

...gibor Travelling in Thailand is so very easy. English is spoken by most in the tourist industy, the food is wonderful, and the Thai people are so very gracious. We travel by plane, ferry, boat, once on a bus, and lots of minibuses. Our airfares over the past four years have been a low of $750 and a high of 1100. In general it takes 22-24 hours from Calgary with two stops. Less if we can get an AC flight direct to Narita and then to Bangkok. AIr travel within Thailand (and Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam) is extensive and inexpensive. Generally speaking we pay about $60. per hour of flight. Not certain what they charge for checked bags since we on travel with carry on. Lots of competition. 

It is very simple to get from one location to another. We typically avoid Phuket in favour of islands to the south. We may fly into Phuket and then make our way south by ferry to Ko Lanta, spending time there and time on smaller islands. We often island hop by ferry down to Langkawi (Malaysia) and then to Penang. We have not stayed on the beach in Penang. We prefer to stay in town. It is a very interesting place and we have typically had lots of beach time prior to going. We have never rented a ca in SE Asia. Lots of motorbikes. Have not rented one of those either though I did have one in my youth. Lots of tuk tuks...motorcycle taxis.

We love Thai food. Western style food is available everywhere. We do not bother with it. It also tends to be 2X and 3X the price of Thai dinner. Internet and ATM's are plentiful. Accommodation at larger beachfront resorts can be expensive. We tend to stay in the smaller family run operations or in places one block up from the beach. On our first trip we stayed on Ko Samui for a week and got to know a local travel agent who also took in laundry and had many other services. She pointed out that many of the day trip brochures had two prices-adult and children, and that we should never pay more than the child's price. Some degree of negotiating on tours and day guides is common. There is a huge difference between going for a two or three week trip and spending a few months in the country in terms of your selection of lodging and food.

We find the country to be safe and the people friendly. If someone realizes we are from Canada we often get the proverbial comment and question regarding their close relative in Toronto and do we know them. People are the same everywhere.

I would advise anyone who is retired to go for several months and include Cambodia and most especially Viet Nam. The latter is very special. Cannot advise about Gate 1 since we always do independent and we go for longer periods of time. It comes down to your personal style and comfort with foreign travel. Thailand allows you to stay for one month. Longer periods require a visa which you can get at a small cost from any Thai consulate. Or, as we have done, spent a month, go into another country, and return. The visa is a snap to get and it costs about $40 as I recall. We need to get one for our winter trip as we may spend the entire time in Thailand. We are never really certain since we only plan ahead for a few days. We have a general idea of where we want to go but it is always subject to change. We would highly recommend that if you travel independently that you do so with carry on only. Especially if you plan to take any fast speedboat ferrys or transfer via longtail boat between islands. We often seen folks with huge, heavy suitcases, often a few of them. No fun if you are lifting them off at a beach or carrying them across the boats that are tied together to reach the one that you need to be on!

A key thing to be aware of when travelling in the region is Chinese New Year. For that one week period air fares /hotels are more expensive, you need to book early, and the ferries will be more crowded. We experience that to our chagrin in the Philippines last winter.

We have nothing against US destinations other than they always seem like more of the same to us. Plus, for us, the hospitality and the experience does not compare to other destinations. The downside is, of course, the long flights. One one trip we were on one way tickets. We flew from Kuala Lumpur to Australia for $300. Came home via a Qantas discount airline to Honolulu. A few days there and then AC home. It broke up the flight.


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## tdiddy (Jan 7, 2015)

For those traveling in retirement now. I am wondering if your daily travel budget has increased or decreased compared to when you were working? 

Right now because of work we are generally on a tight schedule everywhere and have in the last few years increased our spending on hotels/flights etc to ensure that the vacation is still relaxing. The most expensive part of any vacation presently is opportunity cost of not working. My plan is that once in early retirement will move to a slow travel model with more modest daily costs, but i'm not sure if it is realistic to think we'll be able to shake the 'golden-handcuffs' of a more luxurious travel. Anyone have any experience stepping it down a notch travel wise in retirement?


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## ian (Jun 18, 2016)

Much less. When I was working we had to plan our vacation carefully. So we naturally paid more and often went to more luxurious accommodation. Two or three weeks is very different than two or three months. Plus, in retirement, we have the ability to be extremely flexible and to be able to take advantage of last minute offers. Shoulder season can be our friend for certain travel destinations.

We combine five star places with B&B's depending on the local economy and on our preferences. I had lots of business travel, high end hotels. We prefer the smaller, family run places. We are also very aware of currency fluctuations and in country economic situations. On a few occasions we have matched this to our bucket lists and made the decision to go. Doing this has reduced some of our travel costs by anywhere from 15/20 [percent to 40/50 percent. We are doing far less cruises and more land trips. Cruises have increased in price with the strong US and Chinese economies and many cruises are priced in USD. So land is comparatively less expensive for us over the past few years. It also happens to coincide with how we now want to travel and where we want to go.


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## Longtimeago (Aug 8, 2018)

tdiddy said:


> For those traveling in retirement now. I am wondering if your daily travel budget has increased or decreased compared to when you were working?
> 
> Right now because of work we are generally on a tight schedule everywhere and have in the last few years increased our spending on hotels/flights etc to ensure that the vacation is still relaxing. The most expensive part of any vacation presently is opportunity cost of not working. My plan is that once in early retirement will move to a slow travel model with more modest daily costs, but i'm not sure if it is realistic to think we'll be able to shake the 'golden-handcuffs' of a more luxurious travel. Anyone have any experience stepping it down a notch travel wise in retirement?


What about annual budget tdiddy? For example you might reduce your daily costs but increase your time away to such an extent that your annual travel costs go up rather than down. You can reduce daily costs in many ways as ian gives examples of. I realize you only asked about daily budget but don't you also want to consider your annual travel budget and whether it may go up or down?

Regarding the 'golden handcuffs' you mention, that depends on the individual obviously. If I or as ian has, said moving to lower cost hotels etc. hasn't been a problem, that tells you nothing as to how you will feel about such a move. However, you should be able to work out the answer to that question for yourself. For example, my wife does not insist on eating only in Michelin starred restaurants but she absolutely refuses to eat in typical Canadian 'family restaurant'. If someone were to suggest that she could afford a hotel she wanted to stay in in a country as long as she was willing to eat 'street food', that would be an immediate no go obviously.

I have no issue eating street food or staying in a hostel if that was all my budget could afford in a place I wanted to visit but the same does not apply to my wife. She has a different minimum standard she would accept for either. You have your own standard obviously and should be able to answer yourself as to just what those standards are. What anyone else's standards are is irrelevant.

There is also another factor worth considering as you get older and that is comfort. I had no problem flying economy class in the past but now my wife and I have specific criteria when it comes to flying that includes not flying in economy class simply based on comfort. Comfort and avoiding hassle become much more important to you as you get older and I think that is pretty universal with people. Those factors may also tend to eliminate lower cost hotels, etc. So that can cause the budget to go up considerably.


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## ian (Jun 18, 2016)

There is no magic to this. We have friends who travel as or more extensively and always stay at 4 and 5 star resorts. We have others, also retired, who seem to travel on vapor. It comes down to where you want to travel and how you want to travel or how you are prepared to travel.

No such thing as a benchmark retirement travel budget. It also depends on your home life-whether you have pets, plants, or need to get someone to do the snow and the lawn care, etc. We prefer not to have these constraints so that we are able to travel on short notice or for elongated periods of time. The only way you will know is from experience. We do a fair amount of research prior to going to an unfamiliar area.


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## tdiddy (Jan 7, 2015)

Longtimeago said:


> What about annual budget tdiddy? For example you might reduce your daily costs but increase your time away to such an extent that your annual travel costs go up rather than down. You can reduce daily costs in many ways as ian gives examples of. I realize you only asked about daily budget but don't you also want to consider your annual travel budget and whether it may go up or down?
> 
> Regarding the 'golden handcuffs' you mention, that depends on the individual obviously. If I or as ian has, said moving to lower cost hotels etc. hasn't been a problem, that tells you nothing as to how you will feel about such a move. However, you should be able to work out the answer to that question for yourself. For example, my wife does not insist on eating only in Michelin starred restaurants but she absolutely refuses to eat in typical Canadian 'family restaurant'. If someone were to suggest that she could afford a hotel she wanted to stay in in a country as long as she was willing to eat 'street food', that would be an immediate no go obviously.
> 
> ...


Yes definitely its individualized, I am reasonably certain this would work out for us, but happy to hear reassurance from others along the same lines. 

I hope that my overall travel budget goes up a little bit, but if I were to keep it at the current daily rate I won't be able to retire as early as I was hoping. Travel is a major source of our discretionary spending. 

Urban hostel would be a no go for us for the most part, as would street food in general. Bulk head seat in economy is as low as we'll go travel wise, even now a few business class tickets for red eyes/long flights are only worth it if gets us back to work a bit sooner and price is reasonable, I'm too tall to sleep in the pods, could see us going wife business me econ.


I am thinking more in lines of 1 month in Piedmont, Provence or the like at a time staying in a rental or 4-5 days in a nice b&b instead of 2 nights 5*. Lots of places I've been i'd love to return to with more time


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## Longtimeago (Aug 8, 2018)

tdiddy said:


> Yes definitely its individualized, I am reasonably certain this would work out for us, but happy to hear reassurance from others along the same lines.
> 
> I hope that my overall travel budget goes up a little bit, but if I were to keep it at the current daily rate I won't be able to retire as early as I was hoping. Travel is a major source of our discretionary spending.
> 
> ...


You will not know until you try tdiddy but you can make an educated guess in some regards at least as has been said. There is a saying I like which says, 'you can't see there from here'. In this case it simply means that while you are still working for a living and going on vacations, you cannot really see what it will be like after you retire. For example, there is a place my wife and I love to visit for longer periods but we found by trial (and error) that as much as we like it, there is a limit to how long we are happy to stay there. We tried a month and then tried 2 months. What we discovered was that around 6 weeks was the optimum time for us, after that we were ready to leave and get home. You can't know that until you try it.

Another aspect you may find is that as you will have more time to research, you may not need to compromise on anything as much as you may currently think you will have to. For example re your 5 nights vs. 2nights example. I can name a 3 star boutique hotel in Switzerland with an award winning restaurant that charges $120 +/- per night. Most people do not believe you can stay in a nice hotel in Switzerland for that price. But you can if you find it, you just have to have the time to find it obviously. Something you currently don't have. And no, you won't find that rate on any third party booking site which is the only place many people look these days because they don't have time to do anything else. So no, you may not need to give up on 'star' hotels, just spend the time finding the right ones. We don't stay in B&B's, we stay in nice hotels at B&B prices. 

But you can't 'see there' from where you are now tdiddy and when you write about the 5 days vs. 2 days, that is what you are trying to do, see there from where you are now.


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## gibor365 (Apr 1, 2011)

> Much less. When I was working we had to plan our vacation carefully. So we naturally paid more and often went to more luxurious accommodation. Two or three weeks is very different than two or three months. Plus, in retirement, we have the ability to be extremely flexible and to be able to take advantage of last minute offers. Shoulder season can be our friend for certain travel destinations.


Very true! Flexibility is a great thing. For the same vacation you may spend twice less because of it. The major issue if you travel with kids who go to school. They practically have available August and Xmas/Spring break week. The prices at those time are much higher for everything....there is also destination limitation.... esp if you don't like too hot weather. We've been in summer in Spain and South France and were dying from heat, Northern France and Ireland were very good from weather perspective,but there is not many such places....



> > I can name a 3 star boutique hotel in Switzerland with an award winning restaurant that charges $120 +/- per night. Most people do not believe you can stay in a nice hotel in Switzerland for that price. But you can if you find it, you just have to have the time to find it obviously.


 Switzerland is extremely expensive. We stayed on German side , 1 place - 30 min from Basel and 2nd place - 40 min from St. Gallen and did 3-4 day trips to Switzerland... It was excellent!


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## gibor365 (Apr 1, 2011)

> gibor Travelling in Thailand is so very easy.


 Thank you for info. I just hope that my wife will retire when I will be still able to travel independently ... She's 9 years younger than me and still not in retirement "mode".

Is anyone had long/mid term vacations to South America? I'm especially interested in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.... and number 1 priority are Iguazu Falls. The question if you can do something else except discovering Falls?


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## Longtimeago (Aug 8, 2018)

gibor365 said:


> Very true! Flexibility is a great thing. For the same vacation you may spend twice less because of it. The major issue if you travel with kids who go to school. They practically have available August and Xmas/Spring break week. The prices at those time are much higher for everything....there is also destination limitation.... esp if you don't like too hot weather. We've been in summer in Spain and South France and were dying from heat, Northern France and Ireland were very good from weather perspective,but there is not many such places....
> 
> Switzerland is extremely expensive. We stayed on German side , 1 place - 30 min from Basel and 2nd place - 40 min from St. Gallen and did 3-4 day trips to Switzerland... It was excellent!


Switzerland always gets that rep of being 'extremely' expensive gibor365. I disagree. It is only 'extremely' expensive if you do not know enough to have it be otherwise. What Switzerland does require is doing your research or getting the right advice, to find the right choices. The average tourist simply doesn't do that, they just follow the herd.

We can visit Switzerland for no more and sometimes less than visiting somewhere comparable in Canada. Try comparing Banff, Alberta costs for a tourist vs. Switzerland. For example in Switzerland you can find a hotel in the mountains for $120 per night as noted above. All local bus, train and cable car transportation for free. One cable car ride one way can cost you $25+ if you have to pay for it. Food of prime quality ingredients for $20 for a main course. 

Switzerland is not 'extremely expensive' no matter how many people believe it is and say it is. They just don't know how to find the right places to make it no more expensive than much of the rest of Europe. On a recent visit to the UK and Switzerland, our daily costs were higher in Scotland than in Switzerland and for a lower quality experience in most ways. Don't believe everything people say about Switzerland in regards to costs, they just don't know any better.


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## gibor365 (Apr 1, 2011)

Longtimeago , you are entitled to express your opinion  . I disagree with your disagreement . I don't know about Banff and Scotland.... but neighbour countries like Germany and Austria are about twice cheaper , and this is for everything , for supermarkets, restaurants, pubs, accommodation, attractions... even to drive in Switzerland you need to buy special sticker. 
We stayed on German side and visited Basel, Lucerne, Bern, Pilatus, St. Gallen etc.... If we want to explore other parts of Switzerland, we better stay in Italy or France


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## ian (Jun 18, 2016)

gibor-Puru and Equador are on our lists.

We did go to South America last year but it was not much of an extended trip. We flew into Santiago. Then did a rental car in Uruguay for week. Then the BA. We did go to Iguazu falls. It was a highlight. I recommend it. It was very easy to arrange on our own. We actually called down to to the Aerolineos office in BA to book our flights (at the advice of the 1800 Aerolineas CS rep). Doing so enable us to save 30 percent on the fare over what the on line booking sites were offering. You can do this by yourselves...absolutely no need to book a tour. Then we took a cruise around the horn and up to Valparaiso. Spent time there, then more time in Santiago and few days rental car travel in with wine region to the south. Cruise was great. It was on our bucket list for a while. Princess sent us a deal that essentially let us book with CAD at par so we jumped at it. It only lasted a day prior to selling out. After that it we spent a month in Panama/Costa Rica.

We lucked out on the cruise. We had very good weather. We arranged some tours with others on the ship and did a few on our own. Great cruise.....if the weather is good.

JetBlue now have good fares from Miami to Quito, Equador. Next time we find ourselves in Florida we may just do a side trip to Equador!


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## gibor365 (Apr 1, 2011)

> We flew into Santiago. Then did a rental car in Uruguay for week.


 Wait.... Santiago is Chili .... and Uruguay is on different side of S. America.... Did you fly? How did you like Uruguay? I've heard from my S.American friends that this is the safest country there....

Regarding Iguazu falls .... I was thinking to take short 2 week trip there.... the question, are there any other attractions in driving distance? I like waterfalls a lot, probably visited all existing waterfalls in New England and Oregon, but IMHO 2 weeks on waterfalls are too long...


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## ian (Jun 18, 2016)

You do not need two weeks at Iguuazu Falls. Two or three days max. It is in the boonies. I would not drive, it is a long way from anything. Better to fly.

We flew to Santiago, Chile. Then we flew to Montevideo on a discount airline. We were flying on points which allow one stopover. We did not want to fly AC through Toronto because Aeroplan add such a high admin fee. We wanted to fly United to Santiago. The difference in cost on the Aeroplan ticket was $650. The flight from Santiago to Montevideo was only $50. We wanted Panama City as a stopover so our points flight was Calgary-Santiago-Panama City-Calgary.

We stayed in Montevideo for a few days, then rented a car for a few days and headed toward Punta D'Este. Dropped the car off in Montevideo, then bussed to Colonia for a day. . We took a ferry from Colonia across the bay to BA. Uruguay was nice, very small. We safe. We felt safe in Chile and in BA. We boarded a cruise in BA, 14 days around the horn up to Santiago


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## gibor365 (Apr 1, 2011)

ian said:


> You do not need two weeks at Iguuazu Falls. Two or three days max. It is in the boonies. I would not drive, it is a long way from anything. Better to fly.
> 
> We flew to Santiago, Chile. Then we flew to Montevideo on a discount airline. We were flying on points which allow one stopover. We did not want to fly AC through Toronto because Aeroplan add such a high admin fee. We wanted to fly United to Santiago. The difference in cost on the Aeroplan ticket was $650. The flight from Santiago to Montevideo was only $50. We wanted Panama City as a stopover so our points flight was Calgary-Santiago-Panama City-Calgary.
> 
> We stayed in Montevideo for a few days, then rented a car for a few days and headed toward Punta D'Este. Dropped the car off in Montevideo, then bussed to Colonia for a day. . We took a ferry from Colonia across the bay to BA. Uruguay was nice, very small. We safe. We felt safe in Chile and in BA. We boarded a cruise in BA, 14 days around the horn up to Santiago


Wow, you are really travelling a lot! BA you mean Buenos Aires , right?


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## ian (Jun 18, 2016)

Yes.


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## Longtimeago (Aug 8, 2018)

gibor365 said:


> Longtimeago , you are entitled to express your opinion  . I disagree with your disagreement . I don't know about Banff and Scotland.... but neighbour countries like Germany and Austria are about twice cheaper , and this is for everything , for supermarkets, restaurants, pubs, accommodation, attractions... even to drive in Switzerland you need to buy special sticker.
> We stayed on German side and visited Basel, Lucerne, Bern, Pilatus, St. Gallen etc.... If we want to explore other parts of Switzerland, we better stay in Italy or France


OK gibor365, we can agree to disagree. The only thing is, we need to agree on what we are disagreeing about. 

Really when people say a place is expensive, it really doesn't mean much. What is expensive to one person may be quite affordable to someone else. What matters is whether it is possible to visit a place you are interested in on the budget you have available. 

If someone wants to visit the Swiss Alps, there is no point in saying Austria or France is cheaper. If you wanted to visit Canada and I told you the USA is cheaper, would that be of any use to you in deciding if you can afford to visit Canada? Obviously not. My point is that it is possible to visit Switzerland on the same kind of budget as most of the rest of Europe. You just have to know how to do it for that budget.

Too often, people say 'Switzerland is expensive' as if that means someone cannot afford to go there on their budget and it does discourage some people who simply accept what someone has written without knowing that it is not 'too expensive' for them on their budget. 

So what are we disagreeing about? That Switzerland cannot be visited on a given budget? If so, what budget? I did not say France or Austria cannot be visited for less money, I simply said Switzerland can be visited on a given budget. Do you disagree with that?

Re waterfalls, I am always reminded of Niagara Falls. I live relatively near to Niagara and my question to people who ask about how much time to plan for visiting the Falls is always the same. How long can you stand and watch water fall off a rock? That is all there is to see if you think about it. There may be other tourist kitsch things to spend your time and money on nearby and there certainly is at Niagara Falls, but the fact is that the Falls themselves have a very limited amount of time they can hold your attention.


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## gibor365 (Apr 1, 2011)

> Really when people say a place is expensive, it really doesn't mean much. What is expensive to one person may be quite affordable to someone else. What matters is whether it is possible to visit a place you are interested in on the budget you have available.
> 
> If someone wants to visit the Swiss Alps, there is no point in saying Austria or France is cheaper.


I'm not talking about budget, I'm talking expensive relatively to All neighbor countries. However, I'd never say that Germany is expensive, it's expensive comparing to Czech or Poland, but not comparing to France or Austria....



> If someone wants to visit the Swiss Alps, there is no point in saying Austria or France is cheaper.


 Why not?! As I mentioned, we stayed at Germany and visited Swiss Alps (Pilatus) , Luzern, Bern, Basel, St Gallen and many smallest towns. It's all depends on distance. 1 hour drive is nothing. 



> If you wanted to visit Canada and I told you the USA is cheaper, would that be of any use to you in deciding if you can afford to visit Canada? Obviously not.


 Obviously yes . All depends what you want to visit in Canada. What are driving distance. If as example you want to visit Lion African Safari or Toronto and "USA is cheaper" , I'd probably stay in US in this case



> Re waterfalls, I am always reminded of Niagara Falls. I live relatively near to Niagara and my question to people who ask about how much time to plan for visiting the Falls is always the same. How long can you stand and watch water fall off a rock? That is all there is to see if you think about it. There may be other tourist kitsch things to spend your time and money on nearby and there certainly is at Niagara Falls, but the fact is that the Falls themselves have a very limited amount of time they can hold your attention.


 I wouldn't compare Niagara Falls to anything else. NF is the biggest tourist trap ever . There are dozens much more beautiful waterfalls in New England and I visited a lot of them. When I see NF, it looks like man made and not a natural wonder. 
And actually you can do a lot of things visiting waterfalls, walk to it via some beautiful trail, swim in it, jump into it. climb on it and so on.... Couple of times we did 1 week waterfalls/swimming holes tours in New England and it was a blast!



> How long can you stand and watch water fall off a rock?


 It's like to say about Alps "How long can you stand and watch mountain"


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## tdiddy (Jan 7, 2015)

Longtimeago said:


> OK gibor365, we can agree to disagree. The only thing is, we need to agree on what we are disagreeing about.
> 
> Really when people say a place is expensive, it really doesn't mean much. What is expensive to one person may be quite affordable to someone else. What matters is whether it is possible to visit a place you are interested in on the budget you have available.
> 
> ...


+1 on these sentiments

we've spent more travelling around Indonesia than we did in Norway or Switzerland. Switzerland was actually quite cheap as we hiked the haute route (highly recommended) so it all depends on what you plan for that trip .


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## ian (Jun 18, 2016)

gibor....how long can you stand and watch a mountain?

We have lived in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, and Calgary. Travel east to west on business and pleasure. One the the reasons we decided to retire in either Calgary (or Vancouver) was the mountains. We never tire of them. They are always different in any season, in any light. Every time we think about moving closer to family in Ontario it takes us less than a minute to look at each other and shake our heads no in unison.


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## gibor365 (Apr 1, 2011)

ian said:


> gibor....how long can you stand and watch a mountain?
> 
> We have lived in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, and Calgary. Travel east to west on business and pleasure. One the the reasons we decided to retire in either Calgary (or Vancouver) was the mountains. We never tire of them. They are always different in any season, in any light. Every time we think about moving closer to family in Ontario it takes us less than a minute to look at each other and shake our heads no in unison.


This was my point! I like nature, I like both mountains and waterfall (and I don't mean Niagara )... Waterfalls are also different in any season!
This is why I like a lot Oregon


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## NotJustDreaming (Oct 20, 2013)

*Iguazu Falls*

We recently returned from a year RTW travel with our three tweens.

Iguazu and Victoria Falls (Zambia/Zimbabwe) were on our long list of highlights. 

Although Iguazu and Victoria Falls are rated right up there with Niagara Falls as the top three in the world in terms of size, the comparison stops there IMO. All three are absolutely stunning for certain. But Iguazu and Victoria Falls are a destination for nature lovers. Both are surrounded by extensive and multiple hiking trails with various and contrasting vistas.

Iguazu specifically:

We stayed four nights onsite at the Melia hotel. This location was well worth the cost to us. Daily we walked some of the multiple trails that started right outside the hotel. Often the same trail twice. The same trails offered a different experience each time - birds, animals, insects and especially the Falls themselves based on wind speed/direction, incoming weather etc.

I wouldn’t have wanted to stay fewer nights. I would have been happy with one extra. After that, we would have been spending too much money with no great return.

There is not much happening around the resort. It is quite remote. There is a Brai restaurant in the park with quite good food. Between the hotel breakfast and the Brai, we were good for food. 

We flew in to Iguazu from Cordoba and out to Salta. There were buses from Uruguay and Buenos Aires to the Falls. It would be a long trip though. 

We do have regrets not spending more time in Uruguay. Three weeks in Argentina were enough for us though - purely because of inflation. Our Canadian dollar did not go very far there. I didn’t care much for Buenos Aires and am still quite surprised by that. It was on my big list of cities for years.


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## gibor365 (Apr 1, 2011)

> We stayed four nights onsite at the Melia hotel. This location was well worth the cost to us. Daily we walked some of the multiple trails that started right outside the hotel. Often the same trail twice. The same trails offered a different experience each time - birds, animals, insects and especially the Falls themselves based on wind speed/direction, incoming weather etc.
> 
> I wouldn’t have wanted to stay fewer nights. I would have been happy with one extra. After that, we would have been spending too much money with no great return.


I understand that you don't need a rental car there, right? 
Can you swim under the falls?
Are there any day tours from Iguazu Falls?


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## canew90 (Jul 13, 2016)

Retirement travel varies with each and how much they want to spend. Some like Air travel to different places and these will/possibly be costly. You can go with a group or individually. Some like cruses which cost less but are usually for a week or so. Others love Mexico as it can be very reasonable.
We started by traveling by motorhome, in Canada & US. We loved it but eventually got tired of being on the move all the time. So we decided to settle in Arizona. We usually stayed in RV parks which had full amenities and eventually bought a unit. The parks ran from basics, parking only to full amenities. Full included Tennis, pickleball, horseshoes, pools, all sorts of activities/workshops and clubs. Many joined Golf, Baseball, Pool, Walking and everything else. I know people who fly down, don't rent a car and hardly ever leave the park, other than to shop for food. Usually there are always friends who one can go shopping with or day trips. They probably don't spend more than $7,000 for six month, and that would include the rental of the trailer. Of course one can spend much more, but living in AZ is cheap. We own our trailer and spend about $5,000 for 4 months stay.


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## robfordlives (Sep 18, 2014)

Earlier today many deals to Tokyo round trip for about $600 per person. This is where flexibility can lead to real savings. That is typically $1500+ per person.


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## maylok89 (Jul 12, 2018)

robfordlives said:


> Earlier today many deals to Tokyo round trip for about $600 per person. This is where flexibility can lead to real savings. That is typically $1500+ per person.


Wow , it is very good deal , from where is it fly from ? and where do you find those deal ?


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