Would you ever get too old to travel?

who you get to old to post ???

Yeah, when they are shoveling dirt into my grave. And even then, I guess I'll be in the travel mode. Hopefully not south!

I don't think it will be a question of age, so much as a question of physical ability. I expect there will be kinds of travel I'll be less interested in doing the creakier I get (scuba?) and kinds of travel I'll be more interested in doing (e.g. renting an apartment/villa for a longer stretch of time and relaxing).

Come on, Kate. You can relax in the after-life. Use it or lose it.

Hey degas: Don't get me wrong. I love travelling, for work and pleasure. I'm not happy unless I'm planning a trip (or planning someone else's trip). And I don't plan to slow down until I have to slow down due to physical limitations. I look at my dad, for example. He was an intrepid, globe-trotting consulting engineer when he was younger, travelling to a number of exotic places, on a challenging schedule and living in some difficult conditions. When he and my mom retired, they started driving all over North America in a motor home. But now he's got some problems with his eyesight - and he lost his co-pilot last year. He continues to travel (he spent a month in Paris with us last summer and is on his way back in a few weeks, he spent 6 weeks in Mexico this winter and 6 weeks living in a house on a remote coast on Vancouver Island), but he likes to put down roots temporarily instead of moving around every few days. He still wants to go to exotic places - he's planning month-long trips to India (to live with a family in a small village) and the Gulf States. I can see myself doing the same thing (except for the Indian village part - I'm a city girl).

To answer the OP, definitely.

Your health can deteriorate to the point that travel is no longer possible, but age itself is irrelevant. Some lucky people are healthy and still travelling at 95, others develop health problems serious enough to put an end to travel in the first few decades of life. If you're healthy, enjoy it, no matter what your age.

The challenge is not age, but decrepitude.

If your health and physical condition are not great you should be cautious about travel. If you are elederly, it becomes very difficult to get insurance, and that might swing your decision.

Agreeing with several above... it has less to do with your numeric age, it has to do with HOW you have agee... if you are fortunate enough to maintain health, stamina, strength, mental capacity, etc.

No, but I might get too ill to travel.

The number of birthdays has little to do with "old." I think we all know people with a high "age" number who are far healthier and more active than many younger people.

I'll respond more fully right after I email and ask my 85 year old Dad who is currently guiding a group of folks "of a certain age" through a Taste of Scotland tour. That is, if he is not too busy planning his winter route in their RV from their home Salmon Arm, BC to Corpus Christie, Texas. And that would be just before they take it on the road to visit ALL the grandkids in Newfoundland, Halifax, Boston, Orlando and...well, you get the point!

Well, even though I am not 'old' I am rapidly losing my vision, but my interest in travel will continue no matter what happens with my sight. As long as I can find someone (DH) to shove me around the streets of Europe I'm going. By the way, if you are healthy, enjoy every minute of every trip because the state of your health can change on a dime, even those who think 'not me'.

Some people cannot travel due to physical problems that come with age, and it is not their fault and this isn't some mental attitude, if that's what you are implying. A lot of it is genetics, and there is nothing you can do about it. My mother could not travel after about the age of 85, and she was healthy her entire life, never smoked or drank, was never overweight, and never had any major illnesses except those due to, yes, old age (arthritis, etc.).

So I don't like the implications that people who manage to be healthy enough and have the physical strength and endurance to travel at age 90 are somehow superior to people who cannot due to their own doing. It is really not very common that someone can travel at a very old age, and simply luck.

I can see limiting to fewer destinations and longer periods of time in each.

But, I realized that after a 15 day trip with 7 destinations (and not a tour) and 3 sleeper night trains. And that was a long time ago.

My grandparents are in their 80s and although they still travel a bit, they have slowed down a lot.

My grandmother is in the early stages of Alzheimers, which is taking its toll. Physically she is as fit and energetic as ever, but she is finding that her routine becomes more and more important to her and that being in strange places is stressful.

My grandpa is in pretty good health, but even after a hip replacement and the replacement of both knees (we call him the Bionic Man) he moves slowly. His vision is going and his reflexes are slow, so he no longer drives.

They still travel, but they are more likely to go on cruises or to visit family than anything else these days.

Heaven forbid, Christina, that you would take from my words that there is some sort of triumph over others in being able to travel in old age! Of course, it is simply the luck of the draw...of course, it is pure chance. I was just idly boasting about MY parent's luck, not implying any superiority over anyone else's misfortune.

A friend and I have decided to leave the Carib cruises until we have to be pushed on in our wheelchairs.

Assuming I'm conscious I'm traveling. (My parents are well into their 80s and still do day trips - as well as visit family in VA, NC etc)

On a plane to Florida a couple of years ago, there were 16 people waiting in wheelchairs to be boarded, god bless 'em.

On the other hand, you aren't going to rent a car in Ireland after age 70, so a lot of it depends are where you want to go and what you want to do as well as your genetic makeup. Good health is not evenly distrubuted.

"Would you ever get too old to travel?"

Tracy told me that in the future if she ever comes home to find I have bought a pair of Sansabelt pants, my traveling priveleges will be forever curtailed. I don't foresee that day ever happening.