mufaso

How has traveling changed or evolved in your 20s to your age now? I'm 42 and my style has changed a lot. I'm much slower than in my 20s and 30s especially when my kids are with me. I plan to travel until I physically can't anymore and want to get some insight how you plan trips alone and with your children. Which places do you prioritize and do they have anything to do with getting older or physically more able?

I'm leaving in October and booked a hotel located in the 5th arrondissement in Paris. I plan to take pictures of me in iconic places to show my grandpa as it was one of the places he wished he'd gone before he couldn't physically travel anymore. I'm not a good photographer and was hoping the backdrop will do enough talking and I am mortified that I might actually have to use a selfie stick. Any suggestions on must try French food? Did you get the Paris Museum Pass the first time there? I appreciate any suggestions you might have for me. Thank you in advance!

yestravel

That's sweet to take pictures for your grandpa. That said, I detest selfie sticks -- why not ask passerbys to take your photo? Usually they are more than willing.

For the musuem pass the biggest benefit is the ability to skip any long lines at the popular musuem. In terms of saving money, you can look at the price of whichever pass you buy and then add up the admission fees of the museums you want to go to. I have used the pass a few times and as a result seen some of the "lesser" museums that I might not have seen. My main objection to it is that you have to cram you museum going into the number of consecutive days of your pass.

Check out Paris Greeters. Locals will take you on a tour based on your interests. We finally did it and really enjoyed our guide.

And yes, I travel much slower than I did when I was younger. Plus being retired I have the luxury to take very long trips and go as slow as I like. In your case kids will definitely slow you down!

have fun!

colduphere

In our case the window when we the parents were young enough and the kids were old enough to do physically challenging trips was pretty narrow. Depending on what kinds of trips you envision you might want to determine your best windows.

powhatangal

For me, as I get older, I have more disposable money for traveling abroad (mostly France). This wasn't the case in my 20's and 30's.

I frequently travel solo and I've occasionally asked a stranger to take my picture but only with my inexpensive camera- never with my iPhone. Don't want to take that risk.

Enjoy your trip to Paris!

justineparis

I have always travelled.. but of course now with my kids almost grown ( they are young adults.. boomeranging in and out of our lives a bit still.. aged 19-26, plus a bonus 10 yr old who lives with his mom most times) we have a lot more time to travel. .

I had taken a few solo trips to Paris when I was in my 20s.. plus with a friend.. but I had family and friends there so while technically solo.. I wasn't really alone.

During heavy childraising years we did the usual family trips to Hawaii , Disney, cruises , and camping ( in an rv).. but we decided against a full family trip to Europe and instead my husband and I took each child separately.. I took our oldest when he turned 13, then hubby took next child at 13, then I took our youngest ( daughter) when she was 11.

By this time most of my family in Paris are very aged.. so I stopped staying with them.. instead just visiting for a day or two.. then staying in a hotel.

After the last trip with my youngest I decided to start doing solo trips again.. I missed them.. kids were old enough to be on their own while dad was at work.. so off I went.

I often didn't even bring a camera as I have tons of photos of the sights already.. but on occasion I did bring one I would just ask someone to take my photo.

I used to pooh pooh the museum pass.. but finally tried one about 5-6 years ago.. they are very convenient.. you can pop in and out of so many museums and sights you might not be sure you want to pay for.. and then find out you loved them.. plus museum bathrooms are always clean and free.. so that's a plus.. lol

I treasure my solo visits.. but since I met my now new hubbby about 5 years ago.. I haven't wanted to take a solo trip.. just because I am happy to be with him.. not saying that's why anyone would take a solo trip.. I loved my solo trips for other reasons then just getting away from my ex hubby and kids.. no... I loved being completely free to plan my day exactly as I pleased.. I loved eating pastry in bed and watching crap tv.. I loved having 2 or even 3 glasses of wine at a café while people watching and reading a book.. no need to chat all the time.. no need to compromise.. everything I did was what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it.. ( I still miss that aspect of solo travel.. with family /hubby/ friends you are not the boss and you always have to compromise.. lol )

You are staying in an easy and central area.. you will love it..

As for change in travel style.. you bet .. in my twenties bathrooms down the hall and no ac were not uncommon choices I had to make to stay on my tight budget.
I am still on a budget but now I can afford decent budget to moderate places with ac and ensuites..

I also actually enjoy seeing more sights now.. I have to admit I spent three months in Europe touring a lot of bars and nightclubs.. . er.. sorry, no while in Athens I did not visit the Acropolis.. etc. Over the last few decades I have really developed an interest in history and love historical sights and many musuems( you still cannot convince me that most exhibits at the Pomidou are in fact art.. half the time it looks like chimps finger paints) lol

Everyone developes their own interests and style of travel.. I still keep it budget friendly. I do not stay in big American style chain hotels.. I book all my travel myself.

nytraveler

Well my first trip when I was 19 - with my boyfriend - we were definitely on a budget and because we had a car (he was driving a VW his brother was buying so it could be imported into the US as a used vehicle for much lower tax) we did a different trip that most first timers - but hit 8 places in 6 weeks, including a bunch of day trips. He had been to europe before so I let him lead the way - and learned a lot about how I didn't want to travel.

Now that I am much older, 59, I do all the planning (perhaps I am a control freak) although we leave a lot of free time. We still do road trips if we have the time, but never drive more than 4 or 4.5 hours a day and share driving. And if we only have a week of 10 days we usually do just one or two cities plus day trips. Road trips are a lot harder, since I retired recently we found it very difficult to get the minimum 17 days or so you need for one.

Also we definitely now go for much more comfort. We always try to get the much larger rooms or even a small suite so we can relax between touring and going out to dinner or ballet or opera or whatever. And we try to do one special restaurant in each town we visit. But other than that have meals mostly on the fly - picking for dinner places we see during the day or someone from the hotel recos. Have given up reading most of the restaurant reviews since we seen to prefer traditional to the uber trendy.

Surfergirl

We haven't changed our style too much . . . except . . . with more disposible income (especially with 27 year old son out of college . . . what a $$ sucker!), we fly business.

Biggest difference in "style" was late teens, early 20's, without spouse or kid, when I'd either travel with a friend or go solo. Hitch-hiked, stayed in hostels or 1 star hotels with everything down the hall but the bed.

I totally "get" justineparis's comment about touring bars and nightclubs (LOL), because I did a LOT of that. However, we still do! And having a 2 month student rail pass, I could spend as much time as I wanted in a place, meet people (friends that I still have to this day!) and visit all of the historical sights and museums. Because unlike justineparis, I was always keen on sights and museums (especially art). Music, as well, and I still try to work my trips around a music festival or a band I want to see.

Travels with our son didn't slow us down at all, but we always made time to take him to age appropriate places that were very cool that we might not have ever gone to. Like the Jardin d'Acclimation in the Bois du Bologne in Paris, or the Lido in Venice, or the zoo in Berne, or a playground in most any town. All of those created some of the best moments of our travels.

We did move up to 3 and sometimes 4 star hotels (that were reasonably priced) for the en suite bathroom and a/c in summer. And we still got to meet loads of people in our travels. Yes, dear son did get the benefit of going to music festivals all over Europe with us, and see fireworks on the many Bastille Days we were in France.

These days, without kid in tow, we haven't slowed down, but we have the ability now not to worry about leaving the kid in the hotel room while we did a musical pub crawl in Dublin, or find a sitter when we went to see Lou Reed in Salzburg.

kja

I prioritize trips that will involve greater physical exertion or other difficulties (lots of moves, particular language barriers, uncertain transportation options), with the understanding that my ability to deal with those things will likely diminish with age. Conversely, I defer trips that I believe will involve long stays in specific locations, reliance on tour guides (e.g., the Galapagos, photo safari in Africa), or otherwise might be easier and or less stressful.

I don't have children, and so can't comment on that.

dreamon

The biggest difference between then and now, for me, is that then I never booked anything, even a day in advance, and now I do. But I think that's got more to do with the way that the internet has changed travel than with me getting older. And then, a trip of 8 weeks was 'short' and now, due to change in circumstances, it seems like an unattainable luxury.

Ackislander

Like dreamon, we never booked ahead, in the US or abroad, unless we were going (very rarely) to a destination hotel. We only got burned once when every single hotel in Memphis was booked for a religious convention.

This all changed when I started doing extensive business travel. My assistant would hand me the folder with tickets, hotel and car reservations, and the meeting and background materials I needed. I now find it very hard to go on the road not knowing where I am going to spend my nights.

We have rarely stayed in hotels in Europe since the mid1990's when we were fortunate enough to have friends loan us apartments in London and we discovered VRBO for elsewhere.

I am working on a hub-and-spoke trip for the UK next spring: staying in five or so places and exhausting the local area before moving on to another area. We'll see how it works and let you know.

cheska15

We too never booked anywhere and I don't know if I have turned into a control freak, or if the Internet has made it that way.
We are a bit fussier on accomodation and that may be because e can afford nicer places.
When we travelled in the 80's we came home from traveling thinner. Sadly that doesn't happen anymore. Lol

genio67

I often think about this question and I am happy with the way travel is such an important part of my life. As is the case with many people on this forum, for me travel is not just about "getting away" but also about having new experiences. While I am not rich and never have been, I have always managed to work it out so that I have money for travel because it's just really important to me. I wish I could travel more often as the frequency of our European trips has slowed since having kids but I make sure to really appreciate it whenever we do go away.

In my 20's those experiences were often late nights in European bars and clubs, hostels, lots of bread and cheese and a few sights here and there. However, I always returned home with great memories and a different perspective on life and a better understanding of what was important to me. In my 30's my travel included more museums and slightly better accommodations but still involved meeting new people, new experiences and the ever changing perspective on what is important and how there are many more perspectives in the world than the ones I might have developed through my experiences.

Since the kids arrived about a decade ago we have taken a few trips to Europe and the Caribbean as well. We realized we could sit in a playground in our neighborhood in NY or sit in a playground in Place Vosges in Paris! A no- brainer for us. the kids are now 10 and 12 and we make sure to include them in our planning so they get excited about it too.

There have also been a few kid free trips because my wife and I really enjoy each others company and feel it's important for us to continue to share the experience and excitement of travel as a couple sometimes. Luckily we have family around to watch the kids and that's not always possible for other people. However, I would definitely not let kids prevent us from traveling; we just adapt and realize we are gaining new perspectives and experiences as parents traveling with kids. In addition, seeing my kids experience a new and different part of the world and appreciating different cultures is beyond what words can describe.

Dukey1

I have stopped even thinking of sharing "bathrooms down the hall."

yestravel

On the booking ahead -- we never used to book ahead and never really had any issues. Now it seems more difficult to travel with reservations made upfront'. When we dont book ahead, we find it difficult to find a place that we like for the price we want to pay. It seems more people travel these days and with the internet maybe more are booking ahead. My preference is to not book ahead, but OTOH I hate spending a lot of time searching the internet for a place to stay.

Surfergirl

OMG, I forgot about the spontaneity vs pre-booking of the pre-internet days! Our trip in '96 killed the "book nothing, let the wind drive us!" approach. I didn't realize that Seattle & Vancouver were having big hotel sucking events (Seattle's SeaFair & Vancouver's fireworks competition). I spent hours in each city pouring over guidebooks with a handful of quarters trying to secure hotel rooms, and getting pretty frantic with a 6 year old in tow.

Yep, that was the year, for hotel booking, that spontaneity and I got a divorce.

suze

Mine has not changed at all. Except I have a little more money now. But I'm single and don't have kids.

suze

<I am mortified that I might actually have to use a selfie stick. >

Just ask a stranger to take your picture in front of whatever (find a single or couple who is also taking photos and ask them to take yours with your camera. I travel solo a lot and do this a lot. Everyone has always been very nice about it.)

NewbE

I don't see why asking a stranger for a favor, with the bother of selecting an appropriate looking stranger and the risk of handing over one's phone, is seen as in any way preferable to a selfie stick.

Time has marched on, people!

suze

It's not "preferable".

I am using a camera not a phone AND I don't have a selfie stick AND this person was "morfitied" by the idea.

Hence my reply, NewbE, march on yourself.

NewbE

<Hence my reply, NewbE, march on yourself.>
What the heck is your problem, suze? Or are you this charming all the time?

It's not always all about you!