If you were retired and in good heath- how many weeks per year would you travel?
 

I have a relative who retired recently with great health and a very very comfortable retirement nest-egg. He and his wife are on the road at least 20 weeks a year. Travel is about all they do and all they talk about. Many of their friends and relatives complain that they travel TO MUCH, and need to spend more time at home with their children and grandkids.

So is it wrong for some retired people to travel TO MUCH? Is it an obsession, vs an interest when you travel 20 weeks or more weeks a year?

No such thing as too much travel!

IMHO, the kids and grandkids should be grateful that the old folks are around the other half of the year. They could have chosen the more common route of retiring to Florida and being around only for occasional vacations and holidays! If I had kids with that sort of sense of entitlement, I'd travel a lot, too.

My parents did this....They worked very hard and were lucky enough to turn the family business over to a son and retire in their 50's with excellent health. They bought a nice RV and sold their residence...they have traveled everywhere for a few years and just recently bought a condo in Victoria, Vancouver island they will stay in for 6 mos at a time....They actually see more family because they map out routes throught the US to see their family and friends when they go from Florida back to the West Coast. (X-mas is in FL because my grandmother lives there)..I envy them and the stories and photos they have are amazing...if you are lucky enough to be able to explore this great world-do it ! Some of my family was making the same comments at first, but honestly, I think they were a little jealous..:-)

Also, since the relative retired recently, this could be pent-up energy, something they've looked forward to for a long time that will calm down and get a different perspective all by itself with the passage of time.

I'd travel as much as I could afford! (Maybe even more than that!)

travdis doesn't seem to post much in answer to other people's posts, but rather seems to have a track record of asking these types of strange questions and then never returning.

emd: I was just noticing the same thing. I guess there's nothing wrong with starting interesting travel-related topics. But it does remind me of the Mike Myers routine in drag where s/he says "discuss amongst yourselves."

And what kind of response do you expect from posters participating on this travel board? "No, they should stay at home and not travel so much"??

We are retired and if we could afford to travel 20 weeks a year we would.. Somehow or other I like to think of myself as an "Auntie Mame.. Then the saying "I'm spending my childrens inheritance" comes to mind..I've seen many seniors who are saving their $$ for their children, die or become ill without having traveled.. Their children get the $$ and off they go to Disney, buy bigger houses, more toys, etc.. and this is what their parents scrimped for...NO WAY!! My son has a bigger house, travels further, doesn't do "budget" anyplace...and you want me to stay home...NO WAY!!!! We have found that the couples we know in many instances the wife wants to travel and the husband wants to stay home..or visa versa... We are fortunate, we both love to travel...just abut anywhere.. Their friends are absolutely green with jealousy and envy, but won't admit it..And there are others who say they will travel when they retire...I can count on my two hands those who don't and those who die before they have a chance to travel or are in now poor health... Travel is obsession...right now we are planning special trip for our 50th wedding anniversary and it won't be to Florida or Aruba...it maybe the Amazon (already have seen Machu Picchu before it was overrun with english pubs) and my dream of seeing Manus or going to Gibraltor, Seville and Barcelona....no....we are not rich...or even comfortable, but we have two loves and one is travel....as much as we can.

My next door neighbor is a widower (for about 20 years). He is 86, a retired int'l banker, and lives in a house in a pricey neighborhood that is permanentley stuck in the 50's as he never has renovated. Instead he travels continually, to every corner of the earth...Iceland, Antarctica, Ecuador, Mongolia, he is always going somewhere. He travels about 50% of his time. Tomorrow he is leaving for 3 weeks in Hawaii, a place he has never been and has always dreamed about! He is amazing.

My partner who is in good health recently retired and this is a discussion we've had many times. I'm still working (and growing increasingly jealous), but have summers and holiday periods off. Financially, we are going to be able to swing about four weeks worth of traveling (trips)a year, which for us is enough. We live in an area where we can easily take day trips to very interesting and beautiful places, so we have been starting to do more of that type of thing along with the longer trips away.
-Bill

Parrotmom, you go girl!
I've been reading your posts here for a long time, and your spirit and spunk always inspire me! ((F))
Keep on keepin' on ('cause I'm right behind ya!)

Hmmm...If we were retired (living back in the U.S., not here in Europe), in good health, and had an excellent pet sitter:
4 to 6 weeks in fall or spring to drive around an area of Europe
1 week to visit family over Thanksgiving
2 weeks (with pet) in late summer/early fall in the coastal Pacific Northwest
1 week with family around Christmas
2 weeks other trip (Singapore/Hong Kong or Japan)
That only adds up to 12 weeks. 20 weeks would be hard to do...we figure if we would have enough money to travel 20 weeks a year, then we'd also have enough money to have a nice home and we'd probably want to spend much of the year enjoying it.
For old MAD magazine fans...this thread reminds me of the cartoon strip where a woman is gazing out the window at her neighbors loading the car for another trip.
Mrs. Jones looks out the window and says, "There go the Smiths on another wonderful adventure. They're always seeing new places. We never go anywhere. I feel like life is passing us by."
Mrs. Smith looks up and sees Mrs. Jones watching her. She says, "There's Mrs. Jones in her beautiful home. They have such a gorgeous garden. Their life seems so solid. We're always traveling around, never putting down roots. I feel like life is passing us by."

There was a thread just recently about people who never travel. It seems to have been deleted for some reason. HMMmmm... The answer of course is highly specific to the individual. I have friends who have been retired for 15 years and have NEVER traveled. I have friends who live in RV's and have sold their homes. Those are the extremes. And of course, my parents retired to Florida and never see the grandkids unless we go to visit, which is once a year at best.

If the 401K pays off, 52 of course! Actually I'd probably live on the Residensea! I haven't heard anything about that in quite some time, still around??

It's pretty obvious the "friends and relatives" are control freaks who think they have the right to butt into the retirees' business. As someone mentioned above, it IS their life. Wonder how the so-called friends and the relatives would feel if the retirees started telling them how to live. When my parents retired, with a nice nestegg and good health, they chose to relocate to Florida for the winters and keep their home up here in the north for the summers. Sure I miss them, but God bless them that they are able to enjoy their retirements.

I'd be gone for years at a time if I could!!!!! Well, for now the children issue is a non issue since we don't have any.... so I guess we'd TRAVEL to see our parents:):):)

We retired (very early) and are in good health. I just counted up and this year we will travel about 10-12 weeks. I don't know if we'd want to do more than 15 weeks. I can't believe I'm admitting this, but we might travel more if we didn't miss our cat!

I would travel at least 1/2 the year and possibly live in other places for a bit. There is no such thing as too much traveling!

I'd travel as much as we could afford to!