How to travel cheaply in retirement
You’ve waited your whole working life to travel. Sure, you traveled when you worked, but if you were lucky enough to escape for 2 weeks, you spent your first week unwinding from the office buzz and your second week stressing out about all the piled-up to-dos you have sitting on your desk. But now you’re free! Your mind is at ease. Your time is plentiful. The only thing that’s stopping you from fully taking off is the cost of travel.
Yea, we get it. If it’s expensive to travel for the working professional in the top fields, it’s certainly still expensive to travel when you’ve retired. Fortunately, there are special perks that retirees can access when they travel. We’ve assembled a few:
The best travel hack for a retiree is to ask for loved ones to gift “points” on any special occasion.
Who do you ask? Every single person. The name of the game here is to rack up as many as you can. Have a son that flys for consulting gigs? Great, he’s got tons of airline and hotel points. Have a friend that you always see paying with the same credit card? Betchya they are racking up travel points. So, go ahead. Be specific. Ask for travel points.
Why this works? The good thing is, when a loved one gives you travel points, they don’t have to spend money either. It may seem weird to be specific, but you’re actually doing your loved ones a favor by saving them time trying to find the perfect gift and saving them money.
Stay in places with a kitchen - it’s a great way to try real ‘local’ food and it saves you money on restaurants.
What’s the best part? Groceries have the freshest local ingredients and it’s the best way to really ‘taste’ the culture. Honestly, many times, it’s better than going out because so many places cater to the tourists and the masses. Make sure you pick travel accommodations that don't just have a kitchen, but ones that have all the utilities you’ll need to prepare a meal. Ask your host if their kitchen is stocked. Shameless plug here: hotels rarely have kitchens, and Airbnbs are often bought just to host tourists, so they don’t really have everything you need to cook a perfect local meal. What’s a perfect local meal? Well, this brings us to our next point…
What to do in advance of your trip? Spend the time to research how to prepare the local food. We don’t have to tell you to look online. Ok, we just did. Look online and get excited about the things you can cook.
Nix tours, make friends.
How do I do this? If you’re home swapping, you can literally ask your host to introduce you to their friends. Most hosts are super friendly and will be happy to make an introduction.
Ok, we hope these helped. What else are we missing? Leave your comments so that others can learn from you too!