No matter how much we try, we cannot avoid getting older. In fact, we can be grateful that we are one year older each year. After all, not all are this fortunate.
How does age influence your traveling?
If you have read “about us” post, you realized that we have been traveling for years, but when we reached our 30s our traveling has changed a little. I guess 15 years of intense traveling has its tax. The changes are not bad, but it is clearly seen, that our travels are a bit different than before.
Six changes in traveling due to getting older
1. Accommodations
We can notice the biggest difference in accommodations. We hardly use dorms anymore – except when we go on a trekking. Now that Simon and I are traveling together as a married couple, we like to have some privacy. We luckily have found out that staying in a clean, private room with our own bathroom does not really need to cost a fortune. On the other hand, if we travel by our 4WD car, we still do lots of wilderness camping, which is still our favorite. There’s nothing more beautiful than a camping fire under the starry sky.
2. Food
Our student years were sometimes extreme. We have been working all year, just to afford traveling. If we wanted to travel, we only had one choice – to do travels as cheap as possible. We were staying in dirt cheap rooms and also food was not really special. We were not eating just bread and drinking water, but sometimes we were not far from it either. Even now we do watch our expenses, but we still afford to spend few bucks more, if it is worth it, but we mostly still eat street food.
3. Plane tickets
Plane tickets are normally the largest expense and years ago they were even more costly than nowadays. We normally choose our next destination according to the price of a plane ticket, but due to the fact that we only have 20 days per year of annual leave, we watch that we don’t spend too much time on the airports and rather on our final destination.
4. Clothes
We have never been into fashion; it’s just not for us. Seeing the old photos, we sometimes looked as bumps. Our backpacks contained old and worn down clothes only. We are still not much into what to wear, but at least clothes fit us and are the right size.
5. Public transport / renting a vehicle
It might be that we stopped using public transport due to our heavy photo equipment and not so much because of being older. We mostly try to travel by our own car, but sometimes this is just not possible. If that is the case, we try to rent a car and do a self-drive tour. We love the independence, which you get with stopping everywhere you pleased. Renting a car is more expensive than using a public transport, but there are so many benefits that we don’t really think about costs too much. Nevertheless, we do try to do wilderness camping as much as possible, so taking this into account, renting a car is not so expensive after all.
6. Experiences
Each new travel feels more comfortable due to experiences. Even if you have never visited a country, you can know a little what to expect. We don’t ask our self anymore »what if…«, because there is always a way. Our experiences do raise our self-esteem and each new travel is better and more adventurous. Letting go is the best thing you can do!
These six changes might not valid for everyone, but when we talk with other travelers our age or older, they all agreed we do become more comfortable. If that’s what suits you, there is nothing wrong with being comfortable. I guess that being more comfortable comes also with limited holidays, as you don’t really want to return back to work exhausted. After all – which travel style to choose from is not really important, as the only way to enjoy traveling is to find what it suits you and to learn something from a new visited destination and its people.
Do you also notice any changes in traveling with getting older? If you do, we would love to hear about them!
I fully agree with all points. It is 100% true for me as well.
I would also add that with increasing age (sorry, experience 😉 and hence higher financial means, I tend more and more to afford “exceptional experiences” like Hot Air Balloon ride over Bagan in Myanmar, visiting the Danakil Depression in Ethiopia, …
Thanks for sharing
Gilles
Hi Gilles, thanks for your remarks! I agree with you – with the steady income, we are also able to afford some adventures, which we would never be able in our student years. I guess they make traveling even more fun and unforgetable now! Happy to hear you like our post! Safe traveling and lots of wonderful experiences on the road! Cheers, Nina
Great post and I agree with all of these too – of course my travelling has changed even more as I have my son along too which has introduced other changes (mostly for the better on the whole!). This last trip we used trains instead of hiring a car, solely because I was offered Eurail sponsorship – and I loved it. It gave me the feeling of proper backpacking again. It wasn’t (in some ways) as convenient as hiring a car but I would do it again.
Thanks Amanda! It is nice to hear another confirmation from a fellow traveler, that aging does afect your travel style… You are right, the joy of backpacking is always a nice feeling with both of us too – after all, that is how we started and it is always nice to do it again. As for kids – we don’t have them, but I think traveling with them makes you realised, how blind you were, when not traveling with them! They are able to notice every detail, you would never see yourself!
Interesting article, thank you 🙂 Broadly, I’m in agreement, or at least I can understand the concept. However, as I often am, I feel like I’m going to be a little bit of an ‘outlier’! :p
1. Accommodations -> the older I get, and this is weird, the *more* likely I seem to be to stay in backpacker hostels. There’s actually a logical reason for this though; the older I get, the more I travel, the more self-confident and less ‘shy’ I’m becoming. In my 20s you wouldn’t have found me anywhere near a dorm, because the idea of sharing my sleeping space was just so far off my radar and comfort zone it simply wasn’t even considered. But as I’ve got older, the more I’ve come to accept that it’s possible and actually can be quite fun.
I do choose my hostels carefully – no party hostels, smaller dorms, etc – but if it means halving my travel bill to allow me to spend more on experiences, then I’m now prepared to compromise more 🙂
Also, because I’m usually out exploring a city, I don’t need my accommodation to be that swanky – it’s simply just a bed to me. I have friends and work colleagues who refuse to stay in anything less than a 4*, and I can understand why they do it – their needs are different to mine – it’s just not how I like to travel!
2. Food -> street food rocks. Because I tend to travel solo, it’s also less ‘weird’ as I do sometimes feel uncomfortable, or at least ‘conspicuous’, dining alone in a decent restaurant. I’m fine with pubs & cafes though! 🙂
3. Plane tickets -> ah yes. I used to try to get the cheapest destinations, but now I have specific places in mind that I want to go to, and, because I have a full-time job, only a limited window in which to get them. So while I’ll oft try to find cheap connections and use less-interesting airports (and I’m not averse to overnighting in airports awaiting cheaper connections), I pretty much am resigned to spending what I have to on getting there,
4. Clothes -> haha! The older I get and the more I travel, the less I pack! What’s also interesting is that I seem to have started to wear slightly smarter clothes; on previous trips I’d pack lots of t-shirts and the occasional button-down shirt to cross borders in; these days I only pack the shirts. They’re all short-sleeved, granted, but what it means is that the difference between my work clothes and my travel clothes is almost negligible; apart from the shoes, I’ll pack a pair of three-quarter length shorts/trousers, but everything else will be work-friendly! (The shirts are quick-dry and non-iron. This is very very useful!).
5. Public transport / renting a vehicle -> I don’t drive. I take local buses, even to the extent of preferring them over both private transport and, for long distances, planes. While being stuck in the back of a over-crowded minibus travelling across entire countries in Africa when you’re 6’3″ and 41 years old isn’t everyone’s idea of fun, that’s more for my experience rather than a reflection of age. In any case the locals are older than me, and if it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for me! Or something. I dunno, I’m just bloodyminded!
6. Experiences – agree entirely! I travel for experience, and would rather spend money on something unique in and of itself rather than the everyday details, for example the hotel or the transport!
Sorry, that was a bit long … 🙂
Ultimately we are all different, and I’m certainly not going to say “this is the way I travel, you should do it too”; indeed I’ve been known to actively state ‘I do it this way so you don’t have to!’. But it is interesting that as I get older, I seem to be doing my travel preferences in the reverse to the way most people do!