Retired & No Desire to Travel....?

[focusondisney]

I'm 63 and my DH is a tad older. We aren't working, moved to a 55+ beautiful active neighborhood, have a dog and are financially stable.

All of our friends are flying all over the world, month after month.

I have zero desire to travel, except for an occasional trip to the beach, the mountains and wdw or to see family.

I traveled when I was young working for the air lines and took care of my parents for six years, and honestly, it's nice just sitting and reading or taking the dog for a walk.

Anybody else a homebody when your friends are world travellers?

I retired 2 years ago, my husband just last April. He worked in food manufacturing for 45 years. He managed one facility for almost 20 years before he retired, working 55 hours most weeks plus 24/7 contact & responsibilities. I was a hospital based RN for 44 years. After all those years & especially working in person during the pandemic, we’re loving being home. We go for days not leaving the house except to get the mail or take a walk. Over the last few years, we’ve also done a good amount of remodeling & upgrades, making time at home a lot more pleasant.

Most of our life, we’ve taken up to 5 trips a year. We’ll still take a vacation or 2 every year to someplace we really enjoy, like WDW or Washington. But being home will definitely be the rule & travel the exception. I can’t even imagine traveling every month. It sounds like way too much work for me.

 

[ronandannette]

Would we like to travel a lot after retirement? Maybe. But we don’t expect to actually do it. We’ve planned and taken most of our bucket-list trips already, during our relatively high income years because one never knows what the future may bring financially. DH and I will retire 10 years apart and it also seemed unwise to presume he’ll still have the health and vitality when I finally have the time.

We expect our retirements to be quietly satisfying, living in our same city, serving in our church and larger community and enjoying our family and friends. A modest vacation once in a while will be great too!

 

[robinb]

We have always travelled and always will. We were married in our 30's and had our DD in our late 30's, so we had a lot of time to travel before having a child. We didn't, however, slow down and we travelled with her everywhere, including China and Japan. My DH is retiring at the end of the month and we are celebrating with a cruise that leaves immediately after he is done. We also have a "bucket list" of places we want to visit while we are still young-ish and mobile-ish (Egypt, Galapagos, Australia, Oktoberfest, Safari). I miss my pets when I'm gone so I try to stick to 7-14 days away. If my DD had kids and lived nearby I might want to stick closer to her and them, but for now the travel world is our oyster.

 

[3rd_time_the_charm]

How about traveling the CONUS?

To make us even more boring
..We've seen the main spots (Grand Canyon, Niagara etc) and now just prefer to hang out here.

 

[disykat]

The whole point of retirement is to spend your days the way you WANT to! I retired early to take care of elderly parents and I after 5+ difficult years of "retirement" traveling back and forth to another state to help three parents, I'm now down to one parent who lives in a memory care facility three minutes away from me. Friends who are still working and others who are also retired are on me to join activities, do more volunteering, etc. I'm tired! I'm so happy to do my daily visit with mom, take care of her needs and then enjoy my time however I please. I literally want, and I'd even say NEED, to do nothing for a while.

We did just take a trip. It was wonderful, but between the logistics of arranging my siblings to help with mom, logistics of the trip, of pet care, etc., it will be a while before we go again. We've been home three days and other than visiting mom I've gone NOWHERE. I skipped church today, haven't done the grocery shopping yet, etc. I haven't even done my daily walking routine for a few days. Cocooning is my new favorite thing. I've done the stuff that needs to be done, catching up on everything, so it's not like I'm slacking off or laying around depressed, I'm just allowing myself to relax a bit.

DH has been the opposite in retirement. He's volunteering, doing hobbies, etc. After a lifetime of me being the one who wanted to go, go, go and him being a homebody, it's a shocker.

The joy of retirement is you get to go with whatever feels right for YOU. You may ebb and flow with what you want to do and that is the privilege you have earned!

 

[lovesmurfs]

My parents were that way. They're the "everyday millionaires" -- they scrimped and saved and lived for retirement and have $2 million net worth now, even though they never made more than $50K/year. They moved to Maryland to a 55+ community (no family around) and were just happy with their home. Dad passed last year, and I thought Mom would want to travel, but she just likes being in her house.

We're currently planning a move to Florida to a retirement community (DH is 67, I'm 56; he's retired, and I work full time). We would love to plan a trip a year while we can still travel easily, because I know the time will come when we can't.

 

[Disney Mickey&Minnie Fan]

Not retired but getting closer. My wife and I have been reading up on this. There tends to be three phases for retires:

• Go Go years
• Slow go years
• No go years

You can speculate why for each category but typically the no go years is due to health or ability.

Perhaps give that some thought if there are any places you’d like to visit or things to do. But overall it’s certainly a personal choice.

My spouse and I are planning our retirement "Go Go Years" in preparation for the coming "Slow Go Years" and unfortunate coming "No Go Years."

 

[kymom99]

I mostly travel with friends. Husband is happy at home.

 

[DCLMP]

I'm 63 and my DH is a tad older. We aren't working, moved to a 55+ beautiful active neighborhood, have a dog and are financially stable.

All of our friends are flying all over the world, month after month.

I have zero desire to travel, except for an occasional trip to the beach, the mountains and wdw or to see family.

I traveled when I was young working for the air lines and took care of my parents for six years, and honestly, it's nice just sitting and reading or taking the dog for a walk.

Anybody else a homebody when your friends are world travellers?

It sounds like you already got to see the world.

 

[robinb]

My spouse and I are planning our retirement "Go Go Years" in preparation for the coming "Slow Go Years" and unfortunate coming "No Go Years."

My DH keeps on telling me that we can always go to WDW when we can't "Go Go Go".

 

[MrsPete]

The whole point of retirement is to do whatever YOU want:
- Your go-go-go friends are right.
- You, who enjoy staying home, are also right.

BUT if you have trips in mind, it'd be smart to go ahead and plan them. You never know how many years of good health you have.

 

[Frwinkley]

So true. I’ve been teaching (mostly at the same school) for over 30 years. I’ve become a creature of habit, more of a planner when it comes to travel. Definitely not impulsive.

The big excitement for me is being able to travel during non-peak school times. Wahoo! Lol.

Retiring from teaching at the end of this school year! Just planned our first Sept. trip to Glacier National Park.

I'm so excited to not have to google "places that are not blazing hot in the summer" in order to decide where we want to go!

 

[clh2]

DH retired about 18 months ago. I have a year to go in my working career.

We have 2 trips on the radar screen…a Disney Cruise, taking our DD and her family. DCL is not booking yet for fall 2025, but that will be booked as soon as we can.

And, I have a travel bucket list, which includes either a European river cruise or a European train trip. That will be either 2025 or 2026.

DH is dealing with a health situation this year…it is putting a little more urgency on getting the travel bucket list stuff done!

I would also like to do an Alaskan cruise, but that would probably be 4-5 years away.

 

[antmaril]

I am almost 73 and have been retired for 16 years. My husband passed away two months after I retired, so we didn’t get to share our retirement years. I always like to have to have a trip in the works. Of course, being widowed, it isn’t always easy to find a companion who wants to go and can afford it. I have decided that if I want to take a trip and my friend can’t afford it, I will pay for most of it. What is the difference if my husband and I were doing it or I take a friend or relative?

I love the planning process and it gives me something to do. My next trip is a cruise to Alaska in August, 2025. This will be my third cruise to Alaska. Can’t wait. There will be a few small road trips between now and then and one trip to Las Vegas.

I love having something to look forward to it. It helps a lot.

 

[goofyernmost]

Compared to many I have either done more or a lot less world travel. When in college I went to Europe on a school sponsored, for credit, trip covering spots in Portugal, Spain, Italy, France and England. The the US government sent me to South Vietnam and while there I also went to Japan (Osaka and Tokyo), I've been to Canada a lot, my wife was born there. Made a cruise to the Bahama's and have been to all but 10 or so states in the middle of the country. In 2016 I went to Europe for a second time for a month long excursion ending with a trans-Atlantic cruise back to Fort Lauderdale. Except for about 4 dozen trips to WDW, one to Disneyland and since I was in Paris anyway I went to Disneyland Paris.

To many, that was nothing, but to my family it is like their feet are nailed to the spot they call home. My age is what is limiting me now due to arteritis in my back, but it is just as well because my desire to travel now, especially air travel doesn't exist. I don't regret the traveling I did and I have encouraged my children and grown grandchildren to explore other places as it give you a real picture of other cultures and puts ours more in perspective. I'm just tired now. However, if I could get a replacement for the last 5 vertebrae in my spine, I might pack the bags and see more of Europe or Asia.

 

[MartyParty]

DH retired about 18 months ago. I have a year to go in my working career.

We have 2 trips on the radar screen…a Disney Cruise, taking our DD and her family. DCL is not booking yet for fall 2025, but that will be booked as soon as we can.

And, I have a travel bucket list, which includes either a European river cruise or a European train trip. That will be either 2025 or 2026.

DH is dealing with a health situation this year…it is putting a little more urgency on getting the travel bucket list stuff done!

I would also like to do an Alaskan cruise, but that would probably be 4-5 years away.

Something to consider, when you are physically on the Disney cruise ship you can pre-book for a next cruise. Doesn't seem to be heavily advertised. We did this on our cruise last year and moved up our time table for the Alaskan cruise. Once booked, you'll have 2 years to use the booking / deal. Here are the details from the Disney cruise website.

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[DCLMP]

The whole point of retirement is to do whatever YOU want:
- Your go-go-go friends are right.
- You, who enjoy staying home, are also right.

BUT if you have trips in mind, it'd be smart to go ahead and plan them. You never know how many years of good health you have.

Agree. Retirement doesn't always mean you can do what you want. Unfortunately with retirement comes old age. I would do the traveling you want to do while your healthy and mobile.

 

[jimmymc]

I know plenty of people who don't like traveling, some retired and some not. And many of them didn't do much traveling for work or vacations, they just like things at home. Everyone is different.

 

[Praying Colonel]

There's no rule that says you have to travel in retirement. If it were me, we'd sell everything and travel full-time, like this couple and this one. DW wants a home base and to travel a couple of months/year, so we're still talking and thinking what we want the next 5-10 years to look like. We're taking a 4-month trip this fall and we'll see how we feel when we return.

 

[Mokat76]

I enjoy a good trip every now and then, but mostly I enjoy my home. Retirement is awesome that way. No body forcing you to do things.