Retirement usually brings with it lots of spare time – and if you have the money to do so, it means you can explore the world. Maybe you’ll choose to go back to your younger travelling days with a backpacking trip, or how about trekking, bikepacking or a world tour? Whether travelling alone or with friends and family, travel is a uniquely nourishing adventure – and all the more enjoyable in retirement, as your free time stretches out beyond you.
If you are keen to travel after retirement there are a few things to consider including the cost of travel which may seem prohibitively expensive against the rising cost of living. We take a look at other factors to think about.
Start tour planning early
The best way to set yourself up for post-retirement travel is to start your planning as soon as you possibly can. This doesn’t just mean setting out your itinerary some months before you travel – though we’ll get to that soon enough –, but also involves long-term financial planning to ensure you’re in the right place to travel. Your planning will also necessarily address the age at which you retire; how many years of travel are you intending to plan, and in what physical state would you like to be when you do travel.
It’s worth knowing that most of the cheapest plane tickets are released 11 months ahead of take off, so planning ahead makes even more sense if you want to hold tight to the budget.
Set a travel budget
Upon retirement, you’ll have some more direct questions to ask yourself about your available budget. Even with State Pension, a robust private pension plan and personal savings, it can be difficult to confidently promise large sums of money to trips of any kind.
This can be somewhat mitigated by setting up a “travel pot” well ahead of retirement, as an additional savings account specifically for your travels. However, you might still need to access larger sums for big payments or emergencies. One source might be your property, some value of which can be advanced to you via an equity release mortgage. You shoulder some risk in engaging with financial instruments such as these, but they can be hugely valuable to the size and length of your trips.
Create destination shortlists
World travel does not need to be impulsive to be rewarding. Drawing up itineraries for travel ahead of your excursions can not only be a useful way to focus your trips, but also to mitigate their cost.
Whether your trip has a single stop or multiple destinations, create a shortlist of places you’d like to visit and things you’d like to experience. From this you can create fulfilling and calculated plans for your trips.
Go as a group
Lastly, though solo travel absolutely has its merits, going abroad with other like-minded folks can make planning and execution much easier. For one, costs relating to travel and accommodation can be heavily subsidised. For another, multiple approaches to planning and arrangements can make for some enlightened ideas to improve your trip’s quality or enjoyability.
