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[quote=Anonymous]OP, I thought about this thread when having a conversation with my mother this afternoon. My mother was one of those people who always felt it was "right" that she had to travel with my father and that to go on her own, or even with a friend, wasn't "right." She couldn't explain why but that was how she approached travel for the last 50 years. So all their trips were always trips my father would do and she passed up opportunities to go with a friend to places my father didn't want to go. My father had no interest in the great national parks of the west, for example, so she's never been to the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone even if she has been to Rome half a dozen times.

And now my father has Parkinsons and cannot travel. She is effectively stuck with him 24/7 as his primary caregiver. But my sister and I are helping out. She's going to Ireland on her own to visit an old friend, and will spend five days in Iceland as part of that trip, on her own. We're signing her up on a local tour. She's excited because she's always wanted to see Iceland, another place my father wasn't interested in. And today she was saying how sorry she was to pass up all the possible trips when she was younger and still more active and to parts of the world my father refused to contemplate. And that is the biggest regret of the last 50 years of an otherwise happy marriage.

You are only going to get older. And the day will come when you won't be able to travel any more. Healthwise, you never know what will happen. No one expected my father to develop Parkinsons and become homebound. If you really want to see a wonderful African safari, go. Just do it. Tours are out there. There's no shame in traveling solo. There's no need to be fearful. And I think married couples can too quickly forget the pleasures of being on your own for a bit and going on a trip by yourself for a bit. You won't regret it.[/quote]

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