There is group travel that makes all the arrangements. Some people love trips arranged by their Alma mater or local museum.

Feel the same. I took a two month tour of southern Europe after retirement in 2022 and that pretty much satisfied my urge to see medieval towns and cathedrals. What has motivated me has been getting my pilot’s license and buying a small plane. It’s opened up lots of travel across the US, and we don’t have to deal with airlines. Last summer I loaded a folding bike and flew to a bunch of beaches in Michigan, which was a lot of fun.

Anonymous wrote:Same here. Early 50s, been to at least 70 countries. Not much desire to do it any more. I still have to travel this year, for work, to places on many people's bucket lists but I feel kind of "meh" about it even though they are amazing places. I've been to those places many times before.

Is 70 countries supposed to be a lot? Doesn’t seem like a lot. I think all the people here claiming to have loved travel didn’t really love it. If you love it, nothing can stop you from doing it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s really interesting to me how many people on this thread are recovering or exploring an interest in the American west!

Ugh the America west is so over too. It peaked in the 80s.

Huh, ancient geologial structures peaked?

Anonymous wrote:It’s really interesting to me how many people on this thread are recovering or exploring an interest in the American west!

Ugh the America west is so over too. It peaked in the 80s.

I'm glad I did all my travel in my teens-30s before everyone in the world could afford too. Priceless experiences and sights that will never be possible now with over tourism/globalisation. I feel sorry for people who are traveling now.

It’s really interesting to me how many people on this thread are recovering or exploring an interest in the American west!

Anonymous wrote:I traveled as a kid, then as a young adult in the Peace Corps, and then as a professional in my 30’s and early 40’s. By 40 it had lost all appeal, and I felt allergic to travel at all, even for vacations. I came to associate it with work, and absence from family, and loneliness.

I felt ashamed of losing my verve for travel for a long time, but now in my early 50’s I am at peace with it. It’s a big world, and I’ve seen a lot of it. In the end cities are cities, and people are people. I still feel thrilled by natural beauty, and I would happily hike in different parts of the world if I didn’t have to sit on airplanes for a day or more to get there. But travel for the sake of travel? Nah. I’m good.

I’m late forties and starting to feel the same way. Not a peace corp volunteer but I was an army brat. Also, the teen years have done a number on us as parents and I think we are just getting tired. We have a couple more big trips planned as a family and then will focus more on quiet and peace closer to home. We have a beach house so we will pivot to spend more time there.

Anonymous wrote:Age 50 was the point I realized I had done basically everything I wanted to in life and was OK with coming to my later years. Then I got diagnosed with a life shortening illness and really wasn’t terribly upset about it. I’m more selective in what I choose to do and how I choose to spend my time. This year I’m focusing on regular meditation and dance. Travel is difficult on my body and the environment so I do things I really want to do And that’s it. It’s actually quite freeing.

I wanted to say sorry about your illness.

On a recent trip to the Swiss Alps, I didn't have a cell phone. And survived.

Anonymous wrote:There's a lot of the north American west I haven't seen. I traveled a lot when I was young and have flown to Europe and the British Isles a handful of times over the last decade.

I research national parks out west. I am going to one next month.

I think about the north American west every day. I used to think about foreign travel every day and now wonder if I'll ever care to fly to another continent again.

This is me. I still like to travel and have been fortunate to see a good part of the world. I am still looking forward to a bit of overseas travel, but my best trips and those I look forward to the most are out west.

Anonymous wrote:We just took our first lazy holiday where we didn't attempt to see anything. I had literally never just laid on a beach for an entire day. I didn't even read a novel! I just turned sixty and my husband and I have decided we are still interested in travel but only for the purposes of relaxing. Perhaps no more tourism. Pretty sure that makes us uneducated or something, but I'll take it.

This would be literal torture for me. My ADHD would burn me up from the inside.

I sort of feel this way. Now in my 50s my tolerance for things going wrong on travel is much decreased. I don’t want to end up with some sketchy cab driver taking me God knows where (happened in my 20s) or in a hotel room that looks like a place women are trafficked (same).
I also just feel like if I don’t get to see a particular place, that’s okay. I’ve seen gorgeous mountains and cathedrals and lakes and beaches and art etc etc — sure seeing more of it is nice but it’s not really qualitatively different in kind. I still like researching and planning. I also get the “lonely when traveling” thing because my family often has different preferences than I do. But I feel less alone in a city, so do like trips to cities where I can wander a museum or go window shopping by myself, which doesn’t feel so lonely. I tend to avoid vacations where I will be stuck someplace isolating because if my family is not interested in joining me, I feel very pent up and lonely. One time I did take artists pencils and a sketch book, and of course I always bring a book, but I’m not the type that wants to just sit a read for hours in a day.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like you're getting lonely, what about traveling with someone? What about taking someone with you who hasn't traveled and getting to show them the world (like a niece or nephew)?

I don't think so necessarily. I feel this way when traveling with family.

Sometimes it's worse traveling with someone else because you feel obligated to do the things they want to do that you really don't like doing.

Hmm... is there someone who's a similarly independent traveler you could join up with and meet up with for dinner or drinks once a day?

Anonymous wrote:On a recent trip I counted it up and I had to download and make accounts and register for two airline apps, a hotel app, booking.com, Travelocity, open table, via tour, an app for the conference I attended, Uber. And I had to download airline tickets, info for the hotel, tickets for our tours, etc. and then I worried that my phone would run out of juice or I would somehow accidentally delete everything and I hated having to book everything in advance and then being locked into specific plans when I just wanted to relax. I remember growing up and my parents going to a travel agent and having someone else make all the arrangements and. Print out all the tickets etc. I think that travel is stressful today because of the apps and booking etc.

I had a four month eurail ticket and the backpacker bible Let's Go Europe, and planned nothing. This was in the golden olden days.