If you’re thinking of taking a cruise, there are a lot of options to consider, from the cruise line and style to the destinations, vacation length and types of on-board amenities. Cruising is a fun (and economical) way to see several places in a relatively short amount of time without having to unpack and repack every day. While some “hard-core” travelers may scoff at cruises, don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.
This is probably the single most important task when planning a cruise. Choose the wrong cruise line, or even more specifically, the wrong ship, and it can mean the difference between a blissful, relaxing trip or one filled with 18-year-olds getting rowdy on rum punch. To figure out which ship and line suits your preference, do some research online and ask friends who have taken cruises. Find out the median age onboard; if a ship caters to an older demographic, there’s typically not much to do after 10 p.m. Ask about the quality of food. The food on most vessels is in line with what you get at 4- and 5-star restaurants on land, so beware that elastic waistbands might be needed by the end of your trip. Also gather opinions on cruise schedules. Some cruise lines allow for flexibility in your itinerary, others have two dinner seatings and if you’re not on time, you don’t eat. Ask about the activities are onboard. Is there a variety? Are the shows good? For comparison, Royal Caribbean brought “Hairspray” to sea several years ago, and a few ships have Cirque du Soleil spinoffs. Finally, inquire about the decor; newer or updated ships will feel more like a Ritz-Carlton than a Motel 6.
As far as cruise styles, “mainstream” cruise lines, like Celebrity and Royal Caribbean can carry a small city on the water. Other cruise lines, such as Viking River Cruises or Oceania Cruises, provide luxury and a slower pace. There are also specialized cruise ships, like the American Queen Steamboat that runs multi-day cruises up and down the Mississippi River.
Choose your destinations
After finding the right cruise line, figure out how many days you want to spend on the cruise (remember that depending on where you live, it can take a day to travel to the departure port and a day to travel home). The number of days will then dictate what destination options you have. Some itineraries will feature just one port for visiting, while others will dock at anywhere from three to 10. If you’re traveling from the United States, the travel experts at Away.com recommend touring the Caribbean, Hawaii or Alaska. There are also plenty of cruise lines that tour the Mediterranean, the rivers of Europe, and even Russia and Asia. Cruising allows you to get an overview of destinations, rather than an in-depth look into the local scene. Because you’re traveling by a large ship (unless you do a river cruise), you will explore only coastal towns, and typically the ship will be in port only for about a half a day. As you peruse the destinations available, you can normally see a sample itinerary, too.
Book your cruise
Once you’ve selected the cruise line, the number of days and the destinations you want to visit, then you’re ready to book your cruise. With all your meals, snacks and beverages (alcohol and specialty restaurants onboard might cost more), your room, and onboard entertainment covered, there’s not much left to plan. You can choose to research things to do in ports, or you can take advantage of the shore excursions that cruises offer.
Pack for your cruise
No matter your destinations, it pays to look up the typical weather and pack accordingly. A cruise in July might sound warm, but if you’re heading to Alaska you can skip the bathing suit and pack an extra sweatshirt. Everyone packs differently, but it’s in your best interest to pack minimally, as the rooms are not as big as a typical hotel room. Bathing suits and shorts are usually fine for the daytime, but evenings typically require more of a resort-casual wardrobe. And most ships have one or two formal nights, so pull out the old bridesmaid or prom dresses. Most importantly, if you’re traveling outside of the United States, make sure your passport is up to date and packed along with your ticket so you’ll be good to sail away.
Provided by: Brandpoint
Travel
Popular Vacation Destinations For Seniors
Older people enjoy a wide variety of different activities. If you enjoy golfing, a golf resort may be an ideal location for your next vacation. If relaxing by the beach is more your style, you have a large number of beaches to choose from. In addition to on land vacations, you may enjoy taking a summer vacation cruise. Deciding what you would like to do while on vacation is the best way to find the perfect summer vacation destination.
While the activities that you’d like to participate in on your vacation are important, so are the activities that you’d like to avoid. Unfortunately, a large number of popular summer vacation destinations are targeted towards the younger crowd. If excess loud music, late night partying, and excess drinking is not on your “to do list,” then you may want to consider avoiding destinations that promote these activities.
Due to their price, domestic vacations are often the most sought after for seniors. If you are able to afford the cost of overseas travel, you may want to consider an overseas vacation. These vacations are ideal for seniors who want to see the world, but have never had the opportunity to before. The preparation and travel required to have an overseas vacation is often long and large. You may want to examine your health and ability to withstand a long journey before booking an overseas vacation.
If an overseas vacation is possible and sounds ideal, you have an unlimited number of destinations to choose from. Popular destinations include France, Italy, and Spain. Many of these destinations are famous for their rich history. While vacationing overseas, you can visit a number of well-known tourist attractions. You can explore many of these attractions by yourself or with a tour guide.
If domestic vacations are more your style, you can often find fun, but relaxing vacations at, the above mentioned, beach and golf resorts. Myrtle Beach, located in South Carolina, is a well-known beach that caters to visitors of all ages. In addition to sunbathing and swimming, you may find a number of activities designed for individuals of your age.
Most of the golf resorts found in the United States cater to mature crowds. While children may be allowed to stay, there are a limited number of golf resorts that have onsite activities for children. The lack of onsite activities for children often provides a fun, safe, and relaxing environment for seniors. In addition to golfing, golf resorts are often equipment with private cottage rentals, fine dining restaurants, and onsite spas.
Once you have found the vacation destination of your choice, you may want to book your reservations right away. Before making a reservation, you are encouraged to search for travel discounts. If you are a member of Triple A or AARP, you may be able to receive valuable discounts on your next summer vacation.
With a large number of vacation destinations designed with seniors in mind, you are sure to find the perfect location for your next vacation. Whether you choose to spend your vacation at the beach, travel overseas, or stay at a well-known golf resort, you are sure to make an unlimited number of memories.
More Seniors are using Airbnb for traveling! Have you tried it yet? Let’s say that you’re looking for a place to stay on a trip out of town. The only problem is that a hotel is out of the question because: More Seniors using Airbnb for Travel More Seniors using Airbnb for Travel
- It doesn’t have the amenities that you’re looking for
- It’s too far away from the main place you’re going to be doing stuff in
- It’s out of your price range, either in general or for the amount of time you’ll be staying there
- It’s already fully booked, and there are no more rooms available
So, what can you do? Try Airbnb.com, that’s what! More Seniors using Airbnb for Travel
What exactly is Airbnb, then?
Airbnb (as in “Air Bed and Breakfast”) is a service that lets property owners rent out their spaces to travelers looking for a place to stay. People can rent a space for multiple people to share, a shared space with private rooms for individual guests, or — sometimes — the entire property for themselves! More Seniors using Airbnb for Travel
Airbnb is similar to services such as FlipKey.com, HomeAway.com, and 9flats.com (in Europe).
How Airbnb works: 16 things that you need to know
Being a guest
- It’s free to create an account on Airbnb.
- Airbnb has listings from over 190 countries and 34 000 cities, so there’s bound to be a place that you’ll like.
- The only search criteria you need are where you want to go, when you want to check in, when you want to check out, and how many guests will be staying.
- You can also add extra search criteria, such as neighbourhood location, price, type of property, space availability (i.e. having a private room vs. having the whole place to yourself), and more.
- While your billing details are needed in order to hold a booking, you don’t pay until a host accepts your reservation request. Wimdu.com and Roomorama.com have similar systems, where your payment isn’t released to a host until you actually check in.
What hosts do More Seniors using Airbnb for Travel
- It’s free to post a property for rent on Airbnb.
- Accurately describing a property and listing its amenities helps match it with the right guests.
- Professional photography services can help guests know exactly what they’re renting and show off how nice the place is.
- Prices and availability can be set according to a host’s schedule, or what they work out with a guest.
- The host has the final say on whether or not they want to book someone.
- A host can set up their property listing to auto-book anyone who is interested in their property and meets certain specified criteria.
- Airbnb covers its hosts against damages to their property by guests. Similar sites, like vrbo.com, also have insurance plans to this effect.
The Airbnb community
- Both hosts and guests can set up profiles on Airbnb. Hosts can tell others their preferences and policies for hospitality, and guests can tell others the kinds of things they like to do during their stay. This helps users match themselves with someone they’re likely to get along with.
- Both hosts and guests can send each other messages. This lets hosts and guests work out things like check-in details, house rules, and any special requests. Guests can also privately ask other guests whether or not a property is worth renting. Similarly, hosts can privately ask other hosts whether or not they can trust certain guests to behave appropriately.
- Both hosts and guests can review and rate each other. Guests can say what they liked or disliked about the property, the neighbourhood, or the host’s style of hospitality. Likewise, hosts can critique their guests’ adherence to commitments and house rules, courtesy to themselves and neighbours, treatment of the property, and so on. Reviews can only be written after a stay is booked and completed, so it is difficult to write dishonest or fake reviews.
- Both hosts and guests can receive recommendations from others. If you know someone who is a great host or a guest who is always on their best behaviour, write them a recommendation to let others know that they’re someone who can be trusted!
We’ll teach you everything you need to know about renting a place on Airbnb in the tutorials for the rest of this Airbnb course on Techboomers.com. And in the future, we’ll also be adding articles giving you the ins and outs of renting your own place to make some side income!
Article source: What is Airbnb? And How Does Airbnb Work? by TechBoomers.com
Smart Traveling for Senior Citizens
One of the real joys of retirement and enjoying your senior years may come in the form of travel. Travel is broadening and many senior citizens save for a lifetime to enjoy a lifestyle of travel once they have retired. The image of becoming a world traveler in their senior years is one of those dreams that has kept them going when life was tough in their working years. Smart Traveling for Senior Citizens
If traveling is the kind of retirement fun that you have in mind, it pays to plan ahead so you can travel smart. Being prepared for a long trip is a great idea for everyone. This way your dream vacation won’t turn into a travel nightmare.
A big part of smart traveling is to know in advance what you are going to need for the trip. It may be even more important to know what you are NOT going to need. By packing light, you make the chore of pulling large pieces of luggage through the airport less difficult. If you are going to be staying in several places on the trip, packing light means less repacking as well.
It will take experience to know what will work for you in a travel situation when it comes to packing for a trip. You may wish to build a special travel wardrobe of garments that wear well under stress, don’t wrinkle and can be rinsed out and used again on the road thus extending their usefulness and cutting down on excess clothing. Another way you can cut down on the bulk is to not take very much with you that can be bought when you get there. By not taking a lot of toiletries, you cut down on the problems with airport security and the chance of toiletries leaking in your bags.
Smart traveling for senior citizens also means having your prescriptions all up to date and well documented. You should get good copies of all prescription drugs, eyeglass prescriptions and other documents that you may need to get refills on the road should you lose or run through your prescriptions. Alert your local pharmacy about your trip so if they need to consult with another pharmacy while you are away it won’t cause a problem for you to get an emergency refill. Also file copies of all of your travel documents with a loved one so even if you lose everything, you can still get your documents sent to you or by email or fax. These kinds of precautions eliminate panic in the event of a problem while traveling.
Make sure your itinerary and copies of your passport and credit card numbers are kept in secure places and on file with a loved one. Go through your wallet and think about the cards and important documents you have and how you would handle having those cards cancelled and replaced should you lose your wallet or purse. By keeping those important numbers where you can get to them quickly, you can move fast to cancel credit cards and get replacements immediately from your hotel should you get robbed or lose your valuables while traveling.
By thinking ahead about every possible situation and planning how to respond, you can eliminate the chance that your dream vacation could be cancelled or put on hold. This way when things go wrong, you can easily shift to plan A-B-C or D to stay on track with your travel plans.
Fort De Soto Beach is a historic fort built during the Spanish-American War located on Mullet Key. This 900- acre park has 7 miles of beaches, 2 fishing piers, picnic and camping areas, a small history museum and a 2,000-ft. nature trail.
Florida’s Gulf Coast, Caladesi is one of the few remaining large undeveloped barrier islands in Florida, and is only accessible by boat. It is an perfect locations for swimming, fishing, picnics, diving, hiking and nature study.
Key Biscayne’s beaches in Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park’s visitors can stroll by the Atlantic, charter a deep-sea fishing boat, ride a jet ski, or just relax. It’s one of the best places in Greater Miami for golf, sunbathing & water sports
Perdido Key is a natural paradise is home to plentiful native wildlife. The clear green waters and miles of soft white sand are perfect for sunbathing or water sports and it’s considered one of the America’s best swimming beaches.
South Beach is a happening hot-spot with a chic night life. The “American Riviera” is great for couples on spring break (that can afford it anyway) since rowdy crowds of teenagers are rarely seen on its upscale sands.
Greater Fort Lauderdale has 23 miles of sun-drenched beaches and is perfect for people watching or shopping and dining at any number of great beach shops and restaurants that line the clean and eco-friendly beaches.
St. Joseph Peninsula State Park’s miles of white sand beaches and striking dune formations characterize this Florida Panhandle area. Boating, saltwater fishing, camping, canoeing and hiking are all popular St. Joseph Peninsula activities.
Clearwater Beach offers nearly every water and beach activity conceivable, and nearby Pier 60 Park has a family recreation complex with playgrounds, fishing and concession stands.
Anastasia State Park is home to several rare, threatened and endangered species. Located on Anastasia Island, near St. Augustine, this beach provides opportunities for Camping, fishing, picnicking, hiking, beach volleyball, boating and more.
St. George Island State Park sits on 9 miles of undeveloped beaches and dunes. It is surrounded by the Gulf of Mexico and Apalachicola Bay, and is a perfect setting for a quiet Florida getaway.
Daytona Beach is called the “World’s Most Famous Beach”. Visitors can drive automobiles on the sand by day and stroll the boardwalk by night, stopping occasionally to enjoy the arcades. Daytona Beach is also a major surfing hotspot.
Siesta Key is one of the most popular the beaches on the southwest coast of Florida and is famous for its soft white sand. Amenities include lifeguards, concessions, picnic tables, grills, restrooms, showers & volleyball & tennis courts.