The Hindu Business Line : Sixty-plus holidays

You retired almost a decade ago, and now your wife too has joined the ranks of the unemployed. The kids are married and settled in fairly well-paying jobs in India or abroad, they may have already started a family, and you have no major commitments — personal or otherwise — in the near foreseeable future. Welcome to the world of footloose and fancy-free senior citizens, for now is the chance to have the time of your life, assuming you have invested wisely and h ave cash to spare.

Get set to turn the travel industry’s yearly projections on its head as you take your place among its ranks of most sought-after customers.

A few tips or words of advice would be in order before you pack your bags and head into areas unknown armed with only the Lonely Planet or one of Arthur Frommer’s budget travel guides.

Needless to state, at 60-plus maintaining good health is top priority when venturing into living conditions and situations that are far removed from your daily regimen back home. Besides carrying sufficient supplies of medicines, regular intake of wholesome food and adequate sleeping hours are equally important. Sampling the local cuisine, wines and spirits, nightlife and attending son-et-lumiere shows are highly attractive propositions so long as you don’t get up the next morning with a severe headache or, worse, a bout of uncontrollable loosies!

If it is Tuesday, it must be Belgium — a movie of the 1970s which highlighted the travails of families on a whirlwind tour package — is certainly not for those above 60. A good night’s rest in a bed which is not on the move is a must, and this rules out travel by night unless it is on a sleeper berth in a cabin away from the madding crowd. An added advantage would be a short post-lunch nap to recharge your batteries before venturing out for the afternoon session.

Advance planning, even to the last detail, will help you avoid anxious moments and a lot of heartache, making the trip that much more enjoyable with pleasant memories to bring back home. Missing flights or trains, delayed departures and, worse, late arrivals are hazards which cannot be foreseen but judicious planning can help offset the resulting inconveniences. Especially when you land in a new and unknown place late in the evening, dog tired, and with no one waiting to welcome you on arrival. Scheduling early morning flights or train departures can also help you avoid peak-hour traffic jams.

Opting for a tour package has its advantages, including arrangements for hotel transfers, visits to places of interest, entry fees, tour guides and so on. However it can also tie you down to a regimen that may not be suited to your pace and end up tiring you. On the other hand, travel with a group of likeminded friends if you don’t want to take the trouble of planning a trip entirely on your own.

Heading out on your own is not necessarily only for the brave and young at heart. In our case we did manage three days in Beijing on our own steam, going around by metro, buses and even autos, armed with the name of our hotel, the route, destinations and so on written on a card both in English as well as Chinese characters.

Total strangers came to our rescue when we seemed to be totally lost.

When planning on your own, avoid packing in too much in a single day, giving yourself enough time at each place to relax over a cup of tea/coffee or even a meal to take in the local ambience and simply watch the world go by.

Keep evenings totally free, with no structured programme; just loiter around and you will uncover several interesting nuggets of information which even the best local guide may be unaware of or perhaps thinks is not important enough to tell you.

Last, but not the least, the urge to buy souvenirs at each and every place you visit must be consciously curbed, limiting it to one piece for each city or even country. Of course, a camcorder that also doubles as a digital camera would be a perfect companion for carrying back home digital-quality memories of your trip.