Baby Boomer Travel Resources: Discover the World on Your Terms!
Baby Boomer travel resources that are reliable and geared towards our travel needs are a must! Whether it's a day trip to the ocean, a hike on your favorite trail, hopping on a plane for a quick weekend getaway, cruising the Mediterranean, booking an African safari, or planning a trip around the world, we're adventurous!
Baby Boomer travel has become big business for the travel industry, because they realize our propensity for fun and travel, and they know we're a BIG portion of consumer buying power. In that, we have to be discriminating when we book our fun adventures. Below are sites that will help you to choose the right travel plans for your wants and needs. Bon Voyage! ~50PlusExpeditions 50PlusExpeditions.com offers great adventure Travel for People Over 50. This site offers active, off-the-beaten-path, small group tours around the globe. ~55CommunityGuide 55CommunityGuide.com is a comprehensive directory of retirement communities and retirement homes of all sorts, including Active Adult Communities, 55+ Communities, Second Homes, Ranch Houses, CCRC, even Assisted Living. A great boomer travel source, it also listing of Real Estate Agents in your area who can help you. Use 'Search Communities' in the left column of this page to find listings.. Also check out our 55+ Community Classifieds. We have many Retirement Housing Articles that boomers and seniors will find helpful and interesting." AARP's Travel section offers a variety of travel-related articles, tips, resources, books, and - if you're an AARP member - featured discounts through their travel affiliates. AirefareWatchdog.com claims to be "the only site that lists low airfares on all airlines,including Southwest. And we include special fares that you can only buy on the airlines' own sites." Good savings for Boomer travel! ~Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel Online Stressing "vacations for Real people", this site features a daily newsletter, bargains, alternative vacation ideas, tips and resources, "The Cheapest Places on Earth", "Travel for Special People", and Arthur Frommer's answers to your travel questions. This site is brought to you from one of the most renowned publishers of travel guidebooks (Frommer's) around. ~BabyBoomerTrips.com BabyBoomerTrips.com is a great comprehensive travel portal that's dedicated to helping baby boomers find objective travel deals! Baby Boomers will LOVE this site, because it's geared specifically with us in mind. They provide information for many tour packages, travel resources, and finding a travel agent by state. You'll do well to bookmark this site to help you with your travel needs.
~ Boomeropia: Travel Info for Boomers Boomeropia.com is a wonderful portal of great travel information geared towards baby boomer travel! There are about 30 subject-special categories for various types of travel. The subjects range from the typical ("cruises") to more "exotic"("scuba diving"; "money is no object"). You'll have fun browsing through the subjects and subsequent sources of tarvel that'll be sure to broaden your travel horizons!
~Budget Travel: The Real Deals A great resource for boomer travel needs! Brought to you by Budget Travel magazine, Budget Travel: The Real Deals offers a compilation of reports of airline and lodging specials and package deals, grouped by regions of the world. It also includes other specific travel deals, such as: hotels offering gas cards (yes!), golf getaways, volunteer vacations, tours, "girlfriend getaways", and cruises. ~CafeBabyBoomers.com: Travel & Leisure This site is awesome! They cover travel tips, travel health, solo travel, golf vacations, and other travel niches - all geared towards baby boomer travel needs! Explore this site, and you'll find a wide variety of information that is bound to make any trip a smooth-running, memorable event!
~The Chautauqua Institution What a neat destination for Boomer travel! Set in upstate New York, many of the visitors who return to The Chautauqua Institution year after year describe it as an experience rather than a vacation -- a place for renewal. The Chautauqua Institution was founded on the belief that everyone “has a right to be all that he can be -- to know all that he can know.” The experiences come in many forms. A dramatic lakeside setting and the beauty of its National Historic Landmark architecture (it was designated a National Historic Landmark June 30, 1989) make the Chautauqua Institution a thriving community where visitors come to find intellectual and spiritual growth and renewal. "Cruise Critic is a critically acclaimed interactive community comprised of avid and first-time cruisers who enjoy the fun of planning, researching and sharing their passion for cruising. No other single resource covers the world of cruising as thoroughly as CruiseCritic.com. Cruise Critic’s world-renowned editorial staff offers objective cruise reviews, features, ports of call profiles and destination stories. The Cruise Critic message boards are the most active in the world. Since its inception in 1995, Cruise Critic has earned the status of being the most influential cruise site on the Web, and an innovator of consumer-oriented cruise travel news." Great site for Boomer travel by sea! Offers a "First Time Cruiser's Guide"
~Ding! A Southwest Airlines Tool When Boomer travel calls, you want to be ready! Ding! is a popular tool from Southwest Airlines that allows you to select your favorite Southwest destinations leaving from your city. When unbeatable sirfare deals pop up, you're notified by a "ding!" on your desktop! ~Elderhostel While this site is also mentioned in my "Lifestyle and Leisure" section, I want to make sure that you don't miss it as a great Boomer travel site! Whether you're traveling strictly for fun or for lifelong learning, ElderHostel offers more than 8,000 learning adventures in all 50 states and more than 90 countries abroad. Elderhostel offers in-depth and behind-the-scenes learning experiences for almost every interest and ability. History, culture, nature, music, outdoor activities such as walking and biking, individual skills, crafts, study cruises, and a lot more. As the not-for-profit leader in educational travel, you can enjoy unique an rewarding experiences with like-minded folks. ~Ecole Chocolat: Professional School of Chocolate Arts Boomer travel and chocolate merge!!Set in Vancouver, B.C., their Chocolate School (Ecole Chocolat) delivers programs that will increase your knowledge and expertise in professional chocolate making. These include both online programs and hands-on graduate programs. Ecole Chocolat was "born" because of the large number of requests our instructor, Pam Williams, has gotten from novice chocolate makers all over the globe who are looking for training in professional chocolate making. If you're into serious cooking with chocolate, check this out!
~Epiculinary: Distinctive Cooking Journeys Discover why Epiculinary is the leading provider of culinary vacations throughout the world. Whether you want to learn how to make tapas in Spain, bouillabaisse in France, hand- made pasta in Italy, or chile rellenos in Santa Fe, Epiculinary offers unique cooking vacations for all tastes and budgets. Great for Boomer travel and an even greater cooking and eating experience! Bon Appetit! ~Groople.com Groople.com, named "the World’s Leading Group Travel Booking Website by World Travel Awards", is a great site for arranging group travel! Groople gives any group an easy way to plan and book travel arrangements online. It doesn't matter whether your group is three people or 300, Groople is highly recommended as your first resource for your reunion, vacation, convention, sports outing, destination wedding or other event. What's great is that they partner with popular air, hotel, and ground service providers to offer discounted rates. They also offer individual payment options, collaborative planning tools, and "experts in nearly every kind of group travel to help guide you online or by phone". You'll want to add this to your travel site favorites. ~Hotwire Hotwire is well-known for having great travel deals and packages! Check out their site for advice and discounts on vacations and trips that are local or international. ~Kayak.com Kayak.com is one of the most comprehensive travel search engines. You can search over 140 travel sites at once, and find the cheapest fares. Compare results from all sites together - filter and sort instantly. Click to buy direct from airlines or agencies (Kayak is not a travel agent. The only drawback is that, it doesn't cover some major discount air carriers and some smaller airlines. Kayak is also a free site to use! ~LastMinute.com If you're into "last minute" Boomer travel, then the site, LastMinute.com is for you! If you can take off at a moment's notice, or if you have a "hankerin'" for impulse adventuring, then check out what they have to offer!
~Lonely Planet.com As a Reference Librarian, I've had many people come by the reference desk to ask about good books that provide "nuts-and-bolts", "let's cut to the chase" books on travel. One of the first sources that pops into my head is our rich collection of books by the company, The Lonely Planet Boomer travel and travelers, in particular, want information without a lot of fluff; information that will give you the facts - warts-and-all. In conjunction with Lonely Planet's books, their website
Over five million travellers visit LonelyPlanet.com. They come to this site "...to get hardcore about travel. To dream about it, plan it, book it and talk about it. They come to shop, to read features, to listen to podcasts, to enter competitions, to watch videos, to swap stuff. They come to find a job, share advice, read reviews… Great site and resource for Boomers - and ANY - traveler! ~Over50andOverseas.com Over50andOverseas.com is an informative and resource-intensive Web site for those who are mature or senior in age, may have retired, and wish to volunteer overseas in order to make a difference. It is hosted by an active member of the Peace Corps since 1991. ~RickSteves.com Rick Steves is the ultimate grassroots respectful and respectable American ambassador to Europe with his Europe Through the Back Door country guides, city guides, and acclaimed video/DVD series. Check out this Web site, for all resources, mostly available through bookstores.
Founded In 1988, and online since 1995, Shaw Guides provides more than 6,000 learning vacation and creative career programs worldwide! Explore the multitude of travel choices that await you! ~SideStep: The Traveler's Search Engine Known as "the traveler's search engine", Sidestep.com offers search tools to compare prices with other sites to make sure you're getting the best possible deals. ~SingleParentTravel.net Boomer travel most certainly includes our boomers that are on the younger cusp of our generation. In that, there are many single Boomer parents, and, single Boomer grandparents who are raising their grandchildren. Single Parent Travel is a multi-faceted organization. First and foremost, they are a resource for advice and opinion. On their site, you can find: travel tips, parenting tips, an interactive forum, an informative blog, their monthly newsletter, and their single parent trips. In addition to the web resources they provide, they have a monthly newsletter. There is not cost, and this newsletter will keep you up to speed on our current trips, general information, travel and parenting tips, and much more. ~SmartMoney: Travel Guide Boomer travel in general finds a wonderful friend in this site! SmartMoney Magazine has always been a trusted name for personal finance. This site offers an up-to-date collection of personal finance articles for such travel-related subjects as: business travel, budgeting (including gas incentives and ways for single travelers to avoid paying double), flights (such as airline fees and recouping costs for lost luggage), accomodations (including timeshares), and other financial aspects of travel. ~Smithsonian Journeys Excellent site for boomer travel! Smithsonian Journeys.com is considered to be one of the best resources for educational travel on a global level. According to the November 2008 issue of Kiplinger's Retirement Report,starting in January 2009, Smithsonian Journeys will be offering expert-led tours to America's national parks. You'll explore Yosemite or the Everglades in the spring, and the Grand Canyon or Alaska's Kemai Fjords in the summer. Also, check out all the other great trips offered fo your travelling pleasure! ~TravelZoo At TravelZoo, you'll find deals on airfare, cruises, car rentals, vacation packages, and even last-minute trips! ~ TSA: Travel Tips Here's an information-rich site geared towards baby boomer travel. The TSA (Transportation Security Administration) has a special section on their site that will answer all your travel questions as well as customer service and the TSA Travel Center: http://www.tsa.dhs.gov/travelers/index.shtm Traveling nowadays can be very confusing, especially to less frequent travelers. Questions such as what we can and cannot take on a flight, especially when packing medications and toiletries leave you anxious...especially when you get to security. Boomers should also review the information contained in the section, "Planning Your Trip: Learn About the Places You Will Visit".
~Travel Channel: Destinations and Theme Trips Travel Channel Media offers resources "that directly engage veteran travelers ready to plot their next trip, novice travelers not quite sure where to go, and armchair travelers who are just along for the ride". Their ideas for various theme trips will surely start your your "travel bug" itching to pack! In addition to their great travel shows, they offer sections to help you: "Travel Guides", "Travel Ideas", "Book a Trip", and other travel tools.
~TravelwithaChallenge.com TravelwithaChallenge.com is a global travel resource, updated monthly, that speaks directly to the boomer traveler through richly illustrated feature articles and fast-breaking travel news around the following alternative travel themes: ecological, educational, cultural/historical, and volunteer vacations worldwide. Also check out prize draws and discounts on the homepage. This online publication has over 900,000+ readers so far.
"Since 1984, Vacations To Go has helped more than one million people save hundreds of millions of dollars on discount cruises!" ~VRBO(Vacation Rentals By Owner) This site is considered the largest and most popular vacation rental site. Specializing in 'BY OWNER" vacation rentals, homes, condos, cabins, villas and apartments. Also provides information on privately owned properties offered thru rental agencies and management companies. ~WalkingtheWorld.com WalkingtheWorld.com offers adventure travel for people 50 and better. Adventure travel is a way of experiencing the world, not as a passive observer, but as an active participant. And walking, more than any other type of activity, allows you to experience firsthand not only a country’s majestic natural areas, but its rich and varied human cultures as well. With Walking The World, you’ll be walking through small villages, meeting the local people, and sampling some of the world’s finest food and drink. ~The Wayfarers: Walking Vacations and Tours The Wayfarers began in 1984 as a small family of friends, sharing fellowship and a love of walking as a way of experiencing the world. Now after twenty-six years, their ranks are still expanding, as are the destinations they visit and the discoveries they make along the roads less traveled. For Boomer vacations-plus good conversation and exercise!- check out The Wayfarers.com!
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