Forget the future, live every day like it is your last!

Travel Talk

Take A Walk On The Wild Side
When you are busy concentrating on living it’s hard to look up and realize that you might be doing is part of a new and growing trend.

If you are born 50+ years ago you probably don’t feel like a trendsetter. Life is moving so quickly and the gap between the Y generation and the rest appears to be massive. The minute you get the hang of Facebook the grandchildren have made a grand exodus to Instagram or Tumblr. You don’t look cool hanging out with them online just intrusive.

Blaze a Trail
OK you might not win the technology prize but there are other ways to blaze a trail. How so? Well if you are living in the EU right now then it is likely your life expectancy will be, on average 83 years. Bearing in mind those born in the 1960s will now have to work well into their 60s even if you do manage to retire at 66 or 67 you may still have another 17 years before the grim reaper pays a call.

Baby Boomers will go down fighting
Generally speaking we are much healthier, have different expectations and it appears the baby boomers are determined to go down fighting all the way. We want to exercise, have new experiences, travel, meet different people and make the very best of this third age.

The third age is not a cliché
It’s a reality and anyone who is not making plans to do something worthwhile in the final 33 and a 1/3 are missing what might be the greatest soundtrack to their life. We may well have just lost Lou Reed but his spirit lives on in all of us.

50+ holidays are trending
So, with the kids grown up and women often leaving families to much later grandparenthood is not the only option and for many will never be the only thing they live for. Travel companies are well aware of this trend and now the proliferation of solo and 50+ holidays really is trending.

There are no limits
You can pick an ambition and fulfill it: learn to fly, go on a cooking holiday, improve your tennis, learn to scuba dive, take painting classes in Tuscany or a writing retreat in Portugal. If your passion is contemporary fiction you’ll find a course, if you love hiking and wild flower photography there are plenty of places to go.

Being in the 50+ category is very special
You can choose to be highly independent or try group travel where you pitch up individually and join a community that meets at mealtimes and share experiences. Being in the 50+ category is very special. With any luck health is still not too much of an issue; you’ve been around, seen life, have the confidence that comes with age so why not make the most of it?

Retreats, sojourns, adventures and tuition are all available options
There are options for those who are starting over on the relationship front, those who are taking a belated GAP year, those who might be wanting to find somewhere to start a novel or put their life long experiences in order, retreats, sojourns, adventures and tuition are all available options.

If not now then when?
So why not think about how to change your life, even for a couple of weeks. If Christmas fills you with dread then why not go away? Find an exotic beach to wander on, go skiing, visit the Far East.  If you want to shake up your fitness an exercise boot camp might do it. Whatever is in your heart, whatever ambition you might have secretly harboured now really is the time. After all, if not now, then when?

Vivienne Neale is Director of a writing retreat in Portugal and a published author and commercial writer. www.awritingretreatportugal.com

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