Senior Living: Retirement Travel

Retirement brings with it more free time than you have had in decades. You don’t have to get up to clock in to a job at six am, you don’t have kids to take care of, and you may have more money saved up to spend on vacation. Many seniors spend their extra retirement time and money on travelling and vacationing around the world.

 

The old standbys - beachfront condos, cruises, and mountain cabins - are all great options for seniors looking for a vacation thrill. And today, there are more options than ever before for senior living around the world. Fortune.com reports that one senior couple has become such fans of the home-sharing site AirBNB that they have spent 1,000 nights living in other people’s homes through the site.

 

Garden of Palms, a luxury senior living community in Los Angeles, understands the importance of older adults traveling and vacationing. Spending time away from home is invigorating and keeps both minds and bodies healthy through retirement.

 

Senior Health Benefits of Traveling

It’s no secret that trips away from home keep everyone healthy. When the exercise routine at home gets boring, travelling somewhere new is a good way to change it up. US News’s travel blog reports that tourists walk up to ten miles a day while sightseeing. All those steps from monument to museum add up! Cardio keeps hearts healthy and exercises the legs to maintain muscle tone. One study conducted by the Journal of the American Medical Association found that men who take a vacation each year are 32 percent less likely to develop heart disease than men who vacation less. Surely frequent walking on beaches, cities, or the wilderness adds to this!

 

In addition, travel from senior living communities to new locations keeps brains active and healthy. There are a variety of packaged tours, such a trolleys or bus trips, that teach about location histories. Researching interests engages the mind as well. Seniors may enjoy searching the web and planning out destinations for sightseeing. The couple that has spent 1,000 nights in AirBNB locations researches their interests to decide where they visit next. Fortune.com reports that, interested in the history of the USSR, the couple has travelled to twelve of the fifteen former Soviet republics and taken many day tours to enrich their knowledge.

 

Vacationing away from home provides relaxation benefits as well. In an episode of Morning Edition on NPR titled, “Relax! Vacations are Good for Your Health,” researchers from several universities reported that people who travel more often feel healthier, find themselves in more positive states of mind, and have more energy to do the things they love.

Traveling Improves the Mind and Body

The energy boost people feel on vacations lasts long past each trip. One researcher interviewed by NPR even went so far as to say that more frequent vacations are positively connected with longer and healthier lifespans. Garden of Palms senior living community in Los Angeles agrees. Independent living in retirement greatly improves when travel is involved!

References

American Medical Association

Fortune.com

AirBNB

NPR