“Taking a Gap Year, One Piece at a time.”
Retirement isn’t the end of the story. It’s when you start to live life on your own terms.
After many years of hard work NOW is that time that we’ve been promising ourselves. Life is going to be one big, long holiday!!
The first few weeks or months of retirement certainly feel like a holiday, you don’t have to get out of bed at a certain time, you re-engage with some of your hobbies without needing to consider any sort of timescale and you feel relaxed.
But then you realise that this is what life could look like for the rest of your life.
So what do we do about travel and adventure? These used to be things squeezed into short time slots, so that we had to make the most of every single moment; tick off all of those ‘must-see’ places, sign up for all of those experiences and then rush back to work.
Now it’s different.
We have the luxury of time. We can now travel for longer, take our time and exchange ‘hurtling around’ for a chance to just ‘stand and stare’.
People watching and embracing the culture of the places you visit can now become part of your adventure.
It’s no longer about asking ‘where should we go to and what should we do?’ and more about ‘what do we want out of this next adventure?’
So, write your wish list and buckle up for the adventure of a lifetime!
ROOKIE RETIREE’S PERSPECTIVE
My wife and I were in Cambodia a few years ago, and went to watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat. We anticipated seeing a few thousand other travellers when the light came up. And we were astounded to find that we were surrounded by 40,000 people.
This is one of many reasons – including the fact that we were never fortunate enough to have a gap year when we were younger – that made us decide that we needed to make a list of all of the ‘must see’ sites that we wanted to visit and do something about it (before they became overrun by tourists).
It also struck me that, even if we managed two long-haul holidays a year, there are a limited number of places we could see before we were no longer able or willing to travel so far (even if we can travel far afield until we’re 80). So, we’ve prioritised the furthest-flung adventures – because one day we won’t be happy to travel for 10+ hours on a plane – and have started to seek longer, more culturally fulfilling destinations and activities.
(We also try and include things that remind us that ‘we’re not dead yet!’.)
So, join us as we:
- Journey to bucket-list destinations
- Experiment with new ways of packing light
- Try and identify what we want from each of these experiences &
- Share some of the odd things that we take in our luggage
“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colours. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.” – Terry Pratchett
EXPLORE THE ROOKIE RETIREE JOURNAL
MAKING THE MOST OF TRAVEL
👉Travel Detour
How do we decide where to go, what to see and when? All those things that we never considered before.
LETTING GO OF OUR OLD LIVES
👉Retirement Spending Paradox
After spending a lifetime of saving for a rainy day, how do we open the purse strings once that rainy day arrives?
BUCKET-LIST DESTINATIONS
👉The Maldives
Where rest and relaxation is mandatory, the sun normally shines and there are challenges for the restless.
👉The Nile
Providing a slower-paced travel option for seekers of ancient gods, monuments and the real life in modern Egypt.
WHERE NEXT?
TRAVEL & ADVENTURE touches on many of the other areas that we explore at Rookie Retiree.
You may also want to explore CONNECTION & RELATIONSHIPS, LIFE AFTER WORK, or REAL STORIES (from people discovering their own versions of retirement.)
Retirement doesn’t have to mean that life has to grow smaller. It can mean the exact opposite.
Where this journey takes you is down to you.