Too Old To Travel?

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Considering that I'm 29, and still enjoy jumping on a plane to see another place or meet new/see longtime friends, I sometimes wonder:

1) Is it possible to become "too old" for travelling? If so, when?

2) Would it be a problem (within a relationship) if one person wants to see more of the world, than the other?

Apparently, I've got WAY too much time on my hands, if this has popped into my head;>

― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Monday, 25 August 2003 21:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Go do it. I presume you do get 'too old' for this sort of thing but you don't seem like you're there yet.

― Lara (Lara), Monday, 25 August 2003 21:10 (twenty-two years ago)

I will be too old to travel the day they cremate me. Until then, I'll get where I want to go if I have to fly, drive, walk, take a train, hop, skip, jump, use a walker, push myself along in a wheelchair or drag myself along by my fingertips.

― luna (luna.c), Monday, 25 August 2003 21:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Amen to that, but this is only a general question, since I'm curious about the ILX contingent;>

― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Monday, 25 August 2003 21:13 (twenty-two years ago)

goodness I hope there's never any too old to travel. Too infirm perhaps, but that's something else. People in general, I suppose, would become a little tired of staying in a hostel and the inconveniences that that entails, but that's really dependent on the person.

I've actually run into a bit of problem with my family when I want to travel alone...they worry about me, which is nice, but I want to go out and see things, dammit! My b/f can't always go with me; in fact we've only had a vacation together once. I think he likes travel, though, it's just that our yearly schedules are incompatible for the time being. Meanwhile we're getting older....

― teeny (teeny), Monday, 25 August 2003 21:14 (twenty-two years ago)

There's no such thing. Although "Too Broke To Travel" - that's a bitch.

― phil-two (phil-two), Monday, 25 August 2003 21:22 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm still always keen, though I've done none very recently - I hope to be able to in terms of planning and finances next year. As for partners, some compromise is often possible, but there is no law against separate vacations - one couple among my friends do this because she is much keener on going away than he is.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 25 August 2003 21:22 (twenty-two years ago)

1) Is it possible to become "too old" for travelling? If so, when?

Mentalist. Of course it's impossible. Not enough money, kids too young seem to be the commonest excuses. That's why I'm happy to be an uncle.

2) Would it be a problem (within a relationship) if one person wants to see more of the world, than the other?

I don't want to go into details but yes.

― Tag (Tag), Monday, 25 August 2003 21:53 (twenty-two years ago)

2) Would it be a problem (within a relationship) if one person wants to see more of the world, than the other?

well, it depends whether you are happy to travel without your relationshipee or not.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 10:51 (twenty-two years ago)

I suspect it would be a problem, but like all differences of opinion in a relationship, if you can reach a compromise then there's no reason why it should be a lasting one.

No, infirmity is the only reason why you would be too old to travel. I fully intend to travel more and more the older and more rich and successful I get...

― Mark C (Mark C), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 12:01 (twenty-two years ago)

My grandmother is 80 and she makes a trip once a year to fly up from Texas to Virginia to visit us. While she's here, she rents a car and insists on driving us everywhere. She only drives about 30 miles per hour max at any time, but it's important to her to still be able to drive her grandchildren around.

Also, quite a few older people seem to like to travel quite a bit when they retire. Some couples hook up with RVs and travel take trips down to see the Grand Canyon or the national forests.

I plan to do a lot of traveling when I'm older because I can't afford to do that much now.

― Sarah McLUsky (coco), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 12:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, Nick, you know what was my personal experience with this. :( But to everyone else here-- my shmuck ex-boyfriend was a job-jumping, unstable, abusive bastard who would rather traipse all over the world for months at a time hooking up with "exotic" ho/bitches than even bother to break up with me in a proper fashion. And we'd spent 8 years together. But in his mind, I wasn't "adventurous" enough just because I wouldn't quit my job and leave my family and friends to follow him all over the world. I could never make any long term plans for myself (grad school, etc) because it always hinged on whether he was going to FINALLY decide where he wanted to live. And naive little me went along with everything pretending not to resent this.

So to answer your question-- personally I don't think anyone is ever "too old" to see the world (my grandparents travelled to NY for the first time when they were 84, and even got to see the top of the WTC-- which I never even got to do!) But DON'T expect to have any kind of deep, long lasting relationship unless you're with someone like minded. I learned my lesson the hard way.

(There's also a difference obviously between a separate vacation of a reasonable length and an extended nomadic existence for the forseeable future.)

― Jasmine U. (Jasmine U.), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 14:06 (twenty-two years ago)

I met an 80-something in a Dallas airport a few months ago who had been all over the world in her 70s (that's _her_ 70s, not _the_ 70s). She said she lived in a quiet retirement community, which she thought was pleasant, but a bit too soporific after a while. Hence the need to get out of it and meet other people and see other things ... But the neat thing about her was that she had no resentment for her retirement community either. She was perfectly happy to come back there for some security and stability after a long trip to somewhere less secure and stable (Thailand, Vietnam, Brazil, India, etc). So instead of being a place of "confinement" (as these places are often perceived and portrayed) for her, this woman's retirement home was more like a "base camp" -- a place where she could rest up and renew her energies for further explorations. I found that to be very inspiring, both for my outlook for travel and my outlook for retirement communities.

As for travel coming between two people in a relationship : well, it all hinges on trust. I have a friend who loves to travel, but who has a husband who doesn't. They have a solid, trusting relationship, so he lets her "go away" for a few weeks every year, while he stays at home and looks after things at home. He trusts her not to run off with some foreigner, and she trusts him not to run off with some local. And they maintain this trust by checking in with each other regularly via phone and e-mail, and by sharing stories with each other about what they've seen and done while the other was away, and ... most importantly, by being faithful -- same as they would if one of them wasn't in another country. Because if someone's going to be unfaithful, it doesn't require a big distance, it just requires a few minutes "alone".

If you can't trust your mate's faithfulness (or your own) during travel, then it's not a travel issue, it's TRUST issue. Sad to say this, but no amount of good-intentioned "go-everywhere-together-do-everything-together" can keep a person from straying if there's a fundamental lack of trust in the relationship.

So, ultimately, I feel that you should chose a mate because you can trust them, not because you can/can't travel with them.

― stripey, Tuesday, 26 August 2003 14:52 (twenty-two years ago)

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