Boomer Travel

In Our Youth

Old Faithful

Hey Boomers–do you remember traveling as a kid? Everyone would squeeze into the family sedan or station wagon and trundle off to a lake or a beach or our grandparents’ house. Some families went camping in the national parks.

If we had a camera, it was a point and shoot that required flash bulbs or flash cubes for indoor shots. Mostly, we took black and white photos.

If we had the time and money, travel was relatively uncomplicated. Rarely did we worry about the water or whether we could speak the language.

Early Adulthood

Duomo di Firenze (Cathedral of Florence)

As we entered our twenties, our adventurous friends took off for Europe, often backpacking and traveling with a Eurail pass. JFK with Sargent Shriver’s help introduced the Peace Corps in 1961, and many of our very adventurous peers dedicated two years of their lives to working abroad in countries that sounded exotic and were way off the traditional Western European tour: Tonga, Zimbabwe, Eswatini (Swaziland), India, the Ivory Coast, and even Afghanistan. Most of us were not ready to venture to these far off places for a variety of reasons. Could we drink the water? Would we catch some strange disease? Would we like the food? How could we communicate with the locals and keep in touch with those back home? How did you even get to some of these more distant locales? There just seemed to be too many obstacles for the less venturesome traveler to overcome.

Giraffes in Zimbabwe

Adulthood

As income allowed, more and more of us traveled during our well earned vacations. Now, we were taking our own kids along. However we were more apt to hop a plane and rent a van when we visited Disney World or the Florida beaches or a national park than to pack into the family car. Some families headed to Europe, perhaps on a tour. Our adventurous friends might have traveled to the old Soviet Union with a highly restrictive itinerary led by guides who rarely let their charges out of sight. Eastern Europe and a good part of Asia were still out of bounds.

Boomer Years

Things changed rapidly as we headed into our Boomer years. The Berlin Wall came down and Eastern Europe became more easily accessible. Southeast Asian countries embroiled in the Viet Nam War now welcomed western visitors. Could we have ever imagined as we watched the nightly news in the 60’s that we might visit Viet Nam as a tourist?

Ha Long Bay, South China Sea, Vietnam

We read about the Great Wall of China in geography class, but did it ever seem possible that we might actually walk along it one day?

BoomerTECH Adventures guide Chris and his wife Joan on the Great Wall

The world near and far now offers Boomers and Seniors all sorts of adventures. Smart phones, apps, websites provide the resources to travel from tiny islands off the coast of Maine to all of Europe (east and west), Asia, South America, Africa, and more. We can instantaneously communicate with family back home.

Getting to the main road on Matinicus Island, Maine after a stormy night

For some of us, travel still seems a bit daunting—so many details to consider. But time is getting short, so Carpe Diem as the saying goes. Access the multitude of digital resources at your fingertips to plan a mini-adventure or a grand exploration of a part of the world you have always dreamed of seeing.

All of us at BoomerTECH Adventures love to travel.

Here are a three of our favorite resources that will help you plot your next tour, trek, or junket.

Rome2Rio

This free app for you phone or tablet and website will show the options for getting from point A to point B. Flights, ferries, trains, car services–they are shown.

Google Translate

You’ve landed in Montreal and do not speak French so you don’t have a clue how to find your hotel. If you have Google Translate on your phone, you can speak your question into the app and a verbal translation will come up. Play it for your taxi driver and off you go to find a fresh croissant and a hot shower. Free app

Duolingo

Want to have a few phrases in a native language mastered before you board your plane? Duolingo will help you learn the basics in many, many languages. You do have to practice so start a few months before your departure! Website and free app

We have several blog posts where we share what we have learned about traveling with our digital devices. Click on this link to peruse them: https://www.boomertechadventures.com/?s=Travel
In the first section we mentioned our early point and shoot cameras; now most of us have smart phones that include pretty good cameras. Download our free guide to take stunning pictures here: https://www.boomertechadventures.com/stunning-photos-ten-tips

One last suggestion. There are still parts of the world where you need to take precautions (shots) before you go. Check the CDC website section for travelers (https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/) for its recommendations. All of the BoomerTECH Adventure Guides have traveled to locales where we needed vaccinations beforehand and had to take malaria pills while traveling. AND…we have had marvelous times, met wonderful folks, learned a lot, and came back healthy. Don’t be afraid to travel to distant countries–you can access all the information you need to have a fantastic trip through your smart phone.