Smart Travel Tips for Happy Retirees
How to Have Fun in Retirement Traveling
You are reading this article probably because you like to travel as I do or you have always wanted to travel and now you have the time to. Here are some key points to consider when traveling. Why bother to read them? Well, Doug’s favorite hobby is traveling and he has been to 45 countries, lived in 8 and has been to most US states. Here are Doug’s favorite tips you may want to add as you consider adding travel to your bucket list. He recommends:
a. It reduces stress – get to the airport early and ‘chill’ – if the security lines are long you won’t be sweating it. If they are short, you can shop and relax in a café at the airport until the plane takes off.
b. If the weather is looking bad get on an earlier flight and get out of town…even if you have to pay a change fee! This has paid off twice in the past 3 years for Doug – ‘took my son to Scotland where I lived as a boy. I was meeting an old school friend from England and we HAD to be in Britain on time. We got to the airport 4 hours early and found out that even though Atlanta’s weather was clear where we were departing out of, New York was having huge storms. We were first in line to check in… and found out the flight was cancelled due to the bad weather. They directed us to another flight that would get us to New York a different route and to a different airport but that would still allow us to catch an International flight to England and then on to Scotland… we got our ticket, the last on the plane but then were notified that this jet too was cancelled due to weather. THEN we were released to fly on a different airline to a hub in New York where the weather was clearer – we got the last 2 seats on the plane (we got those 2 seats because the people assigned the seats were late to the airport, late though security, and late to the gate – they lost their seats).
c. Airlines over-sell their jets everyday to fill capacity so NEVER ARRIVE LATE to a gate – you will lose your seat.