baby boomers
Prague’s Astronomical Clock in Old Town Square. Photo by Clark Norton
Yesterday an associate said to me: “I can’t believe you’d never been to Prague. Everyone goes to Prague. You’re a travel writer, you’ve been to more than 100 countries.”
Point taken. And don’t think it wasn’t gnawing away at me. My daughter had been to Prague. My future daughter-in-law had been to Prague. My parents had been to Prague. And just about all the travel writers I know at least claim to have been to Prague.For years now, it’s been one of the hottest, trendiest spots on the Continent.
My excuse has been that when I was riding trains around Europe for months at a time back in the day, no Soviet bloc countries were included on Eurailpass, the rail pass I was using to get around to every country in Western Europe (except San Marino, but that’s… Continue reading
The Age Busters Power Summit runs every day from March 13-April 2.
I’m being featured on The Age Busters Power Summit for Women on Saturday, March 29 at 8 pm, talking about “The Important Role of Travel as We Age.”
You owe it to yourself to attend this free virtual event!
Go now to the www.theagebusterspowersummit.com/clanor for more details.
Thanks!
Answer to Last Week’s Travel Quiz:
About what percentage of jobs worldwide are related to tourism?
A. Five percent
B. Two percent
C. Nine percent
D. 12 percent
The answer is C, nine percent!
A Galapagos iguana, best seen on a stress-free guided trip. Photo by Clark Norton
Do you come back from vacation more stressed out than when you left?
Based on a survey of world travelers by author Shawn Achor and “happiness researcher” Michelle Gieland from the Institute of Applied Positive Research, “poorly planned and stressful vacations eliminate the positive benefit of time away,” as Achor recently wrote in the Harvard Business Review.
(See my previous post on travel and happiness for more detail on these findings.)
Achor contends there are four main ingredients that you should add to your vacation mix to result in a happy travel experience:
* “Focus on the details”: Nearly three quarters of travelers found the most stressful part of travel to be “figuring out the details,” according to Achor. “Travel uncertainty, transportation, wasting time figuring things out on the trip, and being unfamiliar with the location”… Continue reading
Many European trains have dramatic views. Photo from Brendan Vacations
Like many baby boomers, when I was in my 20s I spent a lot of time — sometimes months at a time — riding European trains.
On shorter trips, when I would purchase separate tickets from one point to the next, I would always travel second class, and had some memorable experiences meeting the locals — and, from time to time, having to sleep in the corridors because the trains were so packed.
Once, riding the Spanish trains between Malaga and Barcelona, I spent 24 hours without a seat, standing up, lying down when possible, but having a blast sharing food and drink with my fellow seatless passengers, trying as best we could to understand each other in our respective broken Spanish and English. (Remember, I was in my 20s.)
But on my longer trips around Europe, I would buy… Continue reading
The Age Busters Power Summit runs every day from March 13-April 2.
The Age Busters Power Summit is just a few days away — and I invite you to join me on what should be an incredible journey.
I’m excited to be part of the Age Busters Power Summit for Women, which will offer tips and strategies from leading experts to help you look your best, feel fantastic and have the time of your life — including travel, which is where I come in.
Organizer Jodye Friedman, who hosts the online summit, has brought together 21 of the world’s most influential and successful wellness and lifestyle gurus in one “virtual” place (or at least 20 and yours truly — I’m still working on guru status, though I’m happy to announce that after less than a year of blogging, alexa now ranks my baby boomer travel website among the top 176,000… Continue reading
Ryanair is not known for its comfort, but at these prices…photo from Alamy
British newspapers and travel trade publications are all abuzz with the news that the CEO of Ryanair, the cut-rate European airline, plans to offer flights to New York and Boston from a number of European cities for prices as low as 10 euros per seat.
That’s about U.S.$13.70 by today’s exchange rates. Flights back to Europe would cost even less, about U.S.$10.
Not bad. Of course, there are some caveats.
First, Ryanair will have to buy up to 50 long-haul aircraft to make the flights worthwhile, and that could take several years.
Second, not all the seats on the plane would be that cheap. “There will also need to be a very high number of business or premium seats,” the CEO, Michael O’Leary, told the Irish Hotels Federation in Meath, Ireland, where he made the announcement.… Continue reading
Boomers are willing to spend to take experiential trips such as walking tours in Ireland. Photo from Walking the World
While travel industry advertisers continue to pursue the Millennial market — perfectly reasonable, considering that the Millennial generation is the future — it makes no sense to overlook the currently booming baby boomer travel market.
Here are some statistics — gathered from both government and private research surveys — to ponder if you think boomers (now aged 50-68) are over the hill, travel-wise, and are largely staying at home, maybe watching TV or tending their flower gardens:
* Adults over age 50 account for four out of every five dollars spent on luxury travel in America
* Adults 55 and older spend half of all vacation dollars in the U.S.
* Baby boomers make most of their major purchases, including big-ticket travel items, over the Internet, and spend two hours… Continue reading
Spurred by saturation TV coverage of poker tournaments that rival more physical sports for high-stakes drama, poker’s popularity has exploded throughout the U.S. in recent years.
And baby boomers are in the thick of the action. But what are the top spots to play in the country? Here are America’s top three poker-playing locations for traveling boomers:
Harrah’s Casino in Tunica, Mississippi.
Tunica, Mississippi
The once impoverished town of Tunica, Mississippi, suddenly turned its fortunes around a few years ago and emerged as America’s third largest casino region (after Las Vegas and Atlantic City).
Located just 30 minutes from Memphis, Tunica offers avant-garde poker rooms, no-limit gaming, and warm Southern hospitality. Harrah’s Hotel and Casino, Hollywood Casino, and Bally’s are among the most popular places to play poker here. The Senior Poker Tour (SPT) at the Horseshoe Casino Tunica has made the town even more appealing. Launched in January… Continue reading
Ellen Perlman of BoldlyGoSolo (top) on Maui. (She did ride the bike down Haleakala volcano solo.) Photo courtesy of boldlygosolo.com
Last week I was interviewed about baby boomer travel for a recorded series called the Age Busters Power Summit, which will air sometime on or after March 13 (I’ll have more specifics in a later post).
The target audience is baby boomer women, and — never having traveled as a baby boomer woman myself — I asked my good friend and fellow travel writer Ellen Perlman, who writes a blog called BoldlyGoSolo.com, to give me a few pointers about what to suggest to women traveling alone.
Her tips were so valuable that I want to pass them along on my own blog.
While they pertain to just about any woman traveling solo, a baby boomer woman who is trying solo travel for the first time might find these especially… Continue reading
Vilnius, Lithuania — if you leave tomorrow, you can get a great deal on a flight there via Kayak.com.
Whenever I book a plane flight, I always turn first to the website Kayak.com, which displays an array of choices from a wide variety of airlines, and allows you to sort by price, airline, preferred takeoff or landing times, and flight duration.
You can also compare Kayak’s findings against different sites like Priceline, Hotwire and Expedia, so you get a pretty complete picture of what’s out there before you book. And Kayak lets you compare hotel and rental car offerings as well.
But when I went to the site yesterday, I noticed something new — at least new to me.
It’s a feature called “Explore,” which shows you “where you can go for how much.” That is, you can see the lowest fares for round-trip economy-class flights to destinations around the… Continue reading
Follow me on Twitter
Connect on Facebook
Amazon Author page
Connect on LinkedIn
Get My Latest Report for FREE:
Click to download: How to Ride the Coming Wave of Boomers ... And Attract the Biggest-Spending Travelers the World Has Ever Seen!
- The Perils and Pleasures of Navigating a French Canal
- How to Add Fun to Business Travel
- Where to Find the Real St. Patrick
- “Stunning! Breathtaking!”: The Chatbot’s Guide to Portugal
- Traveling with a Disability? Here are 5 Tips
- Going to Malta? Here are 3 places to visit
- Are Your Medicines Illegal Overseas?
- Why You May Have Skipped Summer Travels
- Congratulations — You’ve Earned Five Stars!
- 7 Travel Scams — and How to Avoid them
