Your adventure went too far
Bicycling.com—an entertaining and informative web site—has an article about Al Newman, a hard-driving, semi-retired, 73-year-old entrepreneur who just rode his bike around Antarctica and thereby completed his quest to cycle on all seven continents. Reaction one: Whoa. Atta boy. Reaction two: I wish the article had been a little less evasive about how long he...
Ladies: eat, pray and stretch that check
They’re homebodies. And they’re affiliative, depending on social and emotional bonds to get through daily life…or so we assume, because when they travel they like to travel with others. And by they, we mean men. Editors for International Living—the on-line and print publication that encourages retirees to find new adventures and, crucially, save money by...
The crayon-colored hills of Zhangye Danxia
There are many pleasing outdoor wonders to visit, and most them are closer to your home than the multicolored land formations of China’s Zhangye Danxia, where you’ll find what the Atlas of Wonders calls “perhaps the greatest gathering of different pigments in natural stone in the world.” But if you’re going to China anyway, shouldn’t...
Badlands glamping in Canada
Canada has badlands. I know. Big surprise. And they look pretty bad. Weirdly capped hoodoos and pointed hills and sharp banded walls where a river has cut through the landscape over the millennia. Also, scorching hot. Plus, as a bonus, Alberta’s badlands come with many, many huge dinosaur skeletons. (Some assembly required.) In...
Before they’re gone: A different kind of bucket list
Normally, a bucket list is litany of things you want to see or experiences you want to have before you are no longer of this earth. Or, more precisely, before you are too much of this earth. Now the Weather Channel has given us a list of things you want to see before they...
Travel notes: Do not try to leap over volcanic steam cracks
This ought to be an unnecessary warning, along with “Don’t pet the bison.” But it remains true that what is obvious to you and me might not be clear to someone else. In this case, a 15-year-old visiting Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Said teen thought it would make an excellent story if he were to...
Please ignore our travel needs
Baby Boomers are a kind of demographic interstate: everywhere they flow, they change the landscape. Music is a good example. Boomers haven’t actually obliterated what was there before, but they certainly affected it. It’s also true for housing. And medicine and public policy. Boomers have also redefined travel. In the 60s and 70s, they forged...
Someone wants to send you up the river
If everything you know about river cruising comes from Mark Twain (or Davey Crockett), you haven’t been paying attention. (You also haven’t been watching Downton Abbey, which is sponsored by Viking River Cruises.) Right now might be a good time to start taking note. Here’s why: River cruises are booming, especially for Boomers. Booming...
Good advice for older travelers
It’s easy to be irritated with the New York Times “Booming” section, or subdomain, or whatever we are supposed to call it. Like many features aimed at Baby Boomers, it seems to slide easily into the morbid. There are upbeat stories, certainly (like a recent slideshow on attractive women who have decided not to dye...
Go south, old (broke) man
Retiring abroad! It’s like tacking a dragon’s tail onto the withered hindquarters of that 9-to-5 life you led for 40 years. See, you say to your kids, I still thirst for adventure. See, I’m willing to negotiate back alleys in a tropical city where no one speaks my language, just to eat at a...
We weren’t going to do a New Year’s list
It is a not particularly esteemed journalistic reflex to concoct lists around January 1. I’ll take a risk and say that it started with doing recaps of the past year: the best of, the worst of, the most this or that. Since then it has spread, mostly because it is a lazy kind of way...
You should be embarrassed if you never feel awkward
You arrive in a new place—say, New York or New Delhi—and you don’t know there’s cheap public transportation from the airport to the city center. You take a cab, pay an exorbitant ransom to be released at your hotel, then realize you could have done it faster/cheaper/more comfortably by bus or subway. But you didn’t...
