Good travel is not just about where you go. It is also about how well you prepare, how lightly you move, how safely you manage the practical details, and how comfortably you handle the inevitable surprises.
After more than 16 years of near full-time travel, we have learned that the right travel skills make every trip easier, cheaper, and more enjoyable — whether you are just getting started or have dozens of trips behind you. This guide covers the practical side of travel for people over 50: how to pack light without sacrificing comfort, how to choose gear that actually earns its place in your bag, how to use points and miles to cut costs, how to protect yourself on the road, and how to keep traveling well into your 60s, 70s, and beyond.
Use this page as your starting point for the how of travel, not just the where.
Essential Travel Tips
Start here if you want the broadest overview of how we travel. These guides cover the habits, decisions, tools, and small adjustments that make travel easier, safer, and more enjoyable.
- Our 50 Favorite Travel Tips — Practical lessons from years of full-time travel.
- The Best Resources for Travel Planning — The booking sites, tools, and services we actually use.
- Mobile Apps for Travel — Apps for navigation, translation, booking, communication, and organization.
- How to Make Flying Easier and More Comfortable — Practical tips for long flights and airport days.
- Planning Tips for Safe and Secure Travel — Safety, health, money, communication, and home-preparation steps before you leave.
- Protect Yourself from Identity Theft While Traveling — Security tips for phones, cards, mail, and financial accounts.
- Why You Should Use a VPN When You Travel — A simple way to protect your privacy and data on the road.
Packing Light for Travelers Over 50
Packing light is one of the biggest upgrades you can make to your travel life. Less luggage means less strain, easier train travel, fewer stairs to dread, quicker hotel changes, and more flexibility once you arrive.
Our packing advice is built around one idea: carry what you actually use, not what you fear you might need.
- The Ultimate Carry-On Packing List for Travelers Over 50 — Our main packing system and the best place to start.
- The Ultimate Ultra Light Packing List for Men — Tom’s practical men’s packing list.
- Our Ultralight Packing List for Women — Kris’s women-specific packing advice.
- Flying With Only a Personal Item — How to travel even lighter when the trip calls for it.
- Specialized Packing Lists — Packing for specific trips, climates, and travel styles.
- The Complete Camino de Santiago Packing Guide — What to carry, what to skip, and how to walk lighter.
Travel Gear for Older Travelers That Earns Its Place
We are not gear collectors. If something goes in our bag, it has to earn its space. The best travel gear is useful, compact, durable, and boringly reliable.
- The Best Travel Accessories — Small items that make travel smoother.
- How to Charge Up Your Travels and Home — Charging, adapters, power, and electronics on the road.
- Best Travel Shoes for Women — Comfortable shoes for long walking days.
- Merino Wool Travel Clothing — Why merino can be useful for lighter packing.
- Make Your Own Travel First Aid Kit — A practical kit for common travel problems.
Money, Points, Miles, and Credit Cards
Travel costs money, but good systems help you waste less of it. These guides cover travel credit cards, points and miles, currency exchange, and the practical money decisions that matter before and during a trip.
- How to Choose the Right Travel Credit Card for You — Compare benefits, fees, rewards, and travel protections.
- How to Get the Best Exchange Rates When You Travel — Avoid unnecessary currency exchange fees.
Travel Insurance and Health Preparation
Travel insurance is not exciting, but it becomes important very quickly when something goes wrong. The goal is not to buy the most expensive policy. The goal is to understand what risks you are actually trying to cover.
- Travel Insurance Basics – What to look for in your travel insurance policy.
- Business or Pleasure: Travel Insurance Options – When you might want your own insurance, even when on a business trip.
- Unexpected Travel Insurance Benefits – Odd situations that cost you, but may be covered.
- A Dog Bites, A Travel Clinic Delivers – That time in Vietnam when we were really glad we had travel insurance.
- Planning Tips for Safe and Secure Travel — Pre-trip safety, health, banking, communication, and home preparation.
- Make Your Own Travel First Aid Kit — Useful first-aid items for common travel situations.
Travel Photography
Taking your photography more seriously is one of the best ways to slow down and really look at your travels. It helps us notice light, faces, details, streets, food, architecture, and the small moments that make a trip memorable.
- 10 Tips to Make your Travel Photos Better – This tips are mostly based on using a camera with actual manual controls, i.e. not your phone.
- 11 More Tips to Make your Travel Photos Better – These tips are a little more on the artistic side to complement the 10 Tips above.
- Photographing the Taj Mahal – How I went about shooting a site that has seen about 10 billion photographers.
- Tips for Capturing Wildlife on an African Safari – Expert tips from our friend Susan Portnoy, a former winner of the Lowell Thomas Award as the best travel photographer in the US.
- How to do an African Photo Safari – My take on how to organize and put yourself in the best spots for animal photos.
- The Photo Gear I Use – other than my iPhone.
- Travel Past 50 Photography — Our photography galleries and print site.
Traveling More Comfortably After 50
Travel changes as we get older, but that does not mean traveling less. It means traveling smarter: better pacing, lighter bags, more realistic itineraries, comfortable shoes, and fewer unnecessary complications.
- Traveling After 60 — How to keep traveling well into your 60s and beyond.
- Solo Women Travelers — Practical, experience-based advice for women traveling alone.
- House Sitting — How house sitting has helped us stay longer and travel differently.
- 10 Things I’ve Learned from Travel — The less logistical, more human lessons from years on the road.
