How to celebrate your retirement in 2025: the best holidays, bucket list trips and gap years
Whether you’re a fogy (fun older gap-yearer); a ‘victory lapper’ (returning to the haunts of your back-packing youth with more cash in your wallet); or a 60-something ‘queenager’ experiencing a fresh lease of life, retirement is the best time to travel on your own terms.
Take it from 60-plus travel influencer Siobhan Daniels (@shuvonshuvoff), whose memoir The Retirement Rebel is a cult hit with a new generation of wanderlust retirees. The book recounts Daniels’ decision as a ‘burnt out’ 60-year-old empty nester to sell her house and possessions and take to the road full-time in her motorhome ‘Dora the Explorer’.
Daniels tours the UK and Europe inspiring others to embrace a life on the road. “The way I see it, life starts after 60,” Daniels tells Telegraph Travel, “if you’re not going to see the world when you’re freed from the grind of work and parenting and are still physically fit, after all: when will you?”
With Britain’s over 65s holding an estimated £2.587 trillion of wealth, there’s little wonder travel companies target this cohort. Today retirees have targeted wellness tours such as Silver’s ‘playful’ group retreats (think wild swimming and hot tubs) for “likeminded empty nesters, starting againers and the newly free…” and boutique specialists such as One Traveller, which hosts holidays “exclusively for mature single travellers”, also known as “silver solos”.
There’s a growth of round-the-world packages for big spenders looking for once-in-a-lifetime retirement trips such as luxury provider Abercrombie and Kent’s round-the-world trips (some by private plane and costing £50,000 plus); as well as a boom in long-distance rail packages, favoured by a generation that came of age during 70s interrailing boom.
Too, there are plus-60s cruise packages for all takers, from the active older travellers (think hiking, paddleboarding and night snorkelling) to music lovers, with specialist cruises for those who came of age in the golden days of flower power and rock n’ roll.
Walking tours specialist Ramble Worldwide devises itineraries with this age group in mind. “Retirees in their sixties and seventies are redefining travel,” Ramble’s MD Wayne Perks told Telegraph Travel. “They are no longer satisfied with sitting still; instead they want holidays that combine adventure, comfort and enrichment; they like the camaraderie of group tours; and they are more willing to invest in longer, high-quality trips.”
So whether you’re a fogy, a queenager or a victory lapper, the world is yours as you hit the big 6-0. Where (and how) will you go?
Skip ahead:
Going it alone
Maybe you’ve always wanted to see tigers and the Taj Mahal, yet your other half is happier in his or her slippers in the Home Counties; or maybe your travel tastes clash with your friends? The confident decades of late middle age are a perfect time to take the plunge with a solo trip, although it can be challenging choosing the right tour for like minded company.
Cycling and walking holiday specialist Macs Adventure says the company is witnessing a ‘clear trend’ of 60-something clients choosing to book solo on classic routes such as the Camino de Santiago, UK coast to coast trips and routes along Hadrian’s Wall. “The number of caminos undertaken by solo travellers, predominantly women, has significantly increased,” a company representative told Telegraph Travel. Luxury providers offering solo traveller products that target this age group include family run start-up One Traveller, whose specialist products for ‘mature solo travellers’ include Kenya safaris, and Romanian castle spotting and whisky tasting.
How to do it:
Cox & Kings (03301 627 535, coxandkings.co.uk/) offers 13 nights from £3,995 including flights from a choice of airports and transfers on their luxury solo groups Splendours of Sri Lanka Tour which includes a wild elephant and leopard safaram a visit to the UNESCO-listed rock fortress of Sigiriya, and a relaxing sojourn on a palm-fringed beach.
Asia group tour specialist Distant Journeys (0800 141 3667, distantjourneys.co.uk/) offers 12 nights from £2,395 on its Temples & Tigers Exclusively Solos Tour to India for 2025, including Virgin Atlantic flights from Heathrow to Delhi and some meals, which takes in the classic Golden Triangle cities of Delhi, Agra and Jaipur, plus Amritsar for the Golden Temple and the tigers at Ranthambore National Park
Meet the traveller: Joyce Connor, 62
“I spent years waiting for friends who said they would travel with me before in 2019 biting the bullet and deciding to travel solo. There’s a real joy in travelling alone at this age as you are more confident and more confident in your likes and dislikes. Japan was wonderful as it’s so safe for solo women travellers. My North America trip will be the first time I’ve taken a full six weeks off work in decades and I can’t wait.”
Take the kids
Perhaps the kids have flown the nest and you dearly miss them, or they live overseas and you’re keen to catch up for some quality parent-child time. Sexagenarians planning bonding holidays with their grown-up children (with or without grand-kids) are in many travel companies’ sights (especially with 60s often footing the bill for a group stay) in a trend that’s been dubbed ‘holi-bonds’ (family bonding holidays).
Lindsay Gregory, Managing Director of The Luxury Villa Collection, says the brand’s larger Family Collection category stays are often booked by 60-somethings planning intergenerational trips. This holiday category can benefit from some forethought: who is paying for what? (Is the trip dependent on the bank of mum and dad?); will the accommodation you are booking allow for privacy as well as togetherness?
How to do it:
Yellow Zebra (yellowzebrasafaris.com) offers 10 nights in South Africa at exclusive-use properties for 6 adults and 2 children from £6,256 pp, staying in properties including MORE collection’s More Quarters Residence on a B&B basis with staff and a chauffeur with all flights and transfers on a tour that should tick all boxes, with a mixture of city stops, wine tastings and safaris.
Simpon Travel (020 8003 6557; simpsontravel.com) offers a week at Genesis, Noesis and Synthesthis, three neighbouring villas on the tranquil island of Meganissi with infinity pools and al fresco kitchen/dining areas from £768 pp.
Meet the traveller: Suzanne Noble, 63
“I was planning to go on a Vilnius city break on my own because I fancied it and I’m used to travelling on my own, but my son Gabriel, who’s 30, said he would join me. The last time the two of us had holidayed together was a week in Tuscany and Rome when he was in his early teens. We’re both foodies, so we enjoyed finding out-of-the-way places to eat and we had deep mum-son discussions which we don’t have time for in day to day life. It was precious.”
Swap houses
With 60-somethings often established in owner-occupied homes, and able to travel flexibly, this an age at which houseswapping can come into its own, with many veteran houseswappers being post retirement, but physically fit, says Caroline Connolly, from veteran homeswapping platform HomeLink. “Swaps are also a great way to stay in and see the major tourist sites you might have missed when you were younger, but at lower cost than city centre hotels,” she says. Home trades can be arranged informally, through friends, or via paid-for sites such as HomeLink that offer reciprocal stays: when both parties visit each others’ properties at the same time.
Platforms such as market leader HomeExchange and THIRDHOME allow a mixture of reciprocal and “points swaps” for site membership fees, whereby users allow others to stay at their home to accrue point against future stays and new contender Kindred offers reciprocal swaps in homes with designer clout (“hide that pot pourri, Marge”) with cleaning and ‘service’ fees of around £300 for a week’s stay.
How to do it:
For 2025, Homelink (01962 886882; homelink.org.uk) offers ‘plush’ condo in California favourite Palm Springs, which has a private swimming pool, sleeps four people in two doubles and is looking for a UK swamp, with the site costing £120 for a year’s site membership. Kindred (livekindred.com/) has March availability on a range of stays in downtown Manhattan sleeping up to four people.
Meet the traveller: Janet Fairley, 66
“We live in a converted chapel in an attractive village in the Peak District National Park, a walking distance from Chatsworth House, which is appealing to overseas swappers. We have had many memorable house swaps, including a penthouse apartment in New York, with a wrap-around terrace and a view of the Chrysler Building, and a palatial villa in Santorini, with a swimming pool and jacuzzi overlooking the caldera. It’s a great way to make friends too, and we stay in touch with lots of swappers as we’ve trusted each other not to damage our houses, so that’s quite bonding!”
Victory lapping
For some 60s, the lucky stretch of time after kids have flown and before the arrival of grandkids is the perfect time to rediscover their long-lost globetrotting side. Britons born in the the 1960s were the first to come of age in an era of cheaper long-haul flights with the 1980s seeing a boom in Britons signing up for the TEFL and the backpackers’ trails. Today a growing number of Sixties are revisiting their former haunts, but on a grown up budget. Victory lappers should bear in mind their booze tolerance and sleep patterns might not be as they were aged 19 (so stage sleeper trains between comfortable hotel nights and reconsider sleeping on the beach, not least as bureaucrats have killed beach camping by policing snoozers on sand).
How to do it:
Audley Travel (01993 460 693, audleytravel.com) has 11 nights in luxury properties in Bangkok, Phuket and Chiang Mai from £7,255.
Olympic Holidays (020 8492 6868, olympicholidays.com) offers a classic Greek island-hopping itinerary from Rhodes, to Symi and Kos targeting 60s that might have backpacked the island in their youth, from £1,130pp including return flights from London Gatwick and self-catering accommodation.
Meet the traveller: Roz Chandler, 62
“I used to be an overseas rep for 18-30 in Greece in my youth and wanted to relive my wild days there. We did a totally retro trip like the old days: boats, trains and a guidebook, nothing booked online, visiting remote islands and using all local buses....we laughed and laughed and met loads of people; it’s a great way to travel.”
The grey gap year
Call them the ‘boomerang’ gappers or fogys but Britons in their seventh decade are the second biggest demographic for round-the-world galavanting according to specialist Trailfinders. Better still, 60s can usually afford to do it on their flexible friend (rather than a shoestring), as ‘flashpackers’, opening up the cultural and fine dining options in RTW favourites such as Sydney, Singapore and Bangkok says the blogger behind advice site The Grown Up Gap Year, Emily-Ann Elliott.
“Grown up gap years are great for people in their 60s,” she says. “Often this will be a time in their lives when they are still fit and healthy and their children have left home plus they have more disposable income.” Elliott sees sixties plumping for adventurous ‘once in a lifetime’ round the world trips such as extended safaris and Indian subcontinent epics.
How to do it:
TCS Travel (0330 029 8775, tcsworldtravel.com) offers an Around the World by Private Jet tour from an eyewatering £111,000, which takes in eight destinations in 22 days in the dernier cri of luxury.
At the less eye-watering end of the cost spectrum, Trailfinders (020 7084 6500, trailfinders.com) have a ‘World Wanderer’ flight package from London to Vancouver, Auckland, Singapore and back to London from £1,546 in economy, or from around £10,400 in business class.
Meet the traveller: Sharon Cheung, 66
“After my kids went off to university and I went through a divorce, I decided to sell my house and solo travel for two full years from 2020. Sadly my plans got interrupted by the pandemic but I’m on the road again now. I’m currently in Thailand, and I’m loving it. You make lifelong friendships on the road and reenergise yourself by seeing the world through new eyes.”
Join a group
Maybe it’s genealogy or sushi-making, or maybe you love Indonesian crafts or singing in company? We tend to have very firm opinions, by the time our 60s loom, of the activities that we enjoy (and, crucially, that we don’t). Maybe now is the time to stop pretending that you enjoy fruits de mer or sunbathing on baking sands and embrace your passion for Greek archaeology? There’s an embarrassment of group tour options for 2025, a year in which tailored and experiential travel is a key trend, with specialist group tours covering everything from knitting to chamber music.
The New Scientist Tours (0203 3089 917, newscientist.com/tours) has a six-night Ancient caves, human origins tour to Northern Spain archaeology trip booking in June and August from £3,395 pp with guiding, accommodation, some meals and transfers but international travel excluded.
Ramble Worldwide (01707 524 640, rambleworldwide.co.uk), meanwhile, offers a seven-night Cretan Trails and Tavernas group walking holiday from £1,599pp for 2025.
Meet the traveller: Sharon Petts, 67
“I had longed for years to see the cave paintings and always felt it was too much of a journey to make on my own as I didn’t know anyone else who was interested. One day the New Scientist Discovery trip popped up as a Facebook advert as it felt like a sign! It was so good to meet other tour-goers who had those same (admittedly quite niche) interests and see some fabulous cave art.”
Revisit rail holidays
In 1972, the Interrail pass was dreamed up by the International Union of Railways (UIC). Cue the young folk of the 70s and 80s taking to the rails to explore the cities of old Europe with their trusty Lonely Planets (another contemporary launch, with ‘Across Europe on the Cheap’ first published in 1973).
The 50-year anniversary of interrailing saw a boom in 60-somethings returning to rail, says Melanie King, 65, administrator of Facebook group Interrailing for the Older Crowd, which now has 40,000 members. “Sixty-somethings like to visit smaller towns over bigger cities,” she says. “We like food and cultural angles and Germany, Switzerland, France and Italy in particular are popular with members.”
How to do it:
Great Rail Journeys (01904 521 936, greatrail.com) offer a six-night escorted Carcassonne, Châteaux & Vineyards rail trip to France from £1,699pp which includes Eurostar plus train tickets, first class train tickets in France.
Responsible Travel (01273 823 700, responsibletravel.com) has a two-month London to Singapore by train holiday from £21,380pp including accommodation, most breakfasts, some lunches and dinners, transfers, transport and experienced local guides.
Meet the traveller: Dave Travis, 68
“I did my first interrail in 1974, spending my 18th birthday in a Munich beer hall and for three months of 2023 took an interrail trip beginning in Bulgaria, then travelling to Turkey and gradually working my way as far north as the Arctic Circle in Norway. It was a fantastic experience and Sicily by train via Holland, Germany, Switzerland and Milan is next on my list.”
Set sail
Cruising has long been beloved of the 60-pluses, for comfort, safety and cost reasons. Now, with the 2020s explosion of launching cruise ships and new itineraries, there are a raft, excuse the pun, of cruises designed for fit empty nester sixty-somethings and itineraries that offer a choice of relaxed and more energetic excursions for 60s couples who might have varying energy levels. Do your research with this category too though as cruises vary wildly, from blousy all-inclusive US ocean cruises (which can attract the Spring Break set), to meandering European river cruises, where clientele tend to be older, less physically able but well-heeled.
How to do it:
Star Clippers (01473 242666, starclippers.co.uk) has a seven-night Caribbean windward islands voyage on a tall ship from £1,750 excluding flights and hotels on land, with hiking and biking excursions led by experienced guides.
For waterways less travelled Explore (01252 391 103, explore.co.uk) offers a seven-night cruise on a traditional Maldivian dhoni, puttering past the palm-fringed beaches of South Male, Felidhoo and Meemu and stopping at remote fishing communities and pristine snorkelling reefs from £1,495, with all on board meals provided but excluding international flights.
Meet the traveller: Andrew Middleton, 65
“I had my 60th birthday on a cruise and have been on six since. My favourite was a cruise to the Baltic in summer 2022, though we lost the St Petersburg stop due to the Ukraine war. Cruising is easy as you become older and a bit more high-maintenance! We like P&O as they adapt to cruisers’ diets (I’m a dairy-free vegetarian and my partner is wheat-free vegetarian).”
This piece was first published in February 2024 and has been revised and updated.
