As Age Creeps Up on Us-Can you still Travel?
Are Health Reasons keeping you from traveling?
This is my friend Delma. Surfing at the 3D Trick HeadzUp Museum in Las Vegas. Nothing keeps Delma down. Without going into long personal things about her health, she has been dealing with breast cancer issues for the last couple of years. But that doesn't stop her from traveling. Her next big adventure is to Lake Chapala , Mexico for 2 months for the months of December & January-all alone on her own. Now, she does speak fluent Spanish, but she's an older woman alone. She uses Airbnb a lot. Rents out the whole condo or house, but makes sure a restaurant is near by (walking distance). She relies on the local bus system also.
So here is a woman with health issues, but still continues to travel. She plans and plans and plans. For big trips, she starts to plan 4-8 months out.
So the first thing you should do is check with your doctor . How does he feel all this? He will probably be very encouraging.
Now, are you going on a cruise, a tour or just hotels on your own? I use www.hotels.com and they usually offer a fully refundable price up until and including the day of travel. It typically costs $10 a night more, but it's worth it. Does your hotel have an elevator? This is very important to me. I don't want to be lugging any luggage up and down stairs.
Did you know that cruise ships now limit the number of mobility wheelchairs, wheelchairs and walkers allowed on a cruise ship? This is being done for safety reasons. This is something to be considered, are they using tenders off the ship? My Fiji Island Cruise in January, uses tenders at most of the port stops. This usually means a very slow transition from ship to pier-not impossible, but not easy. Plus, when you get to ports in third world countries, will you even be able to use walkers or be wheeled around. Excursions off the ships are the best thing you can do in these cases. Assistance is always available.
What about a tour? How many times a day, will you be required to get on and off the bus? This can be a lot of work. And again, will there be elevators at the hotels?
Travel Insurance-what are cancellation policies, read these very carefully. Make sure these fit your needs. Do you want to add International Air Ambulance to your policy? My friend recently needed this, but she had thought ahead and when she broke her pelvis on a tour, she was able to get home fairly quickly.
Take Time to Plan Your Trip: Look at every detail of your trip. You want to be as comfortable as possible on this trip. Plan for airport assistance. Need a wheelchair or just a pusher-notify the airline ahead of time, so they can offer the best assistance.
How much luggage do you really need? Unless you have a paid companion or a very nice husband willing to lug all your luggage around, scale down to one roller suitcase and one backpack or small carry-on. How much do you really need-maybe 2 pairs of pants, 3 t-shirts or shirts, a sweater, maybe 1 black dress. If it's a cruise, maybe a little more, but now, you will have the added expense of porters.
Keep everything online-keep everything on your phone. No paper anywhere. Bring a storage battery and proper plugs for the countries you will be visiting. Download a
translator app. Though you do need internet for this. I have T-Mobile and I have internet worldwide for free.
My first time doing standup in 5 years and it went great!
I am working with another comedian and I feel so much more confident now! I only did 5 minutes, but that plenty to build on. 20 of my meetup friends came and saw me too. I'm doing it again on Sunday (I hope, if I can get a spot) and at least 10 more will be there. Since we are an older group, the other comedians made fun of us, but at least I had my own fans there-they didn't.
Carmen & Me
So come see my this Sunday at 8pm at Noreen's Lounge on Tropicana in Las Vegas!