Featured image: Planning a life of travel during retirement? This could be you! | Photo by Envato Elements.

Six tips to decide where to live and travel

by Sue Janzen

For many of us, life fits handily into chapters. Early years, often with a focus on education, marriage (and sometimes the moving on from its end), child rearing and many years of career development. 

Once we reach our mid-to-late 50s, thoughts begin to turn to retirement in its various forms. Retirement from raising a family, from creating a career, from a focus on building our lives. The shift from building to sustaining might be slow and prolonged but once it starts, a new chapter begins to take shape. 

Retirement is a word that evokes complex emotions such as anticipation, uncertainty, empowerment and fear. After many years of focusing on my career, this is the phase I’m entering now. With just a few years of working life left, and as I dream of travel taking the place of my familiar 9-5 workday, I’ve begun to experience each of these emotions and more. My parents are both gone, my siblings and their families are scattered across North America and I don’t have a partner to consider. With the realization that my options are unlimited, I have started to question – should I stay or should I go?

As I consider my options, I think about the pros and cons of staying in Toronto. I love my home and community and want to be here in my later years. But, with more than a decade of travel ahead of me before I slow down (finger crossed!), I could relocate temporarily to maximize my travel years.

We recently polled the JourneyWoman community for their collective wisdom, and words like landscape, history, language, climate and safety popped up as factors to consider.

When we asked women where they would consider retiring to, the most-mentioned countries outside of the US and Canada included the UK, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Mexico among others. Clearly, I’m not the only one thinking through all the options.

You could also consider downsizing your home and life now in preparation for full-time travel post-retirement.  JourneyWoman has lots of tips on downsizing, courtesy of Carolyn Ray’s experience:  

• • Downsizing for Travel: Designing Your Future Travel Lifestyle
  • 11 Expert Tips to Downsize and Prepare for Travel
  • Finding Freedom: How to Make Your Solo Travel Dreams Real

You can also be more frugal with certain components of the travel experience to stretch your budget and savings further. Here are some ideas for travelling on a budget:

• • Spend less on flights and more on experiences. With the flexibility of time that comes with retirement, you can fly off season or on less popular days of the week. For example, flights from Toronto to Paris in October or November can range from under $600 to over $1,100 depending on which day you fly. You will also save more by travelling with carry-on only. Get some pack-light tips from expert Anne McAlpin in this article.
  • Become a house sitter or engage in house swapping. A quick Google search will give you a list of organizations that facilitate these options. Bonus: You‘ll make new friends along the way! Check out this JourneyWoman article for some options.
  • Explore more off-the-beaten-path locations. Small towns have rich histories, too, and can be much less expensive to stay in. Consider day trips into a large city instead of out of one. 
  • Check out JourneyWoman’s articles on how to travel on a budget.

2. Access to Healthcare

Let’s face it – living in a post-menopausal body can be a challenge. Your job may have had you on your feet all day for the last 30 years, leading to joint pain.

For me, years of sitting behind a desk has also taken a toll. While it would have been ideal if I had kept up the same level of fitness I had when I was younger, the reality is, I have work to do if I want to be an active traveller through my retirement years. 

How accessible is health care? Those aches and pains get louder as we age and, as the pandemic has shown, our health situation can change quickly. Travel insurance is a must but may not be enough. How easy will it be to get medical attention in a different country if I need it? Wikipedia has a page listing all countries with (unverified) universal health care which you might find helpful.

4. Personal Safety

There are many criteria to consider when it comes to safety. The Economist Intelligence Unit considers a total of 76 indicators, grouped under the pillars of digital, health, infrastructure, personal and environmental security. At safecities.economist.com, you’ll find several year’s worth of data, including the top 5 cities under each pillar and a tool to help you compare your city to others. You’ll find the Urban Safety Benchmarking Tool in the menu on the left side of the page.

Your country of origin may also have a website with relevant information. The Government of Canada, for example, has a travel advisory website that helps you stay informed about issues from petty crime and road conditions to demonstrations and localized terrorist activity.

JourneyWoman Women’s Safety Survey (April 2021)

In our last safety survey, most women agreed that safety is more about a mindset, and less about the destination. However, women did offer their recommendations based on personal experiences of the countries they would recommend to solo travellers.

5. Visa Requirements

What are the visa requirements and how easy is it to obtain one?  It’s not always straightforward! In Europe, for example, understanding and staying on top of the Schengen Area (which now is a region of 29 European countries that have abolished their internal borders to allow the free and unrestricted movement of people according to SchengenVisaInfo.com) 90-day rule can be complicated. This website contains valuable information about visas around the world.

6. Transportation

How important is transportation? I’m very comfortable driving in downtown Toronto, but I prefer to not have to think about driving when I travel. I want to be able to relax and take in my surroundings. It’s important to me that I live close to train stations or airports so I can move about easily without having to own or rent a car. Rome2Rio.com is my go-to source for transportation options. OMIO is another good option.

For now, I only dream of the opportunities that lie ahead of me in this ever-changing world. But research and thoughtful consideration is important and I hope to be as prepared as possible when I’m ready to leap into the next chapter.

I’m excited about the possibilities and need to keep reminding myself that the only limits are the ones I impose on myself.

When I find myself saying ‘Oh, I couldn’t possibly do that!’, I challenge myself to think it through with a courageous heart. Rent my condo out and hit the road for a year or two? Of course, there will be challenges, but what’s stopping me? Will I be lonely? At times, yes. But I’ve been lonely at home, too. Will I have enough money? I’ll need to make some adjustments and may need to change my expectations, but I’ll figure it out. Will it be safe? It will if I pay attention, just as I do at home. 

As my colleagues talk of learning plans and career development, I now look for articles and videos about retirement. Instead of looking for mentorship at work, I now seek out women who will inspire my next chapter. Women I find every day in the JourneyWoman community.

The Countries I’m Currently Considering

Portugal (score – 4/6)

Portugal hits the right notes with climate, cost of living, accessible health care and more. The biggest challenge with Portugal is that it falls within the Schengen Area, so I wouldn’t be able to stay for a full year.  It’s also a bit limited in terms of quick trips into neighbouring countries if I want to stick to train travel, so gets a lower score on transportation.

Canada (score – 5/6)

Of course, maintaining my current home base is a consideration. My friends, family and community are here, the health care system provides for all my needs, and the climate is … familiar. But living in downtown Toronto leaves me craving nature. Air travel is also expensive within the country and flying overseas to access those dreamy European villages requires finances and effort.

France (score – 5.5/6)

France is at the top of my list because of its high-speed rail service, proximity to neighbouring countries, accessible health care and climate. The biggest challenge, again, is the Schengen Area time limit. I gave it an extra half a point because the French I learned in school becomes unlocked from deep in my brain when I visit and I’m keen to exercise that muscle. Babbel is also a great way to brush up on any language.

For now, I only dream of all the opportunities ahead of me. But thoughtful consideration is important too. That way, when I’m ready to leap into that next chapter, I am doing so with a sense of what I need and want and have several years of solid research behind me.

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