Featured image: Adventure travel is possible at any age, and might look different from person to person | Photo by Claudia Laroye

How adventure travel can help you get your groove back

by Claudia Laroye

The possibility to learn about the world through the travel experience is a given. But the value of adventure travel, which can often take us out of our comfort zones in places unfamiliar and new, can teach us surprising things about ourselves. Things we may have forgotten while riding the roller coaster of life, pursuing careers, raising families and caring for others.

News about the steady rise of 50+ solo women booking trips, donning backpacks and setting off on adventures across the globe won’t come as a surprise to any JourneyWoman reader. JourneyWoman has been at forefront of women’s travel for decades, providing a supportive space for women over 50 to pursue more purposeful, intentional and sustainable travel, including in the adventure space.

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Joy Fox, an 89-year-old solo traveller from British Columbia, Canada, and the first recipient of the JourneyWoman Evelyn Hannon Solo Travel Award, encapsulates this spirit of adventure perfectly.

“Even though we are not thought of as trail blazers, forging our own path, we are a bloody brave bunch of women, who are not prepared to stop living just because we are a certain age” — Joy Fox

What we can learn through adventure travel

If you’re not sure how to get your adventure groove back, rest assured, there are many women-led adventure travel companies ready, willing and able to help you find your way back to you.

Jeannie Ralston, founder and CEO of NextTribe, believes that 50+ women adventure travellers can reap profound benefits when freed from the societal constraints about who are as we age. Sure, we may be a little slower than we were in our 20s. But “we are capable, we are resilient, we can still have adventures and excitement in our lives,” says Ralston.

NextTribe’s motto is Age Boldy, and the company works hard to offer trips for women not just in the same age range but who share that mindset, that they can still do and achieve. “It’s invigorating.”

Paige Davis is President of AdventureWomen, which began offering adventure travel trips for women in 1982 when the idea of women travelling to exotic destinations designed especially for women, by women, was not the mainstream. Over those 40+ years and thousands of travelling women, Davis notes that her guests gain a renewed sense of independence and confidence. “Women enjoy being in a small group, bonding and growing and feeling triumphant together.”

Empowerment through adventure travel

Those feelings of empowerment, connection and self-awareness are powerful takeaways as women discover more about themselves through the adventure travel experience. Appreciating that these positive outcomes await after participating in an adventure trip can help over 50+ travellers overcome some of the common concerns that prevent them from booking an adventure trip.

According to Kelly Gregg Rubingh, Founder of Wanderlust Women Travel, women can feel overwhelmed with the logistics of deciding where to go, how to get there, what to do once there, and how to get it planned out. “That’s why small group women-centered tours are a great way to go – you just sign up. Everything is planned out for you, including finding a roommate if you want one, and it makes it very easy for women to just say yes.”

Perceptions of loneliness, safety and health concerns can also weigh on women, no matter how old they are. As we age, it’s important to be honest with ourselves about our physical abilities and activity comfort level. Our bodies are not the same at 50, 60, 70 or 90 as they were 25. We age and that’s a fact. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t still adventure while acknowledging that physical and mental adjustments may be necessary.

“As women age, they may have to consider their health and fitness levels more closely when planning an adventurous trip,” notes Kelly Kimple, owner of Adventures in Good Company.

However, Kimple adds that such concerns speak even more loudly about why 50+ solo adventure travellers should consider a group trip with a well-experienced and supportive tour company, who can help assuage concerns with carefully planned itineraries, support and “challenge by choice.”

The adventure of finding yourself again

Of course, not every adventure trip means climbing Mount Everest. Adventure comes in many forms. For Susan Minns’ guests at The Divine Destination Collection, a luxury travel company, even soft adventures create “uncommon encounters and magical moments that foster individual growth.”

Over 50 solo travellers have a better ability to travel with meaning when all they can focus only on themselves. Which can be a welcome change from decades of family and trip-planning responsibility. The truth is that adventure trips can help women find themselves again.

As Jennifer Haddow, owner of Wild Women Expeditions notes, one of the most profound things we learn about ourselves as older women on an adventure trip is that our inner strength and sense of adventure has always been in us.

“We learn that we are strong, that we still have the ability to surprise ourselves and that our years of wisdom only help to enhance the opportunities we have while interacting and connecting with the local women that we visit while in destinations,” Haddow says.

Enjoying ‘adventures while aging’ is a gift. There IS an adventure that’s just right for you, led by professional women-led tours created to help you rediscover yourself again.

Go Play Outside!

Claudia Laroye is a writer based in Vancouver, Canada.

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