TRIPS

Senior

Award-winning travel writer Susan 
Kraus provides these tips for 
enjoying travel in your senior years

H

ere’s the big picture to remember. 
Age these days is more fluid. It is no 
longer defined by our eligibility for 
Social Security or what television 

shows (if there was television) we watched as a child. 
Instead, our mobility and health often predict where 
we are on the spectrum between “young-old” and “old-
old.” We know our capabilities and are the best judges 
of what is possible and what is not possible because of 
our age.

For those of us who are fully mobile and nearing 

(or in) the senior age categories, these years can be the 
best time of our lives to travel. The world has decided 
by and large that older people are less of a threat. 
Strangers in distant parts of the globe are more likely 
to talk with us, assist us or tell us about their lives. We 
have nothing to prove to ourselves or the world at 
large—we can simply enjoy seeing it.

    Here are seven tips for traveling the world as a 

senior and getting the most satisfaction from it.

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Topeka SR

Story by 

Susan Kraus 

About the writer

Susan Kraus is an award-winning travel writer and former Menninger 
Clinic staff member who believes that travel itself is a type of therapy.