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Having made the decision to retire end of September this year I am now faced with the challenge of sorting what retirement will be like for the both of us. The answer is travel! We are fortunate that I have accumulated a decent pension which means we are aiming to travel on ‘big’ trips 3/4 times a year for probably max 4 weeks due to family restrictions and then fit in some more spontaneous ones for offers etc which pop up on the likes of Travelzoo. My travels will not be restricted by airline alliance or chasing hotel points as the destination is more important. My question is are there any useful pointers from people for what to do to source flights etc. I can use google flights and check out benefits of ex EU etc ( when I’ve looked before I’m not convinced the savings are worth it but happy to be proved wrong!) Are there any useful blogs or websites that I should sign up to such as Jacks Flight Club Travel Dealz or Luxury Flight Club are some I’ve seen. I’ve generally used the likes of trailfinders in the past for flights as I’ve not had the time to really look into alternatives. Is it still worth using them or any others people may recommend. A big topic so any advice or suggestions from those who have already tread the path would be welcome. I’m looking forward to lots of planning and travelling! Thanks
We take two month long trips a year, I start by picking a region and seeing where my BAPP 241 can take me. I then use flight connections to see what flights are available and start building a wish list itinerary that region. The last few have been:
1. Fly to Chennai, stay a couple of days, onto Sri Lanka for a 14 day tour, down to the Maldives for 5 night and then back to Chennai for a few days.
2. Fly to Shanghai for a few days, fly to Siem Reap, stay a few days, road to Phnom Penh, stay a few days, land border crossing into Vietnam, a week in Phu Quoc then fly to Hong Kong.
3. Fly to Vancouver, cruise to Alaska, back to Vancouver, road trip to Calgary, then Toronto and Boston staying a few days in each.
4. Fly to Vancouver, cruise to Hawaii, stay an extra week between the Islands, then fly to San Diego for a few days before home.Coming up, 30-day European road trip. Hull-Rotterdam, Arnhem, Cologne, Rhein Valley, Lugano, Lake Como, Lake Garda, Bergamo, Cannes, Carcassonne, Biarritz, San Sebastián, Santander-Plymouth.
Fly to Sydney, stay 9 nights between there and the Blue Mountains (sister lives there), cruise to Singapore, week in Bali, fly home from Singapore.
Tips, plan ahead for the really big trips, I’m already looking at 2026! Book hotels early using flexible rates and monitor the prices, I have the IC Sydney the night before a cruise for £260, it’s now £450. Don’t overdo it, although I often do, try to build a week or so in one place towards the end. Travel light, we make a note of climate and what we didn’t wear, we restrict ourselves to one carry on and what we can fit into a medium suitcase although we transfer that to a larger case. If you are arriving late or for only one night, research restaurants and possibly make a booking, you can always change it. It saves arriving somewhere jet-lagged and wondering where you will eat, hotel is always an option but I think it’s a lazy one and actually getting out for a walk is useful.
I find Tripit really good for building itineraries. Tripadvisor & Google (with a big pinch of salt) for hotel and restaurant reviews, on the former I filter to 2/3/4 stars only and look how old the recent reviews are. Google street view for a look around the area.
Good decision! We (well, I do all the travel planning) have been really maximising our travel opportunities and getting best value since (semi) retirement.
BA has made this less attractive now, but last December we spent nearly 3 weeks in Mexico ticking off a few bucket list items. I used our 241 to book F DUB-LHR-MEX in F, saving £600 on BA’s surcharges. The saving more than paid for a couple of nights in DUB plus a cheap MAN-DUB flight at the start of the trip. We’d never been to Dublin before so that ticked another box.
Retirement from our main careers also coincided with us reverting to travelling as a couple again, so the combination of more time and not having a teenager in tow has meant that we can focus on our own wish lists now. Next month we’re going to Bimini so my OH can fulfil his dream of diving with hammerhead sharks – it’s not easy to get to so needed a bit of time to research the best way to get there, where to stay, etc.
I’ve also got several Iberia cash bookings this year, and if you haven’t flown with them previously (or not for many years, like me), you’ll be pleasantly surprised by their route network and prices. We’re having 10 days in Lanzarote in October for sunshine, sightseeing and (for OH) diving, then flying to Madrid and doing a week-long road trip around the major battle sites of the Peninsula War (history is another passion for both of us). The Iberia flights were incredibly cheap (under £50 per sector), and I’ve booked a mixture of paradors and chain hotels both direct and via booking.com.
Don’t rule out BA holidays as you can get some really good deals.
…My travels will not be restricted by airline alliance or chasing hotel points as the destination is more important…
Hearing someone say something so sensible is like a breath of fresh air.
A few thoughts from me:
– Learn to love ITA Matrix. It’s much better at some kinds of planning than Google Flights.
– I have never flown ex-EU, as my time is too valuable. If I were a time-rich retiree, though, I’d be very willing to arbitrage territorial price differentials by nesting holidays, provided the additional stop were in a city or region that I already wanted to visit.
– Hotel pricing offers huge scope for savings, much more so than faffing with inconvenient flights. You need to consider all cash-back/portal offers, direct booking, the big OTAs, Amex (who sometimes have exclusive 4-4-3 offers, for example) and holiday deals. For example, I’ve stayed at 5* ski hotels in North America for less than 50% of the direct booking price by taking advantage of deals available only to UK-based specialist travel agents – another example of territorial arbitrage.
Thanks everyone for your thoughts. I gave up my BA Amex last year as I could not hit the new spend thresholds to get a 241. Some of my large spend items don’t take Amex. That may now change having to spend for hols so I may rethink getting one if they accept retirees?
Happy retirement @MGOR!
Having being retired 10+ years we’ve got post-pension Barclays x3 and Amex platinum.
Great ideas from other posters. I’d add front load your more adventurous/ off-piste trips in early, they’ll come a time when these become less appealing. Our solution is to start spending more to get less hassle on our journeys, including Trailfinders from time to time
Worth keeping tabs on the Premium Fare Deals, Mileage runs and BA Tier Point Run threads on Flyer Talk. As a result of posts of fare deals highlighted there we’ve gone to places we probably wouldn’t have thought of visiting, via routes or we wouldn’t have thought of, for excellent value fares. Eg we took advantage of the great Budapest-Hawaii deal a couple of years ago, and last year November went to Palm Springs for under £1K each in business.
Having just retired myself I’d say welcome to the club. I wholeheartedly agree with @jj in that I’m firmly in the camp of going to the places you really want to go to and looking at the best accommodation that suits your needs and not being driven by a “free” breakfast or an Amex £50 off. I’m not into convoluted flight plans unless I can incorporate a few days somewhere I really want to go to.
Our next trip is to the US and will include a Marriott Autograph hotel followed by an independent historic B&B.
Been retired 10 years now but have always enjoyed putting trips together and keeping an eye out for deals via the sites mentioned.
I’ve never quite got my head round hotel pricing as apart from some of the big chains they seem to offer higher prices direct booking vs what they supply to ‘bed banks’ (I think that’s the term) which means we’ve got into the habit of booking refundable rate direct with the hotel and then checking every few weeks until e.g. Destination2, Agoda etc offer prices 25% less for the same thing without requiring full payment (often 10% deposit). Similar with Maldives where we’re happy with a 3* buffet meals AI island which is usually much cheaper just booked through Travelbag. Maybe someone who’s worked in the hotel business can explain how they deal with their inventory?
As you mentioned, Google Flights, especially the ability to select 5 origin points to ‘Anywhere’ for a 1/2 week trip in the next 6 months in the travel class of your choice is a good starting point. If not sure how to do this, there’ll be a youtube video somewhere or there’s likely an old article here on HfP that could be bumped on a slow news day? Depending where you’re going and appetite for ex-EU, dropping last leg, if you find a good e.g. USA fare on Google Flights, change to a multi-sector and put in MAD, BCN, AGP as return destination, the fare may drop a lot. And as Google Flights will only show up to 6mo in advance but some of the cheapest business fares to the US have a 6mo advance booking, try ITA Matrix if you can learn how to use that, or just stick with GF and do a date search for random dates 9-10 months in advance.
We used to use BA 2-4-1s as a basis for trips but some places just paid ££ as easier, e.g. Uzbekistan which is just easier to do with Turkish who fly into the places that tourists want to go (Samarkand and Bukhara) as well as Tashkent. Amsterdam-Uzbek-LHR in business was much cheaper than ex-LHR. And Uzbekistan’s sights were good too!
Lake Palace Udaipur was on the bucket list and is spectacular, but more memorable for their posh restaurant being the only place in India we’ve ever got bad food poisoning, typical, as we’re always of the comfy bed but eat in beach shack/on the street type people.
Depending on your appetite for seeing different places, as you’re not tied to any alliance, there’s good fares out there such as Mongolian Frankfurt to e.g. Seoul and other eastern places for £1350rtn in Business where the stopover time in Ulaanbataar affords time to have look around.
Not having to fit within leave at work does mean you can take the extra days to save a few quid and use that as an opportunity to explore offbeat places or as @NorthernLass says, Dublin. We found Tunis quite interesting for 24 hours, Qatar may still have deals from there, we did Tunis-Doha-Zanzibar-Doha-home cheaply. And as you’ve probably seen, Saudia are doing Tunis-Bangkok or Phuket in Business for £995rtn/£570 single. (Link to John’s vid)
Talking of Saudia, we arrived in Phuket just after the Saudia 787 arrived and the disembarking excitable, burqa-clad giggly ladies taking selfies brought a big smile to my face. Which is good as disembarking our AirAsia A320 earlier everyone was very calm and quietly letting the previous rows get to the aisle in turn apart from a Brit in 22A – who hadn’t been drinking – made 22B/C get up as ‘this lot won’t let you out, so get up and use your elbows’.
Enjoy your trips, retirement and as your IFA will reiterate, spend your ££!
Now Mongolia sounds like fun – must have a look at that! I found Uzbekistan fascinating- once of the joys of trying out different airlines in my instance Turkish as you mentioned. My intention is to spend a lot early whilst I have the energy and health to travel. We’re off to Southern India next month for a couple of weeks touring. I love India. Taking advantage of a cheap Gulf Air fare. Never flown with them before so that could be fun! I don’t mind economy flights with certain airlines for up to 6/7 hours. Getting to India via ME breaks things up nicely and from Manchester doesn’t really add much if you have to connect via LHR for a direct BA flight.
My approach is very similar to @strickers though not retired until later this year. Points grifting means we never fly economy, but very much looking forward to being more flexible. Top of my list is something Silk Road related.
Any tips anyone?
I love reading this thread. I’ll come back and pop up in 20 years time. I’m optimistic like that.
I love reading this thread. I’ll come back and pop up in 20 years time. I’m optimistic like that.
Think positive: could be less than 20 years. Think of all the money you might save chasing BA tier points
@yorkshireRich I’m not retired, I dropped to 75% of full time 4 years ago and 50% about 18 months ago, I had been planning on early retirement but I think this is a better option. I know not everyone has this opportunity but if you do I highly recommend it. Notwithstanding (or not standing) the knee, we are lucky enough to be travelling when we can enjoy it and when we can afford it. Mrs S didn’t have the option, she took one for the team and retired at 55, to be fair to her I would in her circumstances. Carpe Diem.
Retired 2.5 years. Still able to earn 241s and a decent amount of Avios to make the most of them, for now. Our main advice is don’t delay, do it now. Book the best hotels and highest cabin you can afford. Plan well ahead, be prepared to be flexible, but most importantly go where you really want to go. On Tripadvisor, I only take seriously reviews by people who have written many reviews. I often look at their profiles to see if they are like us or just look credible. Just looking at everything other than 1 and 5 star reviews I find odd, it’s the credibility of the reviewer that’s more important. We’ve done Australia, Canada, Mauritius, all major Canary Islands, Turks and Caicos plus our annual Florida trip. Got Maldives/Sri Lanka, Florida and St Lucia booked, New Zealand/Fiji, Peru/Galapagos and West Coast US next.
@Whatsthepoint I do the same, the 2-4 stars option is an initial blunt instrument to remove the fake or stupid reviews. Often the one star ones are how the hotel didn’t refund someone when the customer had to cancel, so basically someone who had never stayed there.
@Whatsthepoint I do the same, the 2-4 stars option is an initial blunt instrument to remove the fake or stupid reviews. Often the one star ones are how the hotel didn’t refund someone when the customer had to cancel, so basically someone who had never stayed there.
People review the places they like and Americans have ruined reviews in Italy. They just don’t have a clue what Italian food is. My sole 1 bubble review on TripAdvisor was a highly-rated pizzeria where I took one bite and threw the rest in a bin.
It boggles my mind that somebody could rate an amazing place 1/5 because their checkin experience was a bit ropey.
@masaccio Not the checkin experience. I’ve lost track of the number of one star reviews I’ve read where someone has booked a non-refundable rate, not stayed and complained when they didn’t get a refund.
Now Mongolia sounds like fun – must have a look at that! I found Uzbekistan fascinating- once of the joys of trying out different airlines in my instance Turkish as you mentioned. My intention is to spend a lot early whilst I have the energy and health to travel. We’re off to Southern India next month for a couple of weeks touring. I love India. Taking advantage of a cheap Gulf Air fare. Never flown with them before so that could be fun! I don’t mind economy flights with certain airlines for up to 6/7 hours. Getting to India via ME breaks things up nicely and from Manchester doesn’t really add much if you have to connect via LHR for a direct BA flight.
Not retired, but reading the thread, out of interest (give it another decade, and I’ll be planning too!).
If you do end up looking into Mongolia further, I *HIGHLY* recommend trying to have a stay of longer than 24 hours, if at all possible. If you have the ability to have a longer stopover, have decent mobility still and you have any interest in National Parks, nature, geology or paleontology, I would seriously recommend spending a week exploring some of the more spectacular locations in the Gobi desert and staying in gers. This is definitely one for sooner rather than later, though.
For those that are interested in just how stunning Mongolia is… https://www.flickr.com/photos/cat_downie/albums/72157717435565456/
@Cat Wow, just wow.
@cat I like the one of the lady outside her ger. A bit National Geographic.
Thanks @strickers and @Lady London (I quite like the wedding guests, especially when you enlarge the picture, and see the cigarettes and mobile phone)!
I always intend to post my photos here, when destinations I’ve been to come up, but I always forget. I feel it gives a much better idea of a destination, rather than just giving my opinion (which can differ so dramatically from one person to another).
@Cat those pictures are amazing. I like the one with the ibex – you even managed to catch one mid jump!
A great thread. I have semi retired, and here are my observations:
Be pragmatic. Use “ex EU” if it works, but be aware that there is a risk. If you are “time rich”, then spend a day in the EU city before your comm n img flight.
As mentioned above, the matrix is your friend. Learn to use it and love it. Google flights is just too summary.
Join the loyalty programme for every hotel. They often have considerable upside (such as member-only rates), and the only downside appears to be over-communication.
Finally – make sure that you have travel insurance that is suitable for your needs and your travel patterns. Ask about “missed connection” coverage – which in my experience varies between 4 hours and 24 hours. (Also, “non refundable” fares on airlines may become flexible if you can prove a medical issue. Ask nicely).
Happy travels!Not retired but loving this thread.
Yes Americans have literally zero clue about Italian food. Makes sense when you spend time in America; Their version of “Italian” food has morphed into something entirely different that has nothing to do with Italy; American-Italian is an entirely separate food category (not really intrinsically better or worse – just completely different; like all cuisines you will find excellent and terrible exponents of it if you try enough). but it does mean they arrive in Italy clueless but full of wrong expectations and beliefs of their own knowledge with regard to food. Mount stupid on the Dunning-Kruger graph is a dangerous place to sit.
Mongolia – stunning! Reminds me of the Grand Tour episode which, whether the presenters are your cup of tea or not – did capture the beauty and space of the country very well – in a long career I think it’s the best output they ever did.
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