Travel For Senior Tips
One of the benefits of getting older, and retiring, is not having to request time off from an employer to enjoy traveling. Whether it’s visiting family during the holidays, taking a summer vacation, or traveling around in an RV, senior travel is growing in popularity. Instead of relaxing at home, a large number of senior citizens are making the decision to get out and travel. If you are a senior citizen and you are interested in traveling, you may be wondering about the best way to approach it, and the best destination.
If you are a senior citizen, or you have a parent or parents who are, just looking to get away for the holidays to avoid all the hustle and bustle, we’ve listed some options below that could provide the respite you’re looking for. On the other hand, if you plan to visit family, and spend some quality time with the kids and grandkids this holiday season, we have some information toward the bottom of this post, that will help make sure that goes as smoothly as possible.
Senior citizens enjoy a wide variety of different activities. If you enjoy golfing, a golf resort may be an ideal location for your next vacation. If relaxing by the beach is more your style, you have a large number of beaches to choose from. Both of those options offer social distancing more or less built in, so you can be safe, and still enjoy yourself. Deciding what you would like to do while on vacation is the best way to find the perfect vacation destination.
While the activities that you’d like to participate in on your vacation are important, so are the activities that you’d like to avoid. Unfortunately, a large number of popular vacation destinations are targeted towards the younger crowd. If excess loud music, late night partying, and excess drinking is not on your “to do list,” then you may want to consider avoiding some of the more “popular” destinations that promote these activities.
Due to their price and accessiblity, domestic vacations are often the most sought after for seniors. If you are able to afford the cost of overseas travel, you may want to consider an overseas vacation. The preparation and travel required to have an overseas vacation is often long and large. You may want to examine your health and ability to withstand a long journey before booking an overseas vacation. You will also want to check on any travel restrictions imposed by the airlines, and also be sure they are practicing social distancing and sanitary procedures.
If an overseas vacation is possible and sounds ideal, you have an unlimited number of destinations to choose from. Popular destinations include Australia, France, Italy, and Spain. Many of these destinations are famous for their rich history. While vacationing overseas, you can visit a number of well-known tourist attractions. If domestic vacations are more your style, you can often find fun, but relaxing vacations at beach or golf resorts in the south where the weather is fair and mild during the winter months.
With a large number of vacation destinations designed with seniors in mind, you are sure to find the perfect location for your next vacation. Whether you choose to spend your vacation at the beach, travel overseas, or stay at a well-known golf resort, you are sure to make an unlimited number of memories.
Whether you are helping them travel to a family member’s home for the holidays, or the family is traveling to a destination for a family vacation, below are some travel tips to ensure that the travel is not too strenuous for the seniors, and keeps their wellbeing in mind.
What You Must Know When Traveling With Seniors
Traveling with your parents can be a wonderful experience if you plan well ahead. Here are five things you must do to ensure that you and your parents will have a great vacation.
- Ensure that the itinerary is not too fast paced.
Older folks tend to get tired easily so it is not advisable to include activities that are too strenuous. It is also not advisable to pack too many activities in the itinerary such that you and your parents have to rush from one place to another. Make sure you have plenty of free time built in, so they can rest, and not feel stressed.
- Ensure that everyone has ample sleep
Plan to have at least six to eight hours of sleep for you and your parents for each day. Try to avoid scheduling any activities after 11 p.m. You may want to even prepare some hot water for your parents to soak their legs before bed time if there is a fair amount of walking in the day.
- Have ample supply of their medication
If your parents are suffering from diabetes, asthma, hypertension, high cholesterol or any other illness, make sure you obtain ample supply of medication from their doctors to last for their whole trip. To ensure that you remember to bring the medication, create a checklist of things to bring and put their medication among the top five items on that list. As a safety precaution, ask them to carry a medical record of their illness and contact details in case you are not around when they need medical attention.
- Healthy diet
Most older people do not eat heavy meals and thus you need to plan for multiple light and healthy meals that are low in salts, oil and sugars but high in fiber. Always have a sandwich or high fiber biscuits in your bag in case they get hungry and there isn’t a snack bar in the vicinity. Also make sure that you and your parents drink a lot of water to prevent dehydration.
- Bring along a first aid travel pack.
Your first aid travel pack should contain medication for fever and diarrhea, cold symptoms and sleeplessness. It should also include a thermometer, tweezers, sharp scissors, safety pins, adhesive bandages, sterile gauze, adhesive tape and antiseptic wipes. While this list is not all-inclusive, the supplies in the travel pack should be enough to cater to most conditions that require general first aid assistance. Do check the expiration date for those medications that you bring along to ensure that they are safe for consumption.
Traveling with your parents need not be a hassle as long as you plan ahead and take care of their needs. Involve them in all the activities along the way and remember to have fun!
Hopefully this guide will help seniors who are considering traveling over the holidays, as well as any children or caregivers of seniors who may be traveling with them. Obviously we can’t account for every possible destination, or every contingency, but we wanted to provide you with some of the basics to keep in mind when planning a trip as, or with , a senior or seniors.
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Caring for an aging loved one can be extremely stressful and tiring. Most people also have the demands of their everyday life. Silver Companions can help to manage the daily activities for your loved one and keep an open line of communication between clients, families, and caregivers.
Silver Companions offers many different services that are individually tailored to meet each of our client’s specific needs. We start by getting to know you and learning what you expect and need from a caregiver. We then work with you and our Registered Nurse to design a personalized care plan of how best to meet your needs. Then, we hand select a qualified caregiver that will be personally introduced to you. Our care coordinator will keep in continuous contact with you to make sure that you are satisfied. Whether a one time or recurring visit, we will be there for you and you can feel secure knowing that you will have the same caregiver on most visits, which helps assure familiarity, continuity and consistency.
Silver Companions gives you the opportunity to continue living independently in the comfort of your home or familiar surroundings. By providing caring senior assistance, we can help you to remain at home and to avoid moving into a nursing home.
For a free consultation, call us at (678) 494-8129 or email us at info@SilverCompanions.com. We’d love to hear from you.
