Travel fears? Google explains what a fear is….”an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain or a threat.”
We have been on the road now for 3 years and one question we are always asked is “Are you scared when you travel, you are on and off planes, buses and trains and travel to some countries that well….aren’t just that safe anymore?” With 2017 looming and new travel plans in place, we reached out to the top 37 Baby Boomer Travel Bloggers and asked them just one question:
Contents
- 1 “What is the one fear that would prevent you from travelling in 2017?”
- 2 A Boomers Life After 50
- 3 Adventurers of Empty Nesters
- 4 Boomeresque
- 5 Boomer Travel Patrol
- 6 Clark Norton
- 7 Contented Traveller
- 8 50 Shades of Age
- 9 Glamour Granny Travels
- 10 The Gypsy Nester
- 11 Heather on Her Travels
- 12 Hole in the Donut
- 13 Home Free Adventures
- 14 Journey Woman
- 15 Legging It
- 16 Life Part 2
- 17 McCool Travel
- 18 More Time To Travel
- 19 My Itchy Travel Feet
- 20 Our Empty Nest
- 21 Ottsworld
- 22 Passing Thru
- 23 Passionate Retirees
- 24 Plan Your Escape
- 25 Really Truly Living
- 26 Retire Early Lifestyle
- 27 Six Legs Will Travel
- 28 Sixty and Me
- 29 Soul Travelers 3
- 30 The Travelling Lindfields
- 31 To Travel Too
- 32 Travel With A Challenge
- 33 Traveling With MJ
- 34 Travel Past 50
- 35 Travel With Kevin and Ruth
- 36 Wander Boomer
- 37 Women On The Road
- 38 World Wide Adventurers
- 39 Starts at 60 – 100 Readers Response to our Question on Travel Fears
- 40 Have you any travel fears that would prevent you from travelling?
“What is the one fear that would prevent you from travelling in 2017?”
A Boomers Life After 50
“I don’t know if there is anything that would stop me from traveling. I was a bit fearful this summer after the issues in France and other places in Europe. However, I went to Italy and then on a river cruise through Europe. I don’t want to stop traveling because of risks that could be the same as happen in the USA, right in NYC where I go all the time. The only thing that might prevent me from traveling is the weather. I don’t travel in the snow during the winter. I’m fearful of snowy weather, especially driving or flying in bad weather. I hope I’ll stay healthy enough during my life after 50 so I can keep on traveling and discovering the world”
Adventurers of Empty Nesters
“I would say that nothing would prevent us from traveling. We may choose to go to areas that are less controversial, but we all cannot live our lives in fear. We need to continue to find adventure and live out our dreams.”
Boomeresque
“If a loved one were seriously ill at home, I’d stay put. Otherwise, I’m outta here!”
Boomer Travel Patrol
“The one fear for me would be a major attack on the internet. That would keep all the flights grounded and all reservations systems from air to hotel, etc. in major disarray and cause great fear and panic as well as another terror attack.”
Clark Norton
Contented Traveller
“Nothing would prevent us travelling”
50 Shades of Age
“I am pretty fearless when it comes to travel, but the one thing that might make me a bit nervous is the threat of terrorism. However, I have decided that this is not going to prevent me from travelling.”
Glamour Granny Travels
“Nothing really would prevent me from traveling. However, we have to be realistic and I would fear to be caught up in violence. Therefore I select my destinations carefully and hope for the best, enjoying my trips.”
The Gypsy Nester
“We really try to steer clear of fear. Veronica even has a fear-conquering series of stories on GypsyNester.com, but off the top of our heads I guess a family emergency or illness would probably keep us from galavanting around the globe next year.”
Heather on Her Travels
“Fear of visiting a place close to a war zone or somewhere where political unrest might cause things to blow up might prevent me from visiting certain countries or locations. However I don’t believe in scaremongering – sometimes the media blows things out of proportion so I would take local advice before deciding to travel.”
Hole in the Donut
“Unless a meteorite strikes the earth and smashes us all to smithereens, there is nothing that will prevent me from travelling in 2017. In fact, fear is never a factor when I travel. Money? Yes. Altitude? Yes. Length of flights? Check. I could go on, but suffice it to say that I have long said that travel is not a dangerous activity. I’ve been doing it all my life and only had one incident – and that was in the U.S.”
Home Free Adventures
“The only fear that would keep me from travelling in 2017 has not yet been invented!”
Journey Woman
I believe that Ma Nature and Global Warming might be a factor that keeps us all from travelling in 2017. There will continue to be weather extremes all over the world. Earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanoes, flooding, temperature extremes dominated the news in 2016 and expert predicts that more of the same can be expected. I hope that the experts are wrong. Be nice, Mama Nature!
Legging It
“Severe illness”
Life Part 2
“There is nothing that could stop me from travelling. Asking me to stop travelling would be like asking me to stop breathing.”
McCool Travel
“Likelihood of bodily harm, incarceration, or worse gives me serious concern.”
More Time To Travel
“As an ageing boomer, probably the biggest fear would be personal rather than situational. Should there be any decline in my own health, it might put brakes on my travel. Or at least, I would have to make adjustments to travel in a different way.”
My Itchy Travel Feet
“I really don’t have any fears that would keep me from travelling. Poor health is the only thing that would keep me from travelling in 2017. However, I’m healthy so it’s not an issue. And it’s really not a fear.”
Our Empty Nest
“What’s the one fear that would prevent Tom and me from traveling in 2017? Terrorism, of course. It’s prevented us from going overseas and would prevent us from leaving the house if it should happen stateside on a regular basis. Extreme weather, too, always figures into our plans. We check beforehand and won’t go somewhere if there’s a threat of hurricanes, severe thunderstorms, or floods during the time we expect to be there. On our last road trip to the American Southwest, we had a mega storm–with multiple tornadoes and other fun stuff–chasing us from Arizona to Colorado through Oklahoma to Kansas. We were always a day ahead and safe, but antsy to get home. It was nerve-wracking.”
Ottsworld
Passing Thru
Passionate Retirees
Plan Your Escape
“We have been to 100 countries now and were chosen are one of the Top Boomer Travel Bloggers. We believe our world is a wonderful beautiful place and people all over the world are generous, kind, and loving. One fear we have is not having time in our lives to experience everything.
Travel is an adventure and a chance to enjoy yourself and learn more about yourself and other cultures. To get the full experience you should embrace new ways of doing things, enjoy new foods, and appreciate people and beliefs different from what you already know. As we have said before, try to understand and not judge others. In doing so, you will learn more about yourself and adopt new attitudes that will enrich the rest of your life. We attempt to have local experiences everywhere we travel by staying in family run hotels and B&B’s.”
Really Truly Living
“A contagious disease outbreak of large proportions would keep us from travelling in 2017.”
Retire Early Lifestyle
Six Legs Will Travel
“Simon and I talked about your question, and we agreed the only thing that might make us afraid to travel would be if one of us developed an illness or sustained an injury that could become problematic while travelling. There are no guarantees when you leave home healthy and pain-free, so we have made sure we have good insurance and a plan to get home quickly if necessary. But if we left home with something we knew could flair up while we were out of the country, it would make us think twice. Oh, we would most likely go anyway, but we would have concerns, and make even more contingency plans.”
Sixty and Me
“Fear of travelling alone”
Soul Travelers 3
“There is not one fear that I can think of that would prevent me from travelling in 2017 as travelling is just part of my beingness so nothing stops it ever. I am a big believer in “If there is a will, there is a way” so I always find a way!”
The Travelling Lindfields
“Terrorism.”
To Travel Too
“Travel Fears: We have no fears that will keep us from travelling the world, we are concerned that we maintain our health and fitness to continue our travel adventures worldwide”.
Travel With A Challenge
“Bottom line: nothing GENERALLY would prevent me from traveling in 2017 except my own health or the imminent birth of a new grandchild, but specifically I would not travel to war zones (presently the Middle East) or high crime countries/regions (several countries in Central America) which are easy to identify from reliable government Travel Advisory Websites. The best of these are the TAW’s of Canada, Britain, U.S. and Australia.”
Traveling With MJ
“I don’t! Absent a major catastrophe (ala 9/11) there just isn’t any fear that is keeping me from travelling. And I have no time to worry over catastrophe that “could” happen.”
Travel Past 50
“Sorry, no fear prevents us from travelling. If you are looking for terrorist attacks or infrastructure fails, we just don’t see these as factors inhibiting our travels. We would like to boycott visiting U.S. states that have gun conceal and carry laws, but that’s a losing battle for the time being. Sure, there are a handful of countries we can’t or won’t travel to for geopolitical reasons. About the only reason we would curtail travel in 2017 is to spend more time with family.”
Travel With Kevin and Ruth
“Well, my first thought as you asked for it was “I have no fears of traveling in 2017.”
Wander Boomer
“I don’t worry about outside events such as terrorism or train wrecks.”
Women On The Road
“Unrest. You never know whether a country you’ve long wanted to visit will still be ‘open’: the Middle East, the Sahel, parts of South Asia, Northeast Africa… that said, so many new countries have opened up in the past two decades – Central Asia and Eastern Europe for example. But terrorism is a real threat and strikes indiscriminately so some places are more risky than others.”
World Wide Adventurers
“You know the old saying do it while you’re young…well we’re doing while my parents are still young and healthy. My one fear that would prevent me from travelling is that one of my parents got sick and needed me to take care of them. That would stop me travelling.”
Why not PIN our article for later:
Starts at 60 – 100 Readers Response to our Question on Travel Fears
Have you any travel fears that would prevent you from travelling?
We would love to hear from you and please feel free to share this with your friends and families as well.
Thanks for stopping by and welcome to To Travel Too – Australia’s top Baby Boomer lifestyle and travel blog, with an international worldwide audience in mind, run by the married couple, freelance writers and full-time travellers Jane and Duncan Dempster-Smith. Come with us as we explore the world. Our two mantras that we live by are ‘chase time not money’ and ‘age is no barrier when it comes to travel’.
Interesting comments. Of course most of the blogger respondents are experienced travelers and so they know that the world is not nearly the dangerous place that the media makes it out to be.
Yes it was interesting the feedback from the 100 plus respondents via the [email protected] was No.1 Lack of funds No.2 No Fear N0.3 Health.
So we certainly have an opportunity to help folks understand that lack of funds is not necessarily an impediment or fear to travel. As you know you have overcome this and managed to travel on a defined budget and also to allow $$ to flow in. Thanks for participating.
Headlines have increased more than hazards. In the past, health scares, weather, equipment and wars grounded us. I remember. At the age of 6 ( decades ago!) our TCA Super Constellation was forced to land at a US airforce base in Iceland due mechanics. The day after an aircraft being blown up on the Zurich tarmac, I took off with trepidation – but take-off I did. “We have nothing to fear, but fear itself.”
Ursula, So True. Certainly the mainstream media TV and Print would have us in doom and gloom. We have as post 2nd World War kids seen ups and downs to economies, seen destructions and global demise and regrowth. We have seen bushfire take out complete towns and seen the towns regrowth. We all have a purpose to be fear less and to resonate this position. Love having you with us on the Journey.. Jane & Duncan
Thanks so much for including me in this roundup. I was absolutely delighted to read that those of us who travel all the time have no fear of doing so. It reinforces the message that I constantly convey – travel is not a dangerous activity.
Totally agree Barbara – hope to catch up one day with you on the road somewhere! Happy travels!
Nice post guys! Well, we are a few years shy of boomers – but we have some of the same fears here – Health is a big one for us – not being mobile/major ailment – but we have now lost our healthcare and are buying expat insurance – so that allows us to get any big health issues taken care where ever we are. Sad to see Trump hit your list!
Hi Dorene
Thanks for the comments. We were also sad to see Trump and our national carrier Qantas hit the list as well! Oh well! What can you say! At least they were truthful! We will keep on travelling as long as our health is good but we wont let any fears stop us!. Enjoy India looks amazing.
The only thing that would stop me from traveling in 2017 would be a family member being terminally ill. Until, they couldn’t travel, I would make sure they got to places they wanted to go. It may involve long distance travel or close to home day trips but it will be travel.
Glad to see the positiveness in your response! Thanks for your comment!
Cheers Jane and Duncan
Hey, awesome site. I came across this on Google, and I am pleased. I will be definitely coming back here more often. Wish I could add the conversation and bring a bit more to the table, but am just taking in as much info as I can at the moment. Thanks for sharing. Dooars Tour Package
Keep Posting:)
I’m sure there are dangers everywhere in every country, but we can easily say the same for our own home country. There are perceived fears we can’t ignore, but you can take the sensible step of providing for most eventualities and reducing risks when travelling. We travel each year often by ourselves, but small group tours are also a good way of lessening the risks in many countries we find! Thanks for a great survey, very interesting to see your results! ?
Thanks for your comments Sue. Great comment about travelling in small group tours.
Many seem to be shying away from international travel given all the attention around terrorism. We stick to overseas destinations that are deemed safe by the State Department, but otherwise we continue travel abroad. There was a terror incident when we were in London a couple of weeks ago but I assure you the millions of citizens and travels went about their work and travel undeterred.
Yes, we just have to carry on as normal and not let the terrorists know that we are afraid.
Thanks for reaching out to us.
Sad but real part of aging is most of us get less adventurous and more anxious and concerned about our health as we age. How is that fair? Didn’t we work all our lives to now play? Well there is lots to do. But my advice is do it soon if you can swing it.
Great advice. Our tag line is ‘chase time not money’.
Thanks for your comments.
Jane adn Duncan
Wow! Thanks for putting this list of the best baby boomer travel blogs together. I find them really useful as my parents, who are now aged over 50, love traveling.
Hi Aika
Thanks for your comments. Glad to know that our article can assist your parents. Happy travelling for them.
Cheers Jane and Duncan