Dear Ageless Traveler,

If you've been staring at your suitcase lately feeling more dread than delight, you are not alone. Travel burnout is real. It happens to many seasoned wanderers. A point comes when we feel we have already been everywhere and checked every box.

Here's what I've learned after decades of going (almost) everywhere: the cure for burnout isn't forcing another big trip. It's remembering how to be curious again, in small ways, before you ever board a plane.

Here’s why we need to overcome burnout. First, Travel is too beneficial for our health and brain stimulation, and because lifelong learning is part of happy aging, to give up on it.

Second, it is a real problem for our travel companions, who still feel that surge of curiosity every time they read about a new place to see, or who long to revisit old haunts they loved. So, this week, I want to help you find your way back to curiosity.

Third, travel burnout can be a symptom of something deeper. The 18th-century literary giant Samuel Johnson wrote, "When a man is tired of London, he's tired of life," and he is my hero. Substitute the word "travel" for London, and you will understand why I am motivated to be a cheerleader for lifelong travel, even if it seems tiresome to some folks.

If you have lost the urge and excitement to travel and would like to rekindle that flame, share it with friends and in our Facebook Salon. You might be surprised at their willingness to try something new with you.

• Ask Adriane: Do You Get Burned Out?
• News You Can Use: Apps and Hacks for Easy Packing, Planning And Cruising
• Culture Vulture: Museums and Libraries That Will Light You Up
• Luxury Travel for Less: Hobby and Lifelong Learning Travel

On this week’s podcast: If you would like to know how evaluate luxury tours to see if they are right for you, check out this episode of The Ageless Traveler, I welcome Doni Belau, founder of Girls' Guide to the World

Never stop traveling

Cheers,

Adriane

This Week's Highlights

On This Week's Podcast In this episode of The Ageless Traveler, I delve into women's travel with Doni Belau, founder of Girls' Guide to the World

We explore some of the world's most fascinating destinations-Nova Scotia, Venice, Mauritius, Réunion Island. Discover remote mountain villages, Venetian Villas, UNESCO World Heritage Sites, helicopter adventures, and how to be a travel insider and ask the right questions when choosing a tour.

Museums and Libraries That Will Surprise You

If you feel burned out, visit your local museum… It’s a curiosity machine. For example, Meet Bone Jovi, the resident cat at the very tiny, local Bone Museum in Brooklyn, who has become the unofficial guardian of its collection of human bones and anatomical specimens. Adopted from an animal shelter, he now greets visitors and has turned into a small celebrity in his own right, proof that even a quirky one-room museum can make a city trip feel brand new again.

If Paris and New York still excite you, but cost is a factor, many big museums around the world now offer free museum nights throughout the year, a wonderful way to revisit a favorite city and see its galleries in a completely different light, minus the crowds and the ticket price.

Museums and libraries are also finding new ways to bring their collections to travelers who cannot get there in person. The Prado in Madrid lets you follow its exhibits from a distance, and many institutions now offer online tours you can take from your own living room. I recently visited the Library of Alexandria in Egypt and the Guggenheim in Bilbao without leaving my office. Pay attention at home, and before long you may find yourself wanting to see it in person.

Luxury Travel for Less

Two wonderful ways to fall back in love with travel are to devote yourself to a hobby or to learn a new skill…so take a skillcation)

Photography is a natural fit…see my podcast guest Pete Demarco and Junko Yokomota for some great ideas and listen to our informative interview.

Sports travel is another favorite of mine. My husband loved road trips to iconic baseball fields. You can travel specifically to learn a sport. Listen to our interview on Road Scholar’s pickleball trip.

At Rancho Valencia Resort and Spa in Rancho Santa Fe, California, you can take group or private lessons in tennis, pickleball, or padel, the newest racquet sport. In Florida, Stuart went for Dream Week and played baseball during spring practice.

If golf is your game, Sensei Porcupine Creek in Palm Springs (very high end) offers five-day golf-and-tennis well-being programs. The new Palm Springs Surf Club, which I love and is definitely luxury for less, is a fun way to catch a wave in a wave pool or, like me, drink prosecco and watch others surf.

I did try body surfing at the Modern Elder Academy in Baja, run by Chip Conley, the Airbnb guru turned midlife philosopher, which also offers weeklong reinvention programs in Santa Fe and Mexico.

Then there is birding, a hobby I fell in love with and still keep up weekly at home. I first discovered it in Panama, at the Canopy Towers, an old radar tower that has become an unexpected birding hotspot; I later joined the Audubon Society's Christmas Bird Count. For a grandparent experience, consider watching the sandhill cranes land in Nebraska, where I took my daughter on a memorable birding trip when she was nine years old.

Get out of that burnout mode with festivals celebrating our feathered friends: Corpus Christi's Birdiest Festival in America and the Burrowing Owl Festival in Cape Coral, Florida.

If gardens are more your pace, the Chelsea Flower Show, Japan's cherry blossom season, and Philadelphia's flower show are unforgettable, and all likely still on your bucket list. See our newsletter for more of our favorite travel spots inspired by a love of gardening.

Dark sky adventures can also open up a sense of awe that burnout may have buried. See our newsletter for some of the best dark sky spots in the world. And for a place I bet you’ve never been, consider the Americana Motor Hotel in Flagstaff, Arizona, the world's first Dark Sky City. Set on Route 66 and partnered with the nearby Lowell Observatory, the hotel offers on-site telescopes for stargazing.

Travel with Adriane If you do have a group and you want to go to Japan in fall 2027, do contact me directly on Fanlist. I am creating the trip with a secret Japanese source. It's too early to disclose details now, so put yourself on the "I'm Interested" list.

Friends Meeting Friends

Please check out the great podcast, Older Women & Friends: Stories of Aging Well, with host Jane Leder

Award-winning author Jane Leder and guests take a deep dive into the joys and challenges of being an older woman.

“Older Women & Friends: Stories of Aging Well” is a podcast that sets the record straight, dispels myths, explores the many contributions older women make, and the wisdom they’ve earned and are anxious to share. Older women know a thing or two about living with a keen sense of wonder and an abiding appreciation for the gift of longevity. So, it’s time to change the perception that the gig is just about up when, in truth, the second wave of the journey has just begun.

Congratulate Jane on supporting Good Grief. You’ll love the way she gets the most interesting guests to tell the most interesting stories.

Another Champion of Good Grief and a powerhouse podcaster:

Attention The AGELESS TRAVEL WOMEN: Want no boundaries advice from a savvy lady who knows how to craft success? ​Tune into Aging with Purpose and Passion: The Strategic Blueprint for Women Over 50.

Host Beverley Glazer, Reinvention Strategist and Empowerment Coach, is honest and grounded. Beverly tackles everything from grief and identity shifts to ageism, sovereignty, and libido with confidence and depth.

Beverly is my go-to voice when I’m stuck …you will love her show!

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