Where Do Over Fifties Holiday?

Since they retired my parents have enjoyed travelling and seeing the world a bit. Not endless travel but now that they only have to take the two of them they found they could afford a couple of holidays a year.

For many years they owned a timeshare apartment in Tenerife (first fortnight in March) but hardly ever used it as they preferred to swap it for other locations around the world. It was a cheap way to ensure a holiday every year (or two holidays if they took two separate weeks in different locations).

Image by Don DeBold

One year they went on a cruise and Mum was hooked. Dad enjoyed it, I assume, and indulged Mum's cruise lust every couple of years.

However, on entering his eighties, Dad has been increasingly reluctant to travel abroad and especially reluctant to fly. Then this year both of them were quite ill over Easter while DD and I were visiting. And they had a Russian River Cruise booked for June. Moscow to St Petersberg? I can't remember but it involved flying to get there - Mum had had her way.

One morning towards the end of our stay I overheard a tentative and obviously rehearsed speech at the breakfast table. (Yes I was eavesdropping from the other room. Well it's a small flat.)

Dad: I have a suggestion. Why don't we cancel our booking on the cruise. If we do it now we may get some of our deposit back but if we don't it doesn't matter. Then we can find a nice hotel somewhere in England where we can sit and watch the world go by.

Dry Land Cruisers (not my parents)

That was the voice of 80-something. Mum, however, is a mere 70-something and doesn't really want to spend her holiday watching the world go by. At home they are both active - they play bowls, Mum plays bridge, they entertain, they go to the theatre...

It got me thinking. There has to be a compromise between jumping on and off a cruise ship and sitting watching the world go by. Places that are like cruises on dry land perhaps? With all the facilities but none of the perpetual motion. Places that cater to a mature clientele without noisy kids, unruly teenagers or raving young adults to interfere with a more leisurely pace. Places where the entertainment is geared to senses of humour and tastes ripened over 50 years. There are places like this.

Where do your parents go on holiday?

This post was written in association with Richardson's Holiday Villages - catered holidays for adults only, on the Norfolk and Sussex coasts, with full entertainment programmes.