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Four for the Road

Four new  books help seniors plan smartly
to maximize their traveling pleasure.

By Patricia Kutza 

Seniors are traveling more than ever today, no longer deferring their travel dreams until retirement.  Four new  travel books suggest that seniors as well as  travelers of all ages can maximize their travel time by not only careful planning prior to trips but also continuing that mode while traveling.

The AAA’s Ready, Set, Travel! Series is attracting praise for its timely and thoughtful content.  Travel Tips You Can Trust continues in this vein by offering interesting advice for travelers who may be motorists, airline passengers, bus riders and cruise passengers

all within the duration of one trip.  Author  Anne McAlpin,  veteran world traveler and packing expert, skillfully integrates common sense advice with street smarts.  I can remember  a few unpleasant encounters which might have had better outcomes had I first read  McAlpin’s chapter, Taxi Tips and Tactics.  Closer to home, I wish  a few of my former house guests had read her advice about visit etiquette.  Travelling well is an art that, cultivated with attention and care, returns wonderful benefits for hosts and guests alike.

It is not an accident that AAA chose the subject of intergenerational travel when launching their Ready, Set Travel! Series.  Many seniors have both discretionary dollars and the desire to connect with their grandkids.  A marketing dream made in heaven?  Perhaps.  But I know more than a few grandparents who weren’t able to translate their travel fantasies into successful trips.  While no amount of careful planning can guarantee perfect results, I bet at least some of their angst could have been lessened or avoided by considering the advice author and psychologist Virginia Smith Spurlock dispenses.

Sometimes the age factor plays havoc with the best of intentions (Spurlock recommends no younger than traveling with kids no younger than 4 years old).  Other times the grandkids parents themselves may provide the obstacle.  I like the optimistic yet realistic approach Spurlock recommends for facing the challenges seniors can expect to encounter when traveling with their grandkids.

Eight chapters are dedicated to major US destinations, such as Florida, California and the Southwest.  I first thought that adding these chapters might limit the imagination.  But I soon realized that Spurlock’s suggestions about where to go and what to see are the result of countless travel experiments.  If you have limited time and money, why not piggyback on her recommendations?  I expect that even the most fly-by-the-seat-of-your pants senior travelers will benefit from her no-nonsense yet creative strategies for relating to their ken.

The US National Parks rank as some of North America’s premier destinations.  Yet few travel experiences can be as frustrating as searching in these vast regions for the photo opportunities so fetchingly promised in the tourist brochures yet so hard to find while on site.

National Park Photography addresses these experiences with  “Photo Hot Spots” sections for each of twenty-one Parks.  Here, author/ photo-journalist, Tim Fitzharris,  not only tells you the best way to get there but also what special challenges await you given the season when you choose to visit.  Fitzharris nicely juggles his technical photographic advice, giving enough details for the most discerning photo buffs without making his tech talk too unapproachable for more casual enthusiasts.

The book is full of stunning photography that by itself would make it worth getting.  It also renewed my interest in visiting these national wonders, convincing me that schlepping more than a point-and-shoot camera will be well worth the inconvenience.

I think good travel preparation means mixing it up, mixing practical advice with food for the spirit.   Seniors want to not only know what makes good travel sense but also sense with makes travel good. 

For veteran hiker Earl Shaffer, that meant embarking on a historic 1998 thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail, retracing at 79 years of age the trek he first blazed 50 years earlier.    The Appalachian Trail celebrates this remarkable man and his journey and marks a fitting end to his life, as Shaffer died just a month after its publication.

There are plenty of hiking monologues in print, some just as eloquent if not matching the level of   Shaffer’s commitment.  Yet they haven’t been able to accomplish what this book did.  Its evocative and text gave me a window into the hiker’s passion.  I don’t share the feeling  but I still feel compelled to lurk in its shadows.  His matter-of-fact reporting style, capturing historical anecdotes with personal history, is the perfect counterpoint for his intense lyrical poetry. Award-winning journalist Linda Ellerbee’s great Afterword rounds out this wonderful book.

Contact Information:

Travel Tips You Can Trust
Traveling with your Grandkids
National Park Photography

Available at AAA offices nationwide or online at www.aaa.com

The Appalachian Trial:  Calling Me Back to the Hills
Available at major bookstores nationwide or direct from Westcliffe Publishers, (800) 523-3692 , www.Westcliffepublishers.com.

Images by Patricia Kutza and courtesy of the AAA (American Automobile Association)

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