Workbook
Slow Travel After 50: the planning workbook
Plan longer, calmer trips: budgets, routes, pacing, insurance checklists and packing lists — for walking holidays, rail journeys and long stays.
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Travel
Slow travel, walking holidays, trains, insurance and going solo.
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Travel: the complete guide to going further, slower and for longer
A plain-English overview of travelling well: what slow travel means in practice, how to budget for a long stay, the health and insurance steps that matter more with age, solo versus group travel, accessibility, and where to go next in our travel guides.
Read the guidePlans and workbooks for travel
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Long stays and house-sitting: how to spend 30 to 90 days somewhere else
A guide to long stays: how the Schengen 90-in-180-day rule works for UK and US passport holders, the EU Entry/Exit System and ETIAS, when you need a visa, what house-sitting platforms involve, and how to rent an apartment abroad safely using FTC guidance.
Solo travel: staying safe, dodging the single supplement and meeting people
A practical guide to solo travel: FCDO and State Department safety advice, how group tours and walking holidays suit solo travellers, what single supplements are and how to avoid them, and simple ways to meet people on a slow trip.
Travel insurance: what changes as you get older, what to declare, and where to compare
A plain guide to travel insurance as you get older: why premiums and age limits change, what counts as a pre-existing condition and why it must be declared, what the UK GHIC does and doesn't cover, Medicare's limits abroad for US travellers, and where to compare policies (MoneyHelper, Which?, State Department, CDC).
Travelling by train: passes, discounts and sleeper trains explained
How rail travel works: Interrail and Eurail senior passes, the UK Senior Railcard, Amtrak's senior discount, booking assistance, and what to expect on sleeper trains such as the Caledonian Sleeper, Nightjet and Amtrak roomettes.
Walking holidays for beginners: how to choose a route you'll actually enjoy
A beginner's guide to walking holidays: UK National Trails such as the South Downs Way and Hadrian's Wall Path, the Camino to Santiago, US National Park trails, how to choose a daily distance, baggage transfer, and where the Ramblers fit in.
Stories
Dave Bell rowed from Peru to Kenya and did not set foot on land for 327 days
How a former Royal Marine from Bere Regis rowed more than 15,000 nautical miles alone, from South America to Africa, without a support boat or a single stop. What the row involved, and how to get from your first rowing stroke to a long, steady session of your own.
Joanne Currie and Sue Smith raced across the Atlantic to a piper's welcome in Oban
Two Scottish crew in the 2025-26 Clipper Race sailed the 3,115 nautical miles from Washington DC to Oban on 70ft racing yachts. How a race crewed by non-professionals trains its sailors, what the work on board asks of your body, and the routes into crewing in the UK and US, from a club taster to a five-day live-aboard course.
Fiona Govan joined the slowest group on a Greek swimming holiday, and booked another
Fiona Govan marked her 50th birthday with a guided swimming holiday from Sivota, in western Greece, swimming about 4 km a day in the slowest group. What a swimming holiday is, what the NHS and RNLI say about swimming and open water, and how to work up to one from the pool or the lake.
Karl Bushby set out from Chile on foot in 1998, and now only the Channel is in the way
Karl Bushby, 57, left Punta Arenas in Chile on 1 November 1998 to walk an unbroken path home to Hull. Twenty-eight years on he has reached the French coast near Calais. Refused access to the Channel Tunnel's service tunnel, he was waiting in late September 2026 for permission to swim across. The story so far, and how to build towards a multi-day walk of your own.
Things to do
More things to do →- Walk a Camino route to Santiago de Compostela
- Take a sleeper train journey
- Cross Europe on a rail pass
- Skipper a canal boat holiday
- Drive a National Scenic Byway end to end
- Visit a UNESCO World Heritage Site you have never seen
- Ride a long-distance cycle route
- Take a trip entirely on your own
- Walk a National Trail from end to end
- Visit five national parks you have never been to
- Walk a stretch of the Wales Coast Path
- Hike a section of the Pacific Crest Trail