My hubby and I had often discussed the idea of taking a break from life, experiencing other cultures by actually living as a local rather than just going on holiday, staying in nice hotels/ self catering resorts and eating out every night.
We wanted to wave goodbye to the traditional holiday culture, which was ok when we were both working full time and just needed to relax in the sun for a couple of weeks reading books on sun loungers and going out to discover a bit of culture.
It was obvious that to try “travelling” we needed to commit to being away for an extended period of time. Two weeks wasn’t really going to hack it!
You read about the older generation taking “gap years” replicating what their grandchildren are doing. This was something they never had a chance to do themselves when they were younger. Did we want to pack a rucksack, throw away plans, be impulsive and sleep in hostels? Probably not, to be honest, but was there a middle ground?
I’ve been planning holidays and avoiding travel agents and glossy brochures for 20+ years so planning 3-6 months away didn’t phase me but can you do it reasonably inexpensively?
Well the answer to that question is yes, providing you are willing to make some sacrifices in order to be able to finance such a trip:
Self catering was a must. Eating in our accommodation had to become the norm although going out to lunch or dinner once a week was affordable.
Hiring a car, unless absolutely necessary was a no, and thus using public transport as much as possible needed to be a priority.
Utilising every saving scheme, voucher offer and price reduction was important.
Also would spending every day, 24/7, suit us? I can imagine some couples would be worried or even terrified of that thought but we relished the idea.
Oia in Santorini
Our Background:
Hubby and I had met each other originally when we were nineteen and stayed together for about 18 months. During our relationship, we both had careers. he lived in Essex and I lived in Swansea, Banbury and finally South London. We used to see each other at weekends, I would drive to him one weekend and then he would drive to me the next weekend.
It was hard, there was no M25 circling London at this time and so when I was living in Swansea it used to take about 6 hours, arriving late on a Friday Evening and then returning again on a Sunday night.
There was no massive split, we just drifted apart.
32 years later he found me again through the internet!
By this point I was settled in Gloucestershire, divorced, with two children and he was living in the neighbouring county of Oxfordshire. He’d never been married, had no children and had lived alone for 10 years!
We met in Lechlade, roughly halfway between us, and have never looked back.
After four years we got engaged at Harcourt Arboretum and planned to get married on our 5th anniversary. in 2020.
We decided on a honeymoon in Chicago and driving East to West across Route 66. Little did we know then that a pandemic was going to take hold in March 2020 and like so many couples Covid delayed the wedding until June 2021.
With Covid regulations differing from country to country and the USA, at one point, seeming to have no control over the spread of the disease and vaccinations being controlled by State Governors instead of a central government we decided that the USA trip would be put back on hold.
But “what can we do instead?” he asked me. “Leave it with me” I said and when he returned from work the next day I greeted him with “Well I’ve got good news and bad news! The good news is I have a new honeymoon idea, the bad news is it will take 53 days!”
Basically I had sat down with a list of all the places in England and Scotland that we had ever thought about visiting and created a circular trip by joining all the dots. He was elated and this became our honeymoon for 2021.
Alas Covid hit again and our wedding was postponed until July 2022.
With the UK honeymoon already in motion we talked about cancelling it and then thought” Why not? Let’s just do it!” And that was how our first long distance road trip came about!
So when it, eventually, came to our wedding in 2022 we again discussed our honeymoon and to be honest I still wasn’t ready to sit back down and replan the Route 66 trip with a wedding still to finish. So with no real plans at all we went island hopping in Greece instead.
Church of Saint Irene, at night, on the Island of Ios
Accidentally Starting to Travel Rather Than Holiday:
We had begun our trip by treating the honeymoon as an extended holiday rather than travelling.
We had loved the simplicity of the Greek lifestyle and although we began by using the kitchen in our accommodation purely for breakfast and lunch rather than cooking dinner, this soon changed.
Whilst on Naxos we started to get bored with nights out, eating in restaurants. We started to question whether we needed to do this or even wanted to do this every night.
We found ourselves often visiting local bakeries, taking pastries and freshly cooked rolls filled with a lovely range of Greek delicatessen back to our apartment instead. This gave us a great introduction to cutting back on expenditure and a real feel for authentic Greek cooking.
Our First Adventure Is Born:
We arrived home 4 weeks later and the idea of going somewhere to live as a local began to really take a grip of us.
We started to explore staying in Madrid for a month or flying to Grand Cayman for 6 weeks but then we started to look at our ever growing list of places in the world we wanted to visit and suddenly an idea began to form in our heads. Why not join all the places in Western Europe together and go for an extended visit like we had in the UK?
Obviously we would be restricted by the 90 day stay in Europe, thanks to Brexit, but what could you cover in 90 days?
So armed with a Google map of Europe, a list of potential travel books I would be using for research, an online planning website and a financial spreadsheet I began to put the trip together.
Hubby and I have an understanding: – I plan and he turns up at the airport with the passports and carries the baggage! This might sound a little lopsided but it works for us and to be honest it’s easier not to have to consult someone on every minute detail!
I know what sort of things he likes to do and we tend to visit a mixture of places when we are away that covers both our tastes.
I do tend to get his thoughts on accommodation once I’ve got myself a short list because after all we both have to stay there and be comfortable.
The Beautiful Fishing Village of Naousa on Paros
And Then The Adventure Grew:
As the trip started to take shape more thoughts started circulating.
What if we did Western Europe and then finally got across to the USA to drive Route 66 ? Before I quite knew what was happening we added this trip to the itinerary.
I thought it would be fairly straight forward, given I still had all my notes etc, having previously planned the trip back in 2020.
Alas Covid had affected a lot of hospitality businesses and I soon found I needed to change some of the plans. Additionally if we were now going to be “travelling” and not “honeymooning” it would require a tighter control on expenditure.
And Grew:
Then we started looking at other extended trips we still wanted to do during our life time and realised there was only currently one other trip in the USA we wanted to do.
Drive the Eastern Seaboard from Florida to New York excluding all freeways and interstates, sticking to local A roads, as we refer to them in the UK.
This idea had been born from a discussion with a young waitress in Key West back in 2018 whose family lived there but she was at university in New York and used to load up her car when it was time to return and drive herself back.
Americans appeared to have no concept of distance or travel time. The roads are pretty much straight and they will drive four hours just for a day trip before driving back again at the end of their day. Everything is on such a larger scale out there.
Yes, you’ve guessed it we then tagged this trip on and before we knew it we had a 6 month adventure awaiting us.
I originally wrote this post sat in a hotel room at Gatwick Airport knowing that in the morning we would get up at 5am to fly to Bilbao at 8.30 and the adventure would begin.
I can, honestly, say we have never looked back.
We have changed a few things, learnt a great deal and continue to have adventures across the globe.
I’m interested to hear other travellers’ tips and ideas on their adventures so look forward to reading your comments. And don’t forget if you liked this post please give it a like 🙏
A Midlife Adventure 