Holidays for Older People

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mickeyg

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I seem to have persuaded my nearly 80 year old mother that she should take herself off to the sun with her her sister for a few weeks over the winter.
Are there any travel companies which specialise in holidays for the elderly which I could contact for details on what is available.
 
A bit like Saga Holidays I presume? Maybe a bit of bridge, sightseeing, ballroom dancing rounded off with a nice piece of salmon for dinner, followed by rice pudding for dessert?
 
My parents are just back from Italy on a guided tour with Slatterys
(wbsite is http://www.slatterys.com/ ). THey really enjoyed it and even though my parents are just 60 there were people there up to late 80's and they really enjoyed it. THey went before to vienna/prague/budapest and also enjoyed this. Think they went with Joe Waslhe tours that time (http://www.joewalshtours.ie ) is an option as don't have to decide where to go and how to get there which is a consideration in later years. They found Slatterys to be very good to deal with.
 
There is a website aimed at what they call- Mature people-clearly a site therefore not aimed at the likes of Water Water:)
It is www.thirdage.ie.It may be of interest-there is a travel section.
I have just returned from the Northern part of Croatia which is very nice-as is Slovenia-there were a lot of more senior people there particularly German.Not sure about the weather though in Autumn.
 
Yes Fobs suggestion reminded me of a Senior couple I know who in the last 2 years have gone on those guided packages often offered in the Independent/Herald.They have gone to Italy twice and loved it
 
Well my parents couldn't get over how fit and healthy and able bodied some of the older couples on the tour were. These are a great way to see a bit of the world and are often advertised in the national papers as pnh has said. They take the guesswork and hassle out of organising the trip yourself
 
The crowd in the papers is probably www.thetraveldepartment.ie have heard nothing but good things about them, my two aunts and their husbands (all in their mid seventies) are just back from a trip to Prague/Vienna/Budapest
 
I have used this company in the past but felt I couldn't recommend them to the original poster as I felt their standards were slipping, certainly on my last two holidays with them.
If you have a special request, as I did on my last holiday, it was completly ignored. They don't respond well, to complaints either.
Quite often there are very early starts on some of their trips that can be very tiring even for a young person. You must sit at the same table every evening, with the same people for your evening meal. They also charge a surcharge of 2% if you pay with a credit card. You cannot visit them at their place of business.
They do have interesting holidays but you need to choose carefully.
 
My parents (in their late 70s) have gone away a couple of time with the travel groups which advertise in the paper, and have been happy, albeit with reservations.

The upside is that they dont have to worry about finding their hotel / driving etc, dont need to speak the language and basically all the organisational hassle is taken out of it.

The bad side is :
- very early morning starts each day to move to another city (depends on the tour though)
- you have little independence - as a previous poster says you have to sit with the same people at dinner (thinking about it now, I suppose there is nothing stopping you branching out from the group and eating alone)
- it seemed a bit like a cattle market - e.g. 80 people from a coach all eating in the same restaurant at the same time
 
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