active adult community – Retirement Media: Active Adult Living

Travel is probably the one activity most associated with retirement. We dream all our working lives that one day we will have the time to travel.

For one group, the travel dream is being lived out and that group is active adults.

Active Adults Like to Travel.

It makes sense, since being active means to move and if you move enough, you are traveling. Ha.

In our Active Adult Community, we have a monthly newsletter, The Deaton Creek Villager, that has a section called “Traveling Villager” that displays photographs of residents on their travels. I love this section which gives you a good idea of where Active Adults travel to.

This month the Traveling Villager has photographs of our residents in these locations: Mt. Masada Israel, Arches National Park in Utah, Grand Teton National Park WY, Bacelona Spain, Dunrobin Castle Highlands Scotland, Murphy’s Bar Lillarney Ireland, Rose distillery Dillard GA, Eiffel Tower in Paris, cruising Glacier Bay Alaska, on a camel in Judean Desert West Bank, Lambeau Field Green Bay, Erice Sicily. Wow, how’s that for a bucket list, and that’s only one month.

Active Adult Communities Make Traveling Easier

There are a couple of ways living in an 55+ Active Adult Retirement Community makes travel easier.

You feel safer leaving your home. It is a gated community with neighbors that know each other.
Travel Opportunities

There are Many Types of Travel Opportunities

Some examples of travel opportunities in Active Adult Communities are:

Day Trippers Group – Day Trippers take a different trip each month. We are limited to excursions that can be completed within one day. We go to places within a 150 mile radius from the Village. With 700 members, trips fill up fast. Some trips coming up this year are:

8/7/ Harrah’s Cherokee Casino

9/17/ Cirque du Soleil Luzia

10/12/ College Football Hall of Fame, Carlos museum

11/17/ Gwinnett Gladiators Ice hockey

12/16/ Symphony
Independent Travel Group – People who want to plot their own itinerary when planning vacations. Purpose: Meet to share experiences on how to plan your own travel, save money, basic photography, use the Internet to find information, learn country customs, book hotels, get a more in-depth cultural experience, etc. Many times neighbor friends in Active Adult Communities do a trip together.
Travel Group – Do you like to travel ? Do you want to travel ? Well then this is the group for you! UPCOMING TRIPS: Many great trips planned for the coming months including, Ireland, Tulip River Cruise, London/Paris, British Isles cruise, Australia/New Zeland and New York City Holiday.

These travel groups are a tremendous resource for your retirement travel in so many ways, giving travel ideas, making travel easier and even letting you travel with friends while not having to worry about the logistics of travel.

Outside travel companies cater to our Active Adult Community and make presentations in our clubhouse. Organized trips will pick us up and return to our parking lot. How convenient is that!

Mary Ann and I will be on the Daniel Discovery Tours ten day trip in October for the New England Fall Foliage. Escorted motor coach tours these days provide high-quality, comfortable trips to destinations throughout the United States and Canada.

Road Scholar learning adventures are designed to enrich, thrill, and challenge you. Road Scholar has been recommended to me by several friends. Not cheap, but reportedly worth it.

Collette Tours is probably the top senior travel company offering guided tours worldwide. They will have tours leaving from your Active Adult Community.

Cruises. One of my favorite posts to research and write was Cruise Travel Tips and gives a good overview of why people love to take a cruise.

Associations– This week one of our community friends (Mary Lou) is in New Orleans and posted a pic of her group cruising the Mississippi River. She is there attending a retired teacher association meeting. Another neighbor Ron is retired military and told me he went to a retired military group meeting in Saint Louis and another I think in Portland Oregon later this Summber where he is spend some vacation time. With my track club association I have traveled to MN, NC, NM, and AL attending the USATF and National Senior Games. You may have some outside associations too that offer travel opportunities.

AARP Travel is a good source of travel ideas and travel discounts.

4. Travel With Teens – Many of our friends like to travel with their families once a year. My pickleball buddy just went on a cruise with this family, then he and his wife did a back to back cruise by themselves. Other popular family travel is to rent a big house at the beach or in the mountains.

Living in an Active Adult Community definitely helps one enjoy their dream of retirement travel. This is a intangible benefit that you may not be made aware of when considering an active adult community lifestyle.

Robert Fowler

Travel while you can.
My friend Larry

The most important thing you get in buying into an Active Adult Community, is a ready built framework for an “active lifestyle”.

Del Webb is a “culture industry”. They don’t do the heavy lifting, they just provide the framework. They sell the dream, but the dream can come true.

Real estate agents say “We try to tell people to focus more on their lifestyle and less on the house”. That’s because that’s what they are buying, a lifestyle.

Some buyers don’t get that. They say the homes are too expensive. They are not considering the lifestyle. If a buyer doesn’t want the lifestyle, but just wants the home, then they should look elsewhere, as plenty of subdivisions offer ranch style homes. But that’s not an apples to apples comparison to a home in an Active Adult Community.

An active lifestyle in theory could be accomplished anywhere, but with the framework that comes with living in an Active Adult Community, it can be accomplished much easier and faster.

So, What Is This Active Lifestyle?

An Active Lifestyle include many areas, including these:

Social Lifestyle – always available. You pick and choose based on your likes and interests. Social support and friends. Connecting with people is one of the most important features of the Active Adult Lifestyle. The framework provided includes clubs and groups, activities, clubhouse, events, neighbors, etc.

This is why the Del Webb marketing posters show the couples sitting around the fire pit or pool with their glasses of wine.

I have written about how when looking to make friends, activities is the answer.

Social Support – related to friends, there is an “we are in this together” spirit. Neighbors are helping neighbors. The framework provided is neighbors you can relate to.

Healthy Lifestyle – Getting out of the house is healthy and there are plenty of things going on in the community to draw you out of your house. Health is on our minds and having planned activities, especially sports, makes it easier for you. Thus you are more likely to do things to promote your health. The framework is the amenities, ball fields, teams with your neighbors sharing these activities.

Home lifestyle – one level, efficient, neighbors, security, low maintenance living, entertaining. The framework also includes your home.

Positive Lifestyle – When people are doing things to improve their lives, they are happy. Being happy means you will be more positive. A lot of the people living in Active Adult Communities are happy and positive.

Location lifestyle – small town, urban, resort, coastal, neighboring communities, local area, exploring outside the community.

The location of your Active Adult Community can give you a taste of lifestyle different than what you had during your working years.

In our community, I like seeing the stars at night, the rolling hills, farms, community theaters, town squares and the sense of a small town community. If your new community was at the beach or even in a city, then those different lifestyles have things to offer was well.

Conclusion About Active Adult Lifestyle

An Active Adult Community is a great way to make your life more active, healthy and to make new friends. It’s all there waiting for you. In the two years I have lived here, I have become more active and healthy and made many new friends, so I know it works. Also see Will I Fit In?

It’s just a framework that works well, but you have to make it work for yourself.