Not so long ago, reaching middle age involved tending your hollyhocks, joining committees and perhaps taking a gentle holiday or two – guided tours of the Italian lakes, river cruises or villa stays.
But not any more. Nowadays more people in their 50s, 60s and beyond are using those halcyon years when they are still fit and healthy – and with the children grown up – to head further afield, for longer.
The latest issue of travel magazine Wanderlust reports that 40 per cent of over 60s want to take a gap year of between nine and 12 months, with a surge in long trips taken by those aged 55-plus going without partners – most being women.
According to Trailfinders, gap-year bookings for all ages have shot up recently. ‘Typically our clients will decide to take a gap year as they have just retired,’ said a spokesperson for the long-haul travel agency, where many clients are in fact early retirees. ‘Or they want to visit children on a gap year for an extended holiday.’ Others are taking time out to visit relatives overseas as part of a longer trip.
Budgets start from around £5,000 per person but vary greatly depending on how extravagant the getaway is.
‘At Nong Khiaw in north-west Laos, I clambered up a hill before dawn to watch the sunrise over the river – then descended and swam in its lucid water,’ writes Annabel Venning
Some midlife gappers are even shunning suitcases and travel agents for backpacks and going it alone, reliving gap years they took as school leavers, 30 to 40 years on.
Last year, I did just that. I was turning 50 and did not want to mark the milestone by throwing a party, doing an Iron Man, or having an eyelid lift. I intended to indulge my greatest love: travel.
Having not taken a proper break in years – as a freelance with no paid leave I almost always work on holiday – the time felt right.
With my son away at university and my daughter leaving school and embarking on her own travels, I could finally go far enough and long enough away from home to unwind and reflect on what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I began planning and saving.
I spent much of my childhood in South Asia leaving me with an almost umbilical attachment to the region. But there were two countries I had never visited: Laos and Cambodia.
So I decided to take ten weeks away and explore them thoroughly. Three weeks in Laos, five in Cambodia and, finishing off my midlife gap, two weeks in Thailand – where I would meet my daughter, who was on a gap year of her own.
According to Lonely Planet and other sources, both countries are extremely safe, specifying that this is so for solo female travellers.
Additionally, both places are budget friendly. South-east Asia is far cheaper than South America and easier than Africa. Tourist buses can be booked on apps such as 12Go and I also took trains and boats, hiring a private car and driver to reach more remote areas.
I was determined to travel overland where possible, eschewing regional flights, so I saw more of the landscape, met locals and other travellers, and felt better about my carbon footprint.
‘The temples of Angkor Wat in Cambodia were exquisite. By taking taxis and motorbikes we reached some of the more remote Khmer temples, which we had to ourselves and were especially enchanting’
‘Taking the slow boat from the Thai border to the beautiful city of Luang Prabang in Laos was a wonderful start to my odyssey, drifting slowly down the Mekong River between towering limestone karsts’
Although many group tours are excellent and cater to all ages, I was operating on a shoestring, with a backpack not a suitcase.
And I wanted to be entirely independent and flexible. If I loved somewhere, I could stay longer than planned, if not, I’d leave earlier.
I reserved accommodation for the first few nights in Laos, but after that booked rooms as I went, via Booking.com, and helped by a much-thumbed copy of the Lonely Planet – plus a proper map.
When I mentioned my Great Escape plan to friends, some thought I was crazy, but others wanted to join me.
In the event, one friend came for three weeks in Laos, another joined me in Cambodia for a month, two more came for a fortnight each. I was the midlife pied piper.
In the end, I only travelled solo for about two weeks.
Sharing the trip with good friends was not only huge fun but also meant that costs – hotel rooms, guides, drivers and food were all split (using the Splitwise app).
It’s hard to narrow down the highlights: there were so many.
Taking the slow boat from the Thai border to the beautiful city of Luang Prabang in Laos was a wonderful start to my odyssey, drifting slowly down the Mekong River between towering limestone karsts, stopping off at the Mekong Elephant Park to see rescued animals enjoying lives of freedom in the jungle.
Luang Prabang was spectacular, with colonnaded streets and ornate temples. At the Kuang Si waterfalls, a dozen miles south-west of the city centre, I swam and stood beneath the cascading water, laughing with sheer joy.
Meanwhile, at Nong Khiaw in north-west Laos, I clambered up a hill before dawn to watch the sunrise over the river – then descended and swam in its lucid water.
The Plain Of Jars, a day’s drive from Luang Prabang, was mesmerising: thousands of megalithic stone urns scattered over hundreds of square kilometres.
As with Stonehenge, no one quite knows why. We hired a guide as the area is strewn with UXBs (unexploded bombs), a legacy of the overspill of the Vietnam War in Laos. Tragically, lives and limbs are still being lost.
The temples of Angkor Wat in Cambodia were exquisite. By taking taxis and motorbikes we reached some of the more remote Khmer temples, which we had to ourselves and were especially enchanting.
With my travel companions, I trekked in the jungles of northern Laos and in Cambodia’s Cardamom Mountains, awakening in our hammocks to the whoop of gibbons. At the top of one mountain, hornbills flew below us across the jungle canopy. Other highlights included kayaking down the Mekong to see freshwater dolphins frolicking. On another occasion, we watched landmine-detecting giant rats going about their extraordinary life-saving work.
Along the way I met other women who, like me, had just turned 50. Most were travelling solo, some for a few months, some for a year.
There were a few men, too. One had sold his company, another a house, others were taking sabbaticals or early retirement. I also met Britons who had set up hotels in Cambodia and Laos, as well as Australian, American and French women who had left cosy lives behind to rescue elephants (I myself volunteered at one sanctuary). And in Vientiane, Laos’s capital, we met an Englishman who had established the Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise supplying artificial limbs to UXB victims.
‘At the Kuang Si waterfalls, in Laos, I swam and stood beneath the cascading water, laughing with sheer joy’
Annabel visiting the Mekong Elephant Park to see rescued animals enjoying lives of freedom in the jungle
Alongside exploring came plenty of relaxing. The beaches off southern Cambodia are unimaginably beautiful. Alone for a week on Koh Rong Sanloem, a jungly blob of an island in a warm aquamarine sea, I lay on a sandbar caressed by warm lapping water, snorkelled along colourful coral reefs and paddle-boarded to watch a tangerine sun setting beyond fishing boats.
At midnight, I swam with sparkling clouds of iridescent plankton – feeling simultaneously at peace and thrillingly alive.
My final few days were spent in Thailand with my daughter. We joined a Thai cooking class and I even tried Thai boxing. Forget Eat, Pray, Love: this was Eat, Pray, Punch.
I returned home feeling refreshed, exhilarated and physically and emotionally stronger.
Would I recommend a late-life gap year – or at least a few months? Wholeheartedly. I am already planning my next trip.
