BOOMER TRAVEL: GO IT ALONE?

The Benefits Of Single Boomer Travel Are Many, Even If You’re Married?

Good reasons to travel as a couple include shared experience above all.

There’s a bond that occurs between a husband and wife traveling together.

Pictures and video don’t tell the story. Neither does a diary or a narrative recounting.

The glee and spirit of the trip is evident, but the most important part stays hidden.

You got home safe and sound. That’s a given unless you’re visiting the cultural sites of Iraq before the hammer comes down.

No, the most important aspect of the trip? They came home alive.

Hardly anyone plans on a murder vacation, but they seem to happen.

Maybe traveling alone, married or not, is safer?

Business Insider lists the Top Ten Countries to go to alone.

America isn’t on the list. Doubt it’s because of Christian Longo, but you never know.

New Zealand tops the list at #1.

With a safety ranking of 4, the title pic shows someone bungee jumping.

Is there safe bungee jumping?

The last person I know who went to New Zealand alone also bungee jumped.

What is that, the price of admission? Welcome to New Zealand. We hope you’re not afraid of heights.

He was not worried about popping his hip out on a free fall with a snapper rebound at the end. He was also twenty five. Hi, Charlie.

A boomerpdx interview subject said he was surfing, fell into a big wave, and his ankle tether broke.

Worse than a bungee jump?

His hip broke too, but he got a replacement and hit the waves in no time. He’s 70. Hey Bobby.

Alternative: Western Oregon.

2. Norway. Safety ranking 10.

Anyone remember reading, or watching, Girl With The Dragon Tattoo?

Yes, that was Sweden, but Norway’s a neighbor. The weirdness might be contagious.

The depressing movie director Ingmar Bergman is also Swedish.

At least Norway has Henrik Ibsen with his masterwork Peer Gynt.

Sweden also hits the boomer travel alone list at #8, with a safety ranking of 11, so why not see them both while you’re in the neighborhood?

Alternative: Northeastern Oregon.

3. Switzerland. Safety ranking 5.

You expect stability and safe surroundings in a country with such a high reputation for banking.

Even the Nazis wouldn’t invade them.

The Pope’s protection comes from Swiss guards, so you’ll be fine in their homeland.

If you want to go to a mountainous region Switzerland works. Or Colorado.

Alternative: Bend, Oregon.

4. Costa Rica. Happiness ranking 1; Safety ranking 42.

You’re going to be happy in Costa Rica. Everybody says so.

If snakes and spiders and jungle fever are your favorites, this might be the place for you.

Take a boomer travel trip alone to Costa Rica, get bitten by a spider, fall down, then get swallowed by a snake.

Could it happen? In the world’s most diversified habitat anything could happen.

And that’s the fun.

Alternative: Louisiana.

5. Austria. Safety ranking 3.

This is Hitler’s home turf. Could it be any safer?

Boomer travel to Austria doesn’t have a romantic sound so why not go alone?

If it’s good enough ground for John Irving to plow five novels it’s good enough for you.

There’s five more locations, four if you exclude Sweden.

The next up, #6, is Vietnam with a safety ranking of 45.

Travel to Vietnam once included new clothes, new haircuts, and lots of new friends.

Call them platoons. That stopped in 1975. It wasn’t very safe.

American travel guides were called advisers, then commanders, then generals.

You were eligible to go if you passed a draft physical.

Now the guides are job recruiters.

Go to Vietnam on a boomer travel jaunt and you might end up with a new job.

If that happens, stay in touch. Boomerpdx wears a size 13.