When Is It Time to Throw In the Adventure Vacation Towel?

How Old Is Too Old for Hours of Walking, Hiking, and Adventuring?

I think we all have some sense of adventure within us, even if we never really travel too far from home and only watch travel shows online where people do crazy things like zipline through jungles full of snakes, climb mountains with the risk of avalanches, and explore cities where GPS is anything but reliable. Is it possible to go on amazing vacation adventures as an adult when you’ve never really done anything like it before?

Or is embarking on an adventure far away from the creature comforts of your everyday life a recipe for disaster where you can expect painful muscles, sleepless nights, and hours spent wandering lost in the middle of nowhere? The shape you’re in can have an impact on the level of adventure you’re able to pursue on your vacation, but you’d be surprised how easy it is to reach faraway places in the modern era.

Each year that passes, countries that were once home to only the bravest tourists become more popular as the number of visitors increases. The internet has allowed that process to speed along even faster, encouraging travelers to create absolutely complete international itineraries before leaving their doorsteps. You no longer need to leave anything to chance and can arrive in a country with every step of your journey planned out.

This ability to know exactly what you’re in for when you travel somewhere is definitely key when traveling as someone marching full-speed ahead into the jungle, desert, or some other remote place. Is there an age cutoff where it just doesn’t make sense to trudge out into the desert or endure hours-long drives into extreme territory?

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Do You Need to Be Two Years Out of High School to Go on an Adventure?

The amount of adventure you stuff into a vacation will always come down to your own physicality and what you’re able to accomplish. If you’ve always dreamed of going on an adventure somewhere but you’ve led a sedentary life for many years, it’s likely you’ll need to design an adventure that aligns with your personal abilities.

While you might not have the ability to climb up a mountain to see an amazing view, perhaps you can find a tour that will deposit you close to the view where you’ll only have to walk a short distance to get some awesome pictures. If you’re an active person, you can power your way up the mountain and have an amazing adventure on the way, but if you don’t feel up to that sort of exertion, there are probably some less intense options.

As someone in her forties who isn’t a daredevil but who leads a pretty active life, I tend to opt for the activities and tours that offer the more difficult path. However, I don’t always book a bunch of tours right in a row. Even though I lead an active lifestyle, I can’t see myself enjoying a dawn-until-dusk adventure every day for several days in a row.

Rather, what I do is arrange a full-day activity followed by a half-day activity and then follow it up on the third day with another full-day adventure. I do want to see everything and do everything I can, but not at the expense of having a little bit of time to sit back and relax. And I’ll say that I do see other travelers who are a decade or two older than me enjoying serious activities, so there’s definitely no age limit. It’s all according to what you can do.

Will You Look Out Of Place in a Hostel at Forty Years Old?

As someone in their forties who’s supposed to consider herself “middle aged’ (what does that even mean anymore?), I don’t think there’s an age limit or recommendation for staying in a hostel. They’re so inexpensive sometimes, even if you get your own room that it can really help you save money on your lodging by utilizing them. In some areas, you’ll also find that they’re quite plentiful, which means you can find one with great reviews.

I normally stay in regular hotels or small, independently run establishments, but whenever I’ve been in a hostel, I’ve seen all sorts of people staying there. Yes, there are always the young folks with their huge backpacks that look like they weigh about 100 pounds, but the clientele these days seems to run the gamut from youthful adventurers to older people looking for a good deal on an overnight stay.

I think the biggest thing to remember about staying in a hostel is the sort of environment it offers. Are you someone who can enjoy the communal aspect of overnighting in a dorm-style room? Or, do you prefer having your own space and not sharing a bathroom with people you don’t know? Not all hostels are the same when it comes to shared facilities either.

Some will offer private rooms and shared bathrooms. Others will offer a variety of shared rooms, private rooms, shared bathrooms, and private bathrooms, each with their own costs. Overall, hostels tend to offer one of the most economical options for traveling, and they’re a terrific option when you’re interested in meeting other travelers on your trip.

What is it Like to Get Lost in the Wilderness?

I have to admit that I’ve only ever gotten lost, sort of, once when traveling, and that was in Iceland when I went on a hike to see a glacier. I arranged the vacation as a road trip where we stopped along the way to see all sorts of geological formations like waterfalls, glaciers, mountains, and rocks, and one of the places we visited required a walk along a wide trail toward a huge glacier.

I’m used to walking quite a lot when I travel, but even I was unprepared for the strange loops we’d travel on our way back to the car. For some reason, we took some roundabout way back to the parking lot and took thousands of extra steps to reach the car. It was almost like we were in a time warp or something. The direction we were walking just didn’t make sense according to where we were and where we ended up.

Now, overall, I think we added about five miles to our total journey that day, which isn’t a huge amount, but it could be if you’re not truly used to walking great distances each day. If you’re keen to see natural wonders in your destination country but you’re coming from a desk job where you spend a lot of time sitting down, it’s imperative that you do some serious training or planning before you leave, especially if you have to hike anywhere.

I’m in my mid-forties, and while getting lost was a little disconcerting, I can see how it might cause some panic in someone not used to long distances, especially if you’ve gone decades of your life without truly adventuring out into the wild wide world. If you have dreams of some day going out on a truly remote adventure, you might try something with less vigor to start. There are loads of amazing things to see that are just a few hundred steps from a parking lot.

Embarking on a Vacation Adventure in Middle Age or Any Age

What truly constitutes middle age these days anyway? As Generation X marches ever closer to retirement (I am on the younger side of Generation X), I keep seeing loads of online content creators who are clearly not Generation X (and are probably wee youngins closer to Gen Z) complaining about their rickety knees, sleepless nights, and achy joints. It is far too early for any generation to be feeling like they’ve been rode hard and put up wet.

No matter whether you’re a 20-something who feels like you’re about to start cashing Social Security paychecks or you’re a 50-something who can’t seem to figure out how you got this old, the world is waiting for you with adventures perfectly sized for your body and mind. Yes, we would all like to brag that we’ve summited Mt. Everest, but do we really need to go that far to feel accomplished?

What about ziplining through the jungle in Puerto Vallarta? All you need to do is sit and get wrapped up in some belts for that one. How about walking through the Avenue of the Giants in Northern California? You can literally drive your car right next to the famous Redwoods. And then there’s seeing the massive Gullfoss Waterfall in Iceland in person. You can use multiple parking lots and walk a few feet for some amazing photographs.

All it takes is a bit of testing the waters to find adventures around the world. If you’re marching toward the middle of your life and you’ve never really taken the plunge into an adventure, I encourage you to start small and try at least one thing you’ve never done before. Drive somewhere you’ve never been, see something you’ve never seen, heck, eat something you’ve never eaten. It could be the start of some amazing adventures, even if you’re toddling off into your “old age.”

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