Travel bloggers

Why I sold my house and began travelling at 70

Alice Porter

Jan 27, 2018

Sign up to read stories like this one and more!

I have never had the courage to go and travel. Work and having a family has always come before anything else.

My grandchildren have just come back from doing a gap year, travelling Australia, New Zealand and Asia and it looked like so much fun.

Myself and my partner have always been the adventurous type and to tell you the truth, we have never really felt our age.

Selling your house and travelling the world is something that I thought I would never do in a million years, but after some quiet consideration and deliberation we both thought, “Why not?”

I have always wanted to leave something behind for my loved ones after I pass on and up until recently, I believed that this would be my house. I have two children, one boy and one girl (now grown up) and three grandchildren, all in their late teens now.

I decided to sell all of our possessions that held no sentimental value whatsoever, like our sofa, our television set and other items, in order to save up some money to travel with and to give to my family in lieu of getting something after I am gone.

My family were completely in favour of me travelling, as I am very active, quite laid back and this is also an opportunity of a lifetime… so after deciding to go on a trip of a lifetime, reality sunk in.

I’m also really into planning itineraries and my granddaughter showed me this website Inspirok that you can plan your complete trip. I also planned everything in a yearly diary so that we would never lose it!

The property conveyancing process is not something that you want to go through at my age, as it can be quite time consuming. Be sure to know what you want ahead of time, think about your minimum asking price and do not let people know that you are looking to sell up quickly, as this could mean that people may try and take advantage of your situation. Our home took four months to sell, which was excellent timing and allowed us a lot of time to properly plan out our trip.

Firstly we stopped in Thailand, staying in a small AirBnB and it took us about four days to get ourselves accustomed to the different environment, culture and cuisine. My husband ate a chocolate covered scorpion on the second night, after mustering up the courage, and was poorly for the rest of the evening! For anybody looking to go to Thailand and to eat a chocolate scorpion… I would exercise with caution!

I was unsure about what I really wanted to do when we arrived in Thailand. Being the age that we are, the full moon parties didn’t seem to have the allure that it will probably have with younger travellers.

Instead, we decided to take day trips to Phi Phi, to visit the temples and the elephant sanctuary. As an over-60, I think it’s important to make sure that you have an itinerary that suits your abilities, it’s often off-putting to travel to new destinations that are popular amongst young people. But if you do a little digging, then, you will find that most places are suitable for all age groups, you just have to be willing to look.

Next stop: Bali. Stay tuned!