Whatever your age is, travelling provides the mind with a break from the everyday responsibilities and allows you to enlarge your boundaries. However, for seniors, travelling to a best-loved city or an unknown place can give an opportunity for rebirth. It offers them a special experience to look forward to after an isolating, chilly and frozen winter. 

Travelling also motivates an ageing brain to exercise its cognitive skills by arranging things ahead and remaining focused. People who are moving into this demographic, aim to continue living an active, interesting, and healthy life. The best way to do that is by travelling! Travel brings a host of physical and mental health benefits. Here are the reasons why you should take your senior family with you when you travel! 

Improve Mental Health 

Sadness and isolation have been correlated to depression, poor mood, and even higher blood pressure in senior populations. Older adults consider travel as a great way to experience social interaction, make lasting bonds to loved ones, and encourage healthy relationships. Travelling can be a way to visit friends and family which reduces loneliness and promotes good mental and emotional health. 

Plus, travelling as you get old provides spiritual benefits. These will provide you with more meaning in your life, improve your understanding of others, and enhance your relationship with nature. 

Keeps Them Happy and Active 

Old people can get lonely most of the time, but one of the advantages of a destination vacation is the physical act of travelling. Sticking around the house can totally feel stagnant. So it’s better to go on a trip that gets you out of the house and active rather than a staycation that usually means relaxing at home. 

Try booking hotel accommodation that’s near to destinations that will get your older families active such as having the access to a pool or events that get you up and moving. 

The Learning Never Stops 

Even if you think seniors already know almost everything in life, a new environment will always teach you new things about the world and yourself. You can have new experiences at home but exploring a new destination offers a host of discoveries. One of them is learning new things about the world and yourself. Adventures keep the brain young since active learning is very healthy for the brain. Plus, if you’re learning a new language for your trip then your brain can definitely function more. 

Healthy Heart 

Travelling doesn’t only provide mental and emotional health. It can also get you to stay physically healthy and may even protect your heart. Studies speculate that this benefit could be partly due to the break from the everyday stress that travel provides. According to the American Heart Association, travel also involves physical activity and exercise that can lower your risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, and stroke. 

And with that, here are several quick tips that will allow seniors to enjoy a more reasonably-paced exploration: 

• Plan Early. This is very important for seniors that have serious health concerns. They have to make sure that all medications and vaccinations are complete and in order, and that health insurance will cover you abroad.
• Have a Prepaid Mobile Phone. Nowadays, it’s comparatively easy to buy a prepaid mobile phone for travel purposes. We highly recommend this if a senior is taking a more obscure travel location. 
• Mobility. Don’t let mobility be an issue. Make sure that service providers can provide proper accommodations such as access to a wheelchair at an airport, working elevators, or a ground floor room at a hotel.
• Reasonable and Comfortable Seats. This is very crucial, particularly with extra-long flights. You want to make sure that seats booked are near the lavatory and remember to wear proper footwear and clothing, such as speciality travel socks. 

Ivandrea Ollero is a writer for Holiday Inn Parramatta Hotel, one of Australia’s luxury hotels providing accommodation in Parramatta and a great historical Sydney experience for tourists. She is also a content crafter who researches and writes custom content about travel, fashion, finance, business, home improvements, health, and beauty in order to provide helpful information and tips for her readers. Ivandrea graduated from St. Scholastica’s College, Manila, with a Bachelor’s Degree in Broadcast Journalism in 2016.