How to Join a Senior Travel Group

Joining a senior travel group can be a great way to see famous landmarks, make new friends and visit places all around the world. Group travel offers seniors an easy way to explore since most of the details, including accommodations and transportation, will be taken care of for you and the group price is often less than if you traveled alone.

Instructions

1

Decide whether you want to belong to a long or short term travel group. Short term travel groups travel with each other as part of an escorted tour. Local senior travel groups provide long term membership but the choice of locations may be more limited. You can also choose to take part in both by attending group meetings in your hometown and traveling with escorted tours from time to time.

2

Ask about travel groups at your local senior center or organization. Many senior groups arrange escorted travel tours to various locations throughout the year and they may also have a group of seniors meeting regularly to share information about travel locations.

3

Search online for senior travel packages, group tours or volunteer travel. The AARP Passport site is a great place to begin since the group travel packages are geared toward seniors and their interests and needs.

4

Talk to members of the group to see if you will enjoy traveling with them. If the group is local, attend some meetings to get a feel for members' interests and activity levels. For short-term groups, ask for references from the company or organization planning the trip.

5

Examine the senior travel groups that are available to you in terms of how they will fit in with and meet your needs and interests. Look at how often they travel, how expensive the trips are, how often they meet between tours, the location of the group, membership dues and how involved you want to be with a group.

6

Join the group following the specific procedure. For short-term group travel, this may mean booking a spot in an upcoming travel group. For local groups, you may need to pay a membership fee or fill out an application.