The Bottom Line
Pros
- Goes beyond airfare and hotel discounts to describe little-known strategies for seniors.
- Author accounts for the growing popularity of adventure travel among 50+ travelers.
- Sidebar features provide excellent advice.
Cons
- The 15-word title might be cute, but it is cumbersome and awkward, too.
- Some of the material is highly perishable. The book has a short shelf-life.
- There is some repetition. For example, readers are reminded a number of times to carry proof of age.
Description
- Published by McGraw-Hill, New York
- Publication date 2007
- 285 pages
Guide Review - Review: Deals Over 50
The author begins the second chapter of this book with this observation about senior travelers: "We travel more often, farther, more extravagantly and for longer periods of time than anyone else. Since the travel industry discovered these facts, it's been going after our business."
She's correct. The senior travel industry will only get larger as the Baby Boomer generation matures. Today's seniors, as a group, are in better health than their parents were at the same ages. Today's seniors frequently have more money for travel and keen interest in exploring the world.
So Joan Rattner Heilman did some extensive research on how travel providers are luring the 50+ crowd. She updates the volume frequently, and has already sold more than one million copies of previous editions. She's likely to sell many more.
There are very few books on the market that provide such extensively researched strategies for budget travelers over 50. It starts with some basic but strong tips:
The book also contains helpful sidebars: Senior Cycling, RVing for Women, Traveling on your Own, Health Coverage Abroad and many others.
This is not a book that everyone will enjoy reading cover-to-cover, because the author is attempting to cover a variety of travel situations. Not all of those situations will apply to your plans.
You'll also need to buy a new version, because many of the discounts and URLs included in the current book will be outdated within a year or two.
But at a suggested retail price of $16.95 USD, you can afford to pick up a new version of this paperback because it will save you many times that amount.
