This page is a working list of practical travel tips for boomer travelers, organized by when they apply: before you book, when you pack, at the airport, and on the road. Most of these are boomer-specific. Before you book
Buy travel insurance that covers medical evacuation, not just medical. Standard Medicare does not cover medical care outside the United States. Most domestic health insurance plans don’t either, or only cover emergencies up to a small cap. A medical evacuation from, say, a Mediterranean island to a U.S. hospital can run six figures. Travel insurance from a reputable provider with strong medical and evacuation coverage is one of the few travel products that is genuinely worth the cost for a boomer traveler.
[BOOMEROPIA DOES NOT ENDORSE ANY SPECIFIC INSURER, POLICY, OR COVERAGE. Do your research.]
Buy the insurance early, ideally within 14 days of your initial trip deposit. Most travel insurance policies have a “free look” period (commonly 10-14 days) during which you may be able to cancel for a refund. If you buy early, the pre-existing condition exclusion waiver often applies, which matters more for boomer travelers than for any other demographic. Read the policy, not the marketing summary, before you assume a pre-existing condition is covered.
Don’t overschedule the first day. If you arrive after a long-haul flight, the only thing you should do on day 1 is eat, walk a little, and sleep. Reserve the big-ticket activities for day 2 or later. Boomer travelers, more than any other demographic, lose the first day to jet lag and then spend the rest of the trip playing catch-up.
Don’t overschedule the last day either. Save an hour for packing, an hour for unexpected delays at the airport, and at least an hour of buffer on top of that. The traveler who tries to fit one more museum in before a 6pm flight on the last day always ends up stressed. Leave the last day light.
Documents and money
Make digital copies of every document you’ll need. Passport photo page, driver’s license, prescription cards, insurance cards, vaccination records, key medical info (allergies, blood type, primary conditions, emergency contact). Email them to yourself and to a trusted family member. If you lose your wallet or phone, you can recover from any device that has email.
Carry a list of your medications with generic names and dosages. Customs agents and foreign doctors care about generic names (e.g., “atorvastatin” not “Lipitor”). A printed list in your wallet, plus a copy on your phone, is the simplest way to be understood anywhere.
Bring a small amount of local currency in cash. Not for everyday purchases (cards work most places) but for taxis from the airport, small tips, and emergencies where the card machine is down. Most major cities have ATMs in the airport arrivals hall that dispense local currency at a fair rate. Avoid the “dynamic currency conversion” prompt at the ATM and the merchant terminal. This is because the ATM’s bank apply an exchange rate that can be 5-7% worse than the mid-market rate.
Use a credit card with no foreign transaction fees. If your everyday card charges 3% on foreign purchases, switch to one that doesn’t before the trip. The savings on a 2-week trip are $100-200.
Photograph your luggage contents and your passport. If your bag is lost, the photos make the airline claim faster. If your passport is lost, the embassy photo proves your identity and accelerates a replacement.
Health and medical
See your physician 4-6 weeks before international travel. This is the window for any destination-specific vaccinations to take effect. Most travel clinics book out 2-3 weeks. If you have a chronic condition, this is also when you confirm your medications are stable, that you have enough refills, and that you have a letter describing your condition in case you need medical care abroad.
Pack medications in your carry-on, in original labeled containers, with a copy of the prescription. Checked bags get lost. Some countries are strict about unlabeled pills. A copy of the prescription (generic names, dosages) in your wallet is the simplest way to be understood by a foreign pharmacist if you lose a supply.
Register with STEP (Smart Traveler Enrollment Program) before international trips. Free for American citizens. The U.S. embassy can contact you in an emergency, send you security alerts, and help family reach you. It takes about five minutes. The form at step.state.gov takes a name, a passport number, and a trip itinerary.
Confirm your health insurance covers your destination before booking. This is the single most under-checked item on boomer travel planning. Domestic plans vary widely; some exclude overseas entirely, others have a small overseas cap. Travel insurance fills the gap, but only if you buy it before you need it. Some destinations (US territories, Canada, Mexico) have different rules than “international” insurance handles.
If you wear glasses, bring a second pair in your carry-on. Lost or broken glasses on day 3 of a 14-day trip is recoverable in two days with a backup pair. Without one, it’s not.
Immunizations. Take with you proper documentation of immunizations. Specific destination vaccination requirements should be verified with the CDC Travelers’ Health site before relying on the legacy advice.
On maintenance of medical equipment. Have a maintenance check done on any equipment you will take with you, to ensure that everything is in working order before you leave. You may want to research the availability of wheelchair and medical equipment providers in the areas you plan to visit.
At the airport
Arrive 3 hours before international flights. Domestic flights can usually be cut to 2 hours. International flights with checked bags and passport control cannot, and the line at TSA PreCheck or Global Entry does not shorten the customs queue on the other end. Boomer travelers who arrive at the “minimum recommended” connection time are the ones who miss flights. Mindset is everything. The payoff here by arriving 3 hours early is the peace of mind you have by ensuring you are on time and you can move around at a leisurely pace, instead of a stress-induced hustle, or even worst, a mild panic. Taking a vacation should be as pleasurable and stress free as possible. Do not underestimate the power of being early.
PreCheck and Global Entry are worth it if you fly more than 2-3 times a year. TSA PreCheck is a 5-year membership, costs is similar to some checked bag fees, and the application interview is under 10 minutes at most enrollment centers. Global Entry includes PreCheck and adds expedited customs re-entry. The line-skipping pays for itself within 2-3 international trips.
Request wheelchair assistance for long connections, even if you don’t usually need it. It’s free, and it reduces the “are we going to make the connection” question in your mind. Boomer travelers who decline wheelchair assistance and then try to sprint through Atlanta or DFW frequently miss their flights. The 30-minute request and a 5-minute wait is the cheapest insurance you’ll ever buy.
Photograph your boarding pass and your luggage tags before you board. The airline’s lost-luggage process is faster when you can show them the bag’s brand, color, and the tag number.
Keep medications, a change of clothes, and valuables in your carry-on, always. Checked bags are not delayed occasionally, they are delayed (or lost entirely) routinely. They are also subject to TSA inspection, theft (rare but it happens), and airline mishandling. Anything you’d need within 24 hours of landing or that can’t be replaced at a hotel gift shop goes in the carry-on.
On the road
Use your phone’s offline maps feature, but don’t forget to download the maps before you leave the hotel. Cellular coverage is unreliable in some of the world’s most beautiful places (rural Italy, parts of Japan, much of rural France). Downloading the offline map in the morning while you have reliable WiFi is one of the simplest things you can do. The offline maps are usually 50-200 MB each, so this doesn’t add up to much storage.
Eat lunch like a local, even if it means skipping the guidebook’s “top 10 restaurants” list. The places that look dull on Google Maps and have 3 reviews in English are often the places that have been feeding the neighborhood for 40 years. Boomer travelers who follow this rule consistently say the same thing: the worst meals of their trip were at the famous places, and the best were at the unmarked ones.
Tip generously but in cash, in local currency. A few dollars in the right place smooths the entire trip. Hotel housekeeping, taxi drivers, restaurant servers, tour guides, porters. The amounts are smaller than US tipping culture but the principle is the same.
Keep a paper backup of critical information. Phone dies, gets lost, gets stolen. A folded index card in your wallet with the hotel name and address, your passport number, the local emergency number, and a credit card issuer’s international collect-call number can save a trip.
Common pitfalls
The 9 AM tour bus is the enemy of jet lag. Tours that leave at 8 or 9 AM are designed for travelers who arrived the day before and slept in their own bed. For a boomer traveler arriving after a transatlantic flight, the difference between a 10 AM start and a 9 AM start is often 90 minutes of sleep. When choosing tours, prefer departures after 10 AM on the first day, especially after a long-haul arrival.
Skip the all-day excursion at least once during a 7+ day trip. A full day of doing nothing is not wasted; it’s the recharge day that lets you do the next six. The boomer who doesn’t take a break is the boomer who catches a cold on day 6 and spends the last day in the hotel.
Don’t try new medications on travel day. The night before departure is not the time to start a new prescription, switch to a new brand, or take an over-the-counter sleep aid for the first time. If a new medication has an unusual side effect (drowsiness, photosensitivity, GI upset, dry mouth), you want to discover that at home, not in a foreign country. This applies to everything from prescription drugs to herbal supplements to new skincare products. [THIS IS NOT MEDICAL ADVICE]
Don’t drink the water, or use the ice. In countries where tap water isn’t safe, the ice isn’t always safe (freezing does not kill the bacteria). Things washed in tap water: salads, raw vegetables, and the wet glass the waiter wipes with a cloth are all at risk. The cleanest rule is often: cooked food and bottled drinks.
Resources
A few authoritative sources that back up the recommendations on this page:
- CDC Travelers’ Health (cdc.gov/travel): destination-specific vaccination and health guidance, updated regularly
- U.S. State Department travel.state.gov: country-specific advisories, entry requirements, embassy directory
- TSA What Can I Bring? (tsa.gov/travel): current rules on carry-on items, batteries, liquids
- Medicare coverage outside the U.S. (medicare.gov): standard Medicare does not cover overseas care
- State Department STEP (mytravel.state.gov/s/step): free registration for American citizens traveling abroad
For more on travel planning, see Boomeropia’s Travel Advisories page for government and embassy sources, Editorial Standards for our editorial process, and Privacy Policy for what data Boomeropia itself collects.