Solo Female Retirees/Travelers

I am 60, no kids but close to my niece and nephew who currently live near me. For a variety of reasons, I decided not to renew the lease on the place I have rented for the last year (prior to that I was living in a house that my siblings and I sold last autumn). I had planned to find a small place to purchase as a home base, but the market (DC area) is not great right now, so I am thinking of choosing another rental – or putting my stuff in storage and taking a long trip. How long? I don't know - I'm at the imagining stage. I think it would be challenging to not have a home base, though. I don't have a lot of stuff, having decluttered extensively in recent years; but, I do have a few things I'd like to keep. I am free to travel. I don't mind traveling solo - when I do, I usually find activities in the places I travel to (rather than attending a travel tour for example). If anyone has tips about choosing a place to store one's furniture/books/papers for 3-9 months, please share your tips! Or, if you highly recommend keeping a home base, I'd like to hear your thoughts on that. Thanks :-)

I found this post while searching travel ideas. Soon to be retired!

Early 50s, have 2 kids in college and 2 still at home, my husband and I both love to travel, but someone needs to watch/raise the kids, so we have an agreement that we are both planning to take at least 2 "solo" trips without each other each year.

I have travelled the US extensively - both with family and as part of my corp job over the last 30 years, and some international travel with family (Europe, Mexico, Belize) as well as for corp work (Europe), now looking forward to being able to have time to explore south america, asia, more of Europe.

I'm comfortable travelling alone, but find myself wanting to have others to connect with and talk to after a couple days. I have looked a bit at some of the group travel that is offered by companies like gadventure.

Hi everyone!

Solo, childfree, not retired.

I currently work at a school, so I had this summer off and went and stayed in AZ for the summer, which was AWESOME. Next summer if I am still working this job and have summers off again, I don't want to be paying any rent. I was hoping to go to Thailand or the Philippines, but ticket prices, and the overall costs, might just be too high this year for me to swing it. I have been a house sitter off and on for 20 years so I thought I might try and do that. It would be hard to commit to anything yet since the budget at my job is always changing and I could be in a total different situation this time next year. Ultimately I would like to get a remote situation that allows me to be a nomad, but right now I am really loving this job, so I am just waiting and seeing what happens and saving as much money as I can living small.

Anyone read any good women on the road/traveling books lately? Last one I read was Cait Flanders Adventures in Opting Out, which I did not enjoy. Then the one before that was Never Leave the Dogs by Brianna Madia, which was ok. I could really use some Eat Pray Love quality vibes.

Hello. I’m a single female interested in solo travel. I am no where near FI have a full time job as a RN. This fall I have a trip planned for the Northeastern part of PA and a trip to the San Diego area in December to visit family.

I’m currently researching travel options for Hawaii. Alaska will be next, then I plan to start my international travels.

Always interested in hearing tips on how to do things and places of interest/must see/do.

I’m 56, partially retired, already FI, and often travel solo internationally. Asia and South America are relatively inexpensive. I’m in the Atlanta area. I’ve been to 9 countries so far in 2025 and have two more trips planned this year. Id be happy to collaborate 😊

Hey there, I'm a female, childfree retired vegan solo traveler too! Escaping the winters in the Northeast is imperative for me. The past few years I've spent 4-12 weeks in Mexico, Bali, Hawaii, Columbia / Peru and Costa Rica.

In terms of how I manage, I live pretty frugally in a small home-base studio apartment, eating most meals at home (healthier and cheaper and easier than eating out as a vegan... although Philadelphia has some amazing vegan restaurants). While traveling, I do the same. Slow travel usually allows me to find some better deals since a monthly "long-term" rental can sometimes be the same price as a hotel for a week. I try to cook at home and I'm not doing a lot of expensive tourtisty things. I also try to travel where friends are or with friends as much as possible to save money.

To combat the loneliness that can sometimes happen, I'm experimenting with doing some kind of class or retreat in the beginning of my journey so that I have some contacts and grounding.

As for destination suggestions, I'd love some as well! On my list is Vietnam and Cambodia but I've been thinking India for this winter. I usually like to have an idea of what I'm doing by end of October.

Workaway is a cool resource. Lots of different opportunites from manual labor on farms to teaching english for private families... all in exchange for room, sometimes room and board.
www.workaway.info

I haven't personally used couchsurfing but I've know people who have
www.couchsurfing.com

And of course there's the Happy Cow app for Vegans which I'm sure you know about.

Hi! I am 43, childfree, and looooove to solo travel. I've been a full digital nomad before and I would love to do it again in about a year and a half. I currently have an apartment in Westchester, NY. The reason for the timeline is that I got a new job about a year ago, and I'm working on a professional certification that will take about that long to finish. I would definitely be open to a house swap though!

In the past I've done with it with my car or just one big suitcase /backpack with all my worldly possessions. When I was younger, I loved working seasonally (hospitality/waiting tables) in all the places that I wasn't willing to spend the money to visit. 2 summers in Alaska, ski season in Montana, and a year in Colorado in the mountains. coolworks.com if you are interested. Housing is usually not great quality, but it's usually very affordable. Food/cooking can be challenging if you don't work at a restaurant. BUT I cannot recommend it highly enough! I was able to live in some fantastic places for next to nothing and make some decent money too.

The other side of my very random career is all accounting, bookkeeping, and now financial planning. I've been very lucky that I have been able to work remote long before it was cool! I usually move cities in the US every few months to visit different groups of friends and family or attend an amazing event or festival. I definitely chase the best weather whenever I can. I hate the heat, so I usually plan my target cities by the most tolerable weather for the year (for example New Orleans in January). I usually drive between the cities (while in the US) and I rarely plan out more than about 3-6 months at a time. I've used several different websites in the US (AirBnB, etc). I really liked Landing (hellolanding.com). They have a standby option for $1,500/mo (scroll down to the bottom of the page). They have nice apartments, fully furnished and utilities included. Sometimes parking is kinda interesting, but I've been able to find free garage parking/street parking so far. Availability varies, but I've had good luck getting apartments in cool places. Definitely look at the fine print on the standby option. You can get bumped from the unit that you are in if someone books it at the market price, but I've always had great luck getting another unit in the same apartment complex, nearby, or just opting to go to a new city and have new adventures. I would love to coordinate with other digital nomads while on the road!

I see myself as a solo female traveler too, though I do have a home base that I return to and live in most of the year. I like to travel on my own, but also like to live close to my family and I'm not yet retired so have a job to get to.

Would love to chat with fellow solo female travelers <3

My upcoming trip will take me to the US - to St Louis, New York, Milwuakee and Orlando, so hopefully I'll be able to meet some FI people too!