To plan your first solo trip after 60, choose a trip by its published activity rating, book with a company that includes your own room in the base price, and pay for, insure and prepare for it on a schedule that starts months before you fly. Japan, Portugal, Costa Rica and Morocco are all good places to begin, for different reasons covered below.
If you want the independence of traveling alone without handling every logistic yourself, a small women’s group is the middle ground. Women Travel Abroad runs small groups of 6 to 10 women, charges no single supplement, and gives every traveler her own room in a boutique hotel. The average traveler is 55. The oldest so far was 81.
Whether you are newly retired, recently widowed, or ready to put your own trips first after years of planning around other people’s, this guide runs in the order you will need it: the steps to booking, where to go, your health and pace, and what happens before you leave.
From deciding to go to paying the deposit
Most women start with photographs. Start with the pace instead, and take the rest in this order.
- Settle the group question first. For a first international trip after 60, take a small group. The comparison further down this page lays out why, and every step below assumes you have.
- Choose by pace, then by place. Find the activity rating on the trip page and compare it with an ordinary week at home. The Morocco trip is rated Moderate: walking tours of two to three miles at a steady pace, several flights of stairs, and up to two hours on your feet at a stretch. If you walk that much on a normal Saturday, you will keep up.
- Pick a departure date, then read the payment schedule against it. Morocco runs October 27 to November 3, 2027. A nonrefundable $400 deposit holds your place, a minimum of $400 is due on the first of each month after that, and the balance is due 90 days before departure. Book this fall and your final payment falls in late July 2027.
- Buy travel insurance the week you pay the deposit. The refund terms are the reason. Cancel more than six months before departure and you can request half your money back. Inside six months, nothing comes back. The insurance section below covers what the policy needs to include.
- Book your own flight. Airfare is the one large cost the trip does not include. For Morocco, that means landing at Marrakech Menara Airport (RAK) on the first day, where private transportation takes you to the riad. Most US citizens do not need a visa for Morocco. The first group call, 90 days out, goes through flights and visas, so bring your questions there.
- Hand the rest over. From here, the four pre-trip touchpoints described near the end of this guide do most of the work. Your part is to show up to them.
Choosing a destination
For a woman over 60, four things deserve more weight than the photographs: the quality of the infrastructure, how walkable the streets are, how close a good hospital is, and how welcome a woman traveling without a partner will feel.
Japan: the easiest country on this list
Japan is the easiest trip here at any age. The trains run on time, the cities are walkable, crime is very low, and omotenashi, the Japanese practice of hospitality, means people go out of their way to help a traveler who looks lost. Kyoto suits women who like to move slowly: temple gardens, a tea ceremony, the Arashiyama bamboo forest early in the morning. Major cities have elevators, smooth pavements and clear signage.
Explore Japan with Women Travel Abroad.
WTA travelers exploring Kamakura Japan
Portugal: Western Europe at a gentler pace
Lisbon and the Algarve coast give you Western Europe with smaller crowds than Paris or Rome. English is widely spoken, and dinner is grilled fish, custard tarts and local wine. The coast is flatter than most European cities. Lisbon is not. The Alfama district is steep cobblestone, so factor it in if stairs bother your knees at home.
Discover Portugal with Women Travel Abroad.
Costa Rica: wildlife without the endurance test
Costa Rica gives you cloud forest, volcanic parks, wildlife reserves and Pacific beaches without asking for serious fitness. Small boutique hotels and eco-lodges are well established, naturalist guides handle the logistics of getting into the national parks, and healthcare is solid by regional standards. The Costa Rica Wellness retreat, December 7 to 12, 2027, keeps you in one hotel in Tamarindo for all five nights.
Morocco: go, and go with a guide
Morocco takes more preparation than Europe or an English-speaking country. The medinas of Marrakech and Fes are mazes of dirt and cobblestone with almost no street signs, and they wear out anyone trying to find her way alone. Go anyway, with a local guide. With one, and an itinerary paced for it, you get nights in the Sahara, riads inside centuries-old medinas, and Moroccan hospitality up close. Women Travel Abroad has led multiple Morocco trips, and the full week is laid out further down this guide.
A group of Women Travel Abroad travelers in Morocco
Mobility: plan for the body you have now
Mobility is a spectrum. Match the itinerary to how you move today, and do not write off a whole country on an assumption.
Start with terrain. Hill cities such as Lisbon’s Alfama, San Francisco and Edinburgh’s Old Town are much harder on knees and hips than flat coastal towns or cities with modern street grids. Research the neighborhood, not just the country. A difficult city often has an easy district a short ride from the steep part.
Read the walking numbers. Every Women Travel Abroad trip publishes a physical rating before you pay a deposit. At Moderate, that means two to three miles a day, moderate inclines, and up to two hours of walking or standing with fewer breaks. Ask any operator you are considering for the daily distance and the surface.
Say what you need early. If you use a cane, have had a recent knee replacement, or simply want a slower walk between sites, tell the company before you book. A group capped at 10 women can change the pace of a day, which a coach of forty cannot. The riads and small heritage hotels on our itineraries are chosen partly for being close to the main sites, so there is less walking on hard ground.
Check the hospitals. If you manage a specific condition, look up the healthcare at your destination before you commit. Japan, Western Europe, New Zealand and Australia all have excellent hospital systems. Remote destinations ask you to be more self-sufficient, so pack a medical kit and carry prescriptions in their original containers.
Travel insurance: what Medicare will not cover
This is where women over 60 are most often underinsured.
Your health insurance at home almost certainly does not cover you abroad. Medicare covers almost nothing outside the United States, and most private plans offer little or nothing for an emergency overseas. Before any international trip, buy a dedicated travel insurance policy that covers:
- Emergency medical treatment, with at least $100,000 in medical coverage
- Emergency medical evacuation, which can cost $50,000 to $200,000 out of pocket without coverage
- Trip cancellation and interruption
- Pre-existing conditions
Pre-existing conditions are the item most often missed. Many policies exclude them unless you buy within a set window after your first trip payment, often 14 to 21 days. That is why the policy belongs in the same week as your deposit, not the week before you fly.
Allianz Travel, GeoBlue and Travel Guard all sell policies to travelers over 60, and GeoBlue is strong on medical coverage abroad for Medicare-age travelers. Read the pre-existing condition clause, confirm your destination is covered, and ask whether a Cancel for Any Reason plan is available. Carry a printed copy of the policy, your policy number and the 24-hour emergency assistance number in your wallet.
Pacing: travel slower than you think you need to
The ten-countries-in-fourteen-days itinerary wears you out and shows you very little. Four or five days in one city or region gets you past the main sights to the neighborhood market and the family restaurant that is not in any guidebook.
Build in a recovery day. Jet lag hits harder with age, and pushing through exhaustion to see one more museum is a reliable way to get sick. Plan at least one unscheduled day for every week abroad. Those days often turn out to be the best of the trip: a slow morning in a café, or a lunch that runs two hours.
Skip overnight buses and trains. Travel by day and sleep in a real bed at each stop. The extra cost is small next to how much better you will feel.
Take the midday rest. Much of Southern Europe, Latin America and the Middle East slows down in the early afternoon anyway. Go with it. Ninety minutes off your feet after lunch buys you the evening.
What a Moderate week looks like: Morocco
The Costa Rica retreat unpacks you once. The Morocco trip has you check in five times in seven nights, and that difference is the main thing to weigh. It runs October 27 to November 3, 2027, at $5,995. That includes your own room at boutique riads in Marrakech, the Dades Valley and Ouarzazate, plus one night at a desert camp in Merzouga.
Day two is the walking day the rating is written for. A local guide takes the group on foot through the Marrakech medina, its souks, Bahia Palace and the Koutoubia Mosque, then into Jemaa el-Fnaa for the afternoon. That is your two to three miles, on dirt and cobblestone. Dinner that night is on your own.
The sequence works in your favor. You arrive by private transfer, walk the medina with a guide the next morning, and by the free afternoon on day seven you know enough of the turns to shop the souks with a couple of women from the group.
Days three through six are road days. The group crosses the Atlas Mountains, stopping at a cooperative where artisans make pottery and rugs, and reaches the Dades Valley gorge around sunset. The next day you drive the Valley of a Thousand Kasbahs to Merzouga, where camels carry you across the Erg Chebbi dunes for sunset. Dinner is at camp, around the fire. Day five starts early for the sunrise, then a guided visit to Kasbah Ait Benhaddou on the way to Ouarzazate. Day six is the drive back to Marrakech, with a hammam included that evening.
Weigh those four days before you book. Little of them is hard on your legs, and a good share of them is spent in the van. If repacking a bag every morning would wear you down more than the stairs in Marrakech, start with Costa Rica. If you have wanted the Sahara for years, it is a far easier trip with six to ten women and a driver than it would ever be alone.
Day seven brings it back to an easy pace: the Majorelle Gardens and the Yves Saint Laurent Museum in the morning, a free afternoon, and a hands-on cooking class that becomes the farewell dinner. Breakfast is included every day, along with five lunches and five dinners. Michelle Alexander is the Travel Host on this departure. She runs the group and the days, and the local guides handle Morocco.
Small group or on your own
For a first trip abroad after 60, take the group. Logistics are what ruin a first trip, and a small group takes them off your hands while leaving you free days to wander. Try independent travel on the second trip, once you know how your body handles jet lag and long days.
| Factor | Independent solo travel | Small group travel (6 to 10 women) |
| Logistics | You manage them | Handled for you |
| Room cost | A single supplement often applies | No single supplement at Women Travel Abroad |
| Pacing | Entirely your own | Set together, adjusted day to day |
| Safety net | You rely on yourself | The group and your Travel Host |
| Company | You have to seek it out | Built into every day |
| Local access | Limited by language and knowledge | Local guides who live there |
| Best for | Experienced solo travelers in familiar regions | New destinations, mobility considerations, company |
The room line is where most solo trips get expensive. In JourneyWoman’s March 2025 study, Invisible No More, 78% of women over 50 named the single supplement as their biggest barrier to traveling alone. Women Travel Abroad does not charge one. More than 95% of our travelers book on their own, so a private room is the default, and you will not be the only woman who comes alone. More than 60% book another trip within 12 months.
Between the deposit and the airport
Four contacts fill the months between paying your deposit and boarding your flight.
90 days before departure, your group meets on a video call, with no one else on it. You meet your Travel Hosts and go through flights, visas and the practical details. Raise anything about mobility or diet here.
60 days out, a detailed packing list arrives, with a video showing how to fit the whole trip into a carry-on.
35 days out, you are invited into a private WhatsApp group with the women you will travel with, along with the options for your free time. Plans for the free afternoons start there.
30 days out, a second call walks through the itinerary hour by hour, and every question is answered before you leave home.
Your Travel Host is there to look after the group and the logistics. The destination knowledge comes from vetted local guides. They are different people doing different jobs.
Safety if you travel independently
If you go on your own, these habits apply everywhere:
- Register your trip with the State Department’s free Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) for emergency alerts and support.
- Give a trusted contact at home your full itinerary, with accommodation addresses and phone numbers, and agree on a daily check-in time.
- Wear a crossbody anti-theft bag in front of you in busy areas.
- Download offline maps (Google Maps offline or Maps.me) before you arrive. Do not count on cellular data in an unfamiliar city.
- Keep a card in your wallet with your hotel’s address written in the local language, for taxi drivers and for finding your way back.
For more, see our solo travel tips for women. Don’t hesitate to browse upcoming trips but make sure to read the activity rating on each before you choose!