Traveling To National Parks With a Senior Citizen

I’ve logged a number of miles on the road and of course on the trails at National Parks all over the U.S.  I regularly go on beach vacations and hit all sorts of coastal destination with all sorts of modes of transportation and all sorts of itineraries.

After a recent story in the news about a man and his grandmother traveling to national parks, I started to recount some of the trips I’ve taken with my now 86-year old mother.  While she’s mostly done with traveling, we did have quite a few adventures on the road with mom that may benefit you in your travels

When you begin planning a trip with a senior citizen, there are a few things to keep in mind.  First lets talk transportation.

My mom would prefer to drive, and if that’s your mode of transportation, map out the trip with lots of stops in mind.  Deep Vein Thrombosis may be an issue if you mom is sitting for too long and you should map out rest stops, food stops and fuel stops with that in mind.  Also consider breaking a long trip up over two days.  After all, mom’s not going to be up for touring if she’s exhausted from a 10-hour drive in one day. 

If you’re flying, plan on helping mom pack her suitcase and carry-on.  If she’s like my mom, she wants to pack everything and she has no clue about carry-on restrictions.  I helped mom pick out the types of clothing and shoes she’d need and even helped her weigh her luggage.  I also encouraged her to pack a sling pack in her checked luggage for all of the mom-things she’ll want close by on the trip…and to avoid a large purse or handbag.

If you’re on a cruise ship you’ll also need to help your mom pack.  Keep in mind that she’s likely to get colder sooner and more tired more quickly so pack comfortable warm and cold-weather clothes.  I know on our last cruise the outside temp was 90F but the ship was a chilly 65F.

You can also consider renting a camper for mom to travel in.  This does give your mom the option to nap while you’re driving, to be closer to food and bed wherever you go and to relax more and stand up during travel.  With my mom she refused to sleep while we were driving, but she liked having the kitchen, bed and bathroom with her at all times.  She wasn’t crazy about the odor of some of the camper rooms in our camper but we found some MrGreen products to deal with that.

At many National Parks you can do what we call car-hiking.  This method takes your from pull-out to scenic views and you never walk more than 10 or 20-yards from the car to see the sights.  Plan for shorter days, earlier meals and earlier bed times. as mom is likely to be worn out early and again I’d rather her really enjoy fewer destinations than be exhausted to see more sights.  You can learn a lot about setting up itineraries from corporate travel sights ( click here ).

We worked with quite a few on-line resources to setup our mom-trips and we even encouraged her to do some research.  My mom used Seniors for Seniors to get some travel advice for seniors and this lead to some additional comfort items we packed for the trip.

In the end if you plan a realistic itinerary and slow down the pace of your trip, you and your senior citizen will both have a good travel experience.  Be sure to include mom in the planning and be sure to ask what SHE wants to see.  After asking, we found out that mom had a bucket-list destination just 45-mins from our first destination.  We altered our first day’s plans and checked a box on the list for her; and it really made for a memorable trip for her and everyone else.