The Ideal Boomer Vacation: Cooking Classes in Tuscany?

With Baby Boomers retrenching from the recession and the shrinkage of their retirement savings, they may not be spending as lavishly on vacations as they used to. All the more reason for tourism destinations to refine their product and their marketing spiel to appeal to Boomer sensitivities.

Writing on TwinCities.com, Debra O'Connor does a great job of capturing the new zeitgeist. Boomers don't go on vacation to relax, she says. They go on vacation to experience things. That's not to say there's no market for chilling out by the beach and plowing through a bookshelf of trashy novels. But Boomers are far more desirous of immersing themselves in a local culture, challenging themselves physically or learning something new.

Among the vacations that Boomers like to take:

Adventure: Exotic destinations and/or physically challenging activities

Midlife odyssey: Jump-starting a personal or professional change via arduous circumstances, which may include fasting or a spiritual journey, such as a hike across the Sinai Desert

Education: Constantly upgrading their knowledge; for example, lectures on board a cruise ship and scholarly tours of the Vatican

Experiential: Cooking classes in Tuscany, bungee-jumping in New Zealand, grape-stomping in Napa Valley

Volunteer opportunities: "Voluntourism" ranging from helping the poor in Peru for weeks to spending a few days helping to restore a church in Provence

Luxury: On cruises, that means smaller ships with concierges and staterooms with balconies; in the woods or on safari, it's "glamping" — glamour camping — staying in tents that have maid service

(Image credit: Organic Tuscany.)

You Go, Girl -- on Vacation, That Is

Women running off on vacation together isn't just for Daytona-bound co-eds anymore. As the Associated Press recently reported, middle-aged women are taking knitting trips, adventure trips and spa trips. And they're leaving the munchkins and menfolk to fend for themselves.

The trend is so prominent that people are building business enterprises around it. There has been a 230 percent increase in the number of women-only travel companies in the past seven years. Marybeth Bond has written two books: "50 Best Girlfriends Getaways in North American" and a sequel, "50 Best Girlfriends Getaways Worldwide." The Fine Living Network launched a series recently entitled, "All Girl Getaways."

Writes the AP:

Thirty years ago, women didn't vacation without their families, said Susan Eckert, founder and president of AdventureWomen, a travel company for women ages 30 and older. A woman who did travel without her husband was asked whether there was something wrong in the marriage, she said.

Traditionally, women planned family vacations where they were the ones "making sure everyone is happy, everyone is safe, everyone is entertained," Oswald said. Meanwhile, men went camping, fishing or golfing with the guys, and teenagers started traveling, too, with school and youth groups while their parents footed the bill. Now women are saying, "'It's my turn.'"

I got bushwacked by the girls-only travel trend about two years ago. My wife, 48, announced that she and seven or eight members of her monthly bunco club were heading to Las Vegas for a long weekend. That was such a hit, the gals decided to go on a Caribbean cruise -- an event they plan to repeat this February.

The husbands of the aforesaid bunco-club wives did assemble a monthly men's group dedicated to hearty eating, drinking and discussion of weighty intellectual matters (we're real dweebs). But we haven't yet organized ourselves to actually go on vacation together. The women are way ahead of us. I don't think they'll stop until they take over the world.

Retirement Bliss for Boomer Lefties: Nicaragua

Baby Boomers discovered Mexico as a retirement destination, and then they uncovered the rain forest paradise of Costa Rica. As retirement-related development took off in those two countries and real estate prices soared, Boomers stumbled onto the former U.S. protectorate, Panama. Now, those peripatetic seekers of tropical bliss are moving on to Nicaragua.

If the bloggers at Blog the Rockies can be believed, someone (it's not clear who) estimates that 8 million of the nation's 78 million Boomers plan to move abroad in the next five years. I find that number rather extraordinary, if for no other reason than it flies in the face of the stated intention of a large majority of Boomers to continue working in some capacity after they turn 65 -- and the prospect of mixing Margaritas or changing sheets at the local Club Med is probably not what they have in mind.

But let us concede that a large number of Boomers intend to head south of the border. Nicaragua apparently now ranks No. 5 among foreign retirement destinations. Blog the Rockies quotes Sam Stewart, a real estate broker in San Juan del Sur, on the country's Pacific coast: "The country now ranks as the safest and most affordable nation in Latin America, and apparently the word is out because business is booming."

Nicaragua should have tremendous appeal to lefty Boomers who marched against the Vietnam war, agitated over Watergate, and protested the Iran-Contra affair. Those whose memories extend as far back as the Reagan administration may recall that the "Contra" part of the Iran-Contra affair involved the smuggling of weapons to the Contras who opposed the dictatorial proclivities of the Sandinistas led by a certain Daniel Ortega. At the time, Nicaragua followed a close No. 2 to Cuba as a vacation destination for affluent lefties whose idea of fun consisted of showing revolutionary solidarity with Third World peasants and cutting sugar cane.

The Sandinistas lost their grip on power in 1990. Ortega, who abandoned his Marxist rhetoric in favor of a blander democratic socialism, was re-elected president in 2006. Under his presidency, Nicaragua is trolling more aggressively than ever before for U.S. tourists and real estate developers. Ortega still consorts, however, with anti-U.S. leaders like Ahmadinejad of Iran, Correa of Ecuador and Chavez of Venezuela, and Nicaragua was one of the few nations in the world to applaud the Russian invasion of Georgia.

In Nicaragua, old Boomer lefties can re-connect with the revolutionary fervor of the good ol' days --but without the discomfort of sleeping in hammocks and relieving themselves in outhouses. They can build comfortable places to live, using cheap Third World peasant labor, with no fear of having their property expropriated. What bliss.

(Image credit: Morgan's Rock.)

Adventure Travel and Culture Cruises

Silversea Cruises, an ultra-luxury cruise line based out of Monaco, reports record growth in the number of passengers who have never before sailed with the line – a phenomenon the company attributes to its aggressive marketing to the “lucrative Baby Boomer market.”

While most marketers look upon baby boomers as a maturing market, the age cohort represents a “youth” market compared to the older demographic that traditionally has dominated the business. “We’re encouraging our travel agency partners to check their preconceptions at the door,” said David Morris, Silversea’s executive vice president of worldwide sales. “Younger people have the money and time to travel.”

(We like that. The last time anyone referred to us as a “young” person, we were talking to our 79-year-old step mother.)

As the Boomers displace the GI generation and the silent generation from the luxury liner suites, their tastes are driving tremendous changes. “According to many cruise line executives this one group of guests has probably created more changes in cruise ship programming than any other travelers since Noah's Ark,”writes Joseph Ewart, editor of www.cruisejungle.com.

Ewart quotes Dan Hanrahan, chairman of Cruise Lines International Association, as observing that Baby Boomers tend to collect experiences as they get older as opposed to physical possessions. Out goes Bingo, in come computer classes. Out go the bus tours, in come river-rafting expeditions and bicycle jaunts down the side of a volcano.

The industry also is tacking away from formal dining rooms with early and late seating times in favor of smaller restaurants in alternative settings that serve meals according to more flexible schedules. For entertainment, cruise lines are lining up more acts geared to Boomer tastes such as jazz, blues and rock ‘n’ roll. Spas are offering exotic amenities such as Thalassotherapy pools and hot stone massages. And an increasing square footage of prime, ocean-view space is being dedicated to weight machines and elipticals.

Silverseas’ HSH Prince Albert II, one of four vessels in the company’s fleet, appears to be built from the keel up with Baby Boomers and their cosmopolitan European counterparts in mind. Billing the vessel as geared to “adventure travel,” Silverseas has equipped the ship to take passengers to “some of the world’s most remote landscapes.”

“The interest in expedition travel is definitely on the rise, both among affluent baby boomers and seasoned travelers wanting to further enrich their already wide knowledge of more traditional and established destinations,” says Asiatraveltips.com.

The website quotes Silversea President Amerigo Perasso: "Adventure travel is also about having experiences that are intellectually enriching, so every voyage will feature a carefully selected expedition team of lecturers and leading experts who will share their insights on the natural, cultural and historical highlights of some of the most pristine and secluded regions on Earth."

As a sign of the times, Silversea has appointed a “director of expeditions” with responsibility, among other things, of recruiting expedition “lecturers” to cater the knowledge-thirsty Boomers.