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Evaluating Senior Travel Websites

Smarter Travel, 7/3/09

Abstract:

A handful of websites claim to offer information, tips, and suggestions for senior travelers. Sadly, those sites—at least the ones I looked at—are long on generalities, short on specifics for seniors. Here's a brief rundown of a half-dozen I recently checked (in alphabetical order, not order of interest):

• Grand Times, an online magazine devoted to a broad range of senior interests, includes a section on travel. It consists entirely of links to other online sites somehow related to seniors—some informational sites, some agencies that sell travel to seniors (and others).
• Seniors-Site includes more than a dozen links to various travel subjects. One such link—Travel Bulletins for Senior Citizens—provides three items of interest to some senior travelers: a posting of opportunities for tour leaders, a brief article on senior travel in Israel, and a pitch for Solo-Net, a website for singles.
• Senior Something, another general-interest site, parallels Grand Times in offering a list of links to information sources and selling agencies.
• Senior Travel Genie is a work in progress, attempting to build an online community of senior travelers similar in some ways to our sister site TripAdvisor. The newly designed website is easy to use, but so far the content is too sparse to evaluate. This is one to keep in your sights: It's on the right track, but hasn't yet gone far from the station. Keep your eyes on it.
• Suite 101 includes several articles written by contributing writers, most of which are specific to seniors. Information is limited, but at least the site is more than a funnel to agencies trying to sell to seniors.
• Travel With a Challenge is another online magazine, with quite a few articles about various activities and trips. Some are obviously trip reports by volunteer writers; unfortunately, many are PR blurbs based on info supplied by tour operators and travel agencies. Still, there's some good stuff.

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