Retirees Defy Age with Global Adventures

Retired Irish travellers are proving that age is no barrier to exploring the world, with some having visited up to 70 countries.

Seventy‑five‑year‑old Maura Ward, a former education welfare officer from Co Down, has been travelling extensively for the past 15 years. Despite a Parkinson’s diagnosis, she visited Dubai, Australia and Turkmenistan in the last year and counts about 70 nations in her tally, including Syria, Eritrea, Iraq, Afghanistan, Burkina Faso and North Korea.

Ward splits her time between the UK and Thailand, and says she prefers destinations that are off the beaten track, noting her experiences range from a balloon ride over the Serengeti to visiting Saddam Hussein’s former palace in Iraq and the Beijing Olympics.

Michael Berry, 82, and his wife Wendy, also in their 80s, have been travelling since the 1970s. Their early trips involved camping across lesser‑known European countries in a VW Beetle, later expanding to Turkey, Kenya and, after their children left home, more distant locations.

Both couples stress the importance of personal safety and cultural immersion, with Berry highlighting the surprise of discovering how different everyday life can be from expectations.

Source: Irish Examiner. Photo: Nataliya Vaitkevich / Pexels.