Image via: NY Times
The stereotype for hostel life and adventure travel usually entails a large group of fresh-faced kids in their twenties with an oversize backpack peaking over their heads. Backpacker life is changing, however, like Nomadic Matt discusses in his post about backpackers turning into flashpackers. In the past you may have been lucky to have more than one computer available at your hostel, but now more and more hostels are coming equipped with computer rooms and free wifi. The customers at hostels also reflect the change in travel culture. Most people will be carrying around some fancy gadget in order to document their trip and keep in touch with family and friends back home. At your next hostel take a look around you. Yes you will undoubtedly see the bearded American guy in Birkenstocks, and the ridiculously in shape Aussie guy signing up for a biking tour, but you will also see some other people and they won’t be in their twenties. People’s priorities are changing and more and more ‘grownups’ and active seniors are deciding to travel later in life.
There are organizations that are capitalizing on this trend (as smart companies always do) and providing services to older travelers. Exploritas and Overseas Adventure Travel cater to this specific clientele. In the New York Times article Seeing Old Age as a Never-Ending Adventure, they interview people like Tom Lackey who at 89 years old wing walks, where he straps his feet onto the top of a plane’s wings while in flight. How many twenty year olds do you know that do that?
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