Nifty Fifty’s Holidays

As a single white female fast approaching 50, I really wanted to celebrate my birthday in style. I have a wide mix of friends from those I made at school and University, through to those I made throughout my career and general socialising.

I love to travel and thought that it would be fabulous to organise a girly trip abroad to a place I have always wanted to visit. Clearly I am past the age of the 18-30 holiday crowd and I wanted something a little more culturally enriching, with fabulous weather areas of historical interest and of course fantastic local cuisine guaranteed.

Importantly, I also needed to find a destination that was financially viable as I intended to take 5 of my very best friends (one for each decade!) with me as a treat.

I set to doing some research and very quickly found the perfect destination, Croatia. With jewel bright seas, unique olde-worldie architecture and some of the best fish restaurants in the Adriatic, Dubrovnik in particular caught my eye.

I am one for my creature comforts and Dubrovnik seems to cater for them in abundance. As a pedestrian only town, Dubrovnik also offered the ability to kick back, relax and absorb the medieval centre, free of the hustle and bustle of modern life but with all the creature comforts a modern traveller could wish for.

I had decided to pay for the accommodation and let my friends arrange their own flights. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the cost, particularly when I found a 12 day holiday package from a little more than £930 which actually managed to bring me in under budget despite also including flights!

This was for a coach-style tour specifically catering for the over-55’s market and whilst I am not there yet, I could see the sense in this being an excellent option for a group holiday, allowing us all to keep together whilst travelling and taking in the beautiful scenery of a variety of destinations around this beautiful area, with all the effort of messing about with luggage taken away from us.

A few phone calls later and my girlfriends were in total agreement and so the conversation naturally changed to one of outfit planning, shopping destinations and where exactly we would hold my big birthday night bash. Yet again Croatia came up trumps and the tour company advised me exactly which location we would be in on that momentous occasion (Dubrovnik by sheer coincidence!), recommending a handful of potential venues and even going so far as to book us in via the tour operator which allowed us to take advantage of their company discount and buying power!

With good weather all but guaranteed the next thing on the list was an epic pre-holiday shopping trip. Something tells me that my 50th birthday is going to be one to remember for all the right reasons. Here’s to being a very nifty fifty!

About the Author

Nicola Wilson is a self employed business advisor and recruitment specialist based in the UK currently working along side Travel 55. To contact Nicola please connect on LinkedIn.