Long Stay Tours for Seniors

Odyssey Traveller offer a collection of long stay vacations senior travel city tours and holidays, where we stay in one place for at least a week and up to 21 days, give us a chance to create meaningful connections with like-minded people in our chosen destination, and ample time to enjoy and contemplate our shared travel experience.

This trip for senior travelers has a focus on history and culture, we are avid proponents of travel as a form of education and appreciation. Our small group (typically up to 12 people) senior holiday packages include a knowledgable tour guide as part of the tour package, supported on a key day tour by a local guide. Instead of rushing from one destination to another, in thrall to the timed itinerary, one of our extended stay, senior holiday packages gives us a chance to truly immerse ourselves in a city, and have a deep understanding of its history and culture. Typically we offer a long vacation tour package to key destinations across Europe, such as Lisbon, Portugal or Florence, Italy and even South America. Coupled with our small group approach in adventure travel, this type of holiday package also minimises our impact on the environment and local infrastructure, allowing us to use a small coach or shuttle, or go on long walks without subjecting locals to visual pollution.

Related Tours

Paris Tour

21 days

Mar, Sep

Explore Paris | 21-day Small Group Tour Exploring Parisian Life

Visiting France

On this small group tour of Paris, travellers take the time to join local guides to learn about the destinations within this city. Authentic experiences with like minded people and an Odyssey tour leader. Staying in apartments this European tour immerses itself in Paris' history, art, and culture in the city of light.

From A$15,325 AUD

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Pre-guaranteed
Barcelona city

21 days

Apr, Sep, Aug

Barcelona Small Group Tour | The city explored in-depth

Visiting Spain

Small group journeys from one of the best small group tour companies Europe that delve into Barcelona's history, culture, and cuisine. Daily itineraries for couples and solo travellers with like minded people. An escorted tour of Barcelona based in an apartment with local guides sharing authentic experiences and knowledge.

From A$12,925 AUD

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Torre de Belem Lisbon, Portugal

21 days

Jun, Sep

Lisbon & Barcelona small group tour

Visiting Portugal, Spain

An escorted tour for like minded people that provides mature couples and solo travellers with daily itineraries that provide authentic experiences with qualified local guides in the great cities of Lisbon and Barcelona over 21 days. For solo travellers a nominal single supplement is charged.

From A$14,250 AUD

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Brandenburg gate Berlin

12 days

Oct, May

Berlin walking tour

Visiting Germany

Enjoy an escorted walking tour of Berlin. This small group holiday is for like minded people, mature couples or solo travelers who enjoy getting off the beaten track and exploring with some adventure. The itineraries set for each day follow sections of the Berlin Wall, whilst local guides realise authentic experiences found in this amazing city.

From A$8,745 AUD

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Discover Berlin

20 days

Apr, Sep

Discovering Berlin Small Group Tour | 20 days living in Berlin

Visiting Germany

Experience Berlin while living there for almost three weeks in an apartment. From one of the best small group tour companies for Europe enjoy an escorted tour learning about the city's history and experiencing it like a Berliner. This holiday is for like minded people, mature couples or solo travelers who enjoy getting off the beaten track and exploring with some adventure.

From A$12,795 AUD

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Pre-guaranteed
Florence

22 days

Mar, Sep, May

Florence: Living in a Renaissance City

Visiting Italy

A small group tour with like minded people, couples or solo travellers, that is based in Florence. An authentic experience of living in this Renaissance city The daily itineraries draw on local guides to share their knowledge on this unique European tour. Trips to Pisa, Lucca and Perugia are included.

From A$13,695 AUD

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View from Castel Sant'Angelo, Rome, Italy

15 days

Dec

Discover Rome | Cultural and History Small Group Tour for Seniors

Visiting Italy

Rome is arguably the most fascinating city in Italy, the capital city, once the centre of a vast, ancient empire and still today a cultural focus within Europe. Explore the city in-depth as part of a small group program spending 14 days exploring, just Rome and Roman History.

From A$9,235 AUD

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Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris

21 days

May, Oct

History of France by Rail | Escorted Small Group Tour for Seniors

Visiting France

French History by Rail small group tour is based on Ina Caro’s book of the same name. Participants live in central Paris, using apartments as a base, living as the locals do, whilst meeting each day as a small group to journey by rail and TGV to the beautiful medieval centres of France.

From A$17,595 AUD

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contemporary Japan places of interest

21 days

Oct

Contemporary Japan | Small Group Tour

Visiting Japan

This small group tour organised by Odyssey Traveller, Contemporary Japan, will take you through modern life in this East Asian jewel. This contemporary tour for couples and solo travellers is an expedition through Japan’s major urban areas, beginning and ending in Japan’s tantalising capital, Tokyo. For the first 12 days we get our fill of Tokyo fashion, technology, culture, and sights.

From A$19,625 AUD

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It also gives us access to certain places and activities that may be inaccessible to large groups or to members of the public who are not escorted by a guide, or hidden gems that other organized tours may skip in favour of more popular destinations. These long stay vacation packages provide a unique experience in a single trip for a couple of the solo traveler.

Since 1983, Odyssey Traveller has specialised in crafting unforgettable senior holiday packages of experiences for senior or mature-aged travellers, providing in-depth adventure and educational programs to small groups that run for several weeks. Even the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) encourages travellers to make each trip long enough to really get to know a place, we think our 21 night long stay vacations across a range of European cities is a great choice, for a start your baggage only needs to be unpacked once…..travel plans are easily understood and you stay in a aprtment and live in a residential neighbourhood. Long stay vacations also minimises the negative impact of tourism on the environment and on the destinations, as a longer stay allows us to take less flights, reducing our carbon footprint, and allows us to support local businesses over a longer period of time.

FAQs

What are the benefits of long stay tours for travellers?

According to the global tourism body, with airline prices dropping over the last 20 years, travellers—especially British travellers–have gone on more holiday breaks, but they’re shorter than they used to be. Now travellers are more likely to go on three-to-four-day breaks, way shorter than the traditional two-week holiday. As the WTTC mentions in this article, the emergence of the low-cost airline sector have made it possible to “travel more cheaply by plane to Nice than by train to Newcastle…We think nothing of jumping on a plane for a weekend break now.”

But should we? Travel itself can be nerve-wracking, and setbacks like flight delays, lost luggage, or a jampacked itinerary that doesn’t leave you time to breathe can turn what should be a relaxing experience into a horror show.

  • Avoiding “travel burnout”

Travellers have spoken about “travel burnout” or “vacation burnout”, where sights start to blend together, a fun experience is stripped of all excitement, and you come home not rejuvenated, but even more tired than when you stepped out of your home.

On a long stay vacations senior travel tour, one destination becomes your home. A serviced apartment is your base for several nights, and after a long day of travelling, you can simply put your feet up and relax, instead of spending the night packing your luggage to jet off to another city in the morning.

We still go on a day tour led by your tour guide out of our base city-for example, on our Paris tour, we’ll head out of Paris to Le Port-Marly in north-central France to visit Chateau du Monte-Cristo, once the home of Alexandre Dumas and named for his famous novel-but we don’t need to bring all of our bags as we’ll be heading back at the end of our journey to our accommodation at the end of the day.

Enjoying the comforts of home on vacation

Since we’ll be staying at the same place for more than a week, we choose accommodations and locations that give us the comforts of home, with facilities to do laundry (allowing us to pack light for our trip), and easy access to public transport.

  • Live like a local

Wouldn’t it be nice to find that one patisserie in Paris where you can buy coffee and pastries every morning, or that one museum in Barcelona or Rome which you can visit more than once? Or what if you found a nice shop in Berlin that you’d like to visit again, perhaps during the weekend? A long stay tour allows you to ditch the rushed pace of a tourist and live like a local.

  • Flexibility

At Odyssey, since you’ll be travelling with at most 18 people, your Program Leader can be more flexible on the tour, allowing you to admire a painting a little bit longer in a museum without hurrying you along. If you’re a solo traveller, this can be a good break from travelling alone, giving you time to spend with a new group of friends (with logistical concerns handled by Odyssey), and enough time to explore a city on your own.

How can long stay tours curb the negative impact of tourism?

In addition to providing benefits to you as a traveller, long stay tours also provide benefits to the destinations we visit. Locals have been protesting against the numerous negative effects of “overtourism” or overcrowding in their region–the rising cost of rental properties, the negative impact on the environment, the anti-social behaviour of seasonal visitors, and the overall pressure placed by a throng of people descending upon a town that can no longer sustain it. Our small group, long stay tours minimise our impact through:

  • Less frequent flights, reducing carbon footprint
  • Use of public transport and/or a small shuttle
  • Staying long-term in an accommodation, which means linen need not be replaced every day, contributing to water and electricity conservation
  • Supporting local businesses over a longer period of time

Long Stay Tours for Seniors

The need to know

Getting around

Odyssey travels by coach and occasionally uses local transport, including trains and ferries. Specifics are always outlined in your tour itinerary. We have guidelines for how we operate in a post covid-19 environment for you.

Accommodation

In major cities, Odyssey stays in centrally located 3-4 star hotels, with easy access to public transport. In smaller towns or rural areas, we usually stay in family-run hotels or guesthouses. On our long-stay tours, during which you spend the length of the tour in a single location, we use serviced apartments.

Tour Guides

Odyssey always engages local guides with regional knowledge to ensure an authentic experience during which you can learn as much as possible about the history and culture of places you visit.

For other travel details, visit our individual country pages:

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