Take the big trip

Take a train across India or sail around the world, ride a motorbike across Vietnam or conquer Everest. If you're one of the lucky ones retiring this month – or you just fancy the adventure of a lifetime – SANDRA O'CONNELLfinds 10 unforgettable holidays

IF YOU’RE ONE of the 7,000-plus public sector workers due to retire this month – congratulations. With money in your pocket and all the time in the world with which to enjoy it, the trip of a lifetime is surely just what the retirement counsellor ordered. We’ve rounded up a few options to suit.

HIKE THE APPALACHIAN TRAIL

Anyone who has spent decades in a desk job is going to have to take a hike, in the best possible sense. On the basis that you might as well aim high, set your sights on the Appalachian Trail. One of the longest continuously-marked footpaths in the world, it crosses 14 US states, from Maine to Georgia, extending to 3,500km in all.

Walk a chunk of it or, if you find your ambition hasn’t retired along with the rest of you, attempt to join the elite 2000 Milers Club, made up of the 10,000 or so people who have already done the entire trail. Thousands attempt it every year but only one in four succeeds.

It takes an average of six months to complete but the views are spectacular, there are shelters along the way for camping and towns for provisions, not to mention the odd sneaky night in a motel. appalachiantrail.org

CRUISE THE WORLD

A round-the-world cruise is the epitome of decadence, signifying not just wealth but a surfeit of time too. What you might not know however is that the longer you stay, the cheaper a cruise works out on a per-day basis. One long cruise is certainly a lot better value than a few cheapies.

Princess Cruises has a 104-day world cruise departing from and returning to Sydney this year, taking in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Mumbai, Dubai and Egypt before touring all over Europe, up to Iceland and on to the US, the Caribbean, South America, French Polynesia and New Zealand. It departs in May and, based on two sharing, tickets start at €19,210.

One of the highest priced luxury options is the Regent Seven Seas' mammoth voyage from Rome to Beijing, at €48,000 while, at the other end of the price scale, PO has great value world cruise options such as a 38-night voyage from Auckland to Southampton for £3,477 (€4,155) each. princess.com, cruises.com, rssc.com

FLY THE GLOBE

You could just speed things up and cover the same ground in hours rather than days. Round-the-world flight tickets are also great value, with basic ones coming in at around €1,500.

USIT, which specialises in round-the-world tickets, has a World Walkabout option that takes you to Los Angeles, Tahiti, Auckland, Fiji, Brisbane, Sydney, Perth and Johannesburg, before landing you back home again. Tickets start at €1,435. They can help you book your accommodation along the way too, so you can take it as upmarket, or as low rent, as your budget allows/dictates. usit.ie

POLAR ADVENTURES

Unshackle your inner Shackleton and join the National Geographic Explorer, an ice-class expedition ship, to discover the wonders of the Antarctic. Waddle your way through penguin colonies on South Georgia, hike the rocky shores of the Falklands/Malvinas and kayak around massive icebergs along the way, stopping off at pioneer outposts such as Port Stanley and Port Lockroy.

This 24-day adventure begins when you fly into Buenos Aires bound for Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world. There, after lunch on a catamaran cruise of the Beagle Channel, you board your main vessel.

Optional extensions include visits to Easter Island and the Iguazu Falls and, to top it all, go in November and you'll be joined by a Pulizter Prize winning photographer who will, no doubt, help you figure out how your digital camera works. Pulizter Prize winners don't come cheap, mind you: prices start at just under $20,000 (€15,000). nationalgeographicexpeditions.com

BIKE FOR THE BORDER

If you’ve done your time in the car for work, had your fill of road works and traffic jams, ditching four wheels for two could be just the ticket.

Make like the boys from Top Gearand tour the highlands of central Vietnam by motorbike, with specialist Australian firm Vietnam Motorbike Tours. Its 20-day Top Gear Tour includes a tour leader, motor bikes (plus, crucially, maintenance) plus sightseeing in such places as Ho Chi Minh City, the Mekong Delta and the Cu Chi Tunnels. Highlights include a Nha Trang bay cruise, with snorkelling, and an elephant ride in Buon Ma Thuot.

Along the way pass through picturesque countryside, unchanged for millennia. The tour cost is AUS$4,400, (€3,560) based on a standard rate of AUS$220 (€178) a day.

If you can get a gang together, the price comes down to AUS$175 (€141.60) each a day, or AUS$3,500 (€2,833), for groups of 10 or over.

[ vietnammotorbiketours.com ]

MAKE LIKE A MAHARAJA

Then again, maybe you’d like to sit back and let someone else do the driving. If so, a luxury “cruise” train in India is the perfect way to see a country that can otherwise overwhelm, such is the bombardment of stimuli it exerts.

The best known option is the Palace on Wheels, whose former regal carriages were opened to the public in 1982. Nowadays however it’s just one of half a dozen luxury train options, including the Maharajas’ Express, the Indian Maharaja, the Deccan Odyssey and the Golden Chariot, all of which are basically five star hotels on wheels.

A full round trip on the Palace on Wheels will take you from Delhi to Rajasthan, taking in Jaisalmer, Jaipur, Udaipur and Jodphur, with all meals, off-train tours and on-board accommodation included.

The suites are comfy and spotless, with CD player and TV, with top notch restaurant cars on either end of the train. The price in low season (April) is $3,675 (€2,787) rising to $5,660 (€4,292) between the months of October and March. palaceonwheels.com

ROAM THE RED CONTINENT

Ask any recent Australian retiree what he or she plans on doing and nine out of 10 will talk about hitting the road in a campervan.

Known as “Grey Nomads”, they are one of the fastest growing sections of Down Under society, even if they are not the fastest moving (get stuck behind one and you’ll see).

Most travel for months on end – indeed it is not uncommon to sell up the family home, buy an RV and live out your days in permanent holiday mode.

If you fancy being a Grey Nomad for a bit, a modest two-berth recreational vehicle can be hired from specialist companies such as Discovery Campervans from AUS$5,600 (€4,533), or a roomy four berth option for around AUS$15,000 (€12,144) based on a three-month hire. This would give you plenty of time to circumnavigate the continent clockwise from Perth to Darwin, Cairns and Sydney.

Cheap and even free campsites are easily found. You can stock up on food (and water, plenty of water) in local supermarkets and the other cost you'll have to factor in is petrol, at about AUS$1.50 a litre. discovery-campervans.com.au

CONQUER EVEREST

Okay so that might be a tad too ambitious but you can certainly conquer Everest Base Camp, trekking through Nepal’s Sherpa heartland in the foothills of the world’s highest peak. UK adventure company Exodus has a lodge-based mountain trek following in the footsteps of all the great climbing parties.

You start out with a bit of gentle walking, past cultivated fields and small villages, following the Dudh Kosi river, before the hard works begins and you start climb in earnest.

On the way up you pass high altitude monasteries and poignant memorials to Everest climbers who never made it home, en route for the Khumbu Glacier.

From there you’ll have an opportunity to climb Kala Pattar (a tiddler at just 5,545m to Everest’s 8,840m) for blistering views above and below you, as well as time for sightseeing in Kathmandu when you get back down.

The cost of this 17-day tour starts at €1,250.

[ exodus.co.uk ]

BEAT A PATH TO BURMA

If it’s bragging rights you’re after you’ll be hard pressed to top Burma. These days even Aung San Suu Kyi is encouraging visitors to come, which makes it the perfect opportunity to see a beautiful country that is largely untouched by modernity.

Luxury travel company Abercrombie Kent has a comprehensive 16-day group tour which includes a visit to Inle Lake – where local people live on wooden houses on stilts – and involves cruising the Ayeyarwady River and exploring Mandalay, the former capital.

The basic tour costs €7,245 but you should also factor in a three-day post-tour stay at Angkor in neighbouring Cambodia which is not to be missed. abercrombiekent.com

AMAZING AMAZON

Retiring is a big deal, so you’re going to need a big holiday to celebrate – nay, make it an expedition.

This one takes you to the steaming Amazon basin and Peru’s Manu and Amarakeiri National Parks, where the chances of coming across other tourists are zilch. Indeed, there are tribes in here classified as “uncontacted”, so you’ll be steering clear of those guys too.

Still, travelling in little boats, the cargo platforms of trucks and classic wooden freighters, you’ll feel nothing if not intrepid on this 22-day, three-country adventure taking in Peru, Bolivia and Brazil.

While you are here you will fish for piranhas for your dinner, stay in remote jungle settlements and sleep in hammocks on the deck of a river cruiser. Basically everything Charlie Bird did.

The tour-only price for this trip of a lifetime is $3,648 (€2,766) but make sure to add trip extensions at the beginning and end to see Machu Picchu and Iguazu Falls. It would be a shame to come all this way only to miss them and, hey, it's not like you've to get back for work or anything. amazonadventures.com

TRAVEL