Health and happiness: why walking holidays combine the best of both worlds for older people

Being active is a well-known strategy for warding off ill-health in your later years. Combining gentle exercise with spectacular scenery can make the experience that much more rewarding

It was Ralph’s fault. Settling his weary limbs into the chair and taking his first sip of a cooling drink after we’d come off a long afternoon on the cricket field, he said: “It’s between 50 and 60 that you notice it.” 

“Notice what?”

“Your body – it just doesn’t perform like it did.”

As a spritely 40-something, I smugly thought: ‘Yes, but it won’t be like that for me …’

The years went by, I turned 50, 60 … and gradually it dawned on me: Ralph was right – damnit. And I start to worry: ‘Is this it? Am I really getting old and’ – whisper it – ‘past it?’

At least, I told myself, I’m not alone. 

A new survey commissioned by Age UK reveals that three-quarters of adults between 50 and 65 worry about staying healthy as they age, and two-thirds fear that they will lose their independence as they get older. Yes, they know they should exercise more, but a variety of concerns deter them. These include finding the time, finding the money (a gym membership doesn’t come cheap), fear of making matters worse by injuring themselves, and plain embarrassment. (I can relate to the latter, having struggled to hold a series of poses in a class surrounded by yoga bunnies half my age, moving like silk over polished glass).

Our muscles, heart, lungs and balance systems respond really well to being used. Image: Centre for Ageing Better

While all these reservations are understandable, they’re mostly groundless: you don’t need to don lycra or hit the gym to maintain a reasonable level of fitness as you age. Sure, you’re not getting any younger, but as Dr Paddy Dempsey, a research fellow at the Australia-based Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition points out, people tend to overestimate the effect of age on their health. “Some decline is natural, especially after our 30s, but a surprising amount is actually down to changes in lifestyle – especially becoming less active. Our muscles, heart, lungs and even balance systems respond really well to being used. Inactivity tends to creep in gradually, and the less we use it, the more we lose it.”

That’s why Age UK has launched its Act Now, Age Better campaign. With the backing of England’s chief medical officer Prof Chris Whitty and Age UK ambassador Helen Mirren, it encourages everyone to “move better for a later life”. And simple steps, literally, make a difference. 

As Dempsey puts it: “You don’t have to train like an athlete: walking more, climbing stairs, making sure you stand up after sitting for a while, a little gardening, they can all help”. And they can be life enhancers – even life savers. “Studies show improvements in strength, mobility, mental wellbeing and even reductions in disease risk when older adults begin moving more. Movement really can be ‘medicine’ (particularly in this day and age where activity is engineered out of our lives), and the earlier we make it part of our daily routine, the better.”

Make walking worth it
At Inntravel, we lead the way in self-guided walking holidays. Whether it’s a gentle stroll along the south Devon coast, or a hike between the hilltop towns of Tuscany, we help you discover remarkable destinations
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The key, he adds, is to “find something you enjoy”. Exercise, in other words, should be pleasure, not pain.

That’s music to the ears of Sarah Fussey, who as marketing director at walking holiday company Inntravel, is keen to find ways to encourage people to take up some of its walking and cycling holidays – at any age. These include some ‘easy walking’ offers, which, with titles like A Stroll in the Pyrenees, could almost have been designed to match Dr Dempsey’s prescription. Echoing his words, she says: “If you enjoy yourself as you move, it doesn’t really feel like exercise – but you’ll reap the benefits all the same”. Forget the idea of ‘power walking’, Fussey adds, “it’s about experiencing beautiful landscapes that also gradually build up your health”.

That’s been the experience of Peter Charlesworth, a long-time Inntravel customer, who says his advanced years are no barrier to enjoying the sort of holidays Inntravel offer. He praises the
company’s “excellent [route] guide notes – you’re never going to get lost, and [that means] you
can go on your own and at your own pace”. Having the luggage taken on to your chosen hotel
helps too, he says. “It’s stress-free walking”, he adds.

You don’t have to train like an athlete: walking more, climbing stairs, making sure you stand up after sitting for a while, a little gardening – they all help

Put that together, he says, and it means walking holidays in your more senior years “don’t have
to be strenuous: you can easily do a few miles in the morning, have a leisurely lunch, and then a
few more in the afternoon, and you’ve easily managed eight or so miles in a day. You don’t
have to be super fit, but it really helps keep a base level to your fitness.”

So, if you’re lucky enough to find yourself ambling along the coast of Lake Constance, say, or pottering among the vineyards of the Loire, you’re boosting your prospects of a healthy old age. There are mental health benefits too: Fussey knows because her customers tell her so, but there’s sound science to back it up, says Dempsey. Numerous studies show improvements in psychological wellbeing after exercise.

Pottering among vineyards and getting your daily dose of fresh air – a satisfying combination. Image: Boudewijn Boer

“If you enjoy it, you’ll keep at it.” Dempsey’s words are hugely reassuring. For me, that’s cycling round town, a little solitary yoga (the wonders of YouTube videos spare me from feeling like the odd old man out in the classes) and, when I’m feeling dynamic, some weights and pull-downs. But listening to Fussey, I’m tempted to explore some (not so) serious walking again.

And my cricketing mate Ralph? He hung up his boots last year. Played his last game at the age of 80, scored a few runs, took two wickets, and only stopped because his club folded. He kept at it because he loved it – simple as that – and has reaped the health benefits throughout the decades.

So whether ambling through an Alpine meadow, strolling around Sark or, like Ralph, whiling away an afternoon in whites, movement in a way that brings you pleasure is proof that, sometimes, doing what you love can do you a power of good.

Main image: Anton Volnuhin

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