Ad| Last night Mal described this as a cruise for people who don’t like cruises and it’s probably true.

Everything’s included and arranged but there’s no table of strangers you’ve been assigned to and there’s no organised fun you can’t escape if you want peace. If you’re in the mood to sit in a corner with a book there are endless quiet spots.

There are 8 restaurants and 3 food trucks - more than we have nights for. Two need booking and you can walk into the rest... steak, European, Latin American, seafood, sushi, Mediterranean, pizza and Dutch pastries.

And when we did want to get out, we went. We spent an afternoon and evening in Willemstad with @curacaotb, wandering around as the sun set.

It feels and looks a tropical version of Amsterdam. Punda vibes came to life at night - a pure explosion of Caribbean joy.

I haven’t cooked, booked, paid for or carried a thing since we arrived here with @sandals_ uk on Sunday. I’m not in the mood to go home!
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#midlifetravel #over50travel #over50creator #slowtravel # Curacao sandalsresorts SandalsRoyalCuracao

Ad| We landed here on Sunday after 3 weeks of on the hoof, gritty travel and I haven’t had to make a single decision since.

I’ll admit I’ve spent years being a bit sniffy about all-inclusives. Then we did four flights and a fortnight of daily salsa lessons, hosted other couples in a city none of us knew very well and went out every night dancing till the early hours.

But then we arrived in Curacao to find a car already waiting and a room already chilled… and I understood the appeal completely.

I think you can enjoy both, the gritty type of experiential travel and this kind. One makes the other better and I suspect we enjoyed Colombia even more knowing this was waiting at the end of it.

@Sandals_UK have invited us here for a few days so I’ll be sharing every little detail of not lifting a finger.

#SandalsResorts #SandalsRoyalCuracao #midlife #ageisstyle travelover50

This is us on day one the first time around with @dancesomoloco in Medellin and although we were rubbish I’ve left it in so you can see exactly where we started.

By your late 50s you’re used to being fairly good at the things you do and it had been a long time since either of us had walked into a room with absolutely no idea what of we were doing. Salsa changed that!

It’s humbling being a beginner at anything and I think it does you good to be humbled now and then. It reminds you what it feels like to try hard at something and still get it wrong.

What surprised me more was what it did for the two of us. Mal and I have been together a long time and you’d think we’d have patience down to a fine art but that’s much easier when nobody’s standing on anybody’s feet. Over the fortnight we had to learn all over again to wait while the other one got it, to help rather than correct, to back each other up when the teacher was watching and mostly to laugh when it went wrong... which it did. A lot!

Those are the qualities we’re going to need more of as we get older together and we have to practice for that as well - all of us do.

The last clip is us last week in a club - still fumbling but getting each other through.

Have you tried learning something from scratch with your other half? I’d love to know how you got on.

#midlifetravel #over50travel #over50creator #experientialtravel #colombiatravel

People keep asking me why Medellín. It’s not a holiday but that’s the point. Last week we just picked our ordinary lives up and brought them here - work, coffee, the same old routine BUT with a daily salsa class at the end of each day and then all of the spice that Colombia adds to everything. 
Heading towards 60, I don’t want to just pass through another culture any more, I want to be absorbed by it. Why wouldn’t you?

#Medellin #LivingAbroad #LifeAfter50 #MidlifeAdventure #GearingUpTo60

Don’t go gently into that good night, not while there’s still fun to be had out there... and you already know there’s plenty.

Don’t let anyone dumb you down... tell you you’re too old... that it isn’t appropriate... that you should know better at your age.

Because you do know better. You know that life’s short and it’s for seizing. This is our time to be free, to have fun.

Remember, we’re not fading softly, we’re staying alive.

How do you defy people’s expectations of ageing?

#midlife #ageisstyle #stayingalive #midlifewomen #midlifechic

They say we’re too old for festivals… yet we invented the ones they go to.

GenX didn’t start festivals — the Boomers did but some say they then went home to buy houses. We’re the generation that turned a few muddy weekends into a permanent culture.

Acid house... the Second Summer of Love… Rave... GenX built a scene so big the government passed a law to stop us dancing in fields. You don’t get legislated against for showing up to someone else’s party.

The whole calendar Millennials and GenZ take for granted is ours: Glastonbury became Glastonbury on our watch, Reading became a rite of passage, T in the Park, V, Creamfields... all Gen X.

So no, we’re not too old for festivals. We’re the reason there still are any. The people telling us to go home are standing in a field we built.

But the best part now is doing it all again with the younger lot. Nothing beats being in a crowd where three generations are singing the same chorus. We’re not clinging on… we’re passing it on. A festival was always meant to be shared across ages, that’s the whole point of a field with no doors on it.

So we’ll see you in the crowd.

#GenXAndProud #FestivalForever #TooYoungToStayHome #RaveNewWorld #SeeYouInTheCrowd

(PR trip) We almost said no. An invitation from @moresailing to a week’s sailing in Croatia, four cabins on one boat, a week living alongside people we’d never met, and the worry that a shared holiday means giving up your freedom

It turned out to be the opposite. We sailed together every day with people who were strangers on the Saturday and felt like friends by the Wednesday. The company was there whenever we wanted it.

And then, every evening, it wasn’t - in a good way. We docked somewhere new and had dinner, just the two of us.

I’d half expected to have to choose between people and privacy. You don’t. This, I think, is a great way to travel in midlife - enough company to feel part of something but with enough time to be yourself.

Our 5 days aboard was gifted by @moresailing and as always every word here is my own.

Have you ever found yourself travelling with strangers and loving it?

#gifted #midlifetravel #sailingholiday #croatia #midlifeadventures

(Not an ad, just a personal recommendation)

I love a luxury lipstick as much as anyone else but this is such good value that I can keep one in every handbag I own. 

I’ve been wearing it for years, it’s the sort of coral that flatters you when you’re tired and warms everything up without any effort.

It’s L’Oréal Color Riche Satin in Magnetic Coral 373 - it works for days when I’m feeling a bit drab or if a simple navy outfit needs a boost. 

It’s the easiest pick-me-up I know which is why I keep one in every bag - you can find it in most supermarkets and in Boots.  

Save, don’t splurge.

Let me know if you’ve ever found a bargain beauty product that works as well as a designer one

#Midlifechic #Over60 #ColorRiche #CoralLipstick #SaveDontSplurge