Bee T r avel
Experience alternative travel
CHRISTINE HICKS- USTA Travel
Iwas at a meeting the other night and discussion glossed over what happens to the 50-somethings.

If we're lucky enough to make it that far, there's a self-awareness that grabs hold of us, a surprise event that occurs to each of us. In that vein, or so went the discussion, we all want to find ourselves, and figure out just what the meaning of life really is. Why on earth were we put here?

Generally, we all soon enough realize that there's no one answer to this. But the focus that overtakes us is worthy food for thought, and moves us somewhere off center to places we otherwise wouldn't go. Ah - going - that's what this is about.

Today's 50-something traveler, more than ever before, is seeking a more meaningful vacation. It's "more than ever" because our society has afforded us means and time as never before. This is the time when those free-wheeling days drinking in swim-up bars at over-the-top hot-weather, all-inclusive resorts lose their luster. We want to participate in something, without, however, committing for life. What to do? Enter the world of "alternative vacations."

Alternative vacations, as the industry prefers to call them, cover a wide range. They are not necessarily volunteer vacations, though you'll find volunteering in this classification. It may be something as simple as including language lessons, salsa lessons or cooking lessons while on vacation. It's more about an alternative experience than necessarily giving back to mankind. It's giving yourself permission and a present, taking an opportunity to feed your soul and your passion, taking time to indulge in what otherwise previously (as in, up 'til now) you wouldn't - and haven't - taken time for. If not now, when?

Alternative vacations can be traditional vacations with exceptional experiences added on. It might mean experimenting with a house-swap, or taking an apartment in Paris for a week, rather than the Hilton or Best Western. It could be as simple as calling up that person you always meant to stay in touch with, the one you met on a cruise, or a tour, and you really hit it off, even though now you mostly exchange holidays cards at best. If you truly did hit it off, there's no reason not to dust off their phone number and make the journey, if only as a rudimentary home base for the balance of your trip.

An alternative vacation - for you - might mean taking a conventional tour to an unconventional place. You don't have to climb the Himalayas to visit Nepal. You don't have to convert to visit a monastery. You don't have to bike the whole distance on a biking tour, believe it or not. This is the perfect frame of mind to visit "the homeland," that call to see where you all came from.

All these alternative choices feed that need that overtakes us mid-life. That unsettled, unfulfilled feeling deserves some attention. Give it a chance by stepping out of the ordinary, and see what extraordinary can feel like. The experience will change you in a good way.

(Christine Hicks-Usta has enjoyed more than 30 years of globetrotting as a member of the travel industry in various capacities. Direct questions to her at Bee Group Newspapers, P.O. Box 150, Buffalo, N.Y. 14231-0150.)