Americans love travel. They make it a regular part of their lives each year, grabbing time as they can over weekends, or planning for longer family vacations. And they see that travel plays an important role in their lives for both stress reduction and personal happiness.

Journey to Healthy Aging: Planning for Travel in Retirement is a research report based on survey findings that identifies two critical disconnects between perception and reality among the American public. 1) Americans dream big about travel in retirement – yet many are unprepared financially to ensure their dreams come true. 2) Americans more readily connect travel to immediate mental and physical health benefits than to long-term benefits, but they are motivated to travel after hearing the facts about these long-term benefits. These disconnects are a call to action for education and for people to work on making their travel and retirement dreams a reality.

In a related research initiative, the Global Coalition on Aging also released a white paper, Destination Healthy Aging: The Physical, Cognitive and Social Benefits of Travel, as a complement to the survey. This white paper, which is a meta-analysis of existing academic and social research links travel – and the activities associated with travel – with positive health outcomes, including decreased risk of heart attack and depression and even the promotion of brain health – health issues that are of increasing concern as we age.

The travel survey is a collaboration between Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies and the Global Coalition on Aging. It is based on a 2013 survey of 1,500 U.S. adults aged 25 and older.