Midlife travelers are going places—farther and wider, more and more often. Our age group took a mere 593 million international trips a year at the turn of the millennium, but we are expected to surpass two billion trips annually by 2050.
Trusted Housesitters attracts empty nesters and recent retirees who finally have an opportunity to see the world.
Yet there’s one big potential crimp in our globe-trotting plans: our pets! If you love travel and also love animals, things get tricky, especially if you have aging pets with special needs. As a cat lady myself—who sometimes feels like she runs an assisted-living facility for four spoiled senior felines—my solution is the online community Trusted Housesitters, which has as a tagline: “Helping Pet Lovers Travel.”
Join for a yearly $119 membership fee, describe your pets and your place (with photos, natch), put in the dates of your journey, and submit. You’ll soon start receiving applications from experienced sitters (who also join for $119), who are vetted by site staff and reviewed by users, vying to care for your beasties while you’re away.
Reliable Pet Sitting Services: Finding Your Match
Once you vibe with an applicant, you can continue the conversation via the device of your choice and strike up a deal. Because this is a sharing economy arrangement, once you pick a sitter, you won’t pay them a dime to tend to your pets, plants, etc. while they enjoy the comforts of your home, gratis.
I ultimately picked a young Scottish couple seeking cushy accommodations between backpacking adventures; both partners have careers in animal care, so I felt secure that my fur-brats would get their meds. But among the many applicants I net-met were women my age.
Trusted Housesitters attracts loads of empty nesters and recent retirees who finally have an opportunity to see the world but balk at high hotel and Airbnb prices. So next time the travel bug bites, hit Trusted Housesitters: Sign up, search sits and/or sitters, then pack your bags. Happy tails—uh, trails!
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