🎙️ 298 – From Tourist to Local: Slow Travel After 55 – Andrew Motiwalla

Andrew Motiwalla is the founder of The Good Life Abroad, which offers a style of retirement travel that’s changing how people 55+ experience the world: slow travel with built-in community.

Andrew’s Peace Corps experience in Honduras planted the seed for month-long stays that move you out of “tourist mode” and into real life; routines, local cafés, cultural events, and friendships that form naturally when you stay long enough to be recognized.

The Good Life Abroad is not a tour company but rather a short-term rental model in which like-minded individuals spend a month or more in apartments within a specific community, living like locals and learning together what life there is like. The local community managers create light, optional touchpoints (like cooking classes, walking tours, and local experiences) that help people feel supported without being scheduled to death.

Andrew believes that immersive travel can expand our “joyspan”, the years of joy, purpose, and connection in our lives.

For many retirees, identity shifts can feel disorienting. Andrew explains how immersive travel can help you grow through learning, connect through shared values, and adapt to new experiences, often leaving you with more confidence and a bigger sense of possibility than when you arrived.

The cost of immersive travel with The Good Life Abroad is surprisingly reasonable, ranging from $5K to $8K per person, depending on the destination and travel dates. The usual expenses of a vacation (food, hotel, entertainment) add up when you stretch the vacation over a month. By renting an apartment and having the kitchen facilities to reduce the restaurant costs, the overall cost of the vacation decreases.