If you're a long-time Melburnian, you'd be pretty accustomed to our city topping global lists and claiming accolades on the regular. Just a couple of weeks ago Melbourne was dubbed as the third most relaxed city in the world, and it's also recently been labelled as the tenth best city for culture across the globe. Not to mention, Melbourne also ranked in the top 20 best cities worldwide at the start of this year.
So, we're unsurprised that our city has topped another of these lists, although this time it's a little more specific: Melbourne has been crowned as the best travel destination globally for retirees to travel to. So if you're approaching your golden years, this one's for you.
Travel insurance website Paying Too Much looked at a selection of popular cities from around the world and compared them on a variety of factors that are particularly relevant to travellers over the age of 60, to come up with the final rankings of the best destinations. These factors included the number of high-quality hotels and their average cost in off-peak periods, the quality of healthcare available, the number of tours in the cities that run during off-peak season, walking trails and whether there are lots of things to do.
Needless to say, Melbourne excelled across the board, making it the number one holiday spot for retirees. We certainly have plenty of top-notch hotels for a comfortable stay, and as we'll tell anyone who'll listen, there's never a shortage of things to do. We've got loads of walking trails and city tours – and if you like to do both at once, we've got walking tours, too.
As for the rest of the global list, our NSW sibling Sydney followed close behind in second, followed by Amsterdam, Berlin, Auckland and Brisbane. So there was solid Aussie representation in the top ten.
This wasn't a title that we ever anticipated claiming, but hey, we'll take it all the same.
The top ten global travel destinations for retirees:
- Melbourne, Australia
- Sydney, Australia
- Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Berlin, Germany
- Auckland, New Zealand
- Brisbane, Australia
- Helsinki, Finland
- Oslo, Norway
- Munich, Germany
- Singapore
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