About Us

The morning we docked in Regensburg, Margaret was already on the upper deck before I had finished my coffee.

It was our first river cruise. She had agreed to it reluctantly she had sailed once before, years earlier, on a large Caribbean ship, and had spent most of that trip navigating crowds, noise, and a dining room that felt like a hotel ballroom at full capacity. She had not been in a rush to repeat the experience.

But Regensburg was different. The ship carried fewer than two hundred passengers. The town appeared slowly through the morning mist, the medieval stone bridge coming into focus before anything else did. Margaret stood at the railing with her coffee and did not say anything for a long time. Then she turned and said: “This is what I thought travel was supposed to feel like.”

That moment is why ElderTrip exists.

Meet Arthur Pendleton

I am Arthur Pendleton the founder, writer, and primary voice behind ElderTrip. I was born in Charleston, South Carolina, and spent 35 years teaching European and American history at the university level. I retired in my early sixties having lectured on Habsburgs, river trade routes, medieval towns, and the long history of places most people now visit on a two-week package tour.

When I retired, I decided to finally see those places myself. What I found, in those first few trips, was that most travel advice had not been written for me. It had been written for someone younger, faster, more willing to stand in lines, more comfortable with confusion. The assumption underneath most travel writing is that discomfort is part of the experience that exhaustion is the price of discovery.

I do not believe that. And after twelve years of cruises, river sailings, and small-ship journeys across four continents, I am more certain than ever that it is wrong.

And Margaret

Nothing on this site is written without Margaret’s influence. She is my wife of 41 years, a former registered nurse from Savannah, Georgia, and the most practically minded traveler I have ever met.

Margaret notices things I overlook. She is the one who checks whether the cabin bathroom has a grab bar, whether the excursion terrain is described accurately, whether the ship’s medical bay is equipped for something beyond a headache. She has spent decades in environments where the difference between adequate and genuinely good matters. That training did not disappear when she retired.

When Margaret tells me something was comfortable, I believe her. When she tells me it was not, I say so in the article. Her judgment is in every piece I publish, whether her name appears or not.

How ElderTrip Started

After that first river cruise, our oldest friend Tom a retired civil engineer from Richmond who had resisted the idea of cruising for years called me and asked what had changed my thinking about travel. I told him. He listened skeptically. I sent him the itinerary anyway.

He booked it six weeks later. When he came back, he called again. “You were right,” he said. “I understand now.” He has since booked two more sailings on his own.

That conversation happened more times than I can count. Friends, former colleagues, neighbors, former students who had reached their sixties and were looking for a better way to travel they kept asking the same questions. Which cruise line? Which river? What is it actually like on board? What do you do all day? Is it worth the money?

I was writing the same advice over and over in emails. ElderTrip was the obvious solution: put it somewhere everyone can find it.

The People in These Stories

ElderTrip is not just Arthur’s perspective. The articles on this site are populated with the real people who have traveled with us over the years because a single perspective, even an experienced one, has limits.

Tom approaches every sailing as a skeptic. His approval, when he gives it, is worth more than my own enthusiasm.

Our daughter Claire a high school history teacher in Asheville joins us once a year, usually in summer. She brings a younger set of eyes and a teacher’s instinct for what is genuinely educational versus what is dressed up to look that way.

Robert and Helen Whitmore are a couple we met on our first Rhine sailing in 2014 and have traveled with ever since. Robert has arthritis in both knees and uses a walking stick on uneven ground. His experience of every excursion is the most honest accessibility test I know.

And Patricia Simms, a retired physician who sailed with us on the Danube, is the person I defer to on anything involving onboard medical facilities, health logistics, or the physical realities of extended travel for older adults.

When you read an ElderTrip article, you are reading what all of us found not just what I thought.

What We Cover

ElderTrip publishes practical travel content for adults in their sixties, seventies, and beyond with a particular focus on cruises, river sailings, and small-ship experiences.

• Cruise line reviews and honest rankings commercial-free, unsponsored
• River cruise guides by destination: the Danube, the Rhine, the Rhône, the Seine, and beyond
• Shore excursion advice what to book, what to skip, and how to pace yourself
• Cruise planning guides: costs, booking strategy, packing, port logistics
• Destination content grounded in history and cultural context
• Accessibility and health guidance for travelers with specific physical needs
• Budgeting guidance what things actually cost, not what the brochure suggests

We do not cover everything. We cover what we know, what we have experienced, and what we can describe honestly.

Our Philosophy

Great travel is not about doing the most. It is about experiencing the right things in the right way.

That means comfort over chaos. Depth over speed. Confidence over confusion. It means choosing a ship with 190 passengers instead of 3,000, not because smaller is always better, but because for most travelers in their sixties and seventies, the difference is immediately felt and rarely regretted.

It also means being honest about what does not work. Not every cruise line delivers what it promises. Not every highly rated itinerary suits every traveler. Not every shore excursion is worth the price or the physical effort. We say so when it is true.

Why Readers Trust ElderTrip

ElderTrip does not accept press trips. It does not publish sponsored content. When affiliate links appear on this site and some do they are disclosed clearly, and they do not change what we write or recommend.

The authority behind this site is practical: twelve years of sailings, a historian’s habit of looking at evidence carefully, a nurse’s eye for physical reality, and a small community of experienced travelers who between us have noticed things most travel guides do not bother to mention.

We are not trying to sell you a cruise. We are trying to help you choose the right one or decide that a different kind of trip would serve you better. Those are different goals, and the difference shows in what we write.

Get in Touch

If you have a question, a topic you would like us to cover, or a travel experience you think belongs on ElderTrip, I would genuinely like to hear from you. You can reach me through the Contact page.

Margaret reads every message too. She is, as always, the more reliable of the two of us when it comes to responding promptly.