About Solo Travel by Design
Hi, I’m Katrina — a soon-to-retire higher-education leader, lifelong planner, and solo traveler building a retirement centered around slow travel, cruising, and intentional living..
I created Solo Travel by Design to share the practical side of that process: the budgeting, the trade-offs, the logistics, and the real-world decisions that come with designing a travel-rich retirement.
This is not a fantasy travel blog. It’s a real-time planning space for people who want to build a retirement they’re excited to wake up to — and make sure the numbers and logistics work, too.
Why I Started This Blog
Like many people approaching retirement, I found myself asking questions that felt bigger than travel:
- How do I prepare for retirement if I want to travel more?
- What does extended travel actually cost in real life?
- What happens to my home if I leave for weeks or months at a time?
- How do I balance freedom, comfort, and financial reality?
- How do I test this lifestyle before I commit to it?
I couldn’t find many resources that combined retirement planning, slow travel, cruising, and real-life logistics in one place — especially from the perspective of someone building it step by step.
So I created the site I wanted to read.
Who This Site Is For
Solo Travel by Design is for people — especially women in midlife and beyond — who want a retirement with more freedom, more travel, and more intention, but also want to make thoughtful decisions along the way.
You’ll probably feel at home here if you:
- want travel to be part of retirement, not just an occasional escape
- prefer comfort, planning, and realistic pacing over adrenaline
- are thinking through budgets, housing, or logistics before making a leap
- want honest encouragement without hype
- believe this next chapter should be designed, not drift into place
What You’ll Find Here
I write about the practical side of retirement travel planning, including:
Retirement Travel Budgeting
- baseline spending
- travel overlays
- real monthly costs
- housing and home-base trade-offs
Cruise Cost Realism
- what a cruise really costs beyond the fare
- solo cruising trade-offs
- planning tools and decision frameworks
- comparing itineraries more realistically
Slow Travel and Sustainable Pace
- how to test-drive retirement before you quit
- how to plan longer stays without burnout
- creating a weekly rhythm that feels livable
- balancing travel with real life
Everything here is grounded in lived experience, active planning, and honest evaluation — not fantasy, hype, or perfection.
A Bit More About Me
For more than 25 years, I’ve worked in higher education and workforce development, helping adults build new futures through planning, strategy, and opportunity.
That background shapes this site more than anything else. I’m a planner by nature, and I bring that same lens to retirement travel: not just where I want to go, but how to make the life around it work.
I’m not a financial advisor or attorney, and nothing here is professional financial or legal advice. What I do share is honest, real-time experience from someone actively building this next chapter and trying to do it thoughtfully.
What’s Next
As I move closer to retirement, I’ll be sharing more of the practical side of the transition — including budgeting decisions, home-base questions, product tools, cruise planning, and test-drives of what this lifestyle actually looks like.
My goal is simple: to build a retirement by design, not by default — and to make this space useful for others doing the same.
Let’s Connect
If you’re thinking about retirement with travel at the center, you’re not alone here.
Read the blog, explore the planning tools, and feel free to reach out through the contact page.
Here’s to building a life that fits — not one that just looks good from the outside.
Solo Travel by Design 