Elderhostel is an organization that lures retirees out of their comfortable homes and into far-flung dormitories for weeklong meditations on subjects from physics to poetry to architecture. It began as a collaboration between a visionary hippie and a university administrator, and grew into a nonprofit group that has grabbed a massive market away from the highly competitive travel industry. It is frequently what older people talk about when younger people aren't paying attention.
But now the elders are getting younger, and their travels are getting bolder.
Born in New Hampshire and based in Boston, Elderhostel has been running educational travel programs for 20 years. The group, which began with 220 "hostelers" in the summer of 1975, served about 285,000 last year, allowing them a chance to travel cheaply, educate themselves liberally and wander the planet in one- to three-week journeys, eating cafeteria food, lodging at a network of 1,900 collegiate dorms, cultural institutions and other facilities. The group operates in 50 states and more than 40 nations.
"I have square-danced with a telephone lineman, scooped ice cream with a retired farmer, listened to opera with a college administrator, and photographed a Hohokum burial site with a retired nuclear physicist," writes Mildred Hyman, author of "Elderhostels: The Students' Choice," which evaluates various Elderhostel programs.
So far, most of the program's participants have been age 60 and above, in accordance with an arbitrary limit set in the organization's earliest days. But beginning with the release of a new domestic-program catalog Feb. 24, the group will reduce its minimum age to 55. (Baby boomers, take note: On July 26, 1998 -- 3 1/2 years from now -- Mick Jagger will become eligible for Elderhostel.)
This isn't exactly a revolution, because the program has long allowed Elderhostel registrants to bring along spouses of any age and companions as young as 50. But it is a sign of the continuing evolution at Elderhostel. With its growth rate stabilized at around 10 percent after a staggering boom in its first five years, the organization's leaders are facing up to the changing tastes of a new generation.
"People are retiring earlier," says Elderhostel marketing director Karyn Franzen, and the organization is evolving to "address those changing retirement patterns."
Demographers agree that the average retirement age has been falling for several decades. Figures compiled by the National Institute on Aging show that 46 percent of men age 65 and older were still working in 1950. By 1989, that number had fallen to 17 percent.
Listening to the new retirees, the group's leaders hear calls for more physically demanding programs and more luxurious accommodations, which they are attempting to reconcile with the program's central mission of education and its affordable price structure.
For those interested in getting physical, there are Elderhostel collaborations with Outward Bound in Colorado. There is a weeklong camping trip on the Hualapai Indian Reservation along the Grand Canyon ("shower facilities available midweek," says the catalog); or a Colorado River trip that includes a two-day, one-night rafting and camping journey that covers 64 miles of the river, including some white water; or an 11-day, 80-mile wilderness canoe camping trip on Maine's Allagash Waterway, near which Elderhostelers will have the opportunity to dig their own latrines.
(Concerned by health risks inherent in such programming, the organization recently imposed a yearlong moratorium on new adventure-oriented courses. That ban has eased since the hiring last spring of a veteran adventure tour administrator, Rob Rubendal, who oversees safety guidelines and assesses physical risks.)
Meanwhile, those interested in finding the more comfortable fringes of the "plain and simple" Elderhostel lodging prescription may be intrigued by the indoor swimming pool and exercise facilities of Prude Guest Ranch in the Davis Mountains of Texas, or the historic rowhouses that have been rehabilitated for Elderhostel use (including elevators and private baths) at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University -- one of the most popular Elderhostel sites, with 90 programs a year.
What lies behind these changes? Perhaps a generation gap. Many Elderhostel officials have noted that younger participants who remember less of the Great Depression, tend to be less frugal and more interested in fancier accommodations -- "and I think we're going to feel that even more strongly when the baby boomers start hitting us," Ms. Franzen adds.
Nonetheless, "Educational experience is still the core of everything we do, and that is what sets us apart," Ms. Franzen says. "A lot of operators put together a tour and then throw in an educational component. We start at the other end."
The organization is also pushing its new Service Program, which links participants with charities such as Habitat for Humanity and Global Volunteers. Enrollment in the program had advanced from 500 in 1992 to 2,000 last year, but Elderhostel leaders say they were expecting more sign-ups than that and are uncertain about the effort's future.
Since the mid-1980s, Elderhostel has also offered the Intergenerational Program, which unites hostelers and their grandchildren.
The average Elderhostel program in the United States lasts six or seven days and includes five days of instruction (usually broken down into three classes that meet for 90 minutes each day; no homework or exams), five or six nights of lodging (two to a room, bathrooms shared) and 15 or 18 no-frills meals.
Instructors' credentials range from life experience to traditional academic degrees (teachers go unnamed in advance catalogs), and subject matter varies just as widely. On April 2, for instance, some Elderhostelers will gather at Auburn University outside Montgomery, Ala., to learn about "The Architectural and Historic Legacy of Auburn," "The Gothic and Grotesque in Southern Literature" and "Herbs for Health and Healing." Others will step into a monastery in New York's Hudson River Valley, where the course schedule includes "Entering the Gates: An Introduction to Mysticism," "Art and Architecture of the Hudson River Valley" and "Just Do It! A Writing Course."
Meanwhile, in Brazil, some of the program's 25,000 yearly international travelers will be winding up a three-week, three-city program on "The Amazon Jungle," "Brazil's Past and Future" and "Historic Rio de Janeiro."
The average cost of domestic programs is $330 per person, transportation excluded, with a $75 advance deposit required. Cost of international programs is broadly variable and usually does include transportation. The Brazil program above runs $3,603, including airfare from Miami.
Elderhostel offers the same trip cancellation insurance (for an extra fee) that is suggested by cruise lines and other tour operators, and takes no more medical precautions than the average tour operator serving all ages. To organize foreign programs, Elderhostel relies on several operators of international tours.
Not surprisingly, there is a lingering problem with long waiting lists for the most popular offerings. Though Ms. Franzen notes that 94 percent of hostelers choosing programs got their first choice last year, that still left 150 programs with waiting lists, 30 of those lists with more than 30 people. (The organization uses a lottery to select participants among would-be hostelers who send in their deposits promptly.) Ms. Franzen notes that one recently inaugurated program -- a cultural and regional history course in New Orleans -- accumulated a waiting list of 600 names.
SCHOLARLY PURSUITS
To request an Elderhostel catalog (specify domestic, international or service programs), write Elderhostel, Department JD, 75 Federal St., Boston, Mass. 02110; telephone (617) 426-7788 (mail requests are preferred).
Here's a partial list of other groups offering budget-oriented tours to older travelers:
* Saga Holidays, 222 Berkeley St., Boston, Mass. 02116 (800) 621-2151, formerly the operator of Elderhostel programs in England, offers a Road Scholar program of mostly international "learning adventures" for travelers 50 and older. The 43-year-old organization's 1995 catalog includes tours visiting England, France, Italy, Turkey, Central America, South America and East Africa. Most tours run $2,000-$2,800 per person, double occupancy, for a trip of about 13 days, including most breakfasts and dinners.
* Smithsonian Odyssey Tours, (800) 258-5885; National Geographic on Tour, (202) 857-7500; Academic Arrangements Abroad, (800) 221-1944; and International Study Tours, (800) 883-2111 or (212) 563-1327 also offer educational tours that attract many retired travelers but with fancier accommodations and higher prices.
* Another source of related information is Transitions Abroad magazine (18 Hulst Road, P.O. Box 1300, Amherst, Mass. 01004), published six times yearly (subscriptions, $19.95), focusing on economical travel opportunities, often involving study or work abroad.