Why let young people have all the fun? That’s what Marty Knowlton wondered after a four-year walking tour of Europe seeing all the wonderful youth hostels there. In 1975, he and a partner started Elderhostel, a national and international traveling and learning program for people over age 55.
Elderhostel was in Park City this week with a group sponsored by Utah Valley University (UVU). The group skied, saw “The Music Man” and heard lectures on climate from UVU professors all at an affordable rate with people their own age.
The average participant only pays about $1,400 for 6 nights, 17 meals, skiing, lectures and other activities. Gary Nielsen, the UVU program director, estimated that the 10 winter ski sessions and 8 summer sessions generate about $16 million for the Park City economy.
Sally Menesee, office manager for UVU community education in the School of Continuing Education, said its Elderhostel programs bring people from all over to appreciate this state.
Diana Hunter, senior director of Continuing Education said the school is able to expose participants to places and stories in Utah that many residents are unaware of.
Tim Walus, a participant from Syracuse, New York, said he loved rubbing shoulders with people from all over the country and Canada.
“Friends talked us into it and I figured it was a good time to come and see what’s going on. It’s my first time in Elderhostel and it’s been excellent,” he said.
Gary Nielsen, program director for UVU, said Elderhostel started out working with universities to offer older people a fun college experience for a week. It has evolved into one of the largest older-adult travel programs in the world.
It hasn’t forgotten its beginnings on campuses. Program directors are supposed to arrange for instructors and academics to hold clinics and lectures during the week. The 10 sessions held at Park City Mountain Resort per year offer ski instruction for participants and Nielsen arranged for UVU professors to give evening presentations on global climate change and weather forecasting.
Because Elderhostel is a nonprofit organization, it’s able to keep prices affordable, he said.
Romana Fedasiuk from New Jersey said this was her second Elderhostel trip and said the Park City experience was fabulous.
“The programs they have for us are extremely interesting,” she said. “This group of people are all friendly, outgoing and the same age. I’m hooked.”
Nielsen said the ski groups are the most popular, but during the summer there 8 sessions in Park City that are open to children and grandchildren. UVU also organizes a state-wide tour of Utah, a golfing session, an aviation session and new this year: A Sundance Film Festival session.
The Sundance session will be less organized than the others, allowing participants to buy their own tickets to films they’d like to see, he said. But he hopes to get festival organizers and film experts to present to the group.
Nielsen said one of peoples’ favorite things about Elderhostel is that the costs are so well accounted for that participants almost don’t need to bring any money with them.
His only regret about the Utah program, he joked, is that he can’t get his own mother to participate. When she learned more about Elderhostel, she wanted to fly away to sessions in Washington, D.C., or the Lewis and Clark Trail.
Participants must sign up through the Elderhostel headquarters in Boston. The website is www.elderhostel.org and the telephone number is 1-877-426-8056.
To learn more about Elderhostel, visit www.elderhostel.com or call 1-877-426-8056.