Why more Aussies are embracing 'micro-retirement' and taking student-style gap years
Updated . First published
Forget waiting until retirement age to tick off the travel bucket list - Aussies are doing it sooner.
Taking a 'micro-retirement', or a gap year-style trip usually associated with students, is a trend experts are seeing.
For psychologist Trisha Kirkland, 57, it was a desperate need for a break after 30 years of work that inspired her plan for a year off travelling.
READ MORE: 'Why taking an adult gap year was the best thing I ever did'
Trisha Kirkland ,57, it was a need for a break after 30 years which inspired her plan for a year off travelling with husband, Richard Supplied
"I was burnt out and wanted to rebalance my life again and focus on things of meaning and purpose," she tells 9Travel.
As her husband Richard is already fully retired from running his business as a fund manager, the couple were able to travel together.
The day after she finished work last March, they headed to Sri Lanka, then Europe - the most popular spot for older Aussies to visit, according to Australian Seniors.
They took in Croatia, Italy and the UK.
But over the course of the year, the couple fitted in numerous trips to other places they'd always wanted to go.
The couple went hot air ballooning in Cappadocia in Turkey. Supplied
But then, a sudden kidney cancer diagnosis in the middle of her year off only fuelled Trisha's desire to see the world.
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"Having been told that if they hadn't found the cancer, I would have been dead in 12 months, this made me even more determined to forge with our plans," she says.
"I know that if I still had been working full time, I would not have even made the time for my health check and the cancer, which is mostly a cancer without symptoms, would have gone undetected."
A health retreat in Bali, visits to Cambodia and Vietnam, Turkey, a month in Japan and more holidays in Europe were among the dream trips the couple did.
READ MORE: How to get 53 days off without using any extra annual leave in 2026
They ticked off bucket list items, including hot air ballooning in Cappadocia in Turkey and dining in a castle at Lake Bled in Slovenia.
Spending time with family in the UK was also a big plus.
Now Trisha's back in Melbourne and back at work, "much less stressed, more balanced and very grateful," she says.
Lake Bled in Slovenia is a dream destination for many. Getty
The term "micro retirement" has even made it into the Collins Dictionary and was shortlisted for word of the year.
It's defined as a break taken between periods of employment in order to pursue personal interests.
Ben Ittensohn, Regional Director of Explore Worldwide AUNZ, said the trend is being fuelled by a change in how people view their jobs.
"People's relationship with work is changing. Micro retirement isn't really about age or a specific stage of life. It's a response to burnout, long hours, and a culture that waits too long for life to begin," he says
"With careers potentially stretching into our 70s, priorities and perspectives change. People are beginning to ask themselves: 'Why wait? Life's too short to not see the world.'"
Explore said 39 per cent of Australians are considering extended time off work and 41 per cent citing travel as their main motivator.
Australian Seniors' Grey Gap Year Report 2025 also said retirement is increasingly being "shaped into a grey gap year, where travel becomes a central pillar of a fulfilling life."
