Mention that you're a senior citizen when you make your travel reservations. Boston-area businesses offer many discounts to seniors with identification (a driver's license, passport, or other document that shows your date of birth). The cut-off age is usually 65, sometimes 62. Restaurants, museums, and movie theaters may offer special deals. Restaurants and theaters usually offer discounts only at off-peak times, but museums and other attractions offer reduced rates -- usually the equivalent of the student price -- at all times.
Members of AARP, 601 E St. NW, Washington, DC 20049 (tel. 888/687-2277; www.aarp.org), get discounts on hotels, airfares, and car rentals. AARP offers members a wide range of benefits, including AARP: The Magazine and a monthly newsletter. Anyone over 50 can join.
With a special photo ID card, seniors can ride the MBTA subways, local and express buses, commuter rail, and Inner Harbor ferries for at least half off the regular fare. The Senior Pass is available in person only from 8:30am to 5pm weekdays at the Downtown Crossing station and at the Office for Transportation Access, Back Bay Station, 145 Dartmouth St., Boston, MA 02116 (tel. 617/222-5976 or TTY 617/222-5854).
The National Park Service America the Beautiful -- National Park and Federal Recreational Lands Pass -- Senior Pass (formerly the Golden Age Passport) gives seniors 62 and older lifetime entrance to all properties administered by the National Park Service -- national parks, monuments, historic sites, recreation areas, and national wildlife refuges -- for a one-time processing fee of $10. The pass (tel. 888/467-2757; www.nps.gov/fees_passes.htm) must be purchased in person at any NPS facility that charges an entrance fee. Besides free entry, the pass also offers a 50% discount on some federal-use fees for such activities as camping, swimming, parking, boat launching, and tours.
Many reliable agencies and organizations target the 50-plus market. They include Elderhostel (tel. 877/426-8056; www.elderhostel.org), which arranges study programs for those 55 and over.
Recommended publications offering travel resources and discounts for seniors include the quarterly magazine Travel 50 & Beyond (www.travel50andbeyond.com) and the bestselling paperback Unbelievably Good Deals and Great Adventures That You Absolutely Can't Get Unless You're Over 50 2005-2006, 16th Edition (McGraw-Hill), by Joann Rattner Heilman.
