Exploring new horizons on a golden gap year

Got the spirit of adventure in later life? new meets the travellers who have taken off on voyages of self-discovery - and never looked back

Gap years are no longer the preserve of teenagers. More and more of us are taking the chance to travel for an extended period in mid and later life, especially if we didn't have the chance to do so before university, starting work or having a family.

Dubbed a "golden gap year", women aged in their forties, fifties and beyond are taking a career break, shaking off the shackles of responsibility and even selling up to travel in the style their budget now allows.

A poll by Norwegian Cruise Line found that a fifth of people aged 60 and over are planning a longer trip of a lifetime.

We speak to three intrepid travellers who tell how their midlife gap years changed them for the better.

'My gap year lasted 12 years in the end'

Mangala Holland, 50, who lives in Glastonbury, Somerset, took a gap year at 38 after suffering corporate burnout.

“I’d never heard of a gap year until I went to university. Coming from a working-class family in Cornwall, people I knew didn’t have the money or means to head off travelling at 18. It was something ‘other people’ did.

Once I graduated and stepped onto the corporate ladder, my life was a treadmill of work and responsibility, punctuated with techno DJing a couple of times a week. It was go-go-go and I was having lots of fun, but as time passed, I became disillusioned and worn out.