Best winter activities for retirees

Last updated on 26 September 2023

Staying Active / Fitness

Watch out! This hot-off-the-presses edition of Your Retirement Living will help you thaw out through winter and stave off boredom. [Source: Shutterstock]

Key points:

Winter’s on the way and the greatest way to stay warm is to stay indoors
There are plenty of great ways to get out of the house and still stay safe, snug and comfortable
Don’t dress to impress — focus on your health and rug up with warm clothing, such as jackets, beanies or jumpers

As May turns to June, this Your Retirement Living guide will serve as the perfect companion piece to the best summer activities for retirees guide.

This article will cover how you can stay warm at home and get out into the world, without feeling like you’re going to be stuck inside for three chilly months.

At home activities

At home activities for older people are a great way to pass the time during the colder months, with a great range of board games available digitally, so whether you’re alone or with a companion, you can test your wit.

Chess.com is a reputable website and allows you to connect with people all over the world if you don’t own a physical set, with your Elo rating score determined by your wins to losses ratio.

An online version of the classic board game Monopoly is also available, which is called ‘Rento,’ so you can try your luck for free using an online browser such as Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome or Safari.

Other unique online games such as 2048 can serve as a great way to keep your mind alive and try to one-up your score with each attempt.

If you’re not into board or online games, why not try putting some effort into something that lets you reap the rewards such as baking a cake using a boxed mixture or trying to invent something better using online instructions. There’s a wide variety of great YouTube tutorials which can offer you the chance to put a new and unique spin on old recipes or make something from one of your favourite television shows.

After making yourself something tasty, try to use that extra energy boost to achieve some exercise goals and stay up to date with recommended Government guidelines for health and fitness.

We highly recommend some low-impact exercises that can be done indoors such as tai chi, lawn bowls and (if you’ve got a heated pool) swimming… If you’re lucky enough to have a spa, what could possibly beat the frothy warm bubbles paired with the therapeutic feeling of jets on a sore back?

Finally, we encourage people staying at home to get inventive and informed by writing up a list of the ten people throughout history that they would invite to a dinner party. Got your list ready? Great. Now, it’s time to search online for their name and add “biography,” “autobiography” or “memoir” on the end to see if there’s a great book to order online or audiobook to listen to through sites like YouTube, Audiobooks or Audible.

Outdoors activities

Not a fan of staying indoors and curling up with a good book? Too tired to get in the kitchen and sick of dealing with dishes? Well, no problem, because there’s plenty of stuff to see in the shiver-inducing world outside and all its chilly glory.

Many cinemas offer a nostalgic or retro movie night to see films from decades ago or cult hits that you grew up watching. Palace Nova is a great place to check out if you’re after some classic movies in Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Byron Bay, Brisbane or Perth, with Palace Nova cinemas available in Prospect and Adelaide’s Eastend.

If you’re not a fan of popping open some popcorn and sitting through some classic pictures, you might prefer grabbing a warm mug from a local barista or sitting by the fireplace in a well-lit pub.

Better yet, why not team up with a friend or consult a travel agent to hit the road or soar through the skies on a plane and get out of the luckiest country in the world to see what else Earth has to offer. Aged Care Guides to pack up your bags, travel the world and make the most of retirement will help you return when it’s sunny again. Just make sure to send us a postcard.