Where Can I Celebrate My Retirement? A Guide For Retirees

You are about to retire, and you would like to celebrate this life achievement with friends, family, or co-workers. But you probably wonder, where can I celebrate my retirement?

You can organize one retirement celebration or multiple ways of celebrating your retirement. And to help you out, I’ve listed 10 awesome ideas below on where to celebrate your retirement.

1) At Work

You’re leaving the workplace, so you probably want to organize a retirement celebration at work. You can use this moment to say goodbye to your co-workers, say a couple of words while enjoying a drink, snack, or cake.

You want to create a moment to close this chapter in your life, and it’s up to you how you want to do that. And how big you want it to be. Maybe, you’re fine with just a couple of minutes together with your co-workers, reminiscing about the good old times on your final day at work. Or maybe you’re a party person that likes to celebrate life achievements extravagantly. It’s all up to you, so don’t let others’ expectations and outside pressure intervene with your retirement celebration plans.

Retirement Celebration Ideas At Work:

share a retirement cake on the last day
toast with champagne at the end of the day
hold a speech
invite co-workers for drinks after work
organize a final meeting to say goodbye
go to dinner with your closest co-workers

Perhaps, co-workers are organizing a retirement party for you at the office. It can be a surprise or something you know about. If that’s the case, you can consider preparing a moment at the retirement party to say goodbye, hold a speech, show a (funny) video or a way to thank everyone.

No matter what the circumstances are for your retirement, you want to leave on a high note. When it’s not your choice to retire now, you still want to leave things positively. And there are two reasons for that: you never know what happens in the future as it comes to new job positions or consultancy opportunities for yourself. And you want to remember your final moments at work in a good way. Having good memories and something positive to look back on is the best way to start your time in retirement.

2) At Home

Another place to celebrate your retirement is having a retirement party at home. It’s not mandatory to organize a retirement party at home, but it can be something you like to do. And it can be as big or small as you want and with whomever you want.

Retirement Celebration Ideas At Home:

Organize a retirement party
Organize a family Sunday brunch
Host a high tea with friends
Make a gourmet lunch
Host a dinner
Host a special game-night
Organize a backyard BBQ
Have a pool party with your grandchildren
Re-model (part) of your house

Because you only retire once, you want to mark this moment with something special. And therefore, it’s nice to celebrate your retirement in some way at home, no matter how big or small. You don’t want to let this moment just go by without having something special organized for yourself. You’ve worked very hard to finally retire, so make sure you treat yourself.

3) At A Party Venue

When you like to organize a retirement party, but you don’t want all the hassle at home. You can organize a retirement party at a party venue near you. It can be more expensive then celebrating a retirement party at home, but if you can afford it. Why not? Right.

Retirement is the time to do all the things you want, whenever you want and however you want. And hosting a party at a venue is a lot more convenient, so if that’s something you’re interested in, go for it.

You can organize a retirement celebration during the day, in the evening, or until late at night. It depends on which kind of venue you like to organize your retirement celebration. You can rent out a venue for a couple of hours or reserve a part of a venue. For example, a nightclub can be an excellent location for a dance retirement party. You can plan it in the early evening hours or during the week when they aren’t open to the public.

4) At A Restaurant

When you have a favorite restaurant, you can consider organizing a retirement celebration there. It can be for breakfast, lunch, or dinner just with your spouse, friends, and family or your entire work department. Perhaps, a co-worker already suggested the idea of going to dinner with all the co-workers to celebrate your retirement. This way, their retirement gift to you is paying for their own meal and drinks while having a lovely evening together.

Or you can suggest this idea to co-workers if they ask you what you would like to have as a retirement gift or do for your retirement. Creating great memories together is often a better gift than anything material. At least that is my opinion.

Retirement Celebration Ideas At A Restaurant:

Breakfast with family
Extravagant buffet for family, friends, and co-workers
Dinner with co-workers on your last day
Dinner with your spouse in first retirement days
Lunch with friends
Dinner with your children and grandchildren
Drinks and snacks with closest friends and family members

Having a nice dinner with your spouse or closest loved-ones can also be a great way to end your retirement celebration week. And it creates a special moment for the people that you are closest to you to celebrate your retirement in a private and personal way.

Perhaps, you’ve organized a retirement party, or you were surprised by many retirement celebrations at home and work. And you were overwhelmed by all the people that celebrated this life achievement of yours. By having a great retirement dinner at your favorite restaurant with your loved ones, you can have an amazing ending to your retirement celebrations. A moment to unwind, reminisce, and let it all sink in. It’s also a great start to your first days in retirement.

5) At A Park

When you like to be outside, and you retire in a season of great weather, you can consider celebrating your retirement at a park. Having a retirement celebration outside gives it a different vibe and makes it less formal. And you, the best part is you come home to a clean house.

Retirement Celebration Ideas At A Park:

Organize a Picnic
Organize a BBQ
Plan a sports game amongst co-workers
Organize a day full of fun games
Plan a scavenger hunt

You make it very easy for yourself by organizing a bring your own (BYO) retirement party where everyone brings their own food and drinks to the park. Or you can bake and cook everything yourself or let a catering company take care of everything. Make sure you get information from the city government on what is allowed in the park.

6) On A Trip

Why not save all the money you spend on a retirement party and spend it on a great retirement trip. Instead of having a couple of hours to celebrate your retirement, you have days or even weeks to celebrate your retirement. You can plan a second honeymoon with your spouse, plan a friend’s weekend trip, or go on a trip with your grandchildren to celebrate your retirement. This way, you can celebrate your retirement anywhere in the world.

Retirement Celebration Ideas On A Trip:

Road trip with friends
Go on a second honeymoon with your spouse
Visit a Theme park with your grandchildren
Explore a National Park
Visit a bucket list destination
Go on a world trip

For amazing ideas on where to travel in retirement, I can highly recommend you to read the following articles:

7) At A Vineyard

When you love wine, then celebrating your retirement at a vineyard is an awesome idea. You can organize a wine tasting with friends and family, host a dinner accompanied by the best wines, or take a trip to a great vineyard with your spouse.

When you live in California, you are very lucky as it comes to wine. California is the flagship of wine tasting with over 4300 wineries spread across the state and having the most famous wine region in the USA, Napa Valley. But there are so many other wine regions across the USA that are excellent destinations for your wine trip in retirement too.

Beautiful Wine Regions In The USA:

Walla Walla, Washington
Willamette Valley, Oregon
Boise, Idaho
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Fredericksburg, Texas
Kansas City, Missouri
Traverse City, Michigan
Finger Lakes, New York
Shenandoah Valley, Virginia
Sonoma, California
Paso Robles, California

8) At A Campsite

When you love to camp, you can celebrate your retirement with all your camp and RV friends at a cool campsite. Perhaps you have a favorite campsite you visit every year, or you like to organize a camping trip to a new destination to celebrate your retirement. You can invite friends and family to join or keep things small amongst your camping friends or new campsite neighbors you just met.

Retirement Celebration Ideas At A Campsite

Organize a BBQ
Host a lunch
Host a dinner
Create a campfire
Plan a beautiful hike
Organize a fun game day
Book a tour in the area
Visit a National Park or Tourist attraction

Read more: 20 Best Retirement Trips In The USA.

9) At A Sports game

Another great place to celebrate your retirement is at a sports game. Especially when you’re a sports fan, and you have a favorite team, there is probably nothing you like to do more than visit a sports game or go tailgating. If this is something you like to do, why not create a retirement celebration and make it a bit extra special by inviting co-workers, friends, and family to join you.

10) At A Spa

After working very hard for many years, sometimes the only thing you look forward too in retirement is to relax, unwind and be stress-free. And therefore celebrating your retirement at a Spa can be perfect for you. You can treat yourself to a Spa-day or go on a spa retreat for a couple of days or even weeks.

Taking the time to relax in the first days of retirement is an excellent way to start your retirement. A lot of people struggle with the transition into retirement. They quickly hop off the busy work train and hop on another train just to stay busy in retirement. Without taking time to relax and really think about how they would like to spend their retirement.

To live a happy and healthy retired life, you need to take a good amount of time to figure out what you want in retirement. Especially when you haven’t given it enough thought because you’ve been busy with your job every day. And the best way to do that is to withdraw yourself from a busy schedule. Then you can properly process things and create a clear mind and make conscious decisions about your future. Because let’s be honest, you don’t want to waste your retirement days on aimless activities. You want to fill it with activities you love and get fulfillment in retirement.

Read more:

Celebrate Your Retirement With A Gift

Instead of asking yourself where to celebrate your retirement, you can also ask: with what can I celebrate my retirement? You can save the money on a retirement celebration to give yourself an awesome retirement gift.

One of the best retirement gifts is an annual membership to Masterclass. You can gift yourself the gift of learning something new, have something fun to do, and explore a whole new world of possibilities, hobbies, and passions in retirement. How great is that?! MasterClass offers a wide variety of online classes (for any skill level) taught by the best in the world. From a cooking Masterclass by Gordon Ramsey, Tennis Masterclass by Serena Williams, or a writing Masterclass taught by Dan Brown, etc. Check out all the masterclasses available here.

Yes! Go To Masterclass >>

Who To Invite To Your Retirement Celebration

Who you want to invite to your retirement celebration is also totally up to you. You don’t have to feel obligated to invite everyone you know. It depends on your celebration budget, where you celebrate it (capacity of the venue), when you celebrate it, and what kind of retirement celebration you like to organize.

Retirement is a life celebration, so preferably you want to celebrate it with all the people you like and love in your life. This can be a combination of your closest co-workers, friends, and family members. But it can also be just a couple of people from a certain group/ area in your life if you like to keep things small and simple.

When you would like to know more about this topic I recommend you to read my article: Who To Invite To A Retirement Party: Etiquette Guide.

When To Celebrate Your Retirement

When should you celebrate your retirement? It is probably also a question that runs through your mind.

And the best time to celebrate your retirement is close to your actual retirement date. A couple of days or weeks before or at the maximum two weeks afterward is great to keep the “retirement” momentum. The further away from the date, the less likely people are fully engaged and will attend the celebration. Also, it’s more fun to celebrate retirement around the actual date, because it really marks this special time in your life.

Also, it depends on your guest list when the best time is to celebrate your retirement. For example, when you like to invite a lot of co-workers, the weekends are probably the best time. But when you only invite friends that are retired as well, you can also celebrate it during the week.

Find out more in my article: When To Throw A Retirement Party? | Party Guide.

How To Sleep Better In Retirement

In order to make the most of your retirement and enjoy it as long as possible, you want to stay healthy. Therefore you have to eat healthily, keep your body healthy through exercising and keep your brain healthy through challenging mental activities. But probably the best way to stay healthy in retirement is getting a good amount of high-quality sleep to restore and recharge your body and mind. And be ready for a new fun day in retirement.