Housesitting is a great alternative to a typical trip. It is an excellent way to visit a place and feel more like a local. Often you can stay for longer periods of time, and as a 50+ traveller we have an advantage!

Many homeowners would prefer an older couple to housesit. It is a great cost saving as your accommodation is free in exchange for your sitting services. We have used it for road trips.
After researching the various matching organizations, we joined Trustedhousesitters.com (THS). The organization started in England and has expanded to all parts of the world. They are reputable, have an easy profile building site and there are a lot of supports both for the host and the housesitter. References are checked, interviews encouraged and a detailed welcome book is made available when you accept a sit request. The search features are also well defined and easy to set up. We joined a couple of years ago so that we could travel with our pet, Penny.
We love having a home base in a new place. We also enjoy the freedom to shop and cook our own meals. It’s nice to have access to laundry and other creature comforts. In our experience, all of our hosts made sure we had every comfort! In return, we took great care of their pet and their home.
The subscription rate per year is about the price of one hotel night so if you housesit for one night a year the membership is worth it!
You may want to sign up as a housesitter and then use it to travel in Canada or other countries. There are quite a few in western Canada, and Europe. Most want you to take care of pets but some are just for house sits.
Use the search tool before signing up to view the kinds of sits available. 
Here’s our profile if you want to see one http://bit.ly/mjcbsitters
If you decide to join, use this link to get a 25% discount on your annual membership before you build your profile: https://www.trustedhousesitters.com/refer/RAF529116/?utm_medium=refer-a-friend&utm_campaign=refer-a-friend&utm_source=app_native_share

You can also create a profile if you are looking for a pet/house sitter. It may be the perfect solution for you if you currently have pets at home.