Nearly three-quarters of Canadian pre-retirees plan to spend their retirement years travelling, but a new poll indicates only 58% of retirees actually do.

And while 30% of pre-retirees think they’ll become snowbirds — spending winters in the southern U.S., for example — the survey conducted by RBC says only 14% actually take up the snowbird lifestyle.

The bank’s poll found the number of nearly retired Canadians expecting to become snowbirds rose to 30% in 2011 from 28% on 2010.

However, the number of retirees who actually flock south each winter dropped to 14% this year from 17% in 2010.

The survey also found a majority of pre-retirees planned to do volunteer work but found only 41% of women and 35% of men actually work as volunteers.

The survey polled 2,245 adults and is considered accurate plus or minus 2.1 percentage points 19 times out of 20.

“Many expectations that Canadians have about retirement turn out very differently in reality,” said Jason Round, senior manager of financial planning support at RBC.