Are you enjoying your vacations as much?

[Teacher Terry]

I enjoy them more for many of the same reasons that others have mentioned.

[audreyh1]

Yes - we enjoy our trips/vacations much more now.

There is no rush. We can take as long as we want. We have plenty of time to prepare, and plenty of time to recover. Don't have to dread going back to work as soon as we return. It's great!

[NW-Bound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by audreyh1 Yes - we enjoy our trips/vacations much more now. There is no rush. We can take as long as we want. We have plenty of time to prepare, and plenty of time to recover. Don't have to dread going back to work as soon as we return. It's great!

Even more true when we take long RV treks across the country, and venture deep into Canada. Stay as long in a place as we want, and head home when we miss it.

[travelover]

Traveling is much more flexible when one doesn't have to ration time. Take an extra day to get to the destination. Take time to decompress from the flight and shake off jet lag or adjust to altitude changes. Spend an extra day if you are really enjoying yourself or if the weather turns bad and you need to wait it out.

And yes, no dread for the inevitable return to work with a huge backlog of emails, simmering problems and subtle scorn for "not being here when we needed you".

[omni550]

I enjoy travel so much more these days as a retiree for the multitude of reasons others have already cited.

When working, I was usually exhausted just before leaving on vacation, as I had to get a myriad of critical items handled before my vacation departure.

Another plus to travel while retired is being able to be flexible on the dates of travel can yield flights that save serious money. When working, I was rather locked-in on my availability for vacation travel, so I had to find flights that worked with my tight schedule. Now I have much more flexibility and can seek out inexpensive deals no matter the dates.

I haven't taken any last-minute trips or cruises but I seem to recall that other retirees on this forum have, as they live near a port city and can travel at the last-minute for great deals.

omni

[donheff]

I'm with the enjoy them mores. Prior to ER I assumed they wouldn't be as enjoyable because there would be no work tension displaced. But knowing I am returning to a permanent vacation makes all the difference. I also don't need the first few days just to unwind so I more thoroughly enjoy the whole thing.

[Aerides]

Here's the thing. You don't get that "high" right at the start - that Friday afternoon when you leave the office knowing vacation is starting, that intense relief. That part goes of course. But that's a blip. I retired in June, and when the July 4th weekend came around I realized I didn't have that marvelous anticipation of a 4 day weekend ahead of me.

But that's 10 mins of glee that's lost - replaced by far more.

The vacation itself isn't backlit by the growing dread at the size of your inbox when you return, or the occasional call about some fire that needs putting out. You can relax differently, and enjoy yourself much more.

You don't start counting the days left when you're almost at the end. You don't come home with a sense of near-mourning. You don't experience the "rough re-entry" period. You don't get those "oh that happened while you were gone" guilt trips from others.

DH and I recently went on a short trip, but both caught the flu on the way home. This was a full on fever-in-bed flu. Had we been working I can't imagine coming back from vacation and then needing to be out sick for a week - neither of us could have done it, we'd at least be miserably working a little each day just to keep caught up.

While the flu week was miserable, it may well have lasted longer if we had the stress of work mixed in.

[Danmar]

Good question. Retired 10 years and still travel a fair bit. They don't feel like vacations any more as we seem to be on vacation all the time. Spend more now on vacations and often include friends or family. More exotic destinations and longer durations. More active less passive. Sitting on a beach or taking a Caribbean cruise not very appealing at this point. Not looking for immediate stress release, what stress? Looking for interesting experiences and meeting interesting people.

As much Fun? Yes I think so. More fun? Don't think so? Different. Hard to tell.

[Khan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 45th Birthday I have also been "on vacation" for more than ten years. I still enjoy when we travel to places other than our homes, but I will have to say that it isn't as special as it was back when. Just as there is no ramp up period as the time was coming to an end, there isn't much of a ramp down period at the beginning. I kind of miss that process of feeling myself mellowing out. Maybe I'm more mellow on a constant basis, or older (definitely that!), but it was a marvelous thing to experience. A few weeks ago, we had house guests, a couple where the husband still mostly works. He remarked after a day that he was feeling his blood pressure drop a lot. I don't think one can feel that, but he was slipping into that feeling of bliss. I didn't have that because that's my life.

I used to feel my blood pressure going up while at w*rk.

[bclover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eyesman Do you notice a difference in enjoyment of your vacations now that you are retired compared to when you were working? I wonder how much of my enjoyment with vacations is under the backdrop of being not stressed because I no longer have the responsibilities of work, and if that same level of excitement will be there when I'm retired and be on a permanent vacation, and a trip is just a vacation from a vacation.

actually I like them waay better, lol.
first, even when you retire it's a good probability that life is not going to see you skipping through a field of tulips. I still have the normal "gotta make sure the bills are paid" type of stresses. Home up keep, kid woes, health problems all continue after you retire.

Next I find my vacations are less "frenzied" now that i'm retired. no more of the trying to pack 50 hours of stuff into 24 hours of day. I find that now when I travel I "stop and smell the roses" more, meaning I notice the little things or nuances that make a vacation memorable.

every vacation is a little exciting to me even if I'm returning to a much beloved place. I try and do different things and I like researching where I'm going.

[NW-Bound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aerides Here's the thing. You don't get that "high" right at the start - that Friday afternoon when you leave the office knowing vacation is starting, that intense relief. That part goes of course. But that's a blip. I retired in June, and when the July 4th weekend came around I realized I didn't have that marvelous anticipation of a 4 day weekend ahead of me. But that's 10 mins of glee that's lost - replaced by far more...

About that high on Friday afternoon or the July 4th glee, was it not the same as feeling great when your head stopped getting banged into the wall?

And then, when you came back from vacation, the Monday morning driving the rush hour to work, was it not like going back to head banging?

If you are a masochist, then yes, you want to have periodic pain to remind you how great it is going to be between the beatings.

PS. I liked my work, and would have worked longer if it were not for all the mental torture they inflicted with their management tools. See the concurrent thread on "Management Fad: Strength Finder". Why can't they just leave me alone to do my work?

[eleighj416]

We just got back from a one and a half week trip to the Canyons in the Texas Panhandle with our Airstream. First of all preparation was much easier as took out time get the gear together and get it loaded. What was really interesting was that we did not have to plan it out to the nth degree. Booked the first two stops and went with the flow from there. Was supposed to be two weeks, but our son was going to be home for the weekend, so we came back early, again no problems. Now off the a cruise through the Panama Canal at the first of the year. Not working means we have time to prepare and enjoy without the rush of work related issues.

Ed

[kcowan]

I always took 2-3 week vacations as soon as I earned them because of the pre-vacation hectic time and the post-vacation make up. I left a 2 IC clearly in charge with instructions how I could be reached for emergency advice. The number of calls was low and the 2 IC appreciated the trust.

Our pre and post periods are much easier now so we really enjoy the trips and they are seldom less than 3 weeks.

[NW-Bound]

IC: Integrated Circuit?

[Bestwifeever]

Definitely yes. By the time we er'd, staff had been cut so much that covering for your work while gone on vacation was awful--none of the coworkers could handle more than the absolutely essential stuff, so you would pre-do what you could and then know there would be a ton of stuff to do on your return. Vacations were limited to one week at a time, which you spent much of worrying about what was going on back at work. Pretty sure a lot of people also worried that their job might not be there when they got back.

Since we like to travel (totally understanding that it would not be something a lot of people would like) and planned for it financially, it's also really fun now to consider trips we might or might not take and know we have time to take them.

[athena53]

I'd forgotten about having to compress so much into as few days as possible. I just booked a cruise in Panama and Costa Rica and realized that I'd booked a flight that left me 3 nights in San Jose, CR rather than the two I'd contemplated. So what? I'll find plenty of fun stuff to do during an additional day.


It also made life easier when DH and I made trips with mission-critical connections. Last year on our way to and from Iceland we stayed overnight in Boston (flight was from BOS to KEF). Same with our trips to Alaska- got from Kansas City to Seattle and stayed overnight there, then took the short flight to Juneau or Ketchikan. I tend to be a basket case worrying about missing connections and this way, knowing I have an extra day if the airline messes up, there's less risk.

[ExFlyBoy5]

Just a little while ago, I took my Dad up to get a free car wash for Vet's day. While we were waiting, a fella was on the phone (the entire time...about 30 minutes) doing w*rk related stuff. MS Excel stuff, talking about sales objectives and other assorted w*rk related things. He also mentioned that he would be back in the office next week since his vacation ends today...

Ah, have I mentioned I miss w*rk so much? Oh yeah...I haven't EVER said that.

[travelover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bestwifeever ...... Vacations were limited to one week at a time, which you spent much of worrying about what was going on back at work. Pretty sure a lot of people also worried that their job might not be there when they got back.............

Definitely this. At MegaMotors, it was assumed that if your job could be left alone for 3 weeks (which I often took to travel abroad), they didn't really need you. That took a lot of the fun out of being on vacation.

[Mdlerth]

In 37 years at the sweatshop, I have taken three vacations lasting longer than a week. Those three were without question the best ones.

It takes me a week to adapt. So, without a second or third week to savor the feeling of "vacating", the time off from w*rk is often nothing more than time not at w*rk. Consider also that compressing a vacation trip into a single week means about a quarter of that time is squandered in frantic journeys to and from.

When one is still w*rking, as I am, one gets a trifling few weeks off per year. Throw in competing schedules from DW & five nestlings, and managing a trip of even a single week requires a Herculean effort. Sort of defeats the purpose of a vacation.

But in the two months since joining this forum, I have been inspired by the observations of many of the posters. I have begun whittling down some barriers to FIRE in anticipation of going on permanent vacation. I estimate that now my retirement date is probably two years closer than it was two months ago. When it comes I will have an answer to OP's question, and I suspect the answer will be "I enjoy vacations way more than before".

[brett]

Yes, without doubt.

We did vacation when I was working but it was constrained by time. I also did a great deal of NA travel in my working career.

We started retirement with a six month trip. Over the past 4 years it has been two trips per year. Late summer/fall and then we try to escape the cold winter. The trips have been anywhere from 8-14 weeks but DW prefers to keep it down to 8/9 now that we have a grandchild. Just recently combined a cross country road trip with an Ireland vacation tacked on.

We like the freedom of leaving home. Sometimes with a one way ticket, sometimes with an open jaw but a lot of question marks in between. We take advantage of last booking specials on cruises, air, hotels, whatever. Our travel varies between four/five star hotels (if the price/value is right) and small B&Bs.

So far a favourites are Greece/Turkey in fall, Thailand and Oz in the winter.
Still lots of places on our list to visit though. Close to home and far away. But what is far away these days?