How long do you like to be away from home?

[Scuba]

DH and I have always enjoyed taking 2-3 weeks away for vacations and are looking forward to being away for longer trips after ER. We have never had the opportunity to be gone longer than 2-3 weeks and aren't sure when we might get tired of not being home. What do you recommend for our first longer trip? We're thinking of renting a condo or apartment on an island as we love water sports and the beach. Would it be better to buy a one way ticket and just come home when we feel ready, or should we try committing to a month first and see how we feel after that? What are the practical things we should consider about being away from home for several months?


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[Alan]

As to your suggestion of getting a one way ticket, renting a condo or apartment and coming back when you have had enough then I don't believe you will be able find anywhere that is as open-end as that.

When we retired the first year we rented a house in Colorado for a month, then after coming back went to England for 10 weeks, and in the Fall went to Canada for a month.

Following that first year we had no issues in leaving for 5, 6 or 7 months at a time. Getting all one's affairs on-line or via email is difficult to achieve but we are fortunate to have our son able to check our mailbox once a week as there is always something important that seems to come through the regular mail over a long trip away.

We are currently part way through a long stay in England. Left in April, should be be back mid November.

 

[brucethebroker]

We live in the midwest, and began snowbirding in FL 3 winters ago. We have a small condo on the west coast. Usually spend about 3.5 months (Jan. - tax time). We really like being able to bike, walk the beach (occasionally) and just do things outdoors. Also nice to have blue skies and 70's-80's most every day.

It took a little time to get used to having so much "down time" in an unfamiliar place, but we now look forward to seeing our FL neighbors (new friends) when we arrive.

We have a part time home based business for 9 mo., up north. It's nice to leave it alone and catch up on books, biking, long walks, and flea marketing each winter. I am also convinced that we have a better chance on living longer by being outdoors instead of shoveling snow.

In your case, I think you will miss home less than you think....

 

[Ronstar]

We spend most of the winters in Az. So far we've broken it up in segments, doing 2-3 round trips, staying about a month at a time. 4 months total. We have driven the trip from il-az a few times also.

For your longer first trip, I would recommend finding a place for a month or so, and doing round trip air fare.


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[Dawg52]

When I'm away its usually a week at a time. I do plan to take a 1 month long trip next year.

 

[braumeister]

My limit is about three weeks away. At that point I start missing home.
DW's limit is closer to two weeks.

When I was young, single, and in the military it wasn't uncommon to have two month trips away and that didn't bother me a bit. Funny how we change!

 

[Nemo2]

I think you have to differentiate between exchanging one quasi-permanent abode for another, over an extended period of time, and being almost constantly mobile for a similar duration.......the latter is likely to be considerably more tiring.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

I have a pool that needs care & feeding, not long. 1 week max.

 

[Danmar]

Our aged parents keep us coming back to Toronto every 2-3weeks for a couple days and to remain accessible otherwise. This has put a damper on long overseas trips. Price you pay for being the first born to relatively young parents, I guess.

Generally wouldn't want to live out of a suitcase for more than 3 weeks though.

 

[SumDay]

1 week, tops. The dog isn't a big fan of our vacations.

 

[brett]

I like 3-4 months. DW prefers 2 months-especially now that we have a grandson. Last year it was 3 1/2 months in winter, 9 weeks in fall. Perfect for us.

So far this year was 9 weeks in winter, 8 weeks planned for Aug/Sept, and maybe another two weeks or so prior to Xmas if we are attracted to a great last minute travel deal.

 

[Bestwifeever]

We don't have someone to keep an eye on things while we're away, other than a kind neighbor who has a life of his ow, so two weeks at one time is it for us. I'm thinking there must be services that would check the mail occasionally and drive by to see if the door was hanging open--maybe I'll look for that. Because I would love to be away for the winter.

 

[Life_is_Good]

I don't "like" to be away from home at all. For some reason... I'm just not comfortable anywhere else. I can't totally relax and I'm a little bit of a germaphobe - which doesn't help.

Besides.... I have all my creature comforts right here!

I take several small vacations each year (up to 4 or 5 days at a time), but that's about all I can handle. Home sweet home!

 

[Options]

The plan is to start experimenting with longer and longer time spent away, although that's typically not in my nature. A week away and I start missing sleeping in my own bed. I have not been able to find any mattress that compares the experience of sleeping in mine.

 

[REWahoo]

Our RV trips usually last from one to three weeks. We have an old Lab that we feel bad about leaving our grandkids to care for, and three weeks is about as long as DW seems to be able to go without a grandkid fix.

 

[kcowan]

We started with 3 weeks, then did home swaps with people who would look after our cats for up to 5 weeks. Then we got a cat sitter and did 3 months. Finally, we do 6 months and sublet our penthouse.

It takes some serious downsizing of your stuff so that you can relocate in 2 suitcases. We have evolved to that over the last 14 years. During that time, MIL and Bro have died, as well as our 2 cats. So it is much simpler.

 

[Walt34]

I don't "like" to be away from home at all. For some reason... I'm just not comfortable anywhere else.

That's us too. When it is necessary we can do up to a week, but that seems to be the limit. Later this year we're going on a family trip to NC and although I enjoy being with family, I'm not a fan of the beach and have decidedly mixed feelings about going on the trip at all. I'll go, but I'm going to hate the getting there and getting back. And I keep my thoughts to myself on it lest I be perceived as the curmudgeon. Someone else has that title and I sure wouldn't want to steal it from him.

 

[Souschef]

Our longest time away was a 35 day cruise from Buenos Aires to Los Angeles. The best part was not having to fly home
Both DW and I agree that evn though it was a great experience, it was too long to be away, so we will limit our trips to 10 to 14 days

 

[Meadbh]

I'm still determining the answer to this question. This Spring I took my longest trip ever, 35 days. I found the duration just about right. I am interested in exploring a one month stay somewhere interesting.

 

[FreeBear]

I don't "like" to be away from home at all. For some reason... I'm just not comfortable anywhere else. I can't totally relax and I'm a little bit of a germaphobe - which doesn't help.

Besides.... I have all my creature comforts right here!

I take several small vacations each year (up to 4 or 5 days at a time), but that's about all I can handle. Home sweet home!

The plan is to start experimenting with longer and longer time spent away, although that's typically not in my nature. A week away and I start missing sleeping in my own bed. I have not been able to find any mattress that compares the experience of sleeping in mine.

1 week, tops. The dog isn't a big fan of our vacations.

About a week to 10 days tops for us too, for similar reasons. Each year maybe we'll do a single "big" trip of 7 days and few "weekend" trips actually scheduled during the week to avoid crowds.

DW and I are now pretty high maintenance. Few places have beds as comfortable as home. We miss our stuff and toys. We have finicky diets (ie no dairy, no gluten, etc.). We also enjoy outdoors stuff, but can be sensitive to nasty weather. I hate to be spending big money on a trip just to wait out the weather.

Honestly, this has been a disappointment in ER. I fantasized that we'd travel the US in an RV or backpack the America West for weeks at a time like young kids. In reality, we travel far less than even we have budgeted. We'll spend only 40-60% of our relatively small travel budget this year; ditto for last year.

I admire all the folks who travel for weeks at a time many times a year. I really admire folks you enjoy doing this overseas. On the other hand, I ER'd 6 years before my wildest dreams, so not craving extensive travel is helpful in keeping my SWR safer.

FB

 

[HadEnuff]

Interesting question. In all honesty, I don't know. I've long dreamt of spending winters out of the Upstate NY icebox, and next winter will be my first winter of retirement. The reality is that I'm not sure I'll be comfortable being away from home that long. I'll have to see how it goes. Of course, DW is not retired, and I don't plan on being away from her for 3 months at a crack, so it's not really time yet. But realistically, even if she were, I might not be comfortable with it. I might have to fly home for a week to make sure everything is intact, and remind myself of how much I don't like snow and slush over my shoe tops .

 

[Meadbh]

I have several friends who snowbird from November to March but return to Canada for Christmas and New Years.

 

[I was misinformed]

We don't have someone to keep an eye on things while we're away, other than a kind neighbor who has a life of his ow, so two weeks at one time is it for us. I'm thinking there must be services that would check the mail occasionally and drive by to see if the door was hanging open--maybe I'll look for that. Because I would love to be away for the winter.

In principle, the USPS will forward mail to a US address for a temporary period of up to 6 months (renewable for an additional 6 months). I used this service for 3 months a couple of years ago and it was a disaster thanks to my local P.O.

Anyways I see the P.O. now has a "premium forwarding service" for ~$20/week in which they collect each week's mail and then repackage and forward to you as priority express mail. Presumably this also forwards only to US addresses.

https://www.usps.com/manage/forward.htm

If you are abroad you could use the USPS forwarding to a commercial mail scanning service and get your mail as emailed PDFs. This is actually what I tried to do. I had some problems with the mail scanning service, but even bigger problems with the USPS forwarding.

 

[Teacher Terry]

2 or 3 weeks is the longest I like to be gone from our 4 old dogs. When we take the RV we take them and have been gone for a month.

 

[brett]

We have eliminated as much of our postal service as possible. Every bill, bank statements have been converted to email. Our son checks our mail every week or so. When we are away for two or three months we are seldom in one spot for more than four or five days, and always in a foreign country. Forwarding mail would not work for us.

One of the reasons that we downsized was to be rid of the burden of the place while on vacation. Most especially in the winter months when the heat needs to be on and the sidewalks shovelled. Don't miss this at all.

At some point we may buy a place in the sun but not until we make a little more progress on our bucket list or just do not want to travel like this any more. Independent travel in a foreign country is very rewarding but it can also be hard work at times. At this point in time we have at least 2 more winters of potential trips identified.