Are you enjoying your vacations as much?

[Bamaman]

We used to take whirlwind vacations, often to Europe, where we'd fly in, rent a car and see as many cities and places as time would allow. We'd arrive home needing another vacation to get back our strength.

$9 per U.S. gallon gasoline in Italy and reading online, we discovered that traveling slower is much better preferred. Now, we'll fly in and stay a long weekend in a city. Then we'll move on down to the next city in close proximity for 3-4 days. In a 2 week trip, we might visit 4 cities no more than 3-4 hours apart. And we always travel open jaw flying into one city and out of another.

We will sometimes fly on a budget airline to another completely different place on the way home--often with a major regional airport.

Getting home, we'll often still be tired--but we're up and moving the next day. In the old days, it'd take a week to recover.

 

[RunningBum]

The difference between vacation time and non-vacation time isn't as much in ER, but that's only because non-vacation time is so nice! I enjoy my trips now more because there's no decompression time, nor is there the dread of returning to work that comes toward the tail end of vacation. No stress about getting back either. Delays in the return trip? No big deal.


There's also the benefit that I can spend more time planning my vacation since I'm not working, and I can often get more out of it.

 

[Helen]

It is much better in retirement to travel for many reasons. For one, most of my vacation time was spent in the mid-west visiting my parents, other family and friends. My vacation-vacation was then limited to three and four days weekends (when I wasn't on call).

I do miss the rush of knowing that in an hour I had a week or ten days off work, I remember how my stomach would flip with excitement and relief. But like others have said, it isn't worth the trade off.

Last year we did a four month road trip to explore parts of the US I had never seen. And we did it without much planning ahead which gave us a lot of freedom. This year we plan to spend two months in Australia.

We have enough money to travel 12 months out of the year, but there is so much to do around where we live we don't want to be away. The spring means conditioning hikes with groups of friends, the summer means backpacking trips with groups of friends and the fall means mushroom hunting season which can combine hiking and backpacking.

So, like others have said, the line kind of blurs regarding what a vacation is. Life is good!

 

[brett]

We often get much better value than we otherwise would. We expecially like the freedom to pick up a last minute special and fly off a few days later. It encourages us to travel to different places.

Three years ago we grabbed a deal in early Jan for a flight to Thailand. Ten days later we were on the beach. We enjoyed it so much we spent the following two winters there.

 

[NW-Bound]

Am I enjoying vacations or trips as much as when I was still working?

I dunno. When working, I never took a 2-month long RV trek, nor a 6-week European trip, so have nothing to compare with the current status.

 

[FI_RElater]

Earlier in the w@rking times had gone to a Caribbean island for a vacation, there was a problem with airline getting back and they were offering a extra 3 days on them to avoid some backlog problem. Alas, with spouse just starting job not to much earlier, we couldn't avail ourselves of the opportunity (had negotiated the time as part of hiring contract).
Now-- we could easily take the extra time-- no problem.

We did take a longer vacation a year before retirement-- 3 weeks in Europe-- but even then the thoughts of what we would come back to were noticeable in the last few days. Now we only need to concern ourselves with the "fur babies " on longer trips.

 

[6miths]

Much better here. Even though I had lots of time off while working, I was never really free and always knew what would be waiting when I returned. Now when I am away I can soak it all up and there is no backlog to return to.

 

[dixonge]

When you're retired, it's all one big vacation. Traveling is just a trip.

 

[Nemo2]

When you're retired, it's all one big vacation. Traveling is just a trip.

+1

 

[Danmar]

When you're retired, it's all one big vacation. Traveling is just a trip.

Agree with this. Also, I expect that for many ER's everything is better once retired.

 

[scrabbler1]

I think of my ER as a permanent version of the 47 days of freedom between the day I took my last final exam at college and the first day I began working at my new, full-time job back in 1985.


In those 47 days which spanned roughly the time between Memorial Day in late May through the July 4th weekend, I did some traveling including my most fun California trip I made in the 1980s and a car trip to New Jersey. My brother graduated from high school in June, so my parents threw a big party to celebrate both of us graduating. My little vacation ended when I moved into a Manhattan apartment the day before I started working. It was a fun 47 days with no school or work responsibilities.


I am now approaching THREE THOUSAND days in ER, a lot more than the 47 I enjoyed in 1985. woo hoo!

 

[Options]

Agree with this. Also, I expect that for many ER's everything is better once retired.

Yes. I have to force myself to vacation/trip/adventure, etc. I've fallen into a delicious rhythm in retirement, and vacations and trips interfere with that. You don't need to get away when you're already there.

 

[Ally]

I was just thinking about this today while out walking. We are truly happy at home, doing whatever we want each day, spending time with pets, grandchildren and each other. Planning and going on a trip seems so much more of a chore now than when we worked. I thought we would be traveling all the time, but we are so happy at home, why leave?

 

[FreeBear]

Yes. I have to force myself to vacation/trip/adventure, etc. I've fallen into a delicious rhythm in retirement, and vacations and trips interfere with that. You don't need to get away when you're already there.

I was just thinking about this today while out walking. We are truly happy at home, doing whatever we want each day, spending time with pets, grandchildren and each other. Planning and going on a trip seems so much more of a chore now than when we worked. I thought we would be traveling all the time, but we are so happy at home, why leave?

+1

Ahhh, I'm not the only one. We cancelled our annual snowbird trip this year. In fact we haven't gone since we FIRE'd ourselves. Too much driving, too much cost, too much messing around...

I'll read about all the wonderful vacations & cruises other folks enjoy on this forum, and will start planning Something Big. After a day or so of planning, I'll burn out and we'll just go out to eat at one of our favorite local dive restaurants. End of story.

Part of the "problem" is that DW and I can't agree on where to go and what to do. She wants to fly overseas, but I did that for a living for almost 2 decades. I still get airport nightmares: I'm lost and somehow can't find my flight back home. No thanks...

We seem to keep busy near home with our art, friends, church, and just keeping stuff from falling apart (us and the house). Oh, we did travel like crazy people when we w*rked. We were very motivated to vacate and escape.

 

[Chuckanut]

Vacations are much better since I can take them when I want. And when I come home I don't have to go back to work the next day. Very nice.

 

[Totoro]

Trips are different when there are no external constraints on time. On balance much better, but also different.

Less pressure to do things, lower cost per day, and decisions are more weighed towards "Do I want to do this" vs. "How much time do I have". I have a tendency to slow down in untimed travel, even to a complete stop. That takes some character to manage

Also needing no time to decompress from previous activity increases enjoyment.

It can be disorienting though - schedule is completely your own now. And going back to whatever 'home' you have is a bit strange when you have nothing scheduled on that side either. It triggers the question: why go back at all?

 

[Nemo2]

It triggers the question: why go back at all?

To pick up the mail?

 

[TNBound]

Vacations while working were usually a week at a time. Somewhere along the way I heard that you need at least 10 days to truly relax because it takes about 3 days on the front end to de-stress and then about 2 days on the back end you start the realization it's coming to an end. So out of a 7 day vacation, you have about 2 days purely stress free. Maybe...Just retired this month, so haven't experienced retirement travel yet. Look forward to the experience though!

 

[athena53]

I just booked a 3-week tour of India and Kathmandu in March of next year. I may spend a couple of days in London en route. Even with the 4 weeks of vacation I once had, that would have left me with little time for any other travel. Definitely better post-retirement!

 

[marko]

My perspective is a bit different: If, in retirement you are "going on vacation", you're missing the point. To me, the idea of vacation is a left-over from your work mindset.

Instead, in retirement there is 'travel' as part of your regular life and just 'something you do' rather than something done to get away.

It might just be semantics but I've always maintained that people who retire and say "it feels like I'm on vacation" haven't been retired very long; they're still viewing their free time from a work context. Over time, your free time is not vacation nor is going away for a week/month(s)...it's just the way you live.

 

[Sunset]

I was just thinking about this today while out walking. We are truly happy at home, doing whatever we want each day, spending time with pets, grandchildren and each other. Planning and going on a trip seems so much more of a chore now than when we worked. I thought we would be traveling all the time, but we are so happy at home, why leave?

I have noticed this also.

We are pretty content, it's like a perpetual staycation.

I want to go to Europe, but the planning involved and the time away from home actually detracts from the desire to go.

When I worked, I was so desperate to escape to something different, I'd travel anywhere just to be away. Now there is nothing to escape.

 

[kcowan]

Over time, your free time is not vacation nor is going away for a week/month(s)...it's just the way you live.

Yes we no longer need to get away from it all. We are just as happy with a condo in downtown Paris. We spend 6 months in PV MX and love being just above the chaos!

We have noticed that it is really quiet in cemetaries. There will be lots of time for that.

 

[48Fire]

We rarely "vacation" any more. We did a big family vacation in Italy right after I retired. It was actually one of the factors influencing my retirement, since I was out of PTO, so I just quit .

Our vacations now are more of the one or two day nature where we may do something or travel locally.

When I was working, I NEEDED a vacation, and I had to have a carrot out there to keep my nose to the grindstone. Not so anymore.