Poll:Which Vacation Would You Opt For?

[Sojourner]

Seems to me this poll question is asking whether folks prefer shorter, fancier, more luxurious trips or longer, more basic, no-frills trips. I think it's possible to like both and to want both occasionally. But I tend to prefer something around the two-week mark that is neither super-luxurious nor too spartan. So I voted $5,000 for two weeks. This would only apply to domestic vacations, though, since overseas trips would (usually) cost more like $7,000-$8,000 for the two of us.

[Midpack]

The poll does seem to suggest a pretty even split between shorter more luxe, longer more frugal and a happy medium. We’ve tended to the former but we’re trying to convince ourselves to take longer vacations/travel - without doubling/tripling our budget or choosing cheap locations - hence the poll.

[rodi]

I prefer slow travel, so I chose option 3.

In reality - some items are amortized over the whole trip (airfare is the same for all trips - at whatever class you are accustomed to.)
I prefer rental apartments/houses to hotels - which is often much cheaper than hotels. And the per night price often drops with longer stays. (I don't mind making my own bed - and only book places that are beautiful, have a washing machine, etc.)

And I like to try the local cuisine - and if something is interesting, try to recreate by shopping locally and then cooking it at the vacation rental kitchen.

I'm still adjusting to travel without kids (youngest just went to college this month). And hoping to get a lot of travel in the next few years before age infirmities make some of our more adventurous plans less optimal.

[ABQ2015]

My recent 3 week road trip to Glacier NP cost more than $5K, mostly because of lodging costs. I like to stay in national park lodging and it is difficult to find a room in western tourist cities for less than $150 a night although I found some good deals. So I would opt for 2 weeks at $5K to allow for lodging and a few nice dinners. After 2 weeks I get tired of traveling and start thinking of getting home anyway. Of course if I was going to an expensive city such as San Francisco or Aspen, a week is all I could afford but I prefer national parks. Unfortunately I have not done any European travel but assume it can be pricey.

[YVRRocketSurgery]

I've tracked our total spend on a handful of vacations over the last few years in order to get a rough idea of how large of a nestegg we needed to fulfill our retirement travel goals.
Many of our 3 week land trips came in around $300CDN/day or around $5000USD for a 21 day trip. Our cruise trips are generally around 10 to 14 days and came in around $450CDN/day or around $5000 for a 14 day cruise & stay.
So I'd likely prefer option 2 or 3 but lean towards 3 since I always felt our sub 1 month trips were too short.

[DrRoy]

3 weeks for $5000 is not far from what we typically do, especially for a domestic trip. If it is international, we would surely spend more, as we are also flying first class now if we need to sleep on the flight, and sometimes include a cruise.

[Bamaman]

Two weeks is about the maximum time we can go. With a lake house 1 hr. away, my life is spent maintaining two properties and cutting grass.

I also get pretty bored staying in one place. That's why cruises are perfect for us--a new place most every morning.

Most of our friends spend vacations down on the Gulf Coast. Nothing is more boring than sitting on a beach--getting sunburned. And condo rentals are expensive. For what they spend in a week, we can take a European trip for two weeks including airfares.

We leave in the morning for Berlin & Dresden taking in the WWII and art museums. Other than Lisbon, we've seen just about all the major cities of Europe 4-5 times over the last 50 years. If we stopped travel after this trip, we've experienced more than we ever expected. My wife is having mobility issues, and we're taking a power scooter with us this trip.

[WestUniversity]

Option 1 is about what DW and I spend on a “real” vacation. And by “real” I mean something other than a long weekend somewhere or a visit with family. That’s about what we spend for a nice cruise or a trip to Europe…

[Scuba]

My answer is $2,500/week for 6-12 weeks, maybe a bit more, depending on destination. We fly economy with extra legroom seats and priority boarding, and prefer small apartments that are well-located with nice views to hotel rooms. We usually rent a car, unless we are in a major city with great public transportation. Our meals are a mix of inexpensive local places, nice dinners out, and simple picnics or meals prepared in our apartment.

We spend some days relatively inexpensively, going to see sights or just relaxing on a beach or at a cafe/park. Other days we splurge by chartering a private boat, going to a high-end restaurant, etc. We don’t try to stick to a budget while we travel. We just do whatever we want to and add it up when we get home to see what the tab came to. The last couple of longer trips we’ve taken cost $20-$25K for 6-8 weeks.

[rwdflynavy]

My wife and I took a 5 days cruise that we wished was a few days longer, so I picked 2 weeks. Same with our 1 week visits to an island all-inclusive resort, wanted it a bit longer, but not 3 weeks.

[SecondAttempt]

Like others, I'm a little confused by the question. If you are saying I will be spending $5000 on my vacation and I only get to choose the duration that does not seem fair. I have spent $5000 on a week long vacation and enjoyed it. I'm not sure I would say it is "luxurious" but it clearly had more niceties than a 7-night road trip in Motel 6's (not that I have an issue with road trips or Motel 6's). I voted for the middle option.

But if I just wanted to be pampered and treated like a king, there are plenty of places in the world where that $5000 could get me spoiled for a month or more in splendor. In places like India (where I have been) or maybe the Phillipines your $5000 buys a luxury hotel with likely "servants" to attend to you. That's not something I need nor are those places I want to vacation. But if my intent is to be spoiled I think the location needs to be left up in the air not just the duration.

(I have been on a business trip to India where I had a "houseboy" assigned to my room. It was actually a little creepy but the room was about $150/night 20+ years ago. His job was to attend to any needs, business services, fruit or food orders, errands, whatever. This was not something I requested!)

[brett]

Really depends what other vacations and vacation types you may have enjoyed in the recent past.

We spend considerably more in Paris or London that we do in the Greek Islands or Turkey.
.
Same for Mexico vs some Caribbean islands. Or Thailand vs Hawaii or Australia.

We typically select by value and by our preferences. Could be one star, could be six star.

[ExFlyBoy5]

I voted for option one.

But...we are over all-inclusive deals. We have stayed at some pretty nice 3 star resorts and a couple 5 star (damn expensive) but seems like they tend to bring out some of the worst in people. We like to travel to relax, and we have found that tough to do at an all inclusive.

The last place we stayed was about $700 a night for DW and me and we were SO DELIGHTED to see that most of the dishes had some sort of hot dog pieces in them. THANK GOD we were only there for a couple of nights (a wedding) before we went to our primary spot...a rented private home. And don't get me started on some of the mid-priced resorts that have started selling day passes to cruise ship passengers. Oye.

These days, we only rent private homes or stay in very small boutique hotels and have figured out that it's not much more expensive to rent a pretty nice house (and a chef for several nights) than to stay at a mid-priced all inclusive resort.

[livingalmostlarge]

I voted for option 3 but realizing that it depends on where you go. 3 weeks for $5k can be done for luxury in some places. It also depends on family or couple.

[brett]

We do a fair amount of last minutes. Last minute cruises, last minute AI's.

Most of our trips include a variety of comfort levels for five star to B&B's.

Where we decide to go and how much we spend is sometimes dependent on where we been in them the previous months.

[Midpack]

Thanks everyone, there’s no “consensus”, and that doesn’t surprise me. Too each his/her own as with most choices. We’ve always chosen short upscale travel/vacations, but we may try a longer/cheaper vacation - a test of the value of time vs money for us.

[RobbieB]

And if low cost proves lame, you can always "step it up" in process.

Reminds me of the "all inclusive" Cancun thing we did. Got so tired of the average food at the resort we walked down to a local shop and had really good grilled shrimp served on a cactus leaf. One dinner cost more than a whole day at the resort.

[SecondAttempt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Midpack Thanks everyone, there’s no “consensus”, and that doesn’t surprise me. Too each his/her own as with most choices. We’ve always chosen short upscale travel/vacations, but we may try a longer/cheaper vacation - a test of the value of time vs money for us.

I think we all have our preferences. I like nice hotels but don't really care about flying first class. I mean, it's great to be upgraded but I will rarely upgrade myself even if I can do it free with miles.

We took a road trip this year rather than a typical vacation because of covid. We just did not know how things would be and didn't want to pay for a nice hotel only to spend most of our time in the room or wearing a mask around the pool. We stayed in mostly cheaper hotels for one night only and a couple of historic hotels that were pretty bad! But it was fun and a great way to travel iven the uncertainties right now. Maybe now is the time to try out alternatives, longer and less luxurious hotels.

We lucked out and hit between surges. Masks were absent most places we went except national parks. Two weeks later the mask mandates came back!

[SecondAttempt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by brett We do a fair amount of last minutes. Last minute cruises, last minute AI's.

Again, personal preferences...

For travel I am a planner. I like to do in-depth research on the places I plan to visit and that can take months. I'm spontaneous in other aspects of life but travel for me has a large "learning" component so I want to get acquainted with local history, customs, geology, archeology, or whatever so I can put things in context. I get more ideas from Atlas Obscura than guidebooks.

[W2R]

Which of the three choices?

Well, actually none of the three, in my case - - unless an option is added to pay me $5000 to just stay home in my lovely house right next door to Frank, rest, and enjoy life?