What Is An Extended Vacation Like?

[PaunchyPirate]

Based on my current life situations, I’m only good for about 3 weeks of a trip. Owning a house that needs yard mowing and snow maintenance PLUS owning 2 cats as my family members, I don’t like leaving for longer. If I outlive the cats, I may hire someone to maintain the house (instead of relying on family members and/or neighbors) and venture out longer.

I need to be doing something pretty much all the time when traveling. I’m not one to sit on the beach all day. But I also like to relax now and then with a day off spent people watching or enjoying sights from a nice viewpoint.

 

[audreyh1]

I guess I need to look into other options for accommodations for a longer stay too. That’s another reason we haven’t taken longer vacations as it gets really expensive at most hotels/B&Bs we’ve stayed at. Admittedly way more than normal for us (usually $150-300/night), but our stay last week was $600/night with fees & taxes (competitive where we were) - I can’t imagine that for a month. Airfare was $820 for two, so travel wasn’t the big expense…

This is where people rent apartments via Airbnb, etc. for a week.

We haven’t done that yet, but probably would for week long stays in a city. We intend to do more of that.

We’ve stayed up to 6 nights in one hotel in Europe (min 3) and really don’t care about the bills, but having a full kitchen sure would be nice for longer stays.

One summer we stayed 2 months in Amsterdam and my SIL arranged for us to do apartment sitting for friends which was great! We also bought used bikes and totally immersed in Amsterdam living plus time with family.

 

[Zona]

Pre covid we do two extended trips per year. Anywhere from 2-3 months each.

…

We can lock and go. No indoor plants, not pets. HOA does the lawncare and
snow removal. Everything possible moved to email.

Similar for us, although COVID has kept us close to home since spring 2020.

In European cities we prefer to spend about a month in each location, doing maybe one or two touristy things each day and spending the rest of the time just walking and soaking it all in - parks, cafes, festivals. We did spend 2 months in Barcelona one year and that was one place where we ran out of touristy things we wanted to do at about week 6. But there was an awesome jazz club (Jamboree in Pl. Reial) that only charged ten euros admission and had music just about every night, and there was always the beach, so we still enjoyed the last 2 weeks of our stay. We like to do this in 2 or three cities per trip, since Schengen rules only let us stay 90 days at a time. Many Airbnb listings give a steep discount when staying 30+ days.

We’ve also done the 1 month stays here in North America. We try to choose locations where we’ll get a combination of natural beauty and walkable/city life in one trip. (Santa Barbara, Puerto Vallarta, Montreal, for example).

For other more adventurous trips we will move around more frequently, about every week or so. Like on a trip to Thailand there was lots to see, so we did a week each in Bangkok, Chiangmai, Koh Samui. Same for New Zealand - three weeks but split between North and South islands. But to be honest, these trips where we move around a lot aren’t long enough to feel like we saw “everything” we wanted to. They are also more tiring than the stay-put-for-a-month trips, and the cost per day is usually higher because lodging at hotels and eating out is more expensive than apartment style accommodations.

Traveling in this way is a big change from the one or two week vacations most Americans take. It’s hard to switch off the “I paid so much to get here, so I’ve got to make the most of every minute“ mindset. Definitely different. After typing all this and reminiscing, now I really want to book something!

Edit: typed week 10 but meant to type week 6.

 

[levindb]

I guess we are different than most folks who have replied. We like to travel, but prefer longer engagements that spread the cost of getting there over many more days.

For the last 10 years, we have “an investment” in the Dominican Republic where we travel twice each year for 3 weeks in the spring and then for 5-6 weeks at the end of the year. Our investment pays us dividends the covers the cost of the all inclusive stay in a 3 to 7 bedroom home with a pool, daily maid service and a chef for breakfast and dinner or we can go the the on resort restaurants. We only pay for tips.

Then we have our recent BTD trips:
1. 7 day cruise to Alaska followed by 3+ weeks in a RV to explore the state.
2. 6 week safari in 5 countries in Africa. Never a dull moment.
3. 137 day World Cruise that took us around the Southern Hemisphere 62 ports and 31 countries. Learned so much about places we would like to go back to.
4. We also spend 4-6 weeks in Key West to enjoy the warmer weather.

It is our retirement and we are trying to make the best of it, learning, exploring and trying to accomplish new experiences. Hiking up Manchu Piccho, biking tours in Europe or northeast USA…are still on the bucket list.

7-10 days does not cut it for us, and we are 71 and 69 years old.

 

[skyking1]

That's some quality BTD right there
I think DW will go for maybe a 30~40 day cruise. We'd have to work up to that.

 

[Dalmore]

My max so far is 10-14 days, usually just 4 nights. We never had children, but we have always had fur babies, cats, who don't travel. DW is far more capable than I am of just leaving them behind with someone coming to feed them. I'm not, and start getting ancy to get back home to them after 3 or 4 days. When these two are gone, both are 13, I want to avoid pets for a year so that we can take some nice long trips.

 

[skyking1]

Dalmore I tried that and made it 4 days before I rescued a couple more.

 

[sengsational]

Made me look.

Longest continuous was 47 days. DW and I in Greece, plus a med cruise. She went home and I did a paramotor class, then took a trans-atlantic back.

But besides that one long one, there were quite a few in the 18 to 25 range.

Now, looking at some prospects, I'm going to sneer at anything less than 25, hehe! The one trip in planning (only 19 days). I can't move it earlier or mess up Thanksgiving at home, but could be "improved" if I tacked-on a sailing course in St Martin. Hmmm.

 

[Bamaman]

Most of our friends have condos on the Gulf Coast, or rent condos for their vacations. Some will go down 3-4 times per year.

Staying in one place like that would bore me to death. There's just so much sun a body can take on a snow white beach.

For the same money, we can travel to Europe for 2 weeks. We used to drive as far and fast as we could--taking in different cities. But when Italian gasoline got to $9 per U.S. gallon, we changed our mode of travel.

We now travel to 3 cities in two weeks, and they're usually in close proximity to each other. We've found that traveling slowly allows to see much more and we're more relaxed. We've also been known to travel to far away cities on the way home via budget airlines. That might be Bergen, Norway or Lisbon, Portugal for a couple of days.

We leave next week for Berlin and Dresden. This Covid year, we're staying in one country and keeping things simple.

 

[audreyh1]

We leave next week for Berlin and Dresden. This Covid year, we're staying in one country and keeping things simple.

I hope you plan to visit the famous Dresden (Meissen) porcelain manufactory.

 

[Dalmore]

Dalmore I tried that and made it 4 days before I rescued a couple more.

Yeah. DW and I are both softies that way. The house breathes differently when there are no fur babies in it. Make it hard to sleep. So much for the travel bug.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

We are very much like you. We can lie around at home. We are closing in on 20 years retired with a couple of trips per year/40+ countries. Things learned:

1) Our "wanna-go-home" limit is three weeks or a little longer.

​

I agree, after about three weeks DW and I are looking forward to getting back home.
We tend to limit trips to a month for that reason. The last week-10 days are still enjoyable, but the bloom is usually off the rose by then.​

 

[Fielding]

Growing up I experienced several long, unstructured, slow vacations in foreign countries that I remember fondly. As an adult, I've tried hard to take the longest vacations I could get away with, and once I had FU money if I left the state or country on vacation it was going to be for at least two weeks, more if possible, and as many times a year as I could get away with. Since retiring earlier this year I've taken 3 vacations, the shortest 20 days, the longest 35.

Some of my wife and I's best experiences on vacation have been the totally unplanned, unscripted things we stumbled on to. There is such a healthy amount of slack in our schedule that it allows us to recognize when we've found something we want to dwell on, or to try something random without worrying about FOMO. We have several times skipped or slighted the big attraction in a place to get fascinated with something that's not even in the guidebooks. We don't regret these choices too much, although we sometimes realize we'd like to come back again - and sometimes do!

Specific suggestions:

* I'm a big fan of AirBNB for long stays. You can do your own cooking, laundry, have a proper table and sofa, etc.
* Try deliberately staying long enough that you run out of pre-planned things to do. I consider a vacation a resounding success if you run out a few days before you start your return journey.
* For international travel, most of us are old enough to need at least a day, better two days, for jet lag recovery. We now write off the first two days of every trip with major time zone change. Maybe we'll see one thing per day on these recovery days, but mostly we just eat and sleep, exercise if possible.
* If pets are holding you back, we've found professional pet sitting to be expensive, but excellent peace of mind.

 

[folivier]

Our first long trip was a 6 week trip to Europe. It started out with a couple we're friends with invited us on a week trip to France to rent a boat on the Midi canal. That morphed into 6 weeks, 3 weeks on our own then met up with our friends for 3 weeks together. Our son (at the time an architect student) spent the first 10 days with us in Paris and Rome then my DW and I took a train to Switzerland for a few days then to Monaco to meet up with our friends. It was awesome to be able to spend so much time without an itinerary and just wander around. Since then we always take longer trips.

 

[Dtail]

We are winding up a 13 day 12 night road trip. This has been our longest trip so far in retirement. Having a blast. We will see about longer trips down the road.

 

[Scuba]

One of the main reasons we wanted to retire early was to take longer vacations. When we were working, we usually took 2 weeks at a time, 2-3 times per year. Since our ER, we have done:

- 3 months in the USVI, plus 3 more trips - 1 four weeks for hurricane relief volunteer work, 1 two weeks to put tourist dollars back into their economy, and 1 two months earlier this year with friends and family visits

- 6 weeks in Greece, visiting Athens, Nafplion and the Peloponnese Peninsula, Skopelos, Santorini, Milos, Naxos, and Rhodes, with a short visit with friends in Amsterdam on the way home

- 6 weeks in Palm Springs, which led to our decision to relocate to the desert from the Coast

- Several one week family visit trips to FL, GA, and SC

I hadn’t realized this until now, but even with COVID and even though we have a dog, we have managed to be away for almost a year of our almost 5 years of ER. We love longer stay trips and never get bored, just as we rarely get bored at home. We can live like locals, especially when we stay in one apartment or area the entire time. In Greece, we moved around a lot so it was less relaxing, but we covered so many more sights and had many more serendipitous moments than we would have on a 2 week vacation. In the USVI, much of our time is spent diving and exploring different off the beaten path beaches. We love the beach and don’t find it boring at all to relax, snorkel and read after a morning of diving. There is also the opportunity for day trips to different islands, and to interact more with locals and learn more about island life.

Air BnB is definitely the way we like to go on longer trips. Much more comfortable than a hotel room - more space to relax, our own kitchen including at minimum a fridge and microwave so we can have breakfasts and happy hours in our apartment, but preferably a full kitchen plus an outdoor BBQ grill, and the ability to more easily do laundry plus the experience of living more like a local. And it’s very economical. In Greece we spent less than $20K to stay for six weeks including air and other transportation. All of our apartments were clean and very well located with patios/balconies with stunning views and close to attractions. We splurged on a couple of private food and wine tours, had rental cars everywhere except Athens, and never felt that we were scrimping. We like to spend less on accommodations and more on experiences. We also like having our own transportation for the freedom it gives us.

COVID, moving to Palm Springs and managing a major remodel of our home definitely put a cramp in our travel plans, but we are ready to go again. We are planning a trip to Rome, Umbria, Venice and Croatia with friends next summer, possibly followed by a stay in Greece for us. Would really love to go for a 2-3 month trip around Australia but it’s impossible to plan that until they reopen.

I promised DH that when our 11-12 year old pup passes, no more pets for a few years at least. We always have our dog stay with a professional sitter, but it adds a lot to the cost and we miss him so it has definitely limited our trip duration. When we retired, I really wanted to do an unstructured around the world trip, but our dog prevented that.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

We did go sailing for 3 years, 3 - 6 month stretches each winter in the Caribbean. Otherwise I tend to get fed up after a week or 2. I am not a great sightseer. I cannot spend hours on end looking at museums unless they are science or natural history, even then I cannot dwell on exhibits.

Honestly, when we do visit places and we return, I watch PBS programs on the areas and find I see a lot more with less stress from my arm chair. Go figure.

Problem is I travelled extensively during my career, I do not miss it at all. I used to go all over the world, when I found a spot I liked, DW & I went on holiday there.

Living in a resort town does not help matters. Our beaches are as good as any I have seen in the world, the people watching is just different. We only walk or drive on beaches and rarely swim or lay around on them.

 

[Helen]

I promised DH that when our 11-12 year old pup passes, no more pets for a few years at least. We always have our dog stay with a professional sitter, but it adds a lot to the cost and we miss him so it has definitely limited our trip duration. When we retired, I really wanted to do an unstructured around the world trip, but our dog prevented that.

We've been dogless for six years until a month ago. We couldn't take it any longer and covid was a factor.

We've been fostering a Maltese that was rescued from a hoarder situation with the intent to adopt her. She is eight years old and weighs 7 - 8 pounds. She is a love.

She goes in for surgery this morning, she has to have all her teeth extracted and a mast cell tumor removed from her hind leg. The rescue agencies is paying for most of this, once it is done they will let us adopt.

We checked with the condo owners in Palm Springs to make sure they will let us rent from them with the dog. We also have two cats so we have to hire a pet sitter anyways. Once we can again travel overseas we will leave her at home with the pet sitter and it shouldn't cost any more money than we typically pay.

 

[mountainsoft]

The longest vacation I can remember is our 10 days in Hawaii back in 2000. We had a great time, but even that seemed a bit rushed as we had to squeeze in our vow renewal and visit two different islands. 3 of those days were just spent traveling.

Since then most of our longer vacations have lasted around 5-7 days at most. Those were usually road trips where each day brought some new location or activity.

In recent years, thanks to COVID and difficulty getting time off work, most of our getaways have just been one or two nights closer to home.

I tend to be an over planner. My wife has commented that we rent unique AirBnB places and then never spend any time there. I've got every activity planned down to the hour or even less. I have detailed directions to each location. Basically, I try to pack as much "fun" as I can into the limited days we have available. With only a day or two at each location I try to experience as much as I can while we are there. I have gotten better in recent years, but I'm still a bit OCD about vacation planning.

Whenever possible, I do try to plan a "decompression" day at home before we have to go back to work. This gives us time to unpack, put things away, do laundry, and mentally switch gears from relaxing to working again.

One of the things I'm looking forward to when we retire is not having the obligation to get back home for work. I'm hoping this will allow us to take longer vacations, relax a bit more, and have time to see things in each area without feeling rushed. I can't imagine being away for a month or more, but two or three weeks would be nice.

 

[old medic]

, laying on a beach for hours would bore us to death.
I guess I need to look into other options for accommodations for a longer stay too.

We just came back from camping Myrtle Beach visiting the DW family for a few days... Its always been a yearly thing. I hate it... They sleep till 9-10, then go sit at the beach for several hours, then go to the pool for several hours, then either out for dinner or campsite cooking.. (my favorite) call it a night about 9.... after several days I'm trembling to do something... Dont get me wrong, I enjoy relaxing.. but laying nearly comatose for hours just dont cut it.

Our vacations are mostly camping, and even still working we spend 40-60 days a year someplace else... mostly long weekend get a ways. But we also do a few longer trips each year... Longest was 3 1/2 weeks wandering up to Maine and back with the grandson. Had a few stops planned, but the rest was spur of the moment stuff, and LOVE IT...
Once the wife retires we are considering Camp Hosting... normally 30 day period, basically commit to working 20 hours a week for the campground, stay for free, and the rest the time to explore the area.

Pets and home.... We have been lucky to have my brother around to look after stuff... And now down to the last dog... nearly 15... will be a big change... we always have had dogs...

 

[Dtail]

The longest vacation I can remember is our 10 days in Hawaii back in 2000. We had a great time, but even that seemed a bit rushed as we had to squeeze in our vow renewal and visit two different islands. 3 of those days were just spent traveling.

Since then most of our longer vacations have lasted around 5-7 days at most. Those were usually road trips where each day brought some new location or activity.

In recent years, thanks to COVID and difficulty getting time off work, most of our getaways have just been one or two nights closer to home.

I tend to be an over planner. My wife has commented that we rent unique AirBnB places and then never spend any time there. I've got every activity planned down to the hour or even less. I have detailed directions to each location. Basically, I try to pack as much "fun" as I can into the limited days we have available. With only a day or two at each location I try to experience as much as I can while we are there. I have gotten better in recent years, but I'm still a bit OCD about vacation planning.

Whenever possible, I do try to plan a "decompression" day at home before we have to go back to work. This gives us time to unpack, put things away, do laundry, and mentally switch gears from relaxing to working again.

One of the things I'm looking forward to when we retire is not having the obligation to get back home for work. I'm hoping this will allow us to take longer vacations, relax a bit more, and have time to see things in each area without feeling rushed. I can't imagine being away for a month or more, but two or three weeks would be nice.

I used to plan many but not all details for our trips, but on our current one, just planned the 3 different venues only a week out and except for restaurants, didn't plan ahead anything else.
It has worked out just fine.

 

[brett]

When going to Europe we never fly in and home from the same city.

Last pre covid time we had a flight to Athens and a flight home from London.

Why..well we planned for five weeks in Greece and two weeks or somewhere else. A day or two or three in London is always good.
We have several ideas for somewhere else including Cyprus, Isreal, and Morocco. It ended up to be 15 days in Cyprus because the flights, connections, prices all made sense on the day we decided.

We often pick London (sometimes Paris) as a departure airport home because we know that wherever we are in Europe we can get a LC flight to either of those cities. Plus, as gateways, our fare from NA tends to be very competitive. A few times we have gone with one way tickets because we had no idea when we would be returning home or from where.

We only buy tickets that can be cancelled for a price. If we decide to stay a few weeks longer paying a $200 fee to change our flight is not a big issue.

It takes some time to get your head around longer trips, and travelling in a more spontaneous manner without every day planned out. Especially after having to plan so much vacation time around work schedules.

 

[skyking1]

Yeah. DW and I are both softies that way. The house breathes differently when there are no fur babies in it. Make it hard to sleep. So much for the travel bug.

There is no doubt about that. That is a great way to put it, they are the pulse and breath of the home.
We are extremely fortunate to have a roomie to care for our dogs, but DW's work is so all-consuming that taking time for a good vacation just stacks up the stress for her. Retirement is the only option IMO.
The roomie rents our RV hookups and is a veterinarian, so the dogs get exceptional care

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

Our last extended trip was an odyssey that started out in Alaska's Kenai Peninsula and ended with two weeks in Tokyo. I have to say, we've come to enjoy Japan quite a bit. We spent a couple weeks in Kyoto previously, and find Japan to have many positives: it's not too touristy (except for Japanese tourists), it has an Asian vibe (obviously) but the people are incredibly polite. Traffic is dense but well regulated (if you've ever been to China, you get my drift).

Part of our trip was a two week cruise from Seward to Tokyo, with stops in Kodiak, Dutch Harbor, Kamchatka (Russia) and Hokkaido. By the time we were done with that I was ready to explore Tokyo. It's the world's largest city, but drop a candy wrapper on the sidewalk and see what happens. You won't be beaten up, but you may experience Japan's system of informal mores.

Public transportation can be a challenge because Anglo-European signage is limited. But navigation is doable, especially in Tokyo. Cuisine is different, but quality is excellent.

On one of our final evenings there we attended a 4-hour kabuki theater presentation. It's so refreshing to attend an event like that and see us tourists outnumbered by locals.

 

[Sunset]

Well, that's another issue. I can't imagine that for even one night. There is no way I would ever pay that much for a night's lodging. But obviously lots of folks feel they get their money's worth at such places, or else they would go out of business. I'm just not in that league.

ha ha ha, so TRUE...

I once stayed overnight in a $2,500 room it was decades ago. It was FREE for me.

It also felt like a waste to go to sleep, I should have stayed up all night to get the value out of it.