Do you stay with friends/family when visiting places where they live?

[wilbret]

We have friends and family all over the map, and quite often we find ourselves in their cities. They always tell us to stay with them, but we also are wired differently than most people. I am just as likely to make run to the store at midnight as I am to go at 6am. I can't sit still. I will typically wake up hours before the rest of the family, eat breakfast, run out, check things out, and bring back breakfast or make it. I know the offers are legit, because other family members do, in fact stay with them.

We have tons of family and friends in Orlando, and we get offered a place to stay all the time. It would be fine, but I just can't do it. Even though it costs me money, I like the sense of being on vacation that a hotel/resort provides.

Anybody else here weird like me? Or share the same habit?

 

[tinkerdorabelle]

No. We used to go down to Ft Lauderdale when my husband's dad was alive and wouldn't stay with them, didn't want to put them out and stayed at beach and went over to visit them just short drive from Ft Lauderdale. Also feel more comfortable being in own space. Have family invite us out live other side of country and will get there and will not stay with them either

 

[GreatLakes]

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It has also changed as families change. As an example we have both friends and family in Harrisburg and pre-kids we always stayed with one of them when we traveled. When we had a baby we stayed in a hotel to make it easier on us. Now that he is preschool aged the next trip out to Harrisburg we are likely to stay with our friend that also has an only child to give the kids more time to play with each other.

 

[Dan Murphy]

We have friends and family all over the map, and quite often we find ourselves in their cities. They always tell us to stay with them, but we also are wired differently than most people. I am just as likely to make run to the store at midnight as I am to go at 6am. I can't sit still. I will typically wake up hours before the rest of the family, eat breakfast, run out, check things out, and bring back breakfast or make it. I know the offers are legit, because other family members do, in fact stay with them.

We have tons of family and friends in Orlando, and we get offered a place to stay all the time. It would be fine, but I just can't do it. Even though it costs me money, I like the sense of being on vacation that a hotel/resort provides.

Anybody else here weird like me? Or share the same habit?

Same as you.

 

[aprilchem]

Not if I can help it. I really value my personal space and downtime and am uncomfortable staying in another person's home. I am significantly more relaxed if I have a separate location to go to every night. So when we visit we generally stay in a hotel - except at the in-laws, because staying at a hotel very much offends them. So when we visit, we just stay at their house.

 

[mrs. magoo]

My family is small so I have my only aunt and cousin who live in Arizona. When we go out there we stay with my cousin. She has no children and has a guest house that we use. My kids are also young adults now so it is not the same as when they were little. When the kids were little as she lived in Virginia we said with them 2 times when we only had 2 kids but as soon as we had 3 and then 4 we stayed in a hotel the times we would visit. We are going out West this summer and will stay with them at their house in Flagstaff. Can't wait.

 

[VandVsmama]

I agree with you. It also sort of depends on who it is.

We have a lot of friends & family in southern CA. And in pre-COVID days, we'd go to Disneyland about once a year or every 18 months. The first couple of trips were, like, 10 days long, and we'd spend 3 of those days at DL but the rest of the time running around like crazy people staying 1 or 2 nights at one house and then a couple of nights at this other person's place. And they all wanted 'hang out time' with us. After 2 trips like that, DH said, "Enough! No more."

A couple of the relatives' set ups at their homes are such that having 4 extra house guests even for a couple of days is cramped and difficult. For example: 8 people sharing 1 bathroom because the house has only 1 bathroom, and the 4 of us sleeping in a tent in the backyard (not joking!). At another relative's house, they have tons of space, but also a lot of stuff & clutter collected over 30+ years living in the same house...and those relatives are getting up there in years, so having house guests is harder for them now.

A couple of other friends...we're on good terms with them, but not close enough that DH & I would feel comfortable spending the night with them.

There's 1 set of friends who we do stay with regularly when we go to southern CA. They're like family, are easy going, etc.

For the relatives, the last time we were out there, we stayed a couple of nights in a hotel. Told all of the relatives in the area that we'd be hanging out at Relative So-and-So's house for the weekend on specific dates, and Relative So-and-So invited the other relatives to come over and hang out. The other relatives chose not to. They didn't want to drive (it was an hour's drive). Whereas, we'd driven 6.5 to get to them. Huh, ok.

DH & I always give a heads up to the friends & family prior to our DL trips and we always invite them all to meet up with us at DL if they want to. Other than the friends who we stay with, nobody ever takes us up on the offer. They don't want to go anywhere and they all want us to make a series of house calls. If we did that, we'd spend, seriously, like 2 weeks each year doing only that.

It's a system that works a lot better for us now. We end up with our own space when we stay in a hotel. We can spread out, leave the bed a mess if we want, we don't have to sleep in a tent on somebody's back porch and take turns over 2 hours to take showers.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

If I’m going specifically to see them then yes I’ll stay with them. My SO has a cousin in Texas. Twice we’ve gone down to visit and stayed with him and his wife. We sight see, do football games, he shows us his favorite places to eat, etc. We hang out well together and did often when they lived near us. They're alone out there and love getting visitors.

If I’m going on vacation to do Disney or PR or any place where I have family no I don’t stay with family if they live in that area. I don’t even visit them. I’m there on vacation with my family.

My XH did have family in the Orlando area. When we did disney we would visit them but we visited before or after our on site Disney trip. It was a separate 2 day “trip” to visit his family but it did not interfere with our primary goal of being in that area. We did stay with his uncle who was single and had a huge house. He loved having us since there was no one else in the area.

 

[MIGrandma]

No, we don’t stay with them. Love spending the afternoon and evening with them, go out to dinner together and sightseeing, etc. but at the end of the day we drive back to our hotel. We prefer that. To have our own space, bathroom, and to get up at our leisure in the morning.

 

[Kitty 34]

No, we always stay at a nearby hotel.

 

[Meriweather]

not usually.......but have for a day or two, if we are busy doing other things and not sitting around.

 

[georgina]

With friends generally no. I have a sister in Chicago and when we go (infrequently) we do stay with them. I have 2 sisters with 2nd homes in Florida (not Orlando) with pools, and I stay with them also. Their homes are on the same street and they have dinner together almost every night. We are moving outside of DC and I expect both those sisters will stay with us as they both have children and grandchildren in the area. My nephew has cats and my BIL is highly allergic, so they can't stay with them.

I guess I should add that we go to these places specifically to visit them, not just general tourism. Except the one time my BIL was working in France and we stayed with them and took the train into Paris each day!

 

[BlueStarryHat]

Used to, yes. I had an awkward experience with a friend in Boston when I took my niece to see her and her daughter (the kids were pen pals at the time.) It was just little things, like beginning to eat a meal and forgetting that they made their kids ask, "may we begin?" beforehand. Awkward to have put a forkful in your mouth and then realizing that you shouldn't have but it's too late. Taking a daily shower and having her remark, "Oh- you shower every day? We do things the European way" (hubby was German). Now, I don't know what goes on in Europe, but in my circle we take showers every day. Awkward. Both my niece and I *longed* for a hotel by about the middle of the visit. I'm sure they wished us at one, too.

Family is different- we all live in the same vicinity except for one of my uncles, who's in Florida. I never have cause to stay with them because we get together regularly at family functions and stuff.

 

[soccerdad72]

It depends - we usually spend Spring Break visiting my MIL in Florida and we do spend the week at her place. And when visiting my parents (albeit, not a vacation destination), we will stay with them. But with other relatives, if they live in a place where we are vacationing (and not specifically there to visit them), we would stay at a hotel or resort.

 

[Renaissancerocks]

Generally, no I do not stay at friends or relatives houses. I like my own space and we are on different timetables than most. There is one exception, a cousin that I am very close with. She knows our weird schedule and she always stays with us. But she is the only exception to this rule. I just find it weird to be in people’s personal spaces.

 

[fla4fun]

When I was a child, we always stayed with relatives and had relatives stay with us. As an adult, I prefer a hotel. I just spent a couple weeks visiting my sister and stayed at a hotel less than a mile from her home. I feel it gives us both a little down time to just unwind and relax (even though we are very close and get along well).

 

[Kellydelly]

I am like you, would prefer my private space to chill out or sleep during vacation. My sister just built a home on the ocean in Top Sail, NC and has a bunk room for guests but I don't want to test it out, lol. Maybe my kids would want to stay there but not me.

 

[kdonnel]

If at all possible no.

The exception being my wife's brother. We stay with them as there are no hotels within a 50 mile radius that we would feel safe. Plus they added a house onto their house years ago and have a bedroom for everyone. Lots of room for everyone to have a private space if desired.

Other family we visit do not have homes that make it comfortable for them or us to stay.

 

[bethbuchall]

I stay at my parents and with my adult children. Other than that, I choose to stay in a hotel.

 

[neverlandsky]

No way. We love our privacy way too much.