Length of Vacation?

[disney junky]

What is your ideal length of vacation? And where? Does where determine how long?

 

[Klayfish]

Ideal length of vacation is truly dictated by how long I'm able to take off of work. If I worked for a school district, like DW did, we would be very tempted to do a full month condo rental off site at WDW. Very tempted. My work is really the only thing stopping us. I always try to make sure our summer vacations are at least 9 or 10 days...start sometime on a Friday and go through Sunday of the following weekend. However, while I can't take a full month out of the office, my job does graciously allow me flexibility. I'm now able to take vacations that are 17 or 18 calendar days long, though I work some of it. For example, this upcoming trip...DW and the kids will pick me up from work next Thursday around 1:30pm. We'll drive down and get to our condo by 9pm, hopefully. I have to work Friday until about 3:45pm, so we'll hit MK at night. Have Sat/Sun off, then work until 4:00pm on Monday...so again Monday will be parks at night. Tue is July 4th. Then I'm on true "vacation" from work Wed-Fri and the entire next week, we'll drive home that Sunday afternoon/evening, and I'll go back to work Monday. For Thanksgiving and Christmas/New Years, I'll do similar things...I have to work Thanksgiving week, but only Mon-Tue, so we'll leave Friday before and stay until Sunday after.

Of course, not all trips are like that. In our previous AP year, we did a few long weekends...arrived very late Thursday night, came home Monday.

Once this upcoming AP is over, we may look to do a beach theme vacation the following year. That'll be probably 8-9 days.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Where definitely determines how long. A long weekend here and there someplace close is nice. For Orlando, if I had the money, the only thing holding me back from three weeks would be reluctance to leave my pets that long. In reality, we generally keep vacations to about a week.

 

[mousefanmichelle]

I like to have vacations that are def 10 days at the min. Friday after work until the following Sunday but if I had my way it would be 2 weeks off work for every vacation. I just took my first 2 weeks off in a row from my job I have been at 16 years. IT. WAS. SO. NICE!!!!!!!!! Don't know why I never did that before. I live in MI so if I am going to FL i want to maximize my number of days even if I am not doing Disney. I just want the down time so # of days matter to me.

 

[Meriweather]

Where does determine how long for sure.

WDW 14 nights
DLR 5 nights
cruises 7-14 nights
local 3-4 nights

 

[princesspiglet]

I also agree that it totally depends on where we are going. If we are doing WDW, then about 9 days. Last year we spent 3 weeks in France, but we wanted to get our money's worth. Next summer we are doing 12 days in California so DD can tour colleges and get a feel for the area. After HS graduation, we are going to Japan for 3 weeks. DD's choice as she wants to be an animator and Japan is her inspiration. After she goes to college, it will just be DH and I...so we will most likely stick to 1-week vacations, but take multiple ones per year.

 

[Forevermarypoppins]

It's never long enough!! NEVER!
Mine are a week at a time, give or take a day- Sat to following Sat , maybe Sunday. My boss will not allow anymore than that, ever!

 

[aprilgail]

10 days minimum- no specific place- longest vacation I ever took away was about 6 1/2 weeks at one time- I don't like to fly anyplace unless I am spending at least 10 days away.

 

[Darcy03231]

Ideally, 10 days to 2 weeks. Where and what we're doing definitely impacts how long we go for. For our upcoming trips we're doing:

August 2017 - 7 day cruise, then 4 days/3 nights at WDW
October 2017 - 6 days in Grenada, 2 days in Puerto Rico, 7 day cruise
February 2018 - 2 weeks in Costa Rica
April 2018 - 1 week in Jamaica (we've been there multiple times)

 

[Squirlz]

If we're flying somewhere I want to stay at least a week. This October we're flying to Key West for 12 nights and December we're going to Universal Orlando for 9 nights.

 

[soccerdad72]

Definitely depends on circumstances. We just did a quick 4 night trip to a lake house which was the brother of a friend's. Nice trip, and just the right amount of time given that we were at someone else's place with two families under one roof. One more day and I think a couple kids would have been at each other's throats.

Typically, we would like to take week-long vacations, with one 'big' (e.g. 10-14 days) trip every couple years. About every 4-5 year, my wife and I like to get away for a long weekend - that's about as long as we can usually get away with while the kids are still in school.

 

[dotfurio]

For travelling we find about 2 weeks to be our limit before we're just cranky and ready to be home. Maybe it'll be different when it's just DH and I after the kids are grown. Before we had them we didn't have enough money to travel much.

 

[Liberty Belle]

Ideal? I'd say 2 weeks, but I've never been on one that long. The longest was 10 days and that was only once. We don't vacation that often, but when we do, it's usually for 5-7 days.

 

[Liberty Belle]

Ideally, 10 days to 2 weeks. Where and what we're doing definitely impacts how long we go for. For our upcoming trips we're doing:

August 2017 - 7 day cruise, then 4 days/3 nights at WDW
October 2017 - 6 days in Grenada, 2 days in Puerto Rico, 7 day cruise
February 2018 - 2 weeks in Costa Rica
April 2018 - 1 week in Jamaica (we've been there multiple times)

Wow! You get a lot of time off.

I get 12 "vacation" days a year, dh gets 4 weeks a year since he's been there so long.

 

[jdb in AZ]

DH and I were recently gone 3-1/2 weeks which included a European River cruise, then a visit to the grand kids on the east coast as we made our way home. We were homesick by the end of the cruise.

 

[Julie's Haircut]

7 to 10 days is ideal. I wouldn't want to be away from home for more than 14 days maximum.

 

[msjprincess]

Average is 7-12 days. It does depend on the destination.

 

[Darcy03231]

Wow! You get a lot of time off.

I get 12 "vacation" days a year, dh gets 4 weeks a year since he's been there so long.

DH is retired so no "vacation" time for him anymore! I'm still working and get four weeks a year paid, but I can (and do) take time without pay. Our firm's policy is that if it is ok with your boss and it's not excessive you can do it. I usually end up taking a week to a week and a half a year unpaid.

 

[amberpi]

Wow! You get a lot of time off.

I get 12 "vacation" days a year, dh gets 4 weeks a year since he's been there so long.

I hope you get sick, personal, and lots of federal holidays on top of your vacation Liberty Bell!

 

[amberpi]

I've been consulting for the last 5 years so I'm working a crazy amount and in airplanes, or taking off between engagements to catch my breath, but that doesn't answer your question.

WDW, Vegas, Napa and Nola are frequent and short trips for me. Vegas and Nola are maybe just a weekend flying in on Friday. Napa and WDW are usually 3-4 day long weekends. Vegas is almost always a 3 nighter, it gets to be too much for me after that.

Europe is usually a 10-14 day thing for me. Unless I'm tacking time onto a work trip, which is much more frequent.

Central America/Caribbean a week.

So, I guess put me in that "depends on what/where" category.