Length of Vacation?

[Gumbo4x4]

They say if you can drive to your destination in less than 4 hours, then you should drive vs fly. From a financial standpoint. (And I have no idea who "they" are, lol)

Actually, "they" say you should always drive anything under 400 miles & potentially more depending on cost & circumstances.

Interestingly enough, I once heard a comic use the same 400 miles as the minimum distance from home to get away with cheating. "Anything closer, and she could jump in her car and show up at your hotel!".

 

[MIGrandma]

As others have said, it depends on where we are going. We live in Michigan and if we're going to take a winter trip to Florida we go for at least 2 weeks, possibly 3.

When we take a cruise the cruise is usually 7-8 nights, and we like to spend 1-2 nights in the port city before leaving, and it depends if we flew or drove but generally 10 days to 2 weeks for a cruise.

When we go camping in the upper peninsula we're usually gone for a week, but this year we're going to be gone a total of 12 days as we decided to start out with a couple of nights in Mackinaw City, then a week in the U.P. followed by a 3-night stay on Mackinaw Island.

Hopefully it won't be many more years before we start spending a month or so somewhere warm in the winter.

 

[Liberty Belle]

Wow that is not much vacation time- at my job you got 11 days from the first year you were hired then after 5 it went to 16 days and up from there. When I retired I had 26 days vacation, 7 personal days, 12 sick days and 13 paid holidays a year- hope your vacation time goes up soon!

That's pretty much unheard of here (well, maybe in very high up jobs that I don't know about).
My last job you did not get one sick or vacation day until your year anniversary and then you got 5 sick and 10 vacation and pretty much stayed there.

I now work for the state and at 5 years (I'm in my third year now) I'll .25 more vacation days a month, so 3 more a year and then it goes up .25 a month more at your 10 year anniversary. I think it goes up again at 20 years.

Thank you! I really can't complain. Around here this is about as good as it gets regarding vacation and sick days!

 

[ZephyrHawk]

Okay, in all seriousness:

The longest trip I've ever taken was 25 days. France and Italy.

I'd say we average about 10 days (the beginning of one weekend through the end of the next).

As for the longest vacation I plan to take, well, I want to take a year off and travel the world. Sure, I'll lose my job, but I can find another one. And at the end of my life I don't want to be saying, "Hey, remember that year where I kept my job and did absolutely nothing out of the ordinary."

 

[aprilgail]

Actually, "they" say you should always drive anything under 400 miles & potentially more depending on cost & circumstances.

Interestingly enough, I once heard a comic use the same 400 miles as the minimum distance from home to get away with cheating. "Anything closer, and she could jump in her car and show up at your hotel!".

Funny because under 99% of circumstances I would never fly just 400 miles- we are going to Utah next summer for 2 weeks, just driving around the state and since we are so "close" to Arizona we are taking a little side overnight trip 500 miles to have dinner with my daughters biological father then stay overnight and drive back to Utah in the morning!

 

[Wendy31]

10-14 nights is ideal, I think.

When we go to Disney World, it's usually for 10 nights.

However, we haven't been to Disney since 2012 because we can't figure out what to do w/ our dog while we're gone.

Our beach trips are for 7 nights because the condo rentals are for Saturday-Saturday.

We do short weekend trips too.

7 nights is too short, & I would love to stay at the beach for 2 weeks. Just about the time I start to relax into the ebb & flow of "vacation life," it's almost time to go home.

We always drive. Road trips are fun, & I could never in a million years pack for a beach trip on an airplane! We have beach chairs & a canopy & a beach cart & boogie boards & a cooler & a cooler bag & a beach bag... and then all the suitcases & duffel bags & our pillows!

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Funny because under 99% of circumstances I would never fly just 400 miles- we are going to Utah next summer for 2 weeks, just driving around the state and since we are so "close" to Arizona we are taking a little side overnight trip 500 miles to have dinner with my daughters biological father then stay overnight and drive back to Utah in the morning!

Yes, for me personally I find flying "useless" for anything under 800 miles, and not really "beneficial" until you hit 1,500+ . And that's not to say I won't drive MUCH further, because I have & I will. Unfortunately, that's the point time constraints start kicking in for me with my current vacation allotment