Do You Vacation Alone or w/ Family/Friends

[kilee]

So do you usually vacation alone or w/ family friends????

We are pretty much right down the middle. There are certain people that I will never attempt a vacation w/ (pretty much all my In-laws). Tried it twice. The first time was a huge family reunion out of state. We went w/ my Monster-in-law and her Boyfriend. It wasn't too bad because there were so many people- and we really only saw them for breakfast at the hotel. Then we took said MIL w/ us to Disney in 2004-- that was a complete nightmare. It actually forever changed her from mother-to monster in my book.

Then there are people I'll change plans to go with-- My parents, my Sister (and her family), and 1 aunt/unlce I have that are GREAT to travel with. We usually all try to travel as a group at least once a year. With some small trips w/ just some of them throughout the year.

I am interested to see how others travel.

 

[luv2nascar]

I'd have to say we prefer to vacation with only ourselves but we do often travel with other familiy members.

 

[tiggersmom2]

We usually travel with my parents, however, we go on more vacations with just my Dad than with both of my parents.

 

[llij]

We've always vacationed with family. Now that I think about it, I don't think we have ever vacationed on our own!

 

[mommaU4]

We have been on vacations with family and friends before but I really prefer to travel with just our family. Being on a vacation with a large group of people, even those you have fun with, can really try even the most patient and easy going of people, and I prefer to just do our own thing.

 

[mrsstats]

We take 2 vacations a year. 1 we go with my brother and sister in law. The other we go by ourselves. We have invited my in-laws but they always decline. Which I guess I am happy about. Since I know they wouldnt like to do the things we do.

 

[scubamouse]

we have a posse of 15-20 people we built up over years of going to club med which is very social vacationing. there's usually a spring and fall trip someone plans and everyone is invited to tag along. a subset of that group ends up coming on any vacation.

some of them joined us at disney last month. the beautiful thing is that since we all met on vacation, we know we travel well together.

 

[disykat]

I voted never - but that's not really true - it's just not 50/50. We traveled with my family to attend my brother's wedding, we have met family at the beach for weekends in the past, and we do a yearly camping weekend with some friends.

However, we enjoy our family vacations (with just our immediate family) and wouldn't give them up for anything. I don't consider traveling with others a real family trip - even if they are related - it's more like a family reunion.

 

[Amapola]

DH and I always vacation by ourselves. Once we took our nieces (then 11 & 16) and MIL to WDW and it was nice, but just for that once!! We're solitary people by nature. I'm an only child and though we get along fine with DH's brother & family, we don't have many interests in common and wouldn't even think of planning a vacation with them. For us, every vacation is like a honeymoon

 

[Serena]

My first big family vacation was planned just for my immediate family. Other family members decided they wanted to go too. So it was with extended family.

I'm keeping my next vacation a secret so that doesn't happen again.

 

[Pooh67_68]

We take my sister.

 

[MNmom2]

Everytime we have been to DIsney (the only place we vacation LOL!) we have been with my family - a mix of my siblings, parents, nieces and nephews. This time we are going ALONE and I have mixed feelings about it. As chaotic as it can get with others along I really think I'll miss having them there.

 

[4greatboys]

Both. We take family vacations and also meet up with some of our Internet Disney Freak friends and spend some time with them as well.

 

[DisneyCP2002]

I have traveled alone on vacations, mostly to Disney. For the most part though, I travel with friends and/or family. This next trip I'm meeting up with lots of friends to have fun with the mouse.

 

[dismom9761]

It is usually with either my family or his.

 

[Dan Murphy]

My Disney trips, other than 2, have been solo, but rarely ever alone down there, LOL. All other trips are either family (now mostly just Marie and I) or several trips a year with a large group of VERY good friends (who themselves are all extended family) whom we consider family.

 

[ilovepcot]

We don't have any family liberated enough to vacation with us! We do have a couple that are our best friends (DH has known them both since early childhood) that we adore vacationing with! They've moved to another state and we try to meet them every year or two at a place we all 4 enjoy. We have lots of fun in Atlanta, Savannah and Charleston because we all enjoy old homes, B&B's, eating and SHOPPING!!!!

 

[LaLa]

We prefer going alone (just our immediate family) but we usually seem to end up going with more people than we intend to.

For the last 6 years, we have always taken a couple of beach vacations a year and for the last few years, MIL and her DH have come along. Year after year, we plan on going to DW alone (just the 4 of us) and SOMEHOW we end up going with at least one more family, sometimes more. It starts by us telling friends/extended family we are planning on going to DW and that always gets the obligatory "Well, I would love to go if I am INVITED???"

Don't get me wrong, it can be a lot of fun to have that extra family along. I have someone to hit the outlet malls with when we go with MIL, which we both love, but sometimes I just want to make those vacation memories for OUR little family.

I told DH next time we're not telling anyone until after we have left.

 

[NMAmy]

It's usually just DH, DD, and I and sometimes dd brings a friend along.

However, if I ever win the lottery or come into a sizeable windfall, I'm taking my niece and her family, my nephew and his wife, and my sister along with us to WDW. My niece would love to go but she just can't afford it with two little ones and 9 yo.

I used to take my niece and nephew to Cedar Point with us all the time when they were young. It was so funny when I moved back to Michigan and DH and I took dd and a friend to Cedar Point. My niece was FURIOUS with me for not inviting her. I pointed out that at the time of our trip, she was 9 months pregnant and due to deliver ANY DAY--I didn't think she'd be interested. Plus the fact that she was 26, had her own car, and access to a map to find her way--if the urge struck her, she really COULD go with her husband.

We did invite her last year even though she was very pregnant AGAIN. She decided she should sit it out till this summer.

 

[slo]

I voted for 50/50

The first part of our trip is always meeting my in-laws at their Clearwater Condo on the Gulf, and we stay with them for a couple of days. Then we leave them and go to WDW for a week.