How many days to you go away for?

[Tara2004]

Hi all,

Just wondering how long and how often you go away to the USA for? And how long at WDW (thats the most important one)

Including travelling time, so basically from the time you leave home till the time you get back home. How many days do you take? and how often ? like every 12 months or 18 months etc.

Thanks for your input

 

[becpee]

As long as we can afford

This time we'll be gone for 4 1/2 weeks, and at this rate we're going every 3 years.

 

[Caroline NZ]

Hi,
2009 - 17 days (DLR) kids aged 4&7
2011 - 24 days ( California, including DLR) kids aged 6&9
Future planned trips:
2013 - 30 days (California,Arizona, including DLR) kids will be aged 9&11
After that, it will depend on how long I can get away from work. I am getting 4 weeks off work in one go next year because it will be a special occasion (20ys at the same workplace). But after that I think it will be difficult to get away for more than 3 1/2 weeks at a time).
When we eventually get to WDW, I think it will likely be for around the 3 1/2 week mark.
So at the moment our trips are around 2 yrs apart,but I am hoping that will narrow to 1 1/2 yrs from next year on.

 

[alicia1506]

carlo and i both get around 4 weeks leave each year, but we don't like to use all of this up, so we usually plan our trips to only require about 17 actual work days off, which including weekends means we usually take just over 3 weeks.

2011 trip - nov 6 - nov 23 = 18 days + 3 days recovery (me, carlo, my sister trina)
3 days dlr, 3 days nyc, 5 days universal/wwohp, 5 days vegas

2012 trip - nov 22 - dec 13 = 22 days + 3 days recovery (me & carlo)
8 days/7 night cruise, 12 days dlr/anaheim

2013 trip - sep 7 - sep 25 = 20 days + 4 days recovery (me, carlo, my sister trina & his brother calin)
9 days wdw (including 2 days universal/wwohp), 5 days/4 nights bahamas cruise, 5 days dlr.

 

[Sugarglider]

Hmmm - this year, 2011 and 2009 I just went to WDW - no where else - flew in out direct. Time spent is 12 nights, 14 nights and 9 nights respectively.

Other trips where I have travelled across the US tend to be 3 weeks and then I only had a few nights (say 4) at Disneyland and 5 at WDW.
After tripped around the US in 2010 I am limiting my movement when travelling - there have been too many domestic flights, too much driving etc and now I'd rather just stop and have a decent stay.

 

[Andona]

DH and I both run our own businesses and just can't afford to be away for more than about 3 1/2 weeks at a time. It's not the cost of the trip that kills us it's the lost income while we're not working. We have one holiday a year.

We don't always go to the USA, although so far it's definitely our favourite country to visit

pre 2005 - Aussie holidays and NZ
2005 - West Coast USA
2006 - Aussie holiday ( Tassie)
2007 - UK and Paris, also Hong Kong
2008 - USA
2009 - USA
2010 - Coffs Harbour ( big year!! )
2011 - UK, Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria
2012 - USA

so I guess that averages out at one trip to the USA every 2 years.
My plan is to visit every state eventually - this trip will take us up to 26 states + D.C., still got a long way to go!

Since 2008 only our youngest son has travelled with us, once his brother and sister finished school they didn't want to come away with Mum and Dad anymore ( partly because once they turned 18 I expected them to contribute financially and they preferred to spend the money on trips of their own choosing)

Andona

 

[Tara2004]

thanks for the reply so far everyone. Its starting to give us an idea of what others are doing

 

[princessofthejungle]

We spent 12 Days at WDW last year, after not visiting for 11 years, and even that wasn't long enough!
However, I think the time required really depends on time of year, too. We were there in June, and combined with the heat and the crowds, queue times were quite long!

For Disneyland, we've varied from 3 days to 8 days, and I definitely feel between 5-8 days is a good amount of time! I know there are people who'll recommend 2 or 3 days for both parks, but you could never do everything with that amount of time! We love being able to relax more and re-visit our favourites

 

[Beee]

this year we're away for 17 days (4-5 days at DL, 2-3 days LA, 8 days Hawaii, 2 days travelling), we would have preferred longer but the other half needs to be back at work the day we land - lucky him, we arrive into Auckland at 6am and all going well he'll be on his way to work a couple of hours later and we didn't want DD to miss too much school at the beginning of the trip. We are meeting family in Hawaii so had to go at that time of year even though the timing kind of sucks for the 3 of us, e.g if we went around the July school holidays we could have gone for more like 4 weeks as it is quiet for both of us at work. This is our first long haul holiday, previously we've had short breaks (less than a week) within NZ and up to a month each year in Australia visiting my family for xmas - but often that is just DD and I. We are planning from now on shorter trips to Aus every second year and the alternate years doing bigger longer holidays - e.g 2014 East coast US, 2016 Europe, but maybe they might get bumped a year out if we decide to renovate the kitchen...

 

[australiankaren]

2009- 16 days
2010- 20 days
2011- 24 days
2102- 27 days
2013- 12 day cruise
2014- 35 days

wdw is between 10-12 days (except 2009, 7 days),
we always do a 7 night cruise....

 

[aussietravellers]

Gosh, it really depends on where we are going and what we want to do. Then we work out how long we need at each place.

It can be from a week to 6 weeks. If we are just popping to Hawaii, then it will be maybe 10 nights to two weeks, depending on flights. Singapore we may go for just a week. The US, we have been for two weeks to Anaheim, to 5 weeks going East and West Coast. Or 6 weeks when we have been to Canada, LA, Hawaii.

We used to travel more before DS was at school, would go overseas once or twice a year. Before DS it was the same, once or twice a year. One year I was gone all year. Then for a few years after that I was back to UK & Europe for a month a couple of times a year to visit friends.

Now with DS getting older we haven't gone so much. I used to take him out of school until about year 5, but the last couple of years there is just SO much work, particularly this year that I don't want him missing school. We will wait until December.

Favourite times to travel is End of Nov/Early Dec to mid late December as it's a quite time and cheapish time to travel and we love the Christmas feel in other countries, like the US, Europe and UK. But to Hawaii, our favourite time is Sept/Oct.