What is your preferred vacation length?

[tvguy]

Never been away from home on vacation more than 10 days. Hoping to expand on that in retirement. 10 days was fine, issue was, never had more than 4 weeks vacation when I was working. We preferred if possible to take a week of vacation every 3 months to get a break......as my wife put it......wo we did not "kill someone at work".

 

[China Expat]

One month...three months if in Asia

 

[Robbie Cottam]

After nine days I miss my dogs
Disney hasn't moved yet, and I know I’ll be back soon

 

[easyas123]

From the US.

Nine days has been my max for two reasons. One, I don’t like being out of the office any longer than that and two, taking smaller trips allows me to go more often during a given year.

Maybe if I retire I’ll want to travel longer. I love it and have never tired of traveling itself.

Same here, at this point in life we prefer not to be out of the office any longer.

One thing we ALWAYS try to do is pad our trip with at least a extra day or two once we get home to decompress/shake off jet lag and the tiredness of travel before heading back to the office.

 

[pens4821]

It depends where we go, but I find that 7 nights away from home is about perfect for me. It always sounds nice to be away longer, but by the end I’m usually ready to get back home.

We take trips every year or so to the beach and to family/sightsee in colorado. While I love both, after a week I’m ready to be home. Sometimes we will stretch them out a couple more nights, and by the end I’m just ready to be back home.

Our Disney trips turn into 11 nights/12 days just because of the way my week works. I’m off wed/thur but for my nephews school break purposes we go sat/sat. So I just take Friday off, and the Sunday (we drive) the week after. It’s really too long, but just the way my schedule works there is no better way to do it. One nice thing is we take our time going down, get there Thursday late afternoon and have Friday and Saturday to relax a little before we start our 6 days of non stop parks.

While trips like those are great for a week, I actually love when we do little 2/3 night closer getaways. It’s a nice refresh, but isn’t usually that expensive and don’t have to miss much work. I get paid for two weeks of vacation but take four usually plus another couple days.

 

[disneychrista]

For me about 3 day is the most I can enjoy in once stretch. Mostly because I travel alone and after about 3 days I get lonely being the only single person in a room full of couples/groups.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

I was thinking about 5 days.

 

[jo-jo]

In life with young kids, we did trips to grandparents every other year and then every year and a couple of disney trips.

Now it's only WDW (although that might be over) We have spent two weeks at disney a few times, these last couple of years.

I would love to be one of those with few thousand points and stay for a few months. One story I heard and could easily do , is a couple did a week one bedroom at SSR, then a week at a studio at BLT, and repeat, changing resorts. When in a one bedroom, get groceries, cook in room, do laundry, watch movies, read , etc. Studio week, eat out more, do parks more.

Now my DH would say after the first two weeks, hope you wont' be lonely when I go back home..

 

[slo]

For me it’s not what we prefer, but what we can do.
My DH and I can’t be away from our job for more than a week. I guess if we planned a once in a lifetime 2 week trip, then our works would understand, but for the normal average trip - 1 week.

 

[rangerxenos]

About a week and a half is the sweet spot for me.

 

[TiggerTrigger]

So much hinges on the type of vacation and the destination.

- Disney/Uni: By about day 6, we're all pretty much ready to go home.
- Cruise: Somewhere between day 5 and day 6 I start feeling trapped on the ship.
- Vegas/New Orleans: No more than 3 nights.
- National Parks/Nature (singular park/area): 1-1.5 weeks
- National Parks/Nature (road trip/many parks and areas): 2-2.5 weeks
- City exploration (ex. NYC, DC, etc.): usually around 5 days.
- Europe/Foreign (aside from Mexico or the islands): 1.5-2 weeks
- Beach/Islands/Mexico: Hard to say as I'm not a beach person and am usually ready to leave by day 2
- Ski trip: 3 nights max (love the mountains, but I'm the only one that doesn't ski and I get bored after a few days).
- Camping: 2 nights is usually my max before I get tired of tent living, but I can last closer to a week in a motorhome.

 

[jimmymc]

It depends, but 8-10 days for US/Canada, 17-21 days for overseas is a good amount. I can travel for a long time if I plan things correctly, like renting apartments with kitchens and laundry towards the middle and end of the trip.

For Orlando specifically, I like 2-3 days at Universal then 5-6 days at Disney.

 

[Karin1984]

From Europe. 10-12 days. Long enough to appreciate everything. Much longer and you will get into a routine which you then have to halt

As a kid we did 3-4 week vacations in France or the UK every summer, but after a week or 2, I just want to go back to my own bed.
I much preferred the week long vacations we did in Spring or Autumn.

 

[KathmanduKat]

10 days, for sure. at least.

 

[lifesavacation]

My husband retires in 2025 and I’d love to book an open ended trip in South East Asia. We stay for as long as we want and go where the wind takes us. The very thought gives him anxiety. I’m definitely a nomad at heart. Him, not so much. I think it’s going to very hard for him to deprogram from this feeling of have to get back for work.

 

[lifesavacation]

For me about 3 day is the most I can enjoy in once stretch. Mostly because I travel alone and after about 3 days I get lonely being the only single person in a room full of couples/groups.

I travel solo about twice a month for work. You might want to stay in hotels marketed towards business travelers. I usually hit the hotel bar for dinner and drinks in the evening and it’s mostly single travelers. Also, coffee cafes are a good place to work or hangout for singles.

 

[disykat]

I've taken a few long vacations over the years of three to five weeks. We plan to take more now that we're retired. The key is to take a vacation from your vacation, either a total change of scenery or a rest break. We also build in a few "laundry days" where we chill at a laundry mat (or hotel laundry) and read, etc. for a few hours while we get the laundry done and sort of regroup.

Last year we did a three week trip where we did lots of National Parks and hiking. We both agreed we were ready to be done and if we had stayed out longer we would have needed to do something totally different (like a city day) to break it up before continuing.

 

[amylevan]

We do 2 weeks in our RV on the outer banks every summer, and if we could stay longer, I would. When we retire, I’d like to stay a month.

We just did 12 days in Glacier/Yellowstone/Grand Teton and I wasn’t ready to come home. We hope to revisit in retirement in our RV for an extended time. Maybe spend a summer hitting national parks?

WDW in our RV: 13 nights was our max, and it was good, although I don’t think I would have wanted to stay any longer. WDW in a hotel: 8 nights and I’m done.

 

[disney-inspired]

For WDW I found 9 days too much but it could have been our pace.

My normal vacations are 7-10 days.

 

[tguz]

Wondering what everyone's ideal vacation length is?

Maybe also include your citizenship.

My husband tends to max out after 10-12 days and starts to want to get home. So we rarely vacation longer than 14 days. I would love to take an extended trip for 30 days or more. I'm in the US.

Usually 10 days. However, we have a plan for a month long roadtrip when we retire which will take us from coast to coast, just to say we did it.