What's your vacation style?

A mix. Over the course of our 25 year marriage we’ve been to Disney world 7(?) times, Gatlinburg far more than that and random other places sprinkled in. Growing up my family traveled far and wide every couple years (with a camper/motor home) where as dhs family spent all their vacations visiting family in TN. I think bc of that we view vacations differently….I’m more of the “rest when you’re dead” type, where as he prefers a relaxing vacation. I prefer sun & sand while he prefers mountains. It’s a challenge. At the moment we’re on an adults only Disney trip….I’m at the pool and he’s taking a short nap in the room. Bottom line….our motto for vacations is one word….balance (or compromise, I guess 😆)

When DS was in school we'd go to Hawaii often and 5-6 days up in Yosemite each summer. A few days in Carmel several times a year.

Now that we're mostly retired our trips have all been to different countries in Europe. 14-19 days.

We go to Carmel when DH's old golf buddies go down to play golf.

Disney and family trips get repeated, but otherwise we try to do different things. My parents moved to Orlando area in 2005, so at least we get to combine WDW / Family, but we also try to visit Disneyland every few years. We have bucket lists to visit all the states and national parks. I'd do all the countries too, if I had my way and unlimited funds. However, for geopolitical reasons there will be several countries we won't travel to. So we can't do too much repeating, because there are so many places to go!

I have always had wanderlust, and get unsettled when we don't have trips planned. So pandemic was hard! Although, even then we road tripped to the in-laws, and as soon as we were vaxxed, I was on the plane again to my Dad's. This year I've been to my Dad's, Washington DC, and we're going to Paris in December. Next year, we already have plans to go to Japan (originally scheduled for Oct 2020), and Kauai.

what we actually do? or what I would prefer to do? because it's not the same.

What we actually do is every few years we take a road trip - typically to visit family. Sometimes we've been able to spread out the driving and stop along the way at various places of interest, other times we drive way too long for a day or two.

What I would like to do? I like to fly or take the train, I don't really care for road trips. I like to do stuff on vacation - hike, go to museum/historic places, go to the zoo or botanical gardens - but also to wander around a place, sit and have a drink in an urban park or cafe, wander around a historical or scenic area -I don't want every minute go-go-go or overplanned but I'm not a sit on the beach/by the pool and relax sort.

There are places we tend to go back to (typically because of family) but I also like discovering new places.

The bigger issue is that DH and I aren't very compatible vacationers -he doesn't like to fly and likes to have a car at our destintion. He likes to visit Navy ship museums, military history museums, battlefields etc... and very slowly read every single word on every single sign. I don't mind visiting them but an hour or so is plenty for me to see and read everything and a whole day there is mindnumbing.

A mix. Our home from home, family favourite, multi generational trip, quick week away (or even a long weekend on our own sometimes) over the last 30+ years is an area of the Algarve, Portugal. We know it very well, we’re comfortable the instant we’re there etc. etc

Mixed in with that are city breaks (Milan, Venice etc) and some bigger trips to Canada, Singapore, Malta, St Vincent/Grenadines.

There’s a lot of appeal to both. Seeing other countries broadens our horizons and is always wonderful and exciting and trips to somewhere very familiar and reliable are also very appealing 😊

Somewhere different every trip. There's too much to see in the world to waste time on repeat visits! I prefer trips to places that have things to do such as museums and historical sights. Good walkability is a plus.  Most trips are flying.  Now ff it is a road trip in the US, DH will drive and pick me up at the airport of our destination.  

I like to visit some place new every time EXCEPT we used to go camping on our anniversary every year at Devil's Lake WI and later, Assateague Island MD.
Now we have taken to visiting Florida every year for our January bdays, though we choose a different part each time.

We do various assorted things - we've gone back to some places we like, but also like going to new places. The only hard and fast rule is vacation is VACATION. For everyone. It's not "mom does everything she does at home but closer to the beach."

and that would be why we don't go camping or to the beach on 'vacation'

A mix. Every other year we go to Hawaii. Then on the alternating year we go someplace new. We have smaller random trips to see family/friends mixed in every year too.

Honestly, it just depends.  I love the water, so a beach or a lake is where I want to go.  

I'd go back to Puerto Rico in a second

We are road trippers for sure. I remember once, when my (undiagnosed) bipolar issues were really coming into play we went to a concert with friends locally (*NSYNC) and had an absolute blast. He looked at me and told me to pick anywhere else on the tour and we’d go see them again, because I hadn’t smiled like that in a long time. I chose Florida because we could attend 2 concerts, and I asked about flying but he wanted to drive because we could talk and listen to music together and we always had such a fun time traveling to see our families.

Since then we almost always drive and our vacations typically are planned based on a running/biking/triathlon event and we base a lot of those decisions on where we want to go. They’re normally shorter trips. Other trips are based on concerts, theater, and sporting events we want to attend. We like great restaurants (from fine dining and mom and pop places), decent to nice hotels, museums and tours. Once the race is chosen we start researching what else is going on in the area and where to eat! Planners for sure, but have learned to leave time to relax. 

At least once a year we meet up with a lot of his family and go camping. I guess they could be considered vacations, but definitely not very relaxing a lot of the time! And we travel to see family a lot, we usually stay with his parents.

If we could afford to we’d love to travel more extensively and do a combination of flying and long road trips. Everywhere. We definitely like to go back to favorite spots, there is so much we don’t get to do on our first visit, new places pop up, and we like to revisit favorites.

eta: Sun is bad, we prefer cooler climates, even honeymooned on Tahoe to go skiing. Unfortunately, not a lot of his race events are in the winter. 

We are repeaters, with somewhere else on occasion.  But we didn't travel much until ten years ago (NO money). We have done Hilton Head a bunch, Disney World four times, Mexico (all inclusive) twice and Las Vegas (many times).  Italy once. 

We're probably done with Disney now (or at least for a while) and twice to the all inclusive was one too many times for us.  We LOVE Las Vegas and will be back, same with Hilton Head (just less often now). We hope to go back to Italy and other places overseas.

Some people do that because they enjoy being recognized & fussed over.