How do you vacation?

We are really poor planners, very poor planners,so vacationing isn’t much fun.

And my husband doesn’t care enough to help. And all he wants is a good motel and cable.

It depends. Local holidays in new Zealand, I'd either be visiting friends and staying with them or staying somewhere like a motel so we'd do a mixture of cooking and eating out. Most recent overseas travel has again been to see friends (in the US and Canada) and family in the UK and Europe so it would mostly be staying with people but maybe a week or two in a hotel or apartment.

I really like to be outdoors. My favorite vacations are camping in new places, or visiting ones that are special to us. I don't do any of the cooking, he does all that (men, open fire, etc lol).

We also like to explore little places nearby so we don't eat just camping food, though that would be ok with me. I also have a weird thing for buying souvenir hoodies or pajama pants with the location printed on them. I like the hunt, and I spend most of my life in casual wear.

I don't enjoy spending money on hotels and I would rather be in a tent to be honest. Although I'm planning to actually stay in a hotel for my anniversary this year--I'd rather be outside on a beach or in a forest!

When we travel as a family, I prefer either an AI in Mexico or a cruise, so DS17 can run around and do whatever he wants.

When it's just the 2 of us, our travel typically revolves around SOs love of fly fishing or Formula 1. Fortunately, both of those things are in great places. He prefers salt water fishing, so we usually go Mexico, Central, and South America. I have a pretty stressful job, so I don't want to lift a finger while I'm on vacation. Last year, we went to a private island near Roatan where we had someone cook for us everyday. It was pure heaven.

When we visit SOs parents for Christmas, we'll usually take the next week to drive to New Mexico for skiing. I'm good for a day or two of skiing though, and then I'm done. We spend the rest of the time touring around finding something good to eat!

DS goes with his dad every year after Christmas for a big snowboarding trip.

Trying to think of a beach I've been on that isn't raked (US or otherwise) whether it is an all-inclusive or not.  Gotta get all that sea weed off of the beach so people will swim in the water.  

My DD went to school on Cape Cod and since then, we like to go back every Summer. We stop and get some breakfast foods and snacks along with the other things needed for the beach house. We will usually have breakfast and then go out for a late lunch/early dinner. If we are spending the day at the beach, we will pack a lunch and snacks. We stop for ice cream a lot.

My DD loves Disney and we usually go to Disneyland once a year as well. She knows that I am good for 2 meals a day and all the water you can drink. We usually have a bigger breakfast than normal and then a late lunch/early dinner. Any snacks are on the individual. I load a gift card with $20 a day and give it to the individual. When it is gone, it is gone.

We also travel to a different city each year. We have done Washington DC, Seattle, San Diego, San Francisco, Denver, New York, etc. Again, we like to have breakfast in our room so we can spend more trying different restaurants. We take snack foods with us or will stop to get some.

I am a no cook person and with the exception of beach clothes/towels, a no laundry person. However, I will admit that this last Summer I did our laundry the last evening because it was raining and it was wonderful to arrive home without a mountain of laundry.

It really varies. Dh grew up spending every single vacation going to his grandparents house in Knoxville, where I grew up traveling around the country in an RV for a couple weeks each summer.

We still go to TN about 4 out of every 5 years but we don't stay with his family, instead we get either a hotel or a cabin in Gatlinburg. Regardless if we have a kitchen or not I don't cook (let's be real, I barely cook at home, I'm not doing it on vacation) we prefer to explore the local restaurants (not chains if we can help it). We've gone to Disney World 4 times (about every 4 years) and we get the Deluxe Dining plan when we do (dh loves the food and is willing to tolerate the people/craziness for it; I'm willing to tolerate being stuffed to get the craziness ), we stay onsite and go all out. We've done beach vacations, that's where we get the closest to cooking......snacks and cold cut sandwiches for lunch. I'd love to do a cruise but dh has less than zero interest

So growing up we always went to Yosemite for the 4th of July for 4-6 days. And then went on a big vacation every couple of years - Europe, Hawaii. Since we didn't go every year it was a vacation, no cooking, all eating out. So that is what I was used to.

DH's family went on 1-2 vacations a year, always at timeshares, cooking all but maybe one meal on the trip. They are the people that pack lunch to take to the ski lodge when skiing. 10

Now every other year we go to Cabo with his family - 18 of us (8 adults, 10 kids). We are there for 17 days and maybe eat out 3-4 meals. Drives me insane. With that many people someone is at the grocery store every day and cooking for 18 people in a house that isn't yours isn't fun. And then we do 1-4 weeks in Colorado with dh's family too. Either staying at one of his sisters or at the family's mountain house. Cooking and cleaning with all of that.

Dh has learned that I need at least a week of my type of vacation a year to balance the time with his family. We have 4 little kids, so we have been doing Disneyland a bunch. We are doing WDW for the first time in April and already have started the process to also book Feb 2020.

Right now I am trying to plan a 50th anniversary trip for his parents and all the families in August 2020. We have talked about it numerous times over the last couple of years. They took all of us to an all-inclusive in Hawaii for their 40th, so we (dh and I) feel like it is on the kids this time to take them somewhere. Plus they pick up a good bit of the tab in Cabo too. But his sisters are both claiming they are broke and don't think they can even pay for their families, let alone chipping in for his parents. But they are both doing massive, expensive kitchen remodels right now. So we'll probably be picking up most of the tab, but that means we (I) get to pick where we go! We will probably also stay an extra week, cause it will be our 15 anniversary and I'm going to need a week to recover from the time with his family!

For us it’s a mix of things. We mostly go to our lake cabin on the weekends spring through fall but we occasionally will go on what I call a “real” vacation every couple years. Sometimes we are able to tag along with friends that have several timeshares for a long weekend, those are usually snowmobiling trips which don’t interest me a whole lot but I go just to get away. I don’t have a problem with doing breakfast or lunch on vacation but I don’t want to get stuck on Still Mom But Away From Home Duty the whole time. That’s BS.

We’re heading off on a real vacation soon which will be an 8 day Disney Cruise in the Caribbean followed by three days going to the Disney parks and staying at a resort on property. This is way more vacation than we typically do and way more money than we usually spend, but DH wanted to do something special because it’s also our 30th anniversary this year so it’s go big or go home. Yes, we will have DD along. But unlike last time, this time she is old enough to go to the kid’s clubs some of the time. We also have friends traveling with us (DD’s adopted grands) which makes it more fun.

Later this year we have a second cruise planned where we’re going to Alaska which was also on both of our bucket lists (seeing Alaska, it just so happened to also be a cruise). After the Alaska cruise we’re planning to stay a couple days with extended family in the Seattle area since that’s where our trip departs from. We’ll already be there and flights from here to Seattle are crazy expensive so we’re making the most of it. Again, taking two big trips in the same year is not something we have ever done.

Since our cabin reno project is going to end up setting us back considerably more than we expected due to the damage our contractor found in December, we probably won’t be taking another real vacation for a long, long, long time. Maybe not ever again. We booked these trips a year ago before we knew what was going to happen with the cabin and they’re already paid for, otherwise if we would have known then what we know now it’s very likely we wouldn’t be going.

DH has traveled internationally when he was younger and I have no real desire to go overseas. But I do want to check off all 50 states before I kick the bucket.

Food wise:
Whether driving or flying, I like eating out or picking up take out and bringing it back to where I am staying. I am a picky eater, and want what I want. I don't mind driving to go get it.

I like to pick up muffins for the morning. A small package of tea bags and a small box of sugar, for my hot tea.

I am not a fan of microwaved tea, so I will bring my electric tea kettle if driving, or use I will heat the water for tea in the the coffee maker.


Vacation wise:
I do not like a strict itinerary. I don't mind one or two scheduled things, like a show or tour of someplace.
I prefer to have a list of things I would like to do(generally, I will make a list in order of priority) then do things at my own pace. I don't like feeling like I have rush or hurry.

Edited to add:I like a mix of go to new places, as well as return to old favorites. If I didn't care for someplace the first time, I would not re-visit that place.

I love traveling alone. Going at my own pace, seeing what I want to see. Stopping (or going) when I want to. Especially on one day or two day road trips.

     As far as I know the beaches in St. John USVI aren't raked. There is hardly any seaweed in the water. They are naturally gorgeous and since most of the island  (2/3 is National Park) is protected they stay clean-fines for leaving trash etc.  The sand is made from the jaws of parrot fish and there is coral under the water instead of a lot of seaweed or sea grass. I guess it depends on where the beaches are and what is under the water. 

Cruise, all inclusive or city stay and eat out.

This princess doesnt camp. Cooking and cleaning are not a vacation to me.

We don't have one single type of vacation we do - though in general we do active, exploring vacations and not sit on the beach vacations.

The only places we go to year after year are places that are only a few hours away - we go to Yosemite and Mendocino at least a few times per year. We also go to Southern California probably once per year. Other than that we do a couple 'new' vacations each year.

In general:
- Not a big fan of all inclusives and big resorts or cruises
- Prefer going places where we can walk a lot, hike a lot or otherwise explore whether it's a city or national park
- Need to have really good, regional food
- Not so into museums, much prefer to be outside exploring
- We often prioritize visiting national parks
- We are a family of 5 so we usually stay in houses/condos
- Cooking: I like to have a kitchen so we can fix our own breakfast and lunch but we usually eat out at least a meal a day
- Right now we are in college mode (a highschool Junior and Senior) so we have been having fun going all over the US looking at schools and exploring new cities.
- My DH turns 50 this summer and we plan to basically spend the summer traveling -- which I will also do when I turn 50....

We typically rent a house on an Atlantic coast beach somewhere for a week. We are on the beach all day, return and shower, and go out to eat. Except for minimal food prep, and even though I've come to enjoy cooking, I do not believe a vacation and cooking are compatible.   This seems to be the kind of vacation that DH and I are on the same page about, but DS finds more than a couple of hours a little tedious. The past few years, we've focused on getting a house close enough to the beach that he can walk back when he gets bored.

Last summer, we did a west coast trip with DS since it was our last year together before he went away to school. It was a nearly two-week trip. I loved parts of it but I think it was too much togetherness for 3 introverts, and it made me realize how much the pain from my chronic hip bursitis really impacts my enjoyment of walking around and sightseeing.