What’s your style of vacation?

[1214mom]

I got this idea from the Viking riverboat thread, so I hope they don’t mind. People definitely have different ideas about what makes a vacation fun.

We tend to like active vacations but not extreme sports. We like to hike, bike, kayak, and walk.
If we do a beach vacation, we generally walk miles on the beach, but we also enjoy reading and hanging out listening to the waves while enjoying adult beverages. Mountains and lakes also make us happy (Canadian Rockies anyone?)
We want to stay in accommodations that are fairly nice, and prefer a nice view, but they don’t have to be 5 star, and for the right price we will stay in places we might not otherwise. Generally, camping would not be considered.
We could do a riverboat cruise, where there are lots of active activities to choose from each day, and I think we’d like a Rick Steve’s type of vacation.
Spending hours a day on a bus driving around “seeing” the sites would be our own version of hell.

[momofboiler1]

We would travel well together @1214mom!

We also like active vacations - hiking, kayaking, walking, horseback riding, zip lining, etc… Also love old architecture, castles, and wining and dining ; ).

Our favorite geography is mountains on the coast, and even better if there is a big city with fine dining to call home base.

Ideal accommodations - an old castle hotel with a view and a fine dining restaurant on site but we are usually about a central location where we can walk to dinner and not have to get into a car.

Vacation for me is about exploring and seeing as much as possible. If I want to sit on the beach and relax, I’ll stay home ; )

We have done two cruises and they were OK because we were mostly able to go exploring on our own when we got into port. Overall though, we both decided that we want to hold cruising for when we are older and maybe have mobility issues. Right now we want to take advantage of being as active as possible. Plus I hate crowds and tend to want to avoid super touristy sites.

[FallGirl]

I enjoy some physical activity - walking, kayaking,hiking but unfortunately H does not. We both enjoy touring (I prefer walking, he prefers a bus).

We recently went on our first cruise (ocean cruise). It was fun to see different cities/areas, the group of friends we were with was great and it was nice not to have to unpack then pack up to change hotels. But it was not really our jam. Not enough time in each city, eating dinner on the ship every night was not how we like to experience a different place. In addition, I got seasick! No more ocean cruises for me. We are considering a possible river cruise.

I also recently traveled to Stockholm and Berlin with S. On a nine day trip we stayed in 3 different hotels (one budget hotel that was actually very good for the price, one mid level and one splurge). The splurge hotel was 100% worth it, hands down my favorite hotel of all time, and I have stayed in a lot of places. We had a few things planned in each city (thanks to S) but lots of free time to walk and explore. Visited museums, ate in local restaurants, did a food tour in Berlin (highly recommend food tours, we have done them in several cities), did winter kayaking in Sweden. This was the way I prefer to travel.

[cam2932]

We tend to gravitate towards city breaks. We prefer to leave our car behind and love cities where we can do a lot of walking or that have good subway/train access and nice hotels and good restaurants are things we all value as a family. Cities with lots of history, good museums, and sightseeing where we can all learn something are what we usually look for.

We do change it up every now and then to get out in nature more–we love hiking in a good state park, and spend a week in the Lake District in the UK every few years. Lots of walking opportunities seems to the main priority wherever we go.

[ClassicMom98]

It’s probably easier to say what I don’t like…

Sitting on a beach/lake or anywhere in 1 spot for hours on end. We like beach vacations where we sit and play in the sand/waves for 2-4 hours, then clean up and do other stuff elsewhere. But all day, every day for a week? No.

Social vacations. I don’t care to interact with other people, other than my little family. H is better at it than me, but he doesn’t care for it either. Bus tours are OK for a day trip.

Wineries - We are not into this at all, though I know it’s popular for many.

Moving away from that…

Big Cruise ships - We did one short Carnival cruise to check off the box. We enjoyed it OK, especially since we only had 1 day at sea. The other days at the ports were nice. We don’t see us being big cruise people, but they are alright.

River cruises - We have never done one, but I could see us enjoying them. My parents call them floating hotels. They’ve done dozens all over the world. They seem to be good if you are new to traveling, or don’t speak the language, or just want to see a lot of different places, but want it to be easier than figuring it for yourself.

Bike/hike vacations - we have never done this either. I would like to do one, hiking more than biking, but they are a hard NO from H. For him, 2-4 hours of hiking 1-2 days is OK, not more. The kids don’t want to bike either. They would hike with me. Maybe someday the kids and I will do one.

So what we actually do…

I like to go to new places and see new things - cities, towns, nature, doesn’t matter. We like to be active seeing a mixture landscapes, museums, attractions. I try to schedule 1-2 activities a day, scheduling them so everybody has at least something they are really looking forward to, but nothing nobody HATES. Personally, I love anything that involves climbing - mountains, towers, skyscrapers, etc. I like to see the world from high up. But more than that, I love watching my kids experience and enjoy doing new things. I want everyone else to be happy and have a good time.

[abasket]

Great thread!

I think a contributing factor (among others like $$ or time available) is where you currently live. People who have a beach outside their door 50 weeks of the year might not need a beach on vacation!

I definitely equate vacation with warm weather. And that “perfect” vacation is going to be an AIRBNB (not hotel) with water visible and beach very nearby if not on the property, good local small town with shops and restaurants to frequent, a stellar ice cream shoppe, bonus if there is local hiking with maybe a one day visit to a bigger city within easy driving distance.

I can like a big city visit (NYC, Chicago) for a couple of days but I’ll choose a beach vacation over big city if I have to make a choice. To be honest, I don’t enjoy history and one museum is enough - I’d rather be an outside explorer.

That said, a beach vacation for me/us would not be lounging for hours in a beach chair. I would lounge, but I also like to swim in the water, walk the beach for hours and find treasures, do a daily excursion to town, be outside as much as possible.

H is NOT a traveler. He will enjoy our one family trip annually, but I partner with my kids for other excursions.

[leftrightleft]

DH and I like to mix things up- a week at a beach with lots of time to read and walk along with some golf/tennis and biking. And, we love cities with all they have to offer culturally- museums, dining, etc.

In January we did a beach week with the whole family and next month just he and I are headed to Europe for 2 weeks. We’re staying in hotels as it’s just the two of us- when we travel with the family we rent a house or condos.

We have done several 3 night/4 day trips in the last few years and I love those- a quick get away recharges me without too much planning.

I also have a group of girlfriends that I have traveled with for many years- usually one long weekend a year. I love traveling with our immediate family and just the two of us. Once in awhile we’ll travel with friends but it has to be a short trip.

[bjscheel]

Definitely active.

We do Disney World every other year, hardcore up at 5:30 am for the front of rope drop. Not relaxing at all but fun!

Other years we’ve done National Parks or similar outdoorsy. We don’t like cities and DH doesn’t want to drive in them. One reason we do Disney so often is we don’t have to drive at all.

We also do family church camp every year.

[gpo613]

Now that the kids are becoming grown and becoming less of a factor in a vacation. We might not ever go on a big family vacation again. Just have to see how the kids land.

My wife and I really want to take an old fashion road trip. Start driving in a direction without much of a plan. Maybe just a vague plan to see one place. But along the way we want to stop and see the World Largest of whatever we come upon. Whether it is a ball of twine or a belt buckle. My wife is a sucker for those things.

Really we just want a slow vacation. We have always had time constraints and to a degree money so we always tried to jam as much as we could into vacations. So much so that often we felt like we needed a vacation from our vacation.

[sbinaz]

Disneyland and Disney World. We often will throw in a nearby non-Disney attraction to visit, like Cape Canaveral in FL or the California Science Center in LA. We rope drop…get there before park opening, take afternoon break, go back late afternoon and stay until park close.

Definitely prefer hotels over Airbnb/VRBO. Hate road trips because my husband spends a couple of hr each day in the car on work conference calls, so none of the rest of us can actually talk. AND he talks very loudly. If he would actually not talk on the phone for work on his days off, the road trip would be totally fine.

[SouthYankie]

We do active vacations. Hiking and walking are featured most days. Mountains are our favorites but we like cities too, especially those with a history. For hotels etc, location is the most important, otherwise clean & simple is the rule.

We have done a couple of cruises but they are not our kind of vacation.

Multiday hiking treks are fun, but we don’t like carrying everything, so we do lodge/hut to lodge/hut or rent tents etc. For tent camping about 4 days is our maximum.

[maya54]

Vacations are tough for me. One thing I especially loathe is staying in a hotel room. Any hotel room. Especially modern ones with “ barn door” bathrooms. I’m very sensitive to noise when sleeping and my husband is sensitive to light. Sigh. Also I’m very particular about my bedding. As you can see I’m a super fun traveler! I’m not interested at all in an “ active” vacation. But I have no interest in sitting on a beach either. The best vacation fir me is a city one. A museum or tour ( one per day only please) lots of walking and great meals. If it weren’t for the need to stay at a hotel I’d do it more ( Airbnb’s seem very hard to find in great locations in most of the cities I’ve looked into them at….and one thing I especially loathe is trying to “ commute” on vacation. ) But the fact is that I’ve never gone on any vacation anywhere where I’m not happiest the moment my foot goes over the threshold at my house. I’m a homebody.

[conmama]

I loved beach vacations when my sons were little. I liked them when they were thru high school as long as we had a group. I think part of it I was so tired from working and raising kids, I enjoyed just not moving on a chaise lounge, talking, reading, and occasionally walking on the beach.

Now, I don’t like beach vacations. I enjoy being by a beach where I can relax a couple hours after touring all day.

I hate exercise to begin with, so won’t do a vacation where physical activity is planned for and involved unless it’s walking tours. I love those. Fun restaurants, interesting history, shows, I guess more little to big city.

[mathmom]

When my kids were little on beach vacations I’d abandon the kid to their Dad and go do some plein-air painting. I’d also lobby to go to Rehobeth the same week as their big outdoor art show. We go to Cape Cod for about a week most summers as we have a shack there. We do a little kayaking, a lot of easy hiking, go to the galleries. I can’t lie around in the sun as I am prone to skin cancer.

For the rest I like to be active - museums, nature, cities, countryside I like them all. We don’t really do backpacking any more, but I am hoping to try one of those walks in Europe where someone else takes care of the bags and you do the walking.

No cruises as dh gets seasick.

We tend to stay in less fancy hotels so we can afford to eat at least one really fancy meal.

[gouf78]

When we first moved to our current area we took this type trip. Got in the car and just drove the coast and stopped at every little tourist place to check it out. So much fun!

[shawbridge]

We have a several modes of vacation:

1. Active outdoor. We go hiking every year in the Canadian Rockies. Lake O’Hara and Banff/Canmore areas. We have taken many bike trips, though we are probably moving up the scale from entirely self-organized to ones where someone takes your bags from place to place. ShawWife loves kayaking but now that we live on a river, there is probably no need for kayaking on vacation.

2. Art Travel (in Italy with our friend the Italian guru) and Art tourism generally and Art Inspiration. Art, meals, hiking. Guides to see sites. I have been to more churches in Italy than most Catholics and I’m Jewish but that is where a lot of art is. In Barcelona, we see architecture. Trip to Giulin and Longsheng definitely impacted ShawWife’s paintings.

3. Workation. Both ShawWife and I can work anywhere. I need broadband and electrical power (and probably AC if it is hot). ShawWife needs a place to paint (and enough time to make it worthwhile shlepping the stuff). With ShawWife’s sister, we rebuilt her family’s cottage on a lake in the Laurentians. We’ll do a workation there for a month this summer.

4. Opportunistic. I’m giving a talk in Nairobi and ShawWife will join me and we’ll do a safari thing. I was doing some work in Singapore and ShawWife met me and we spent 3 weeks in Vietnam (absolutely loved it), Thailand (just one island, but very relaxing) and Cambodia (not nearly as nice). Got incredibly cheap tickets to Japan at one point and took the family for two weeks.

[Lindagaf]

We’ve been to so many places. It’s hard to find new places to go that don’t require taking at least two weeks off of work. Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia are all high on the list.

I love swimming and snorkeling, but a strictly beach holiday is my idea of a bad time. Happy to go to the beach for a couple of days, but need places to explore. Mexico along the Riviera Maya is great for this.

We are interested in culture and nature, but I’m not into day long hikes. (I will make an exception for Peru.) Rivers and oceans are always nice. History and a very different culture are great. Fancy palaces in cities are a bonus. Thailand was fantastic in all these aspects.

Landscapes, culture, something very different to what we see at home. Morocco offers that. Loved it. There is nowhere on earth like Fez. The Sahara is amazing.

Good food, street performers, culture, historic sights, pubs/bars, museums, maybe a play or performance of some sort at night. Honestly, the best combo of all that was our trip to Mexico City last year. Fantastic.

I’m currently planning a possible lat minute trip to Israel and Jordan. Jordan sounds amazing! Probably going to give the Gulf a miss. But I’m interested in floating in the Dead Sea and seeing Petra and Wadi Rum.

In short, we prefer a bit of everything. Pretty general, but keeps things interesting.

[beebee3]

I’m the obsessive researcher for all our trips. I want to have a fairly good idea of the ‘lay of the land’ before we go so that in the actual moments of our trip I can relax and take in the experiences without worrying about what may or may not be ‘next’. For example, if I know we are planning a museum day, I will research the area restaurants so that we can have good choices and not get stuck at a terrible, touristy place with mediocre food. We might not make reservations, but I’ll know several options in advance. And I’ll know if it makes more sense to leave the area to find something good to eat instead.

We don’t buy a lot on vacations but we do care quite a bit about having good meals so there’s quite a bit of research into restaurants, pubs, local shops, etc before we go. We are adventurous eaters and like trying new things. I loath crowds and lines so will do quite a bit of research on how to avoid crowds and alternate planning. For museums and such, I will always go for advance ticket purchasing so that we don’t need to stand in line.

We like to be at least moderately active most of our vacations; outdoors walking/biking part of every day. No strong preference between cities versus beaches - we like both. I’m not a huge fan of mountain vacations, vertigo isn’t fun but everyone else loves them so they do those trips without me.

I do like to have at least one meal planned in advance each day and maybe one activity but we like to leave possibilities open so do not over schedule our days.

For accommodation, I’m a bit of a princess. We do ‘glamping’ when doing camping vacations. I will always choose location over size of the room in hotels, and the level of finishes needs to be good. Usually will not pay for a view from a hotel room, I’m not planning on spending that much time in the room to make paying for a view worth it.

@Lindagaf We are trying to plan a trip to Jordan as well. We had looked at this spring break but unfortunately it coincided with the beginning of Ramadan and I didn’t want to spend 10 days in Jordan during Ramadan. Trying to figure out where to eat during the day when everyone else is fasting wasn’t my idea of a good time, and it also felt vaguely disrespectful.

[thumper1]

@abasket I like warm weather vacations in the winter…to get away from the cold and snow.

Many of our vacations also involve visiting family and friends. I guess it’s easier to list where we go that we like…San Diego, Phoenix, Cleveland in the spring, Napa. Those have all had repeats.

Would happily return to Cape Town and/or Rwanda.

We aren’t huge international travelers but we liked Brussels and London.

Need to get to Hawaii! That one will probably be the cruise that goes around the islands…

[88jm19]

My dad would often say “variety is the spice of life”. I agree with that sentiment but in moderation.

I’ve lived most of my life in the Chicago area…in my formative years it was in the city; for the last ~25 yrs in a suburb. Instead of downsizing and moving to a warmer climate, we’ve chosen to stay in the community we love and to do extended trips for “spice”.

Twice a year we try to go for an extended trip…one to Hawaii (we recently returned from a month-long stay); one abroad (last yr it was about 3 weeks in London/Paris/Nice).

Hawaii is our wellness trip. We are up by sunrise and then do a few hours of outdoor activity (golf/tennis pickle ball/hike - we’re not sit on a beach people). Midday we like to read and relax on the lanai, followed by more activity in the late afternoon. Occasionally we’ll do something like a whale watching boat trip. This year we were able to plan it so both kids and their significant others stayed with us for awhile. That was a huge bonus.

The second extended trip is usually our exploration trip. We try to visit a new place and often return someplace we enjoyed in order to experience things we missed on previous trips. This combination works for us. A completely new destination is fun and exciting. Returning to places like London and Paris for a part of the 3 weeks abroad decreases a little bit of the ‘stress’ of unfamiliarity, if you know what I mean. On the abroad trips we like food and walking tours, museums, possibly concerts and sporting events. We do lots of walking.

We’ve done two cruises and that’s enough for me. Also I am not a person who likes to rough it. I’m a mosquito magnet! Lol.

I have a friend who does extreme adventures…dehydrated food, a satellite phone and dropped in the wilderness. That is NOT me.