There are beautiful places we’ve visited that we would have missed if we weren’t game to camp. I resisted the move to a travel trailer but it’s nice to not be on the ground and to have a toilet available in the night.
My husband and I don’t naturally gravitate to the same type of vacation. We have both come to the conclusion to keep an open mind. Almost every time the one who wasn’t enthusiastic about a spot has a great time. We have an unspoken rule that we alternate picking the location and type of trip.
I don’t consider travel to see family a vacation. We have to travel to see one of our children and we usually stay 4-5 nights. I call those trips going to see my daughter not a vacation.
4 Likes
Best camping trip I was ever on was a cross country trip with two friends as a masters graduation present to myself. We backpacked. Saw tons and really had a fabulous time.
But I was 26 at the time. You couldn’t pay me to do that camping trip now.
3 Likes
My oldest when back in elementary school proudly corrected a fellow student who said he went on vacations to Grandma’s house with Grandma’s house being about half an hour away. He said, “That’s not a vacation! A vacation means spending at least one night away from home and NOT with relatives!”
We heard about it during a parent teacher conference when the teacher asked us what sort of vacations we take. 
FWIW, we never taught our son any such thing. He came up with it on his own. We have, however, used that definition ourselves since. We’ll visit relatives at their place - or we’ll take vacations, sometimes with relatives, but the two aren’t the same.
1 Like
The summer of '77, my BF/college roommate and I took Greyhound from Ann Arbor to Mexicali and spent weeks hitch-hiking up highway 1 to San Francisco with our backpacks staying in campgrounds along the way. It was an adventure for sure, but we were 19 and immortal then. That was enough camping for me for a lifetime.
I agree. But, to me, “vacation” means no kids. If kids come along, it’s a “family trip” and that’s no vacation no matter how perfectly behaved the kids are. Getting away from kids (mine and anyone else’s) is the major point of a vacation. 
4 Likes
We definitely are at opposite ends of the “vacation” spectrum. I love traveling with my kids and have from their young youth to now with them being adults. They’re different experiences, but I love them both.
When H and I travel places on our own my mind is almost always thinking, “I wish the kids could be here - they’d love it.”
Whether I like other people’s kids totally depends upon the kid. Ours share our values (travel related values - food loves, nature loves, etc). Other people’s don’t always. Ours have always been well behaved when traveling (to the point where we’ve gotten kudos from others multiple times). Others aren’t.
1 Like
I know that many of you on cc enjoy warm weather vacations as you live in cold climates. We are fortunate to live in San Diego where it is almost always sunny (except this winter!) and we like to take our big vacations in the winter at this point in our lives.
We are so enjoying all of the snow hitting the Eastern Sierra Mountains this winter. We are headed to ski Mammoth again the week before Easter and just made a second reservation for the third weekend in April to get in some additional spring skiing. It has been a great ski season for us as we skied Mammoth, Revelstoke, Banff Sunshine, Lake Louise, Big Sky and Jackson Hole and have had tons of snow.
Crossing our fingers that next ski season will be like this year as we make plans to head back to ski in Colorado and Utah!
3 Likes
I totally agree. We started taking our girls on international trips when the oldest was three. They were well behaved 99% of the time and it always made the trips better seeing things through their eyes. They also learned so much and gained lots of confidence! I took our girls on a six week volunteer trip in China when they were four and seven (last two weeks was a family tour and my husband joined us). When we returned, my youngest’s preschool teacher told us that she was like a different child: she was quiet and reserved before, but they couldn’t shut her up after she got back because she wanted to tell everyone every little detail of her trip!
One graduated from college in 2021 and the other graduates in May. I’ve been trying to plan a trip this summer with them and their SOs, but it’s not looking like it will work out and my husband and I are really sad thinking that our family vacation time may be over.
1 Like
When my mom passed away she left us money to take everyone on one last really nice trip. We settled on the Trans-Siberian Railroad from Beijing to Moscow, but had to wait for our middle son to graduate from med school. Then Covid hit. We decided to wait a little and just went to a cabin along the St Lawrence that mom loved.
Then the Russian War.
Now everyone is getting more involved with their jobs, etc. It happens with adults who are on completely different tracks.
That trip is likely to never happen (sigh). It’s frustrating to say the least.
Well…unless we are going to visit a kid.
Going to visit my kid is my very favoritest thing to do, but that is a trip to be with my son, not a “vacation.”
6 Likes
My D is an excellent travel companion- we’ve been to NYC for museums, Broadway, shopping…even touristy tea at the Plaza. We followed that up with a fun trip to Paris - she planned the entire thing and we had a wonderful time. Vacations with H are more about the pool, the beach and where are we eating. We did have a trip to Charleston where we visited a lot of historical sites but I think we both like to relax when it’s just us.
2 Likes
My best vacations have been with my kids. We’ve had great memories of going to HKG, Tokyo, China and many cities in Europe. We’ve had mishaps, but they are our sources of “remember when…” the kids even made a picture book of every place we have traveled to.
Now they are grown with their own families, they still continue to have a family vacation with me. Our trip this year is to a beach house outside of Barcelona. D2 is bringing her new SO. She said if he could endure it then he is in.
8 Likes
I also camped cross-country twice (moving to and then back from the opposite coast). Not sure I could that now, as that many days of sleeping on the ground would probably not be fun. But an epic trip for younger me that had never been west of western NY state.
We never really went on vacation when I was a kid, as there was no money for such things. I was not on an airplane until I was an adult. My oldest was on his first plan ride at about 1 year old, to visit West Coast family. At one point, we planned a driving vacation and one of our kids complained that it wasn’t vacation unless we went on an airplane!!
Going to visit family was vacation for us because we combined it with vacation things - sight seeing, hiking, boating and beaching. And we weren’t going to work, which made it a vacation in my eyes!
2 Likes
I grew up camping, as did my husband, and we took our kids many times while younger. We also mixed in some cabin camping (usually in the winter). We loved the nature (preferred more isolated sites). It’s actually hard to go back to tents after cabins! LOL.
Also, in my minimalism stage of life (now) I’m suddenly more adverse to all the fancy camping gear hub accumulated over the years. It’s just too much stuff. I want to carry a back-pack and go somewhere - travel lightly and nimbly.
These have been the most memorable. We dragged our kids everywhere and now they are better travelers than I am for sure. More fun now that they are adults.
1 Like
Yes. We were waiting for our son to turn 21 so he could enjoy cocktail hour with us. We definitely prefer the adult years. 
1 Like
I have now found my new/favorite vacation style. It is one that someone else pays for.
My D23’s roommate’s ex-stepdad(guy stayed in roommate’s life) flew them out to stay a week with him and his girlfriend to SoCal. Those two goofball college kids are living the life this week. Fancy restaurants, Spa Days, Disneyland with VIP Tour. Now they are heading up to Napa for two nights. Basically all paid for.
So my style is one that where someone else picks up the tab.
4 Likes
My oldest travels for work a lot, and before covid took DH along on one – they had so much fun. So then he wanted me to travel with him. We went to DC , and he showed me the sights and we walked for miles and miles.
Just to say, at some point we become the companion, not the planner.
3 Likes
Cocktail hour age depends on the country you are visiting.
4 Likes
I have multiple food allergies with extremely negative symptoms if I inadvertently eat (Or in some cases smell) allergens. I can’t eat in any restaurant or do dinner parties. I still travel as much as I can (what is the alternative?) and seek out people through non-food activities (volunteer work, outdoor activities, being neighborly) but it still makes for a lonely life. Humans celebrate, grieve and bond over food….a central fact of life. I’ve also felt sad how my allergies have affected family members. Haven’t been able to cook certain foods in the house unless i leave the house for an hour or two and windows are opened.
With traveling, I somehow make it work. Have gone to China twice, Ecuador and Scotland carrying suitcases full of food…I am always detained and luggage opened. The allergies cut down on some spontaneity in my life but I refuse to let it stop me.