Are travel vacations overrated?

Pretty much 100% opposite of my thinking.

you have the rest of the year to go go go go....vacation is for relaxing and spending 2 hours on every meal.

Let me get this straight....you think enjoying good local food is a waste of time, but proud of visiting places that are referencd on Jeopordy?

I remember great meals and good food for years, historical sites not so much. I'd rather spend all day in cafes and watching life go by than rush around to some museum. What exactly kind of places are you go go go go go goging too all day that are later referenced on Jeoprdy that you remember so well for the rest of your life?

My motto is see one site a day at most, spend the rest wandering at leisure and accidently finding thing.

I don't think so, at least for me, traveling is the best way to relieve stress and relax. New places inspire me and motivate. I feel alive and happy in vacation time, that's why I travel a lot. For those who like trips too, I recommend a good list of sites with cheap flights https://travelsites.com/cheap-flights/

2nd opinion wrote:

I live in a great area with numerous lakes and parks. I have a great house and yard. Good friends around to do things with.

I often find travel vacations a pain. The logistics, travel, long airport holdovers, driving distances, hotels just aren't fun. I often feel like a need a vacation from my vacation when I return.

There are some good travel vacations but too many are just a waste of vacation days and money.

Sure everyone can post about that great vacation but how many were just a pain?

You say there are some good travel vacations, so go on those. No one is making you take vacations. If you have no desire to do so, don't. My grandparents probably haven't been on vacation in 30 years and they're seemingly happy.

Now let me present the other side of the equation to you with my anecdote. I live in a crappy area full of strip malls and cookie cutter suburb neighborhoods. What parks there are, are swampy, filled with biting flies and mosquitoes (and they have venemous snakes) in the half of the year around summer. Its super humid in that half of the year as well and miserable to run outside most of the time. In winter, the roads do not get plowed when it snows, leaving them unrunabble for over a week sometimes (until it gets warm enough to melt ice off the road).

If I were lucky like you to live somewhere like the outskirts of the olympic national forest or northern california, I probably would save up for a tesla or top of the line computer instead of a trip to the Channel Islands.

Anyways, you can find real statistics and studies on why people need vacations. Too lazy to look, but I'm sure someone else will. And because this is letsrun, you should probably break up with your girlfriend.

You don't get to choose where you're born/where you start off living. I love going on vacations and experiencing other cultures/seeing things I wouldn't otherwise see. It sounds like things are great for you domestically but it also sounds like your attitude is bad when it comes to traveling. Sure, flying and such might be a hassle but if you were going to say, Paris, and can't find a way to enjoy yourself then sure maybe traveling isn't for you.

If you think travel and vacations are lame you need to stop traveling to lame places. Yeah, if you are driving far distances to go to Disney, Branson Missouri or some other overly commercial hell hole yeah.. terrible. I'd rather be at home too.

But if you go to Florence Italy and see some real history, or hike through some pristine forest in the PNW, explore some areas on Asia... those can be real learning experiences that enrich your life, don't be so short sighted as to think all you need is within 50M of your front door. The world is a big place full of many different people and cultures.

Most have covered the main points-- vacation how you like, don't fall into the standard traps, group travel means compromised individual experiences, etc.

It's a matter of thinking through and planning your travel. Speaking of which, how to recognize and address some of the pains of travel:

http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20190618-how-to-be-a-better-tourist

Lol yes, exploring the world and seeing natural beauty, human history, learning and using new languages, meeting new people (and beautiful women), and getting slight tweaks to the everyday matrix that people fall into...

Overrated!

Lol the people who agreed with you are total lame-o’s. Sometimes travel is at the core of what makes humans human, exploration and rising to a challenge.

+1. The amount of money that is wasted on vacation food is insane. Every meal at a "decent" restaurant blows ~$100 (at least) for a family of five for the same cuisine a transplant back home could have made. Vacation drinking is a huge resource suck too. Hotels too. I might as well just drive down the interstate and throws a $20 bill out every few miles.

Camping, hiking, biking, floating, walking around exploring a city, etc...getting out and viscerally experiencing the area you are in is what it's all about. Save the haughty restaurants and room service for a weekend with the S.O.

yuck yuck mileage wrote:

Pretty much 100% opposite of my thinking.

you have the rest of the year to go go go go....vacation is for relaxing and spending 2 hours on every meal.

Let me get this straight....you think enjoying good local food is a waste of time, but proud of visiting places that are referencd on Jeopordy?

I remember great meals and good food for years, historical sites not so much. I'd rather spend all day in cafes and watching life go by than rush around to some museum. What exactly kind of places are you go go go go go goging too all day that are later referenced on Jeoprdy that you remember so well for the rest of your life?

My motto is see one site a day at most, spend the rest wandering at leisure and accidently finding thing.

OMG, people have different ideas of what is fun and makes for a good vacation? Ground breaking stuff.

Swaglord wrote:

Lol ), and getting slight tweaks to the everyday matrix that people fall into...

Overrated!

Lol the people who agreed with you are total lame-o’s. Sometimes travel is at the core of what makes humans human, exploration and rising to a challenge.

"Lol the people who agree with you are total lame-o's"??????

total lamo's?.......... I see all your worldly travel has had quite a positive effect on your language and your ability to articulate your thoughts in an intelligent manner. It's also seems to make you respectful and accepting of ideas different than your own.

PS - this was sarcasm in case you missed it

Backpacker wrote:

You just travel wrong and that's fine too.

Do a nice roadtrip and stop at some National Parks or wilderness areas and get your butt out of the car and hike and camp. I promise you the best vacation ever.

Or get a backpack and a planeticket and go somewhere. I know a quite foreign concept for US Americans. There is a whole world out there waiting to be discovered. Just start with Mexico and Central America if you don't want to fly that far.

THIS..... National parks can be overly crowded and Disney like at the popular spots.. get out and away from vehicle and they are awesome.. Took wife kids to Yellowstone around the 4th of July a few years ago...Watching Old faithful near parking lot was like Disneyworld.. probably 1200 people.. walked half a mile and could watch it explode from another viewpoint with 12 people.

Same trip in Grand Teton... took one solo day for a 20 mile hike.. last two miles crowded.. other 18 after a very early start saw about 6 people and great scenery!!

Grand Canyon similar.. get a few miles below the rim and watch the people disappear.

Definitely DO travel:) There are so many wonderful places to see in this world... my best memories so far are:

Watching boats pass under the Elizabeth Bridge on the banks of the Danube in Budapest, Hungary;

Observing traditional folk dancing in Maldonado, Uruguay (They had no idea that a tourist was watching);

Wandering through the ruins at Delphi, Greece;

exploring the twisted steets of Sevilla, Spain;

taking in the tropical splendor of Algarve, Portugual, and then there is, of course, Las Vegas...

This is my experience I will never forget!

To plan my trips, I use

https://travelsites.com/

I don't think vacations are overrated, at all. You sound defeated. As the travel planner for my family, I've been there myself. But don't give up, travel is too refreshing for the soul when done right. Of course I know nothing of your economic or family situation, location or amount of vacation.

The issue you mention, needing a vacation from your vacation, stems from trying to do too much on your vacation. I used to do this, and while I would feel satisfied with my vacation and the things I did, I too would feel exhausted upon return, especially when kids entered the equation.

My wife and I (and kids most of the time) would pick a spot that we agreed on. Then we'd look at everything that was within a few hours of that spot, and of course we'd want to go those places too. And we WOULD go to all those places. The temptation is to try and check off as many things "to see" as possible. And while you may see a lot of things running from place to place, very rarely will you actually experience them.

Finally, we realized it is much more relaxing, and we actually experience and remember a lot more, if we just go to a destination and stay there. Or only go on one day trip instead of five.

In this vein, I have a general rule that if traveling by car, we need to be someplace at least three full days for every day of car travel. If traveling internationally, we've found seven days per one day of plane/train/car travel works.

2nd opinion wrote:

I live in a great area with numerous lakes and parks. I have a great house and yard. Good friends around to do things with.

I often find travel vacations a pain. The logistics, travel, long airport holdovers, driving distances, hotels just aren't fun. I often feel like a need a vacation from my vacation when I return.

There are some good travel vacations but too many are just a waste of vacation days and money.

Sure everyone can post about that great vacation but how many were just a pain?

I agree with you 100%

2nd opinion wrote:

I mean do you ever go on a long vacation and when you finally return home you think how good it is to be back home?

Then check the calendar to see how days are left of the vacation that you get to enjoy at home.

Never.

And I missed this thread the first time around, because I was on a two week vacation trip. Every time I come back from a vacation trip, I immediately start planning for the next one.

Here is one advice to you. Stop trying to impress other people. Do what you enjoy. If you do not enjoy seeing different places, then you don't have to travel. Don't worry about whether other people enjoy their vacation trips or not.

Of course, if you have such a wonderful place where you live and a lake, and a beautiful park, and a cosy house, and wonderful neighbors, then you probably don't want to leave there anywhere. If I were you, I wouldn't put up with long flights and queues at the airport either. But not all people live in such picturesque places. Many people have small apartments in a noisy and dusty metropolis, so they need fresh sea air and beautiful nature to relax from the city bustle. Well, I have a different situation, whether I want to go on a trip or not, I have to do it. Sometimes I'm not in the mood to leave home, but I make an effort, because I have children waiting for me in Africa. And so, as you probably already understand, I'm a volunteer. You can look at this blog penwellsafaris.com/blog/gift-ideas-to-bring-on-africa-safari-kids-guides/ and see that African children really need your help. And if you have the opportunity to give them some school supplies or clothing, you can do it. Kindness will save the world.

You can see the travelling detail here

helo