Can a vacation last too long?  For many of us the initial response is – ARE YOU KIDDING?  Make my vacations as long as possible!  So how long is too long and can a vacation be too short?  There are definitely vacations that are too short – you do not want to travel across the globe to spend the night in Paris and you probably do not want to spend 6 months in a cabin or vacation rental home.  How long do you think travel vacations should be? A few nights, a week, few weeks, months?

For me a good gauge to see if I have been “out of my everyday routine” long enough is if I have trouble remembering my gym locker combination or start forgetting my vacation rental website log in’s and passwords.  Chances are, if I stumble to remember my routine daily activities then I have accomplished the vacation and travel “escape”!

I have rented vacation homes at many destinations and I can say from personal experience that some have been for too little time and some for too long of a period (excluding poor vacation rental accommodations).  I want a vacation to remove from the everyday track that I have been running on.  You know the day in day out routine in your life that may include driving to work, stopping for coffee, going to the gym, dropping your children off at school and going to work.  We are all creatures of habit and sometimes we need to get away to appreciate life, step back and see what we take for granted, start some new “good” habits or break some old “bad” habits.

Over the Christmas and New Years holidays our family rented a ski vacation cabin in the mountains.  As for me, it takes about 3 days to finally wind down and relax.  Then for about 3 to 4 days it is exciting to ski, finally read a book or two, and unplug as much as possible from all electronic devices, play Uno and Xbox with the kids, build a snowman, eat some good bbq, go to bed a little too late, sleep in a little too late and see some new movie releases at the theatre.  But if the vacation continues much past one week I actually start missing home and the old routine. 

For many years I had wanted to take a 1 month vacation away from home.   For a myriad of reasons it never materialized due to the kid’s ages, finances or work schedules.  A few summers ago it came to be and we rented a San Diego condo for 1 month.  I wanted to completely unplug and unwind for an entire month – get a library card and check out a bunch of books, get up whenever, go to a new gym, talk to new people, stroll the beaches for sea glass, go on more than just a couple of dates with my wife and more.  Short story – one month got to be a bit long.  We certainly accomplished our goals of escaping for 1 whole month – but it really just got to be too long to be away and believe it or not you can actually get bored.

I am sure we all have our maximum vacation thresholds.   Most of my best vacation getaways have been when I was just not ready to go home.  I wish I had just one or two extra days because it was so great.  I am also sure that it is different for everyone traveling and vacationing – single vs married, working vs retired, children vs no children and so on.  Perhaps the vacation rental owners, managers and travelers have determined that the best vacations are weekly?  Probably the most common rates posted on vacation home websites are weekly rates…hmmm maybe there’s something to that?

So it’s settled a weeks vacation is the absolute best time frame for vacations!  Just kidding – let me know what you think is the best time frame and why?  Just remember, no matter how long you vacation…it makes sense to stay in a vacation home, apt, or condo instead of a hotel!