# US Presidential vacations **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 26, 2001, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-presidential-vacations/83843 "2001-09-26T02:09:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Seven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2001, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-presidential-vacations/83843/1 "2001-09-26T02:09:06Z")
I’m looking for stats or a list of how many days each US President has taken off while in office. (I tried digging around [google.com](http://google.com)… no luck :() Anyone know the answer to this? A site perhaps? I would LIKE to go back about 8+ presidents… ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2001, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-presidential-vacations/83843/2 "2001-09-26T03:12:42Z")
I suppose since they’re basically on-call 24 hours a day, zero would be the answer. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2001, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-presidential-vacations/83843/3 "2001-09-26T03:53:38Z")
I don’t think the president accrues vacation time like the rest of us. Woodrow Wilson was pretty much out of commission during the last 18 months of his administration, but he was sick. John Adams spent long periods away from the capital city of the time despite there being a major crisis with France. ---
**Author:** ![Seven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2001, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-presidential-vacations/83843/4 "2001-09-26T04:35:54Z")
I found an older AP news report that said Reagan had about 355 “vacation” days in 8 years. Clinton took 2 weeks in summer, 1 in winter and 1 some other time during his 8 years. I would figure (depending on the current situations of the time) that the US President could take vacations when ever they felt the need. I was just looking for numbers. How many days did each take per term. Which President was the hardest working or the more slack of the bunch. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2001, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-presidential-vacations/83843/5 "2001-09-26T06:02:50Z")
IIRC, Reagan was famous for taking time off compared with other presidents. But I don’t have a cite for ya. ---
**Author:** ![Seven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2001, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-presidential-vacations/83843/6 "2001-09-27T05:06:54Z")
Hmmm? A stumper? ---
**Author:** ![DPWhite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d26b3c/32.png) [@DPWhite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPWhite)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2001, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-presidential-vacations/83843/7 "2001-09-27T05:44:31Z")
[slate.com](http://slate.com) has a nice explainer article on Presidential vacations. ---
**Author:** ![Seven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2001, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-presidential-vacations/83843/8 "2001-09-30T09:44:22Z")
YEAH FOR ME. I think I stumped the message board. I get a cookie. ---
**Author:** ![hillpressguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@hillpressguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hillpressguy)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2001, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-presidential-vacations/83843/9 "2001-09-30T21:45:28Z")
I think it is hard to judge “vacation” days for the President. He is on call 24/7, so even days he is “vacationing” turn into working days (e.g. morning secucrity briefings, phone calls, deciding whom to bomb). A previous post detailed Clinton’s vacations… but he also went abroad a hell of a lot, and that could be considered a vacation (sure he met with the King of Zambia or something but … then he was banging on the congro drums all night long)… I think that W. had one of the longest stays out of Washington in a long time. But even on his “vacation” he took day trips to the Southwest and Michigan and Pennsylvania. (I just find it funny that the networks that were criticizing him had their anchors on vacations of 2-5 weeks… pot calling the kettle black (but I digress)) just my 2 cents.