Inspired by the 3-years cruise thread - here are the rules:
Money is not an issue
Job security/whatever not an issue
Caring for the home left behind not an issue
Nothing is an issue
In a magical time and place, you can go anywhere and do anything for the amount of time you choose. None of the usual mundane issues of finances and such have any bearing. So what would you choose and what would determine your limit?
For me, I saw a cruise advertised that I’d love to do. Round trip out of a US port, island hopping across the Pacific to several ports in Australia and New Zealand, then island hopping back. If I recall (it’s been some time since I saw the itinerary) it was around 75 days, more or less. At the outside, I’d consider a 3-month adventure, but that would be stretching it.
I’d miss my grandspawn and my recliner, and, as Dorothy said, there’s no place like home.
It’s the disruption of my exercise, diet, and sleep routine that is a deal breaker for me on anything longer than 3 weeks. As much fun as I might have, I always feel unhealthy after being away from home for very long. Getting on a plane or cruise ship is also a guaranteed cold or flu for me. Don’t get me started on any destination with a humid climate.
That said, my wife and I travel outside the country at least twice a year. My wife insists on 2 and a half weeks (to “make it worth the airfare and travel time”). I would be happier with one-week vacations.
In my youth I worked at a company that allowed you to save up 2x your annual leave. Twice I didn’t take any vacation for two years and took a 7-week and 8-week vacation. The first was hiking in NZ and Aus, the second was trekking in Nepal and Thailand.
It would be difficult to take that much time off at my current job, but when we retire in a few years I expect we’ll spend 1 or 2 6-week chunks of time a year away from home. Our first will be hiking in the desert southwest, but we’ll definitely be ski bums for one of the first winters after we retire.
In college, I went backpacking around Japan and other parts of Asia for three months. That was fun, and I could easily enjoy something like that again, but staying in nice hotels this time.
One of my siblings and his wife “recently” (a year or two ago) did a one month trek through Spain. In his opinion it was maybe one week too long. They’re basically gym rats as well, but it wasn’t disruption of routine so much as they just plain got worn out in their late 50’s. They had a great time but came back exhausted and very glad to be home.
I think when I was young and prone to epic two week car trips criss-crossing say the Pacific Northwest or the Southwest, I could have easily have extended that to a couple of months. Just would have needed the time and money. I was fine with car camping and motel beds back then as well. But now I’m not and I don’t think I can remotely drive twelve hours straight a la the good old days.
So now, also currently in my late 50’s? Yeah, three weeks realistically sounds like enough and the epic car trip era has absolutely passed. Life as per the OP as a wealthy international nomad staying in the finest hotels? I’m genuinely not sure. I’d like to think I could do it for months, but I suspect it might pall sooner rather than later. Think at this point I’d rather have more money to buy a nicer house (though I do like my place) and relax at home .
I’ve basically already done it for 10 months and about 14 months, and I only came home because I ran out of money and my visa expired. It wasn’t constantly moving on though, I’d stay in one place for a few months at a time and doing volunteering- and a bit of paid work.
I’m a fair bit older now, but I think I’d still really enjoy it.
This is exactly the same for me. I have a regular routine that would be almost impossible to maintain if I was traveling for a long time, even if I was on a cruise ship. In fact, spending 3 years on a cruise ship would be the farthest thing I can think of from a vacation.
I’ve been on more than few cruises in my life. I once did a 10-day cruise out of LA to the Hawaiian Islands, and that amount of time on the water, staring out at nothingness, reminded me of why air travel is so much better than getting there via boat.
But to answer the question directly, I think anything longer than 10 days is about all I can imagine doing, and that would have to be a vacation someplace interesting like Europe, South America, or Asia.
I might consider doing a month. But my favorite place in the world is my home where my stuff is. I’ve got 60 acres of woods and fields and beach right here so I would not want to be away longer than that.
A few years ago my wife and I went on a 2 week trip to England, Northern Ireland, and Ireland. 1 week was doing the “touristy” things in Ireland/Northern Ireland, the other was staying at my sister-in-law’s sister’s house and focusing on the “locals” aspect in the small town where they lived.
After 2 weeks I was itchn’ to get back home even though everything was taken care of and we could have been gone for a month. For me about 2 weeks would be the limit, my wife, if it wasn’t for missing our family, could be gone for several months.
Depends on what you mean by “vacation”? Like, if it’s “rent an apartment for a while and settle into life in some foreign city, and then move on to somewhere else whenever you start approaching the limit for visa-free travel, and / or come back to the US for a while to visit family,” I feel like I could probably do that indefinitely, and if it weren’t for the difficulty of figuring out what to do with my worldly possessions, I would be planning to spend my retirement doing exactly that.
If it’s more like what I usually do on vacation – hotel / hostel for two to four nights and then move on to somewhere else – I guess I would eventually get burnt out on traveling, although I’m not sure how long that would take because I’ve never yet gotten to that point. Longer than two months, for sure. Maybe around three or four?
In my working life, 30 days was the max allowed. In retirement, we spent six months in our RV, cat and all. Then we did a couple of one month treks in said vehicle. It really depends on how well you and your spouse get along.
I’ll go with 2 weeks. Any longer than that and I would start to feel like I’ve moved to wherever it is I’m vacationing rather than still being on vacation.
I assume by “vacation” you mean time spent actually traveling away from home, not merely time off work.
I’ve done two trips that were ~4 weeks long, one to Australia and one to East Africa (Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania). I’d say 4 weeks is probably my limit, but honestly I enjoyed both of those trips so much I wasn’t ready to go home at the end of either of them.
I have a fair amount of travel experience and lead what might be considered a “normal” life with typical responsibilities and obligations. I and my wife did a 7 week excursion and I tried to be proactive in taking care of things prior to the event. Now this was before everything was done online but I found that when we returned, despite my proactive efforts, there were a lot of things that were screwed up. It was a hassle getting back to normal. I’d say that more than three weeks invites those hassles. Three weeks is within a one month billing cycle. Not that I wouldn’t consider a vacation longer than that but would be wary of being away longer than that.
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