My limit is 3 weeks. I know this because I was recently gone for 4 weeks, and by the final week I really wanted to go home. I missed my cats, my music classes, and doing my own cooking.
I am not particularly interested in travel at this point, having had a travel-filled life already, but I would like to go to Iceland and Ireland.
Given the things you specify as not being an issue, it would hardly seem to be a ‘Vacation’ as such, just living or visiting somewhere else for a while?
I did almost this for about 6 months in 2015 when my marriage was in a rocky period because my wife was stuck at home doing 24/7 care for her elderly mother and I thought her sister should have taken up some of the load…
I’m glad I did. To be honest, after the first few weeks, it just felt like a normal lifestyle and I saw a lot of places I wouldn’t ever have otherwise. And I’m getting too old to do it again… 
Same here. Lived and worked overseas with lots of vacation and travel. Now I thoroughly enjoy the pleasures of staying out of vehicles as much as possible, walking locally and puttering in my garden and workshop. My partner, on the other hand, still loves to travel. So she does and I take care of Kitty.
She proposed getting our offspring together to see the total solar eclipse next summer (optimal location is Luxor in Egypt but that’s already booked up) so we’re considering Oran in Algeria (also smack dab in the middle of the path of totality). That actually appeals to me. I worked in the middle east for three years so I have some idea of what to expect, but we’re not sure our kids and grandkids could handle the heat and culture shock.
That’s me and my husband. I like to travel, and he doesn’t.
I bummed around Europe for 3 months when i left college, any or was a blast, although there were some lonely moments.
Now, i have a husband and 3 cuddly cats i want to get home to. My max is probably 3 weeks.
I’m thinking 16 days. For me to take a long, arduous flight that basically encompasses 2 days each way, I must have enough time there to make it worth my while. I’d love to go to Japan, but I want to see Osaka, Tokyo, and several other places while I’m there.
I’ve done around three weeks in the past, and after the first two is where it starts to feel a bit inconvenient, and you start to want to not eat in restaurants, not be going and doing, and generally get a bit worn out. At least our style of vacationing works like that anyway. And I eventually start yearning for my own bed, even though I’m not a particularly fussy sleeper as far as beds are concerned.
I mean two is doable with a minimum of packing; two weeks of medication, toiletries, etc… isn’t too hard to deal with. But three starts to get a lot closer to steamer trunks and native porters territory versus large-ish carry ons and day-packs.
I have always wanted to sail solo around the world. The southern ocean scares the shit out of me though, so maybe I’d stop in South America and turn around and go back the other way without ever rounding Cape Horn.
I’m currently on a three week vacation and think I could do another week, but that’s about my limit for a vacation. At some point though, it changes from vacation to “ I split my time between X and Y” and I think I could do that, because people who do that orient their lives around that the split. Just as an example, right now my husband is going a little nuts with three weeks away from his bowling leagues. If we were splitting our time between two places, he’d find a way to arrange bowling around it.
We did mostly 3 month(ish) trips in our travelling days. That suited us. But we did once go for 10 months which was very awesome. The adjustment getting back was harder though. We started in SE Asia, home cooking from my friend’s Mom’s kitchen in Singapore, (strong start!). Did some beaching in Thailand then off to India, Kashmir, Ladakh and then Nepal. Once there the time flew by, it felt like weeks only. Then back to Singapore, to fill our bellies again, before flying home. With an extra bag chock full of shiny trinkets, curious objects and cloth goods. We never repeated that length a journey, though we did 4 months in South America.
I’m single and don’t have any pets, so can stay away (my cleaning lady keeps an eye on the house.)
I’ve done a month-long holiday twice - each time because the air-fare was most of the cost and the hotel was good value.
One was to Australia (where I learnt to throw a boomerang 
and one to Las Vegas (where I didn’t gamble! 
)
If I didn’t have my dog, I don’t know. Six months? A year? Two years? I can’t find things to do for that long, and there’s a lot of the world I’d still like to explore and I like taking my time at places, not doing a harried one-city-every-day-or-two-Eurail type of itinerary. It’d be more like living in various places around the world for a month or two at a time rather than a conventional sight-seeing vacation.
Yup. My Wife is the vacation planner. She’s great at it, but, IMHO crams too much into it. On our last one it seemed that every day was a different excursion. It was just too much.
I prefer a vacation without a timetable and stopwatch. Took me at least a week to recover when we got home.
The second part of the Iceland/Norway/British Isles vaca was on a great Viking cruise ship with great food and amenities. I skipped at least one excursion because - “Ya know, I’m just gonna hang out here”
That should be “I can find things to do for that long.”
Many years back when we were living in FL, we towed our boat from Jacksonville to Key West for a week, and we took another couple with us. OMG, were they ever planners!! Not only things to do, but an actual schedule! Our last night there, we strongly suggested we go our separate ways for the day - we needed chill time.
They remembered it as one of the best vacations ever. We, on the other hand, used it as a cautionary tale. And future group vacations were not to be with us surgically attached to each other. Meet for one meal a day and maybe do something together, but no more tightly planned agendas.
I’d consider 60 days or so. But realistically, 30 days is probably enough. We love being in our home, especially in the summer months. It’s exactly what we want. However, we also love to travel, and I expect that as I transition to retirement, longer trips are in our future.
Yeah, I hear ya. Luckily, my wife and I communicate well.
But…
Our non-stop flight to Iceland got us there at about 11am (we travel early). So at that point, with driving it was turning into a 15 hour day.
She had scheduled, for that day with the time change and all, a bus trip to a hot springs. We couldn’t check into the hotel yet, so I walked the half mile with her to the bus stop. Bus wasn’t coming for an hour.
Ummm. No. Not for me. I walked back towards the hotel, found a bar and had a few beers. Then I checked us in.
I’m more into the “jam a lot into the available time”, but i always give myself a day off to do nothing much after any overnight flight or any significant time change.
Yup. We do at least take a few days off after a vaca. Doesn’t matter much now as we are retired. We are both wrapping our heads around that.
We both walk the dogs, we both ride our bikes (this is all separate, no way I can keep up with her). I’m about to join a rec center. She just started a strength training class. And plays Pickle ball 3 times a week. I try to play her once a week, she of course kicks my ass)
We go together to target shoot (that’s my gig, but she asked me to teach her). That’s twice a month. Both have taken professional handgun lessons (I’ve been shooting since I was 11yo). She is gonna sign up for a personal lesson. I just tell her to go for it. Don’t ever get too comfortable/complacent with a gun though. Always, always follow the 5 rules.
In the evenings, we play 2-3 games of chess, and then usually a game of darts. Sometimes we don’t, but that’s typical, so… a dozen games a week.
I need to retire from my retirement.
Yeah, ditto. I’m surprised how many people think a few weeks would be enough.
The best vacation of my life was a summer between semesters of grad school. I was 29, and traveled around the country by myself, at my own pace, for six weeks. Stayed with relatives at a few stops on the way, but the rest of the time I was tent camping. North rim of the Grand Canyon, Los Angeles, sequoias and redwoods, Olympic Peninsula, Glacier, Black Hills, and eventually back home.
If freed from constraints (mostly a wife who wouldn’t want to be on the road that long, and wouldn’t want me to be away anywhere near that long without her), I don’t think I could do six weeks anymore, and tent camping is right out for my aging back. But four weeks, staying in hotels, lodges, hostels, whatever’s closest to all the outdoor stuff I’d love to see in the western U.S., I’d do that in a heartbeat.