Poll

Do you take more travel vacations post FIRE?

I take more travel  vacations now that I’m retired
31 (88.6%)
I take less travel vacations now that I’m retired
4 (11.4%)

Total Members Voted: 35

Author Topic: Do you take more vacations afterFIRE?  (Read 3624 times)

One

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 247
Do you take more vacations afterFIRE?
« on: April 20, 2019, 01:13:07 PM »
There’s many things to do where I live and I feel that vacations are often escapism from work. Just curious if you take more or less vacations post FIRE?

Villanelle

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 6653
Re: Do you take more vacations afterFIRE?
« Reply #1 on: April 20, 2019, 01:15:46 PM »
There’s many things to do where I live and I feel that vacations are often escapism from work. Just curious if you take more or less vacations post FIRE?

Great questions, and I'm curious, too.

DH and I aren't FIREd, so we can't say for sure, but when we talk about it, we think we will probably take very roughly the same number of vacations, but that we will stay for longer when vacation time from work isn't a factor.  A month in Europe vs 7-9 days, for example.

But we are huge travel fans and it is and will continue to be an important part of our life.   

FIREstache

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 638
Re: Do you take more vacations afterFIRE?
« Reply #2 on: April 20, 2019, 01:22:30 PM »

I take vacations frequently while working, but they are only vacations from work, not vacation traveling.

So when I FIRE, I will actually travel since I won't have the time constraints that I have now.  That's part of my FIRE plan to finally start doing the traveling that I haven't been doing much of over my career.

Kris

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 7335
Re: Do you take more vacations afterFIRE?
« Reply #3 on: April 20, 2019, 02:34:45 PM »
We are only recently FIREd. But our plan going forward is to take fewer vacations, bu5 when we take them it will be for longer periods of time.

Instead of a week in the Caribbean, it will be renting an apartment for a month or three somewhere cool.

geekette

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 2550
Re: Do you take more vacations afterFIRE?
« Reply #4 on: April 20, 2019, 04:17:49 PM »
If only we didn't have pets...

deborah

  • Senior Mustachian
  • ********
  • Posts: 15960
  • Age: 14
  • Location: Australia or another awesome area
Re: Do you take more vacations afterFIRE?
« Reply #5 on: April 20, 2019, 11:24:03 PM »
I travel much more in retirement than I did before. My parents live 7.5 hours drive away, and have become elderly and frail. So far this year, I've needed to drive there 8 times. I'm barely home before I need to go down again.

A few years ago, I started to vary my route, and visit interesting places for a day or two on the way there or back. It was wonderful to see some places I'd only dreamed of visiting, and to find others that were just as worthy to visit.

Then they became more frail, and journeys became more frequent, so extra days in the journey made it too long. However, to get a break, I now take LONG overseas trips once a year, visiting absolutely awesome places. Each time I have described only one of these journeys, people inevitably suggest that it was the trip of a lifetime.

I didn't expect retirement to include travel. And, when the inevitable happens, and my parents die (they're in their 90s, so it will happen in the foreseeable future), I expect that I'll be content to see all the magic that I haven't seen so far in my wide brown land. Living in the country with the longest living culture, with some of the oldest human art, rocks and fossils, and unique ecosystems, with plants and animals found nowhere else means that there is an awful lot to explore.

FreshlyFIREd

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 57
Re: Do you take more vacations afterFIRE?
« Reply #6 on: April 21, 2019, 03:33:36 AM »
I take more vacations now. I had a job where it "felt" impossible to take more than a week off. There was a big price to pay before AND after the vacation.

Work ruined vacations.

Now vacations are wonderful. I am on my second year of retirement. I am experimenting with luxurious, average, and financially efficient vacations. I have wifie grade the fun we had and compare it to the amount of money we spent. I am attempting to show wifie that you can get a great vacation without spending enormous amounts of money.

She's learning.

MasterStache

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 2912
Re: Do you take more vacations afterFIRE?
« Reply #7 on: April 21, 2019, 07:37:59 AM »
If only we didn't have pets...

We are in the same boat. Our dogs have to be boarded and it's often the most expensive part of our trip. We are also limited by our kids ages. The teenager doesn't want to travel with us.

John Galt incarnate!

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 2038
  • Location: On Cloud Nine
Re: Do you take more vacations afterFIRE?
« Reply #8 on: April 21, 2019, 05:15:36 PM »
Deleted.
« Last Edit: April 21, 2019, 05:36:33 PM by John Galt incarnate! »

John Galt incarnate!

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 2038
  • Location: On Cloud Nine
Re: Do you take more vacations afterFIRE?
« Reply #9 on: April 21, 2019, 05:22:33 PM »
There’s many things to do where I live and I feel that vacations are often escapism from work. Just curious if you take more or less vacations post FIRE?


Since FIREing I think of  myself as being on continuous  vacation.

I live in a rural mountain community from which I can see the mountains that form the southeast border of  Yosemite National Park. The bucolic quietude and natural beauty of my home and rural neighborhood are so appealing to me that I have little desire to regularly go on  vacation by taking a trip far away from home.

So you could say that by and large I am on continuous "staycation."

I dislike travelling by airplane and like travelling by train so every few years I do take a train trip all the way across  the country to visit family members. These trips are the extent of my vacations  away from home.

Loren Ver

  • CM*MW 2023 Attendees
  • Handlebar Stache
  • *
  • Posts: 1223
  • Location: Midwest USA
  • I Retired. Yah!
Re: Do you take more vacations afterFIRE?
« Reply #10 on: April 21, 2019, 06:54:11 PM »
DH and I have only been retired 21 days, but we have traveled for 14 of them :).  Our longest trip by far.

I don't think we will keep this ratio up over time, but now that we are retired we aren't as constricted by DH low vacation day number.  I used to travel more than him since I got about twice as much vacation time (and I really like going places), but now we can go together.  We also don't need to use our vacation time to catch up on things around the house etc. 

So for us, I think we will travel more than we did when working, but no where near as much any many people on this forum.

LV

Greystache

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 593
Re: Do you take more vacations afterFIRE?
« Reply #11 on: April 21, 2019, 09:02:13 PM »
Our travel is different now that we are retired. We used travel no more than 2 weeks at a time. Now we take epic road trips that cover thousands of miles and 4 to 8 weeks at a time. We typically take off with just a vague itinerary and no reservations and stop when we find something interesting and stay as long as we want. We usually spend about 3 months of the year on the road and the rest of the time at home. We split our trips between the North America and the rest of the world.

use2betrix

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 2492
Re: Do you take more vacations afterFIRE?
« Reply #12 on: April 21, 2019, 09:25:41 PM »
If only we didn't have pets...

What do you have?

When our German Shepherd was 3 months old we took him on a 2 month, 8000 mile North American camping trip. We camped every single night for those two months except for 3. Just this weekend we traveled 3 hours to a very large city and got a nice hotel (paid for with cc rewards) right downtown with tons of stuff to do, and they allowed our (now 80 lb) German Shepherd.

There’s tons of options for pets, depending on the pet..

I’d like to do a “homestead” type scenario some day, but I feel that would be super challenging animal-wise. You’d basically need someone to come to your home and take care of the animals.

happy

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 9286
  • Location: NSW Australia
Re: Do you take more vacations afterFIRE?
« Reply #13 on: April 22, 2019, 01:20:38 AM »
I'm not into travel in a big way, and travel wasn't really featured in my FIRE plans. However I just came back from 2 weeks away, and it occurred to me that it was the longest holiday I'd taken without kids ie a holiday just for me, since I had kids about a quarter of a century ago. Sure I've travelled for work usually a couple of times a year, and been away with my family but always for less than 2 weeks at a time. I'm planning a 2 month holiday later in 2019, now that will be a real shock to the system.

Loren Ver

  • CM*MW 2023 Attendees
  • Handlebar Stache
  • *
  • Posts: 1223
  • Location: Midwest USA
  • I Retired. Yah!
Re: Do you take more vacations afterFIRE?
« Reply #14 on: April 23, 2019, 07:06:21 AM »
If only we didn't have pets...

That is one of the biggest reasons I don't yet have a dog.  I do love dogs, but before I retired DH and I were away so much we didn't want to leave the dog alone pretty much all the time.

Now that we are retired, I like the freedom of doing what I want when.  A dog makes that so much more complicated.  It can be done, there are trade offs, but I really like not needing to do it.

LV

sui generis

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3104
  • she/her
Re: Do you take more vacations afterFIRE?
« Reply #15 on: April 25, 2019, 07:45:48 PM »
I have about 9 weeks of "big trip" travel planned this year, plus there will be lots of other smaller things, so yeah, that's a lot more than I got to take when I was working.

For those with pets, have you considered having house sitters?  We finally tried it for a trip last month and it worked out great.  House sitters get free accommodation and you get free pet sitting + garden care, etc.  We feel much better with our cats having more than the 15 minutes of attention they'd have per day with a local pet sitter dropping by to feed them.  I considered *being* a house sitter when I FIREd, and maybe that's still in the cards someday, but being a member of various house sitting groups on Facebook, I can see by their posts that these house sitters are real animal lovers.

Kris

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 7335
Re: Do you take more vacations afterFIRE?
« Reply #16 on: April 25, 2019, 08:32:56 PM »
I have about 9 weeks of "big trip" travel planned this year, plus there will be lots of other smaller things, so yeah, that's a lot more than I got to take when I was working.

For those with pets, have you considered having house sitters?  We finally tried it for a trip last month and it worked out great.  House sitters get free accommodation and you get free pet sitting + garden care, etc.  We feel much better with our cats having more than the 15 minutes of attention they'd have per day with a local pet sitter dropping by to feed them.  I considered *being* a house sitter when I FIREd, and maybe that's still in the cards someday, but being a member of various house sitting groups on Facebook, I can see by their posts that these house sitters are real animal lovers.

Sui, I’ve been thinking about this... could you share some of the FB groups you’re referencing?

sui generis

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3104
  • she/her
Re: Do you take more vacations afterFIRE?
« Reply #17 on: April 25, 2019, 10:04:38 PM »
I have about 9 weeks of "big trip" travel planned this year, plus there will be lots of other smaller things, so yeah, that's a lot more than I got to take when I was working.

For those with pets, have you considered having house sitters?  We finally tried it for a trip last month and it worked out great.  House sitters get free accommodation and you get free pet sitting + garden care, etc.  We feel much better with our cats having more than the 15 minutes of attention they'd have per day with a local pet sitter dropping by to feed them.  I considered *being* a house sitter when I FIREd, and maybe that's still in the cards someday, but being a member of various house sitting groups on Facebook, I can see by their posts that these house sitters are real animal lovers.

Sui, I’ve been thinking about this... could you share some of the FB groups you’re referencing?

Sure.  I should specify that you aren't supposed to post requests for sitters in these groups.  They're mostly for sitters to get suggestions on how to be better sitters, respond more effectively to homeowner posts, share exciting pics of where they are sitting now and stories about animals, etc.  But, if you want to just get a sense of things, they are a decent way to do so.  The two groups I am in are "House Sitting World" and "House Sitting Magazine Group"  I think the latter has some good resources about house sitting that also include a get started guide for homeowners (as well as sitters) which is definitely what I used as guidance.

There are many sites that people post their actual house sitting ads on (some are sort of the equivalent of AirBnB, with reviews, pictures, info about the place or the sitter).  Some are: Trusted House Sitters, House Carers, Mind My House.  Some are free for the homeowners, some require a fee (those facebook groups will have info on discount codes).  Sitters always have to pay some fee to join and respond to ads.

Cassie

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 7946
Re: Do you take more vacations afterFIRE?
« Reply #18 on: April 25, 2019, 10:45:32 PM »
We are traveling more. One trip without the dogs and someone moves in and one trip with them. For the past 15 years have had 3-4 dogs but through natural attrition will be down to 2 soon. I could never be without a dog.

Zamboni

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3882
Re: Do you take more vacations afterFIRE?
« Reply #19 on: April 26, 2019, 03:26:16 AM »
We are also limited by our kids ages. The teenager doesn't want to travel with us.

I'm curious what it is you think causes the teenager to not want to travel. Missing school? Missing friends? Doesn't like long car trips? Feels pressured to do activities on trips rather than veg out? Doesn't like sharing hotel rooms?

My teens' attitudes about trips have improved dramatically in the past couple of years due to the following:

1) I learned from a blog written by a father/son travel duo to "schedule" a veg out day for them periodically on trips where they basically just hang on in the room sleeping half the day or on their computer or gaming. I do this even if it's just a long weekend. For those days I bring drinks and snacks to stock their room. I go do what I want, they chill out. I don't worry about them "missing out."

2) Letting them choose some of the activities. Both kids are still up more for zoos or animal parks and hiking around than most other activities. They both dislike sitting in restaurants, so I try to minimize that except for maybe one "special treat" meal. I do this on the 2nd or 3rd day when we are visiting family . . . grandma will survive if we go to an action movie or spend one afternoon hiking without her. In fact, she probably needs a break from us!

3) I get a suite or second hotel room so that no one has to share a bed against their will or sleep on the dreaded roll away cot. The kids also like to camp if I want to do a super cheap trip, but they hate sharing beds and they'd rather sleep on the ground than one of those cots.

4) Now that they can drive, I let them drive as much as they are up for. This is more stressful for me than driving myself, but they are much happier.

5) While I do pack a water jug and a cooler with drinks and a bag of snacks from the grocery store, I also try not to be draconian about it. Once per trip, I even suggest stopping for an ice cream or fast food or the fancy coffee which one teen now loves part way through long drives. We don't do that much in our every day lives, but it's part of the special treat that makes it a vacation.

My own parents would never stop for food or even just when I needed the bathroom on long car trips even when it was 12 hours straight in the car (think "one small black coffee" if you've ever seen the John Mulaney skit.) It was soggy squished peanut butter sandwiches and pulverized bananas from the cooler or nothing, and you better "hold it" until we need gas. I absolutely hated the drive part of trips as a kid, and I think most kids are with me on this.

Happy trails!

soccerluvof4

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 7161
  • Location: Artic Midwest
  • Retired at 50
    • My Journal
Re: Do you take more vacations afterFIRE?
« Reply #20 on: April 27, 2019, 05:27:10 AM »
We have taken less only because with 2 kids in college and 2 kids still at home the chasing we do now any free time we have we enjoy being home. We were planning on going to Florida but our younger ones even said they would rather stay home for the week. Over next winter we are planning for sure on doing more.




 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!