Holidays in the sun.
I get going overseas to sunny places with beautiful sea to swim in, stay in a fancy hotel and eat exotic food - maybe swim in their awesome pool.
I just don't get what you are supposed to do on the 2nd day of the holiday ? Visit a couple of historical sites ? Great ! So that's the next couple of days sorted. There doesn't seem to be anything exciting to do on day 4+ ?
Do you mean when people pay thousands to stay in a resort? Because those are the people I don't get. They spend all this money to go to a beautiful country, then they only stay in the resort and eat their expensive food which isn't even 'exotic,' usually 'continental breakfast' and such. They don't bother to step foot outside and engage in the local culture and experience anything as long as there's a private pool and beach. Seems like one could easily do the same thing in a more domestic instead of international location.
It's nice to get away from it all and get pampered.
If I have had a busy patch at work I don't want to go hiking or sightseeing or market browsing every day. I might want 5 uninterrupted days at the pool.
By the way, if you've ever had any experience of living where I do (Australia), you will know that an international resort is much, much cheaper than simply living in Australia. At least, when our dollar is at usual levels (around 0.8USD), it is. Now the exchange rate is less favourable so it might tip the balance, but for the most part getting pampered at an international resort is much cheaper than any sort of relaxation (say, a gym pass or pool pass + sauna + massage) here. That's what happens when wages are so high.
This is what I was thinking too, but USA vs a Caribbean locale. I think even with airfare you can still net a cheaper vacation, and it even has the "oooh" factor a domestic vacation lacks.
Add in travel hacking with airline points and it gets even better.
One of the things I've noticed about getting out of town is it gets me off the hook with regard to housework, yard chores, and what I call "second shift" or Doing Things For Other People. The burden is exponentially larger on what I call the "hellidays", specifically FucksGiving and Giftmas. These are two artificial commercial events devoted to shopping, crap acquisition, debt accumulation, and professional football. I am interested in none of these activities but do enjoy feasts. A lot of work goes into setting up a feast, however I find that it's best if I avoid doing it. If I throw a dinner party at some other time in the social season, I can get on people's calendars and have a great time. But the same feast, given on a helliday for people who claim they have no other plans, will be doomed.
Last FucksGiving I cancelled my travel plans to throw a big turkey party because two of my best friends begged me to. I worked for days to get the ingredients, clean the house, roast the bird and prepare a gorgeous table. How many of my guests came? Not a single one! My daughter and her boyfriend no-showed the way she always does. One set of friends no-showed and ghosted me, not responding to phone or text messages. The last set of friends arrived 45 minutes late after I was cleaning up the uneaten feast, because they stopped to run an errand at a grocery store. Because of this experience, which is not an isolated event, I have decided to never throw a holiday party again. Working my ass off cleaning, cooking, and cut-cut-cutting up food for hours is fine when people show up (on time!) and partake of the event. If people don't want to show up on time, or at all, they shouldn't ask their friends to throw them a party. Any friend dumb enough to do that probably deserves what they get, so my response is to no longer do FucksGiving or Giftmas. I'm also not doing adult birthday parties.
Sadly, when I'm at home on the hellidays, people feel entitled to "drop in" because when they know I'm not entertaining they have a bizarre desire to be entertained by me in my home. So my cleaning and baking burden isn't any lighter.
If I get completely out of town I do have the opportunity to relax provided I don't visit relatives (airports during the hellidays aren't my idea of a good time). I also don't suffer from resentment, the root cause of which is an unrealistic expectation that people will behave differently from what's normal for them. There are people who can and do show up when they say they will. I've been focusing on them. However they are family groups who generally celebrate by themselves on the hellidays, so they always have other plans. It's best that I just take off and not try to participate in the hellidays. If I'm at a resort, a campsite, or a hotel with my service dog I'm treated far better by complete strangers than I am if I try to entertain friends or family.
