Author Topic: What holidays did you take in 2015?  (Read 9847 times)

shanghaiMMM

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What holidays did you take in 2015?
« on: December 15, 2015, 04:59:12 AM »
I should probably say vacations in the title, but I refused to change it out of principle. (side note - our UK vs USA relationship is a source of never ending etymological fun for DW and me)

Anyway. I'm particularly curious to the answers because:

a) I hear Americans love working 50 weeks a year and this makes me sad if I move there one day.
b) Living in China is fun but you need to get out every once in a while, so I feel I may take more than average
c) This is the MMM forum and I want to see the saving vs having fun balance

And by holiday it could be anything you like, I'm not being strict with definitions.

Me, fwiw:

Australia - New Years 2014-2015
Thailand
Sri Lanka >> UK >> Turkey Summer trip
Hong Kong / Macau
Japan next week


sam

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #1 on: December 15, 2015, 05:13:11 AM »
New year - French Alps
Summer - Lithuania, Latvia & Estonia
Random weekend camping trips - New Forest, Peak District, Scotland (Edinburgh).

Been a great year!

Sam

shanghaiMMM

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #2 on: December 15, 2015, 05:19:23 AM »
Nice! I went to Latvia / Estonia a few years back. Definitely fun and mustachian!

Interesting looking website, I'll have to check it out again when it's live!

jorjor

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #3 on: December 15, 2015, 07:03:58 AM »
Short trip to Las Vegas in March (super cheap flights from here)

Went home to Iowa to visit family in June

Trip around western Colorado for a friend's wedding in July

Banff with family in August (during the wildfires on the west coast, the smoke was miserable most of the trip)

Not really a holiday, but work things that had some fun off days involved in Costa Rica, San Antonio, Orlando, Jacksonville (ranked from most to least fun/free time involved)

Italy just a couple weeks ago (mostly Florence), with stops in NYC and Berlin on the way

Wife is an event planner and registered travel agent, so we can normally gtlet pretty cheap industry rates on hotels and sometimes flights. We are hoping for SW companion pass next year to hit more of our US destination want list, and she got two round-trips to Dubai through work so we will be doing that as well.

TravelJunkyQC

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #4 on: December 15, 2015, 07:34:10 AM »
Several long weekend trips to my parents' and my sister's in Massechusetts. Several camping trips in New England (Maine and New Hampshire), as well as all over the Québec province. And one two-week trip to Costa Rica.

Slam

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #5 on: December 15, 2015, 07:40:48 AM »
I brought in the new year while in Germany.  Over the summer I spent a week mountain biking in Colorado, mostly in Steamboat.  On Christmas day I will be flying to Sao Paulo to bring in 2016.  My girlfriend is Brazilian and I have not been there yet.

Fishindude

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #6 on: December 15, 2015, 07:49:07 AM »
I take about 6 weeks a year off, most of which is utilized on hunting and fishing trips, and / or at our lake home.

Cougar

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #7 on: December 15, 2015, 08:12:29 AM »

 I took 9 days last year and worked, remotely; on 7 of them. I expect the same next year.

 When i go FIRE, i'm never going back.

I'm a red panda

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #8 on: December 15, 2015, 08:21:19 AM »
We took a 9 day vacation (5 days off work) that involved going to Texas for a family party, then going on a 7-day cruise. I also took 2 extra days off at Thanksgiving because my parents were in town for the week.

That was the only vacation time I took; obviously, holidays were off too (we get 10 holidays).

This year was a light year for travel though because we went to the Galapagos last year. We can't do a big trip every year; and I had been saving vacation time, so we didn't do many mini-trips, because I wanted to have time available to get maternity leave as I had been expecting a baby in January.

NotJen

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #9 on: December 15, 2015, 09:02:57 AM »
March - DC half-marathon and family visit
July - short Smokies hiking trip
August - 2 week Montana hiking trip
November - short film festival trip and family visit
December - family visit for Christmas

It doesn't seem like a lot, but I'll have used all the 5 weeks of vacation I earned this year.

tarheeldan

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #10 on: December 15, 2015, 09:06:18 AM »
August - Florida
October - Thailand
November - Japan

REAL WORLD EXPAT

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #11 on: December 15, 2015, 09:14:51 AM »
March - New Orleans
September - Wales and England
November - Cruise stopping off at Honduras, Belize and Mexico

mm1970

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #12 on: December 15, 2015, 09:54:27 AM »
Spring break (March): Joshua Tree NP (camping), and Palm springs.  4 days total.

Summer (August): One week in PA and one week in NY, visiting family.  Train trip in between.

Thanksgiving (November): we were going to go to Utah and see Zion and Bryce for a week.  But then the day before we left, the 3 year old came down with stomach flu, probably norovirus.  When he seemed better we made an attempt, drove 6 hours to Las Vegas, both boys puked in the hotel, then drove 6 hours home the next day.  We all got it, spent the week in misery, but hey, I lost 4 lbs.

Christmas/ New year's: are you kidding, after that, I'm hunkering down.

Was not a great year, though it was frugal.  Our plane tix were bought on miles, and were only about $200 for the summer trip.



2016 plans:
Feb (President's day weekend): Legoland San Diego long weekend (MIL will be visiting, and my son won free tickets)
March (spring break): attempt Utah again.  Luckily the Air-BNB owner graciously allowed us to transfer our reservation for that week
Summer: unknown.  It's our 20th anniversary, were thinking about Hawaii.  However, this summer is the last summer where both our niece and nephew will be "home", as our niece is going off to college.  So we are considering sending our 10 year old out there for a few weeks to hang with his cousins.  If we do that, then we will likely use our vacation time to fly to NY, see family, and bring him back with us.  Maybe we'll go see Niagara falls for a special anniversary treat.
Thanksgiving/Xmas - I have no plans. 

MEER

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #13 on: December 15, 2015, 10:11:56 AM »
Holidays/vacations are what I do best!

2015:
Cambodia
United Arab Emirates
Portugal
Canada (originally from there, but visited and vacationed in 2015): B.C., Saskatchewan, Ontario
USA (husband is originally from there, but visited and vacationed in 2015): Washington, New York, Ohio
Ethiopia
« Last Edit: December 15, 2015, 10:33:40 AM by MEER »

Zikoris

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #14 on: December 15, 2015, 10:28:35 AM »
January - Hong Kong and Macau

April - Easter long weekend island getaway to Sechelt

June - Camping trip

June/July - Iceland

September - Labour day long weekend getaway to the Okanagan

October - Extended Thanksgiving long weekend getaway to Montreal

We've also paid for our upcoming winter trip already, which will be in January - that one is to Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia.

big_slacker

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #15 on: December 15, 2015, 10:58:59 AM »
I don't work anything like 50 hours a week, more like 25, lol!

Before a few months ago I traveled for work so I visited lots of US cities this year. San Jose, LA, San Fran, DC, Baltimore, Chicago, St Louis and Phoenix. Although they're work trips there is a lot of downtime and I always go see the sites, find beaches to hang out at, etc. And not being with my kids I get good sleep, it's like a vacation. :D

I would say my top two most enjoyable work trips this year were DC (saw the constitution and magna carta as well as a lot of monuments) and LA (runs on the beach, meeting friends).

Pleasure trips I also went back home to Tahoe for a week once for snowboarding, and one other for mountain biking. MMM style, points for the airfare, free housing with friends and parent's timeshare and borrowed someone's season pass for the ski resort. ;)

Camping with the family in summer. Visit to my parent's house the next city south a few times as well.

SilveradoBojangles

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #16 on: December 15, 2015, 03:41:51 PM »
We can work from anywhere so we travel a lot. In the last year:

1 week in Montreal
2 weeks mid atlantic
1 week in palm springs
1 week road trip in CA/Or
4 weeks in Europe
1 week road trip in Colorado
3 weeks on east coast

Plus long weekends in Portland, Phoenix, LA, Seattle, Tahoe, Nor Cal, Vancouver.

deborah

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #17 on: December 15, 2015, 11:48:48 PM »
Let's see...

April - June - Turkey

July - Perth, West Australia

September - November - LA, Canyons and pre Columbian ruins in New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, Arizona, Colerado and Nevada, Ecuador (including Andes, Amazon, and Galapagos) - I think I crossed the equator more than 20 times.

Toss in a few visits to Victoria including Melbourne.

alsoknownasDean

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #18 on: December 16, 2015, 02:55:18 AM »
October - November -  US PNW/West Coast (Seattle to SF) with a stop over in Honolulu for good measure.

I really needed the leave, I was exhausted after a full on end of financial year. Procrastination meant I ended up booking in October.

Aside from that, not much. I'm saving my leave for a big trip planned in August (Scandinavia and northern Europe, maybe Russia too), although I might take a week off around March or so. Apparently Sri Lanka is nice at that time of year :)

I'll have a couple of days off around New Years, I'm trying to decide whether to go somewhere or not.

Sent from my LG-D855 using Tapatalk
« Last Edit: December 16, 2015, 02:57:01 AM by alsoknownasDean »

JJNL

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #19 on: December 16, 2015, 03:46:43 AM »
Wow, apparently there ARE Americans with a lot of holiday time per year - who knew? This year, I did the following travel-wise:
- New Year: I was on La Palma (only half of that holiday was this year though)
- Easter weekend: hiking in a German forest
- Pentacost weekend: kayaking in the Netherlands
- A few weekends of bushcrafting in the Netherlands throughout the year
- July: 1 week bushcrafting course in Scotland
- October / November: 5 1/2 weeks (1 month backpacking, week and a half study trip) in South Africa
- December: am going hiking in Luxembourg for a few days between Christmas and New Year's Eve.

Mr. Green

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #20 on: December 16, 2015, 04:38:09 AM »
I've only taken two weeks this year because we're closing in on our FIRE goal and I'm hourly, and my paycheck accounts for about 70% of our income. In previous years I've taken 40-50 days off just because I can.

dude

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #21 on: December 16, 2015, 05:50:48 AM »
Hokkaido, Japan for a week in Feb for snowboarding (best pow on the planet)
Breckenridge, CO in April for 5-day weekend for the same
Cozumel, Mexico for a week in May scuba diving
North Conway, NH for a week of climbing in Aug.
Maui, Hawaii for two weeks in Aug/Sept for surfing and diving

Upcoming -- Roatan, Honduras right after the New Year for diving

sam

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #22 on: December 16, 2015, 06:03:06 AM »
Nice! I went to Latvia / Estonia a few years back. Definitely fun and mustachian!

Interesting looking website, I'll have to check it out again when it's live!

Thanks we had a great time! All cheap (Lithuania being the cheapest).

R.E. The website
I’m looking to launch next year when I’ll be prioritising my time to create some really great content.

Sam

Miss Prim

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #23 on: December 16, 2015, 06:45:22 AM »
Too many actually!  We will have to tone it down for next year if we want to live within our means!

Anna Maria Island, Fl.  3 weeks in Feb. 
Ocean City, Maryland and Hyannis, Ma. 2 weeks in May.
Every weekend at our cottage in Michigan in the summer.
One month camping out west in Sept. Oct.
Cancun, Mexico 1 week in Dec.

For 2016 we already have lined up 2 weeks in Jan in St. Thomas USVI
One month in Florida in March.
A wedding in Nantucket in June.

I have to say that all of these trips were done as frugally as possible and some with airline points.

                                                                              Miss Prim

Le Poisson

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #24 on: December 16, 2015, 07:00:46 AM »
This is likely most meaningful if folks have their location filled in on their profile - for instance, its unlikely that I'd go to Thailand because the cost of the flight is so high from here, but if you are in Australia, I hear it can be quite reasonable.

In any case our trips this past year - family of 5, not FIREd, still saving, Live in the Toronto area.

8 Days in Cuba at an All-inclusive (parents only) - total cost $1500
10 days camping in Shenandoah National Park, Virginia USA (Parents +2 kids) - total cost $800 +/-
5 days camping in Emily Provincial Park, Ontario Canada (Whole family) - total cost $500 +/-
Plus a weekend or two of camping in Algonquin Provincial Park. Negligible cost (in-law's family cottage).

Incidentally, if any frugal-meisters want to do an exchange, we are open to guests coming to stay with us if, in return we can come to your town when we have vacation time.
« Last Edit: December 16, 2015, 07:07:34 AM by Prospector »

rubybeth

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #25 on: December 16, 2015, 07:02:52 AM »
I'm in the US and hourly so can only work 40 hours a week (not an entirely bad thing--not being salaried has its benefits). I'm also the only earner right now as my husband completes his grad degree. I earned 28 days of time off in 2015, and I took 29 days off (our time off can be saved from year to year). Mostly, I use this time to leave early on Fridays to have longer weekends, but I did these fun trips/events:

11 days in the Netherlands in May - tulip season was awesome
saw Ben Folds in concert about two hours away from my home
family resort vacation on a lake in Minnesota (where I live), cost to me: $0
went to NerdCon: Stories in Minneapolis (it was great, and we stayed with my sister for free): http://nerdcon.com/

We'd love to take more international trips once DH has a job (on the list are the UK, Sweden, and Japan), and also explore more of the US. We've been to quite a few major cities but have a few more on our list (Washington DC, New York, etc.).

Edited to add: I also get 10 paid federal holidays off, plus a personal day, so I also had those days off. That adds up to 40 days off in 2015, and I never have to work weekends. I also want to note that I live in the middle of my state, in the midwest US, so traveling to other states takes resources (time in a car or a plane), vs. smaller states or areas of the world where countries are closer together.
« Last Edit: December 17, 2015, 07:07:37 AM by rubybeth »

peppermint

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #26 on: December 16, 2015, 07:19:37 AM »
I'm in the USA. This year, I had:

long weekend in Charleston SC
5 days in Maine for a wedding
5 days in San Francisco
2 weeks in Cyprus and Greece (after going to a work conference in Cyprus, so the main flight over was paid for)

big_slacker

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #27 on: December 16, 2015, 09:03:49 AM »
Wow, apparently there ARE Americans with a lot of holiday time per year - who knew? This year, I did the following travel-wise:

For sure there is a cultural thing in the states with not taking vacation days, and some companies that are very stingy with them. However it's been my experience working across several industries that white collar jobs almost always have plenty of vacation and sick days. It's up to the worker to take them and many do as they should!

Those of us with techie type jobs often have the flexibility to work from home and that extends to working remotely if we want. It's not uncommon for folks around the office to do a week or two REAL non-working vacation but extend a week or two working remote. This is especially important for folks with family overseas (we have a lot of Indian, Asian and Euro employees) because 2 weeks with travel is hardly enough.

The US isn't totally screwed despite what some internet news articles say. ;)

Albert

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #28 on: December 16, 2015, 11:30:36 AM »
I live in Switzerland and this year I was in Vietnam (12 days), south of Spain (10 days) and Netherlands (4 days). The rest was spent visiting family and taking short trips within Switzerland.

Next year the big plan is to go to Japan, but not doubt there will be some extra European trips nearby as well.

nvmama

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #29 on: December 16, 2015, 05:14:58 PM »
We are in the US.  This year we didn't take any real vacations.  However, I was off work on maternity leave for 12 weeks.  My husband will take a week off over Christmas, but we will not go anywhere.  This is kind a typical of us.  When we take time off its mostly for when we have out of town guest, or we may take a long weekend visiting friends.


deborah

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #30 on: December 16, 2015, 08:28:43 PM »
Wow, apparently there ARE Americans with a lot of holiday time per year - who knew? This year, I did the following travel-wise:

For sure there is a cultural thing in the states with not taking vacation days, and some companies that are very stingy with them. However it's been my experience working across several industries that white collar jobs almost always have plenty of vacation and sick days. It's up to the worker to take them and many do as they should!

Those of us with techie type jobs often have the flexibility to work from home and that extends to working remotely if we want. It's not uncommon for folks around the office to do a week or two REAL non-working vacation but extend a week or two working remote. This is especially important for folks with family overseas (we have a lot of Indian, Asian and Euro employees) because 2 weeks with travel is hardly enough.

The US isn't totally screwed despite what some internet news articles say. ;)
Several responses weren't from the US - I recognise a couple of fellow Australians, and there are others.

Zikoris

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #31 on: December 16, 2015, 08:55:51 PM »
Wow, apparently there ARE Americans with a lot of holiday time per year - who knew? This year, I did the following travel-wise:

For sure there is a cultural thing in the states with not taking vacation days, and some companies that are very stingy with them. However it's been my experience working across several industries that white collar jobs almost always have plenty of vacation and sick days. It's up to the worker to take them and many do as they should!

Those of us with techie type jobs often have the flexibility to work from home and that extends to working remotely if we want. It's not uncommon for folks around the office to do a week or two REAL non-working vacation but extend a week or two working remote. This is especially important for folks with family overseas (we have a lot of Indian, Asian and Euro employees) because 2 weeks with travel is hardly enough.

The US isn't totally screwed despite what some internet news articles say. ;)
Several responses weren't from the US - I recognise a couple of fellow Australians, and there are others.

Yup, I'm Canadian and vacation time is mandated here - two weeks a year, with a few exceptions. Three weeks is not too uncommon either. Not everyone uses it to go abroad of course, but it's nice that it's law. I feel like most people I know do travel at least a bit, even if just within the country or down to the states from time to time.

Cookie78

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #32 on: December 16, 2015, 09:00:39 PM »
I've been trying to tone down the number of international vacations this year so most of mine were within an 8 hours drive from home and almost all were specifically for visiting family and loved ones. Even Peru I would have cancelled except that my family was going.

2 weeks in Peru (1 week alone, 1 week with friends and family)
4 days in Phoenix the past weekend to visit boyfriend
3 day camping weekend with family
4 trips to my hometown (1 week, 4 days, 10 days, 1 week)
1 week of staycation. My first ever.

Canada - 4 weeks vacation. I know it doesn't add up. Strategic use of every other Friday off, plus stat days, plus one of those weeks was a little less vacation and a lot more bereavement leave.

jrhampt

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #33 on: December 17, 2015, 06:41:00 AM »
I work remotely, so a couple of these trips were combined with a couple of days of work:

St Augustine, Florida - 1 week at the beach in January with sisters to celebrate birthdays
New York, NY - long weekend in February with spouse - central park, show, museums
Long Beach, California - 1 week in March to visit a friend (worked part time) - beach + pool
Oregon (Bend, Crater Lake, Eugene, St Perpetua coastline) - 1.5 weeks in June to hike and visit family
Cape Cod - long weekend in July - beach + bike trail
Outer Banks, NC - 1 week in September with spouse - another beach vacation
Minneapolis, MN - 5 days in November to visit sister (worked part time)
northern Italy/Tuscany - 1 week in November with spouse - hiking, medieval towns, Florence, lake Como, lots of wine

also several spring/fall weekend backpacking trips on sections of the AT

I still have maybe two days left over to roll into next year - I'll be taking a longer trip in Europe so I'll need them.
« Last Edit: December 17, 2015, 06:51:40 AM by jrhampt »

asauer

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #34 on: December 17, 2015, 07:16:35 AM »
I'm US based and I took:
several long weekends to go camping at the beach and in the mountains (total of 8 days off work over 20 weeks)
1 full week in august to go camping at a state park (really fun!)
2 weeks staycation at home.  Note: that was the first time since I started paid work at age 14 that I've taken two full weeks off.  It.  was.  amazing.  I can see why you Brits take the whole of July off ; )

rocketpj

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #35 on: December 17, 2015, 10:46:31 AM »
Our only 'big trip' was to LA to visit friends and go to Disneyland.  It was never on my bucket list, but said friend works at Disney and got us in for free - we stayed at their house and had a great visit.

Other than that it was a lot of local camping (we live in a vacation destination with amazing camping) and one road trip to the Okanagan for two family reunions and more camping.

There was some talk of a family trip to Greece next year, but it is just not in the cards money wise.  Maybe in 2017.

JoJo

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #36 on: December 17, 2015, 05:12:31 PM »
I’m also curious what people are spending on vacations.  I had a pretty epic year and spent around $5000 (typical year) in addition to what work paid for.
* 3 days in Kansas City (work, but had good BBQ)
* 2 day trip to Oregon waterfalls
* 3 days in NYC for fun including Rockefeller center for Christmas, spread over the year + a few more days for work
* 4 day trip to Olympic National park camping
* Numerous one day hiking trips
* 2 day trip to John Day National monument & Goldendale observatory
* 4 days in Minnesota for county fair, family fun
* 9 day trip to Churchill, Manitoba (Hudson Bay).  Saw 100s of Belugas, 7 polar bears, and the northern lights!
* 3 day trip to Niagara Falls and Buffalo, NY
* 3 day trip to Austin, TX (Conference, but had some great parties at night)
* 25 day trip that included 1 day Dubai, 11 days Maldives, 12 days Sri Lanka.  Amazing snorkeling, beaches, cultural sites, and wildlife.
* 8 days in Minnesota for family time

Jtrey17

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #37 on: December 17, 2015, 07:16:40 PM »
I’m also curious what people are spending on vacations.  I had a pretty epic year and spent around $5000 (typical year) in addition to what work paid for.
* 3 days in Kansas City (work, but had good BBQ)
* 2 day trip to Oregon waterfalls
* 3 days in NYC for fun including Rockefeller center for Christmas, spread over the year + a few more days for work
* 4 day trip to Olympic National park camping
* Numerous one day hiking trips
* 2 day trip to John Day National monument & Goldendale observatory
* 4 days in Minnesota for county fair, family fun
* 9 day trip to Churchill, Manitoba (Hudson Bay).  Saw 100s of Belugas, 7 polar bears, and the northern lights!
* 3 day trip to Niagara Falls and Buffalo, NY
* 3 day trip to Austin, TX (Conference, but had some great parties at night)
* 25 day trip that included 1 day Dubai, 11 days Maldives, 12 days Sri Lanka.  Amazing snorkeling, beaches, cultural sites, and wildlife.
* 8 days in Minnesota for family time
What an exciting year! Care to expand on how you had all of these adventures for $5000? I'd love to learn more from you on this...

Jakejake

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #38 on: December 17, 2015, 07:27:09 PM »
I'm a teacher so I have a lot of time off built into my schedule. Aside from that, I get 10 personal days a year, but I pretty much never take them. We can accrue a maximum of 40 days saved up, and after that we lose them. Once we got called in over summer to work, and we were all told we'd "be compensated" for it. My compensation was a shitty note afterwards in my mailbox saying they were compensating me with time off, but because I had reached my max days off, I would be forfeiting my compensation.

Lesson learned. Since then I've always asked for an email clarifying what form the compensation would be. I don't mind losing days if it's my own choice, but that doesn't mean I want to be the only employee working extra unpaid days for no compensation.

Anyway, I started this year, as always, with 40 days. Sometimes we have staff training days that are too far away to bike to, so I bribe other teachers to drive me by gifting them one of my days off.

I just found out when my husband retires, he will be paid for his unused vacation - something over $14,000 currently.


iwasjustwondering

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #39 on: December 17, 2015, 07:46:57 PM »
I'm American.  Here's what I did:

February -- weekend skiing in NY state
Easter weekend -- in Boston (college tour, and spending Easter with extended family)
June/July -- 10 days in England.  We went to London, Bath and Swanage.
December -- weekend in NYC with my boyfriend

ponyespresso

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #40 on: December 17, 2015, 08:20:17 PM »
We lived in China for almost six months so vacations were all in Asia.
March: ski trip to Niseko Japan
May(?) weekend trip to HK
June work related trip to Xiamen by way of Wuyishan
August: DD & I visited Great Wall at Mutianyu, spent some lovely blue sky days in Beijing ( right before the big parade)
September: Kyoto and Tokyo then back to the U.S.
And now it feels like vacation being back in the Land of Enchantment :-)

Next year I'm hoping to spend some time in the NW visiting friends & fam, and car camping a lot.im contemplating a road trip instead of flying there. I'd like to do a ski week at Taos but I think that ain't gonna happen because it's a bit $$$ (usually 3k incl Airbnb, ski passes, class for DD, food). Probably go for the day instead or maybe a weekend. And of course if DH is invited to a conference somewhere alluring we'd probably go for it!

Luck12

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #41 on: December 17, 2015, 09:40:48 PM »
2 weeks in London and then Swiss Alps
1 week hiking in Yellowstone/Grand Tetons
5 days hiking in Grand Canyon and Zion National Park
4 days hiking in Smoky Mountains
1 week in California

Capsu78

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Re: What holidays did you take in 2015?
« Reply #42 on: December 18, 2015, 07:58:05 AM »
Been a good travel year:
March 10 days  Equador
May 7 days Tokyo
June 12 days Italy (Amalfi and Rome)
July 6 days SoCal and Las Vegas
August 8 days Ireland
September 6 days Southern NJ and Pennsylvania (childhood home)
Dec 5 days Singapore/ 5 days Dubai

All pleasure for me, several trips accompanying my wife on her business travel.