What constitutes a vacation for you and your family?

[FLATHEAD]

Same. A vacation must at least be an overnighter.
There's always a fishing rod tucked away somewhere
and if I can swing it, I try to incorporate a hunt in there
too.

 

[Wrench]

I spent the last 3 Septembers in the mountains of Idaho. I never want to come back....but the dang wife says I should.

 

[Northpark]

A good friend of mine told once that the minimum vacation had to be at least 10 days. That's three days of mentally finishing the work you left undone. Then 5-6 days of actually enjoying doing something else. The last days of the vacation is spent mentally preparing for going back to work.

I guess that is why I took every day of my vacation hunting since 1990. With the gov't holidays added in it gave me 30-35 days to escape the world.

Most of that for me to plan for goose hunting in december. Truely a civic endeaver to save the world from drowning in goose poop.

I get my annual leave and government holidays. Adds up to about 30 days per year in my current leave category. I used to take every day of that hunting but that didn’t go over well with my wife so now the deal is that I get to use half of that hunting and half on family vacations.

To the original question. I need a minimum of a week and preferably 2 weeks to actually relax. Basically it really doesn’t matter where I go so long as there is NO CELL PHONE coverage. I tend to get tied into work too much and am basically on call 24/7 and if I have cell service I find myself constantly attending to work calls and text’s because apparently government employees (at least in my agency) don’t stop working and will call and text at all hours of the day.

 

[ODB]

I get my annual leave and government holidays. Adds up to about 30 days per year in my current leave category. I used to take every day of that hunting but that didn’t go over well with my wife so now the deal is that I get to use half of that hunting and half on family vacations.

To the original question. I need a minimum of a week and preferably 2 weeks to actually relax. Basically it really doesn’t matter where I go so long as there is NO CELL PHONE coverage. I tend to get tied into work too much and am basically on call 24/7 and if I have cell service I find myself constantly attending to work calls and text’s because apparently government employees (at least in my agency) don’t stop working and will call and text at all hours of the day.

I also struggle with the latter part although I’m not in the government, but a one-man department. I can barely be off a day or two without my email box filling up to the point it seems like the entire place will come crashing down if I don’t get to them. I hate it.

 

[guylaga]

A vacation for my family is either the wife and myself or wife+kids going to a specific location. This may be camping or it may be a hotel/resort.

We don't count trips to visit family as vacation even if we are off for multiple days or a week.

So realistically we take one or two vacations as a family and wife and I try to do one just ourselves. Often the trips as family are camping and the wife saves the resort for just the two of us.

 

[Team4LongGun]

Wow-some guys have never taken a vacation?? How could you go on a multi-day hunt?
My guess is there is some “humble bragging” going on. I’ve got a buddy who doesn’t shut up about how much he works, like it’s a badge of honor or a competition. Hell-I find I want to work as little as possible and spend as much time outdoors or with family. He can gladly win that competition!

For me, my annual leave/time off and away from work has always been called vacation time for civilians.
Our family vacations always are away from home doing something we don’t get to do often such as the beach, or traveling to a new place. We will “splurge” on dinners out, ice cream, mini golf etc for the kids and sleeping in sometimes for the adults-unless if I’m chasing stripers, then I’m at the liberty of the tides!
Family vacations have been a tradition in my family since before I was born, and continues to this day. Fond memories last a lifetime, and I enjoy watching my kids excitement looking forward to it.

 

[74Bronco]

I am a M-F work schedule, pretty flexible as far as when I can leave after lunch if everything is running as it should. Spend a lot of Vacation Days chasing youth sports, hunting, and camping trips to see family. The youth sports are coming to an abrupt end in 18 months, and then the trips could get interesting. I have had 4 day vacations, where we went skiing as a family and tried to do everything in one weekend. Anytime I get out of town prior to Thursday, and don't have to go back to work till Monday, or later, I consider at least a mini vacation. Hunting is most definitely a vacation in my book. As long as cell service is Sh!??y.
The last thing it will say on my Tombstone is, "I wish I had spent more time at work."
I'm not against work, just not what defines me.

 

[Huntindog45]

i take a lot of "long weekends" those are mini vacations. But if I am on VACATION i want 10 days and some travel... hawaii, mexico, alaska ... want a good week of nothing stacked in between a couple days of travel.

 

[Dos Perros]

We like to do all sorts of things.

To me, a (family) vacation is time spent with family outside of our normal lives wherein we have no or very few work commitments.

Sometimes we hop in the car and head to my in-laws a few hours away. Mostly relaxing, spending time with family type stuff.

I might take the kids 4 or 5 hours away on a float trip. Wife hasn't joined us yet but she probably will someday.

We might go to Colorado for a long weekend, VRBO with another family for a few days and hike, fish, and float.

We might go for a full week to the Arizona desert between Christmas and New Years, done that a couple times.

We have our eyes on a warm beach vacation at some point, maybe the Bahamas.

Also am looking at Yellowstone first week of September to catch the overlapping bison and elk ruts.

Generally, we eschew the urban environments, and try to take in the natural world, and be active and have fun.

 

[S.Clancy]

I go hunting for my vacations. I could also be convinced to go fishing. Maybe golfing, but it would only be for a couple days. I have friends that invite me (us) to go to those all-inclusive resort things...no thank you. I decompress by being away from people not surrounded by drunk idiots I don't know.

 

[Mojave]

Family vacations that suck:
Disneyland and stay in a park across the street
San Diego and stay with in laws
Wyoming and stay with my parents

Family vacations that have been incredible:
Norway
Austria
Switzerland
Cairns Australia Great Barrier Reef and Daintree
Disneyworld and stay on property
Disneyland Paris and stay on property

Family vacations that are good:
Great Wolf Lodge we live midway between Colorado Springs and Scottsdale. We go to both.
Disneyland and stay on property

My wife and kids do not hunt, saying that my own vacations that were the best of my life were all hunting vacations without them. Some day I hope to change the tide and have a family that hunts, but it won't be anytime soon.

Hunting vacations on my own:
Namibia 2005
Spain 2005
Germany 2007
Australia 2010
Germany 2017
Germany 2018
Texas 2020
Wyoming 2022 with my dad

I am to the point that I hate the wokeness of Disney so much I don't like going anymore.

Universal Studios is our next family trip in March. It is supposed to be much better.

 

[philos]

That is an impressive list of places!

 

[peterk123]

Everyday is a vacation if you live in the right place and can retire while you are still able to move

 

[Yoder]

The last five years my wife and I have been renting a house for a week in the Outer Banks at the end of August. We usually go for 10-12 days. We'll spend a few days in Virginia on the way down, then stop over coming back so the drive isn't too bad. We bring our dogs and our kayaks. We do a lot of fishing. I can't just sit on the beach, I would want to kill myself.

Besides that I take off about 10 days for deer hunting. We'll also do some short trips over the year. This year we did Atlantic City and the Total Archery Challenge in PA. I generally use hotel points and go a weekend I'm off. I work 12hr shifts so I'm off every other Fri Sat Sun which is great for getting away without taking vacation time. I really want to take a trip to see Montana. I have a relative that lives in Bozeman where we have an open invitation. All of the covid nonsense just really turned me off on flying.

 

[svivian]

Everyday is a vacation if you live in the right place and can retire while you are still able to move

I completely agree with this. Every weekend we are doing something or some type of adventure. It is also why so many people are moving here....

Just this weekend my wife and I went to the hot springs and stayed the night. Next weekend we will be going to a ski resort. During the summer we do several trips to lake powell, blue mesa, Starvation Reservoir, Lake pleasant etc.. and stay any where from a night or two to a whole week and sleep on the boat. Throw in a few backpack trips to various areas and you have an amazing summer every year. And this can all be done on long weekends so you can save time off for hunting or vacations that we actually travel somewhere.

 

[Customweld]

My wife loves to travel. Me... not so much. I loathe the idea of flying and being in crowded airports and planes. My idea of a vacation is hanging out in the woods. It doesn't even need to be hunting. Cutting firewood, mushroom hunting , just disconnecting from the world.

 

[FatCampzWife]

Vacations???

Oh, you mean "scouting expeditions?"
Yah, we do that.
9 times out of 10 we (meaning my spouse) pick places we can scout from.

To give him credit, we (just he & I) took a trip to Florida before Covid & loved it. We were eyeing spearfishing opportunities, but, hey, I'll take what I can get!!

 

[tony]

No wife, my only child is 30. With that, I was a pretty crappy dad when it came to trips or vacation. We did what I wanted to do. Her mom loved going to “the beach”. That to me is hell on earth and I never went. Looking back I should have went once or twice I guess. Maybe it would have made for a different outcome for my girls mom and I.

GF loves to travel, I was never been much of a traveler per say. I love the woods, forests, mountain, and piece and quite. She’s good with that and she is not an outdoor person at all. I never flew before her, been on 2 cruises, (highly recommend) and spring for the drink package! Just got back from Mexico, stayed at a resort but traveled around while we were there. We hike a lot so everywhere we go we try and hike. Been to at least 40 national parks. Key west, upper Michigan, the Smokey’s, lot off the east coast. Vegas is as far west as I’ve made it.

I just let her plan most the trips, and I look for things to do on the trip.
I never could understand friends that rent house and take 30-40 family members with them. That sounds horrible !

 

[roadrunner]

Not having to think about anything that has to do with a paycheck.

A week on a local lake is sufficient, but limited to.

 

[Dos Perros]

I wouldn't be caught dead in Disneyland/world. That's the definition of ick to me.