Vacation length: What's your preference?

[RickG]

Oh, most definitely 2 weeks. It sometimes takes me 2 or 3 days just to decompress from life and totally relax.

Hey, what are you doing upstairs? I'm working downstairs, ya tart!

Cheers, RickG

[bill]

When we first started going to St John, 10 years ago, our daughters were little and we would go for a week. It went fast, but was o.k. When the kids were teenagers we would go for 10 days and it was enough. After a week i would feel i was just finally unwinding from the daily tortures from home, and the few extra days were great.

Now we try to go for 12 to 14 days, depending on the funds. Kids are in college. My husband and i really get to unwind and absolutely love it!!!

[Pete (Mr. Marcia)]

For our yearly "kid free" trip, we do two weeks. It takes the pressure off the feeling of "having" to do things while on island. If we want to declare a villa day, that's cool because we know that we have plenty of other days to go to beaches, etc. It makes for a totally chill time.

[caribechris]

Two weeks are best but we usually only make it 7-8 days.

[Marcia (Mrs. Pete)]

I can't even believe I'm back home, posting something before doing a trip report and with the four kids (16, 15,14 and 12) here with us, doing homework, being themselves, after a full TWO WEEKS without them.

Okay, a vote for TWO WEEKS away. Why? It takes about four days for us to unwind, get through some major "issues" which we never even know exist until we leave home and then...relax. Once we get past that point, we are able to do what we want, just the two of us. No kids, no kid "issues" no stresses. Seriously, the first few days/nights of our vacation are rather tumutuous. All the crap we hold in, all year long, seems to find its way out. This is NOT a bad thing. You just need to know its coming though and be prepared. Some years we do a better job than others, not holding things in. But, honestly, we never know, until we have the time alone, to find out what all has been going on.

This is why we take these vacations together. Alone. We need to reconnect. And, we always do.

Oh ya, back to the two week thing. So, after those first few days, once we've aired everything and have come away from the "fistacuffs" on it all...we end up closer, ready to enjoy our vacation.

If it were just one week, we'd just be "getting good" and then we'd have to leave. This way, we get all good and have at least a whole week left to enjoy each other.

Two weeks. My vote.

Marcia (Mrs. Pete)
p.s. It was really odd today being more than a few feet from from my husband today. I miss him.

[nothintolose]

Depends on where we are going and how long it takes to get there.

For STJ and Europe we tend to go 10 days which is perfect for me cuz I start missing my animals by the end.

Somewhere close like the Florida panhandle, 5 days to a week is fine since it doesn't take too long to get there.

SO is getting ready to semi-retire and wants to start taking two week vacations several times a year. I am not sure how I feel about that yet.

Our thing though is that if we are going to have to spend most of a day traveling, we are not officially at our destination for a week if we only go 7 days.

nothintolose

p.s. I guess my vote would be travel frequently for 10 day trips

[cat]

We try to do one vacation just the 2 of us and another with his daughter. She is pretty easy to travel with! 13 but is an only child so she loves getting us away from everything else. Quality time!

I agree that if it takes all day to get there then I need to stay 2-3 extra days.

[liamsaunt]

I would be on permanent vacation if that was allowed. Unfortunately, barring winning the mega millions I am many years away from retirement!

Anyway, I get five weeks vacation and John gets six every year. We take every single day, usually broken down into one big trip (St. John this year), one week at Disney with our niece and nephew, and then a couple of four day trips, usually to NYC or similar.

[mia]

I concur with the majority; one week on St. John is too short. I guess my vote would be two weeks....a couple times a year. We have 18 nights scheduled in September, and I'm already starting to stress about being away from our fur babies for so long.