NFT: Vacations

Parents divorced when I was young, neither one rich by any means, middle class family though. Both of my parents always busted their ass to take us on vacation, even when it was tough for them both financially for a few years after the divorce.

Most years I got to go on 2 vacations in the summer. Usually went to Ocean City, MD with my dad or to Florida or Aruba with my mom. My parents sacrificed a lot of things so we could have a family vacation every year, very appreciative of that

can't fathom not going on a vacation of some sort now either. I would sacrifice a lot of other things to be able to go on vacation if I had to. I'd go batshit crazy if I didn't.

Every summer we went to lake cabins just north of Lake George. We'd always go for a week - extended family, etc. We also sprinkled in a few Disney trips and a couple of Caribbean trips.

I still make sure now that I have kids we go on a legit vacation every year. My kids are 12 and 9. We've gone to Disney a few times. We did the lake a few times still when we were able to round up the extended family. And did Punta Cana once. I think it's important to make sure we go away every year at least once and maybe a long weekend type trip as well.

we either went to a lake in NY/CT, or the beach in FL,VA,SC. One year we went to Disney.

My mom has a huge family (was one of nine children). They all scattered from NY when I was little - we went to VA, some went to the LA area, some to Florida. We visited them fairly frequently, but I don't know that I'd call them vacations.

and usually 2 or 3 long weekend camping trips. Kids are 16 and 14 now so not many of those moments left.

We never had a lot expensive toys/trinkets growing up until we were teenagers when my father's job took off. Instead we would go on a ton of vacations. Because he had to travel so much, often our flights and hotels were paid by points so we were able to go relatively inexpensive to places.

Did some great trips when I was a kid and now share those same opportunities to learn and explore with my kids.

We never ever went on a family vacation, but I can certainly fathom going on one now.

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rarely, if ever, went on vacations.

now that I have a family of my own and the means to go on vacations I travel a lot for work, so unfortunately for my kids I'm not huge into personal travel. It disgusts me.

So our vacations are usually car vacations (beach, mountains, NYC, Hershey, etc.) we did go to DC, Orlando and Vegas on planes, but mostly it's the cape or martha's vineyard, or something like that).

which for 3 boys was very expensive. Trips were usually to visit family, particularly for a life event. Vacations were rare.

Now Im a homebody. The wife would like to take more vacations but I never make time. We make several trips to visit family each year (PA, mid west).

each summer for about 2 or 3 weeks.

I also was big into tennis growing up, so I went to a lot of one week tennis camps in the summer: PA, GA, NV, OR, TX, NJ, and VA.

Hit up some of the sights in the west like the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone. They're too young for that, though, at 7 and 9. We drove to Houston from Virginia last year and that was not fun.

... you need to get out of the crazy rat-race at least twice a year.

Preferably alternating with a big domestic trip one year (CA or FL), one Europe trip the next year and one small regional trip every year.

Took all my kids on trips since they were infants. The amount a child develops emotionally and intellectually grows exponentially when you get them out of their comfort zones yet still within the confines of the family.

In comment 13537646 Greg from LI said:

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Hit up some of the sights in the west like the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone. They're too young for that, though, at 7 and 9. We drove to Houston from Virginia last year and that was not fun.

don't forget the world's largest ball of twine.

we would do Wildwood once a year from when I was 7-12 or so and I've taken other trips sporadically, but as a whole we didn't vacation much. My parents didn't have a lot of money and split up when I was very young. I didn't really care though, liked camp and when I started working at 15 I didn't want to go away anymore anyway.

and totally never went on one lasting more than 3 days. Pretty much any vacation is going up to visit Grandma. Does that count as a vacation? I would rather have stayed home. I can think of three trips to somewhere else that lasted an overnight...once to the NY World's Far (which I can only vaguely recall going), once to the Catskill Game Farm and then up to Fort Ticonderoga, and once to Gettysburg. As a parent, I did at least one log more than that in one club or school soccer season.

beach, disney, every year. loved it and we do go on vacation in my family.

vacations are important - there's more to life than work.

but keep in mind the difference between trip and vacation. if you haven't read this article about the distinction you should.
Link - ( New Window )

In comment 13537634 pjcas18 said:

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rarely, if ever, went on vacations. now that I have a family of my own and the means to go on vacations I travel a lot for work, so unfortunately for my kids I'm not huge into personal travel. It disgusts me. So our vacations are usually car vacations (beach, mountains, NYC, Hershey, etc.) we did go to DC, Orlando and Vegas on planes, but mostly it's the cape or martha's vineyard, or something like that).

Haha, I loathe travelling at this point in time. With a 2 year old I have no reason to travel which is good, so its nice to save the money until she's old enough to appreciate it.

Went on one family trip to Disney and Dad later took me to Hawaii. Spent all my summers at sleep away camps.

Now that I'm older with a family, we do 2-3 weekend trips in the spring and fall and 1 big summer vacation where I rent a house. We rotate between Cape cod, Montauk, Long Beach Island and Catskills.

In comment 13537665 mattlawson said:

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beach, disney, every year. loved it and we do go on vacation in my family. vacations are important - there's more to life than work. but keep in mind the difference between trip and vacation. if you haven't read this article about the distinction you should. Link - ( New Window )

No vacations for us anytime soon.. just yearly "trips"!

When I was growing up. He had to be there all the time 24 x7. I recall 2 vacations. Went to an Great uncles hotel in Asbury Park for 3 days. It rained 2 of them. Have relatives in Ontario. One of them had/has a 'cottage' on a lake about 100 miles NE of Toronto. I was 17 and the day before we were to leave, I was driving the family car and skedded on wet pavement. The steering was knocked out and the front end rattled. I was devistaded! Ruined the only vacation we were to have in about 10 yrs. turned out to only be a badly bent rim.

Because I never really had a vacation. My wife and I always made sure we went away with our kids every year. Later on we bought a small condo in Wildwood crest. Rented it out almost all summer but always went there for a week in the summer and a few weekends in the spring and fall. But still took at least a week to go somewhere.

We went on camping trips as our family vacations when I was growing up and they were some of the best memories I have from an otherwise rather dysfunctional childhood. I still love to camp and luckily my husband does as well. As an adult, I LOVE to travel, both domestically and internationally. I love the beach, I love cities with museums and great food, I love the mountains and the woods and the desert. I love new experiences. I do travel a fair amount for work but will still travel for pleasure. I accrue 20 vacation days each year (a long job tenure has its benefits) and I usually take 'em all, though some of it is to visit family, too.

In comment 13537646 Greg from LI said:

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Hit up some of the sights in the west like the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone. They're too young for that, though, at 7 and 9. We drove to Houston from Virginia last year and that was not fun.

Did that with my family two years ago...kids were 12 and 14. Drove from MD to Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce, Capital Reef, Canyonlands, Arches, Rocky Mountain NP. Gone for 24 days. It was awesome.

Drove from MD to Dayton the first evening, Had a 1000 mile day to Kansas and were seeing things our second full day in Southern Colorado. What a great trip.

I enjoyed playing sports during my summers. The neighborhood was full of kids and I lived next to a school with a great field for us to play any sport and also a huge park about half a mile away if we wanted even more room.

Honestly, I had the best summers and enjoyed my summer vacations much more than these kids today, I'm sure.