Preferred Vacation -- Fun-Packed or Laid-Back?

One of the most "satisfying" vacations I've had was to travel Europe by myself by using a Eurail pass. Played it by air, and chose destinations to places I haven't visited. One of my favorite was to visit Barcelona for four nights out of the 15 days I spent in Europe. I love that city! c.i.

Soz

I'm also opposed to jam-packed vacations. What if someone tells you about something great, that you hadn't even known about, and you can't get there because you have to be in some other place! Bah!

On our 2001 travels in Europe, I got sick, but I couldn't stop for one day to catch my breath (or even try breathing - becoming a bit of a novelty) because our schedule for this part of the trip was so tightly organised - different place every night, hard travelling, several scheduled stops. Later in the trip, in the part that I'd organised, staying a couple of days in the same place, my travelmate got sick. Guess what - he just went to bed for a day or so! Such luxury!

I think one of the great things of travel is the unexpectedness - coming across something you didn't know about and want to see more of! Any time I've been on an organised trip I find that there are things I'm dying to do, but can't possibly.

Last month, in Sweden, staying with friends, and fitting in with their agendas, we scheduled a day for outdoor stuff and a day for museums. Well, of course, the outdoor day was just miserable, so cold and wet and horrible that, no matter how good our wet weather gear, the day was a washout. Next day - for museums, was just lovely - be we were inside. No scope at all for spontaneity.

For me it all depends. Now that I'm in the rat race working 8-5 with daily overtime I am taking a relaxed vacation. Were I not so exhausted I'd want a wild and wicked one.

I feel old. :-(

yes spontaneity is important.

I like a mixture of galleries, interesting places and towns with lazy days mooching and exploring in the country or on the beach and no set agenda.

We have a list of places we'd like to see - but if other interesting things come up and we don't see some of them, it doesn't matter. Rushing around trying to tick off everything on the list is exhausting and spoils the fun.

Sponaneity rules! (Though it's hard to spell.)

Wild and wicked is easier to accomplish without a schedule, in my experience.

Margo, you've laid out PRECISELY my problem with scheduling. And I adore the unexpected. One of the places that I most enjoyed in Paris was the Mosque De Paris (?), which we gained entrance to because I happened to run into a deaf Parisian who was a worshipper there, and insisted on bringing us in even though it was normally closed to tourists. (ASL is derived from French Sign Language as American English is derived from British English, so we understood each other's signs just fine even though we were mouthing different languages.) (Had never met him before, just a friendly deaf Parisian who was happy to meet a deaf American.) At any rate, it was a wonderful, wonderful experience, that never COULD have been planned on. ("Wander streets of Paris. Run into a deaf native. Hope he is Muslim and has some free time.")

Vivien, nice mixture. Mooching lazily is my cup of tea.

Run me through this 'vacation' concept again. It seems to involve an extended break from work, but that (at least to me) is not possible.

My last serious vacation wasn't...in that I had an agenda for photo'g stuff in twelve cities, so, never mind. But ordinarily I am Lazybonessa. I like for some stupid reason to get up early on vacation, as opposed to in real life, and to go walking all about, with many stops. First a nice cappuccino and dolci at a closeby pasticceria, and then a walk to See It, and after Seeing It, another cappuccino and sweet. Then walk to Whatsit, and go in, wander about, picking one or two paintings or chapels or ferns to look at, and then strolling out to find the most intriguing immediate restaurant, where we pull up short and stay long, preferably with good food and lots to look at. After lunch we walk some more, in a desultory fashion, perhaps for miles and miles or just one mile. Um, isn't it time for an apperitivo? More caffe sitting. Oh, look the shops are reopening...let's look at the ceramics...or the via xxxx....or the river. Or get an espresso and one cioccolatino. So let's walk back to the hotel...by now three miles...and we do...and (whatever) and we ramble on out later in the evening for not the best restaurant in town but again, the nearest likely one...and it is wonderful, warm, friendly, wonderful food, and the host brings us the house vin santo after we have paid the check...
and we walk some more.

Since the vacation is not fully packed then sometimes we do different things during our days in different places...we don't have to be one person on vacation or otherwise.

Ah, but always, the good evening at the ristorante, with a light dinner, a glass of light, then walk back up the hill.

My dear Mr Still

We do have vacations in Australia, but here we call them holidays - and employees get a minimum of 4 weeks of them each year, that is - time away from work, for which you are paid (sometimes even with a holiday loading).

Now, there is no compulsion (or not much) to take them, so dedicated persons such as yourself are able to continue working, if the thought of being away from your beloved library is just too-too much. In that case, however, those holidays you are not using should be given to someone like me, who is very good at holidays / vacations/ recreation leave / annual leave / what the hell!

I've just come back from this year's break, 4 weeks tormenting the Swedes and others, and I'm ready to go again, RIGHT NOW!!! Cough up your leave entitlement!

I'm with you sister!

Vacations to me are relaxing non structured affairs.

Spontaneity rules, and did I mention relaxing?

Yea, I left my university with a whole lot of sick leave and holiday time, and.. . for what. Well, I think I got some money out of it, hard to remember.
Still, things would have been even more (troubled) had I left more often, in my opinion, and apparently others'.

Four weeks, oh, thud....thud, and some more thuds...

Note, later - right this minute this post seems out of context. Or...the earlier one was.

I get 5 weeks of vacation - 3 of which are spent in India visiting family !!

But my idea of vacation is to chill out. I lead a very hectic life anyways, vacation for me is time for me to switch off completely, do whatever I want to, read, meet friends, and if mood strikes me check out the night life in places I am holidaying in.

One of my favorite vacation spots is Geneva. The city is do dang boring that nothing ever happens there. Perfect - there are no temptations so I can really relax !! When I was in the business, working 80 hrs a week - I used to take a weekend off 0 fly down to Geneva, hire a yatch in the middle of the lake and not come ashore for tw days - just lie down, drink, read and check out all the tourists who take the lake cruises.....

Puuuuuuuuurrrrrfect !!

Must look into this Geneva thing - you're right - the city is dead boring!

The best vacations are always the ones someone else is paying for.

I agree cav - wanna pay for mine then ?

Gautam and margo, Do you know that pizza place across the street from the train station? I ate there. c.i.

Gautam, tell you what....pay off my debts, and I'll pay for your vacation. I am certain you have heard of 'revolving credit' If you come for a weekend, I'll spring for a day pass on the TTC

Not to mention...I have the latest copy of Toronto Life, cover story being 'Out in Toronto', a guide to the hot spots for those who are 'out'....

Why do u wanna terrorize the gay population of Canada by having me over there ????

Man, I don't know, it's been such a long time. But years back, when I still had lots of room on the credit cards and never held a job for more than a few months, long unstructured vacations were the rule. Spent six weeks in Europe with the gf one summer. All we did was pick up a car. Took a notion to go to Portugal, and did. Changed our minds, doubled back and went to the Italian Riviera to camp and float in the water for a while, did that. Figgered we'd go up to Copenhagen and Amsterdam via Switzerland, did that. Plenty of business, but also plenty of lazing around campgrounds in between roasting those great French and Italian peppers.

Had done the same thing years before, only mostly solo and on trains, with only a flight from Athens to London and a flight back to San Francisco from there to keep me on task. Loved that, too. Drifting through, leaving a town on whatever day I felt like leaving, stopping at places that looked interesting, hiking through the landscape to check things out (though I did learn that dogs in rural Greece aren't always very friendly)...

Rambling, missing being able to vacation, so, short answer: unstructured, laid back, but not necessarily lazy...