Travel Poll: When do you travel?

[GilliC]

Inspired by the fact that practically everyone in my city is on holiday at the moment...

Do you tend to plan trips at the same time of year?
What are the biggest factors in choosing when you travel?

[GilliC]

I usually plan a big trip around Easter, since that's the longest holiday stretch here.

Unlike the 80% of locals, I tend not to travel in July, on the off chance that we'll have nice summer weather (It's completely gorgeous here when that happens).

I also usually set aside a week of vacation to go somewhere in October or November when there are lots of travel deals and it's dark, rainy, and generally depressing here at home.

[sunshinedaydreams]

We always travel over Labor Day, which is also our anniversary. The other times of year we travel change, but the past few years we've been doing Memorial Day to get a "free" day in there. And then we do a couple of long weekends where we can and call in sick.

We moved and switched jobs a few years ago, and both of us went from 22 days a year to 13, so we're doing all we can to squeeze extra vacation days where we can.

[Deleted]

We always travel the weeks of Christmas and New Years, sometimes just that week and sometimes 2-3 weeks over that time frame. January 2nd is our anniversary. H works for a university and has that week off and it doesn't count as vacation days. It's a very slow time for me and easy to take off. We don't have any other obligations over Christmas because our families don't celebrate.

Overall it's worked out really well, despite the crowds and prices. We've been to places that aren't big "holiday" destinations, and have found great fares by actually flying on Christmas and/or New Years (rather than the day before or after).

I think when we have kids we'll start staying home for Christmas and doing a more traditional family Hanukkah/Christmas celebration and travel the following week, and probably do a summertime lake or beach trip. Growing up my family always went away the last two weeks before school started. We also do an annual ski weekend that we only do at the very end of the ski season, when condo prices have dropped and the slopes are empty.

[mdgirl]

Way back when GBCN first started someone on this board said they do trips instead of birthday presents, which I thought was a great idea so we do that. My husband's birthday is in January and mine is Sunday, so they're nice and spread out, too. Our anniversary is early May, so we like to do something in that general time frame, and there's an annual conference my husband goes to in September that I often tag along to. Both of our families are on the opposite side of the country so holidays are usually spent traveling to one of them.

[Susie]

It varies, but it usually is not during summer or major school holidays. Summer = triathlon season for me, plus it makes more sense for me not to go on vacation at the same time as folks at work with kids. Long lines at attractions are not appealing anyway. The specifics depend on when would be nice at the destination.

Our last few big trips have all been at different times: Ireland in May and June, Italy in October, Hawaii in January.

[Deleted]

There is no rhyme or reason to when I travel. It really varies completely year to year.

So far this year I've done big travelling in Jan, May, June with an upcoming trip in Sept.

I requested my first vacation during residency for Jan, so that's when I have 2 weeks off and I chose that time because I figured by then I'll be ready for a nice long break.

[rupertpenny]

We usually plan around holidays. We did bigger trips over the previous Christmas and Easter, and have things planned for the next Christmas and Easter as well. But we've also taken July vacations the last two years half just because we felt like it, and half because I can only carry over so much leave and I need to use it or lose it by the end of August.

The only big holiday we don't take advantage of is Chinese New Year (we usually get a 5 day weekend) because it is SOOO expensive to travel during that time.

[dorothyinAus]

I like to travel to avoid heat, so I plan my trips to be in the fall/winter season wherever I'm going. Before I was married, I traveled whenever because I could. But now, I plan my trips around DH's schedule -- he's a teacher and has two weeks off after every quarter, and 6 weeks at the end of the year (December/January), so we do most of our traveling during the high seasons in Australia. I can't wait for him to be eligible for long-service leave so we do something big together not in December/January.

[Deleted]

We usually travel during my son's spring break which is early March. It seems to be earlier than the spring break of most schools so it's not too busy of a time. We tend to head south and I like having a warm trip to look forward to at the end of winter.

[scout8]

DH and I work together and we are the slowest in Nov and Dec. So, that is when we travel. Most years, we take a 3-4 week trip at this time.

[wise_rita]

Jul 20, 2015 17:35:33 GMT -5 @travelbug1210 said:

H works for a university and has that week off and it doesn't count as vacation days.  

Same for me and it's glorious!  I'm going to the Philippines over Christmas/New Years for 9 days and using only 1 vacation day (because flight gets home at 10:45. If it were 6:45 I'd go to work that day).  Unfortunately my SO works in the real world so he does have to use vacation days, so we're always off balance with each other.  Luckily he's been able to take unpaid time off (which of course isn't ideal) to catch up to me.

I am a travel opportunist.  If there are cheap flights, that's where I go.  Christmas/New Years definitely doesn't fit that profile, but for travel in general that's how we decide when and where to go.

My new method is to tack on fun travel to oblications.  Are you familiar with this term?  If you live abroad you are, even if you don't now it.  A "vacation" you are obligated to take.  From now on whenever I go to visit family I am darn well stopping somewhere fun along the way!

[GilliC]

Jul 20, 2015 22:21:21 GMT -5 wise_rita said:

My new method is to tack on fun travel to oblications.  Are you familiar with this term?  If you live abroad you are, even if you don't now it.  A "vacation" you are obligated to take.  From now on whenever I go to visit family I am darn well stopping somewhere fun along the way!

How do I not know this term? I'm flying to the US on Saturday, and people keep asking if I'm taking any vacation this summer. I'm all, "Well... uh... I'm going away for a week, but I'm super stressed about it!"

[wise_rita]

Jul 21, 2015 4:50:17 GMT -5 GilliC said:

Jul 20, 2015 22:21:21 GMT -5 wise_rita said:

My new method is to tack on fun travel to oblications.  Are you familiar with this term?  If you live abroad you are, even if you don't now it.  A "vacation" you are obligated to take.  From now on whenever I go to visit family I am darn well stopping somewhere fun along the way!

How do I not know this term? I'm flying to the US on Saturday, and people keep asking if I'm taking any vacation this summer. I'm all, "Well... uh... I'm going away for a week, but I'm super stressed about it!"

Genius, isn't it?  I learned it from my dual Australian/American friend who has half her family in both countries.  

[Deleted]

I've never heard the term "oblications" but we definitely do that! I love turning out-of-town weddings into long weekends, even if it's not otherwise a location we would pick for a vacation. This winter we're driving from Virginia to Florida to visit my in-laws, and turning it into a road trip stopping in Charleston, Savannah, and N. Florida (St. Augustine and Amelia Island).

[MNH2013]

We tend to vacation during fall/winter months. Since most of our vacations are to cold weather places (skiing/snowboarding). Our anniversary is March, H's bday Sept, mine Jan. The baby's bday is March. It just happens that we book and by the same time the next year we are ready to book another.

[osumelissa]

For bigger trips (one week or more), I always do a fall and a spring vacation. Fall is typically early November as it is a slower time at work (we're one month into the fiscal year so things are operating at a normal pace) and I can usually get a good deal.

When I was married, our spring vacation was always at the end of April/beginning of May because our wedding anniversary was May 6, and we did trips instead of presents. This year my boyfriend and I did a Europe trip in early March - it was great because we got good deals and the crowds were pretty light at most places. Next year I think our spring trip will be in April just depending on work and airfare prices.

For shorter trips, I tend to do an island vacation with my sister and some girlfriends in May for four nights, and in mid-June I like to get away for a few days around my birthday when possible. Also in the fall, I will do at least one weekend trip back to Ohio for a college football game at my alma mater.

Other trips might pop up throughout the year just depending on if I go snowboarding with friends, if my boyfriend randomly plans something for us, or we decide to get away to NYC or Philly to catch a sporting event.

[GilliC]

Jul 21, 2015 7:38:31 GMT -5 @mx said:

GilliC I find my Norwegian counterparts to be super rigid about their vacations to the point that they try to dictate how I work as a result. Like, I was working with our sister organization in Norway on a project in Ethiopia and we had a deadline approximately 12 days after Easter. They wanted us to finish the entire thing BEFORE the Easter week in Norway because they all take the entire week off to go skiing and therefore won't be working. No matter that Easter in Ethiopia ISNT EVEN AT THE SAME TIME AND THEREFORE WE WERE ALL WORKING THAT WHOLE WEEK, they wanted us to finish the work 15 days early so that they could ski without worrying about the project.

Hahahaahahahahahah! This is so true.

My office has about 120 people. Today there were less than 20, and only 2 were even Norwegian!

They're also very rigid about work-life balance on a normal day. If you try to schedule a meeting with Norwegians after 4pm, most of them will just say, "Sorry, I can't be there. I have to pick up my kid from kindergarten." And no one blinks an eye. Our colleagues from other offices are all, "Wha-?!" but eventually they just realize that nope, Norwegians only put work first during working hours.

I like it most of the time, and whenever I get frustrated by it, I just remind myself that thankfully I'm allowed (expected!) to do it too.

[Wanderista]

I travel whenever I can. The biggest factor is having the funds. Lately, I've had to put a lot of money into business expenses/career development so that has forced me to do more local traveling. There aren't really times when I wouldn't travel but I usually try to avoid most major US holiday weekends unless I'm just driving somewhere off the beaten track, which I have sometimes done.

I wouldn't really go to a cold beach in the winter. I would visit cities any time of year, especially European cities. I like the coziness of exploring a European city in the winter and being able to warm up in a pub or cafe. I also like winter fairs. It's also a good time of year to linger inside in museums. I guess that I wouldn't seek out most European cities in August for obvious reasons. 

I would probably opt to do Russia in spring or fall. 

Also, I tend to visit national parks in the US in spring, fall or on mild winter days. I like summer but my boyfriend doesn't care for it and I love to spend a lot of time swimming which I am able to do locally. In winter, I get a lot of cabin fever if I've been snowed in here in the US for too long and so I've been known to go hiking on a mild winter day.

[girlscout]

When it is just DH and myself we tend to go right after school starts in the fall. The prices are starting to go down and there tend to be less kids running around.

[librarygirl]

I'll take long weekend trips throughout the year, generally over holiday weekends since that means one less vacation day I need to use. Our big trips are usually in the very late summer/fall. I like knowing that I have something to look forward to in the latter half of the year versus it's only spring and our big trip hurrah is all said and done. However, for my 30th birthday last month we did take our big trip then as I wanted to actually be somewhere on the day/mark it in a non-boring, unique way and being in Norway definitely accomplished that  

[marytini]

Usually not during the summer as it is my husband's busy time at work. Big trips tend to be spring or September, which is usually less crowded anyways. And often cheaper.

Sent from my SM-G900V using proboards

[gt7301b]

Mr. GT is a teacher so we usually end up doing our big vacation over the summer. We also go to the beach over Labor Day weekend with some friends and I HATE that we go that weekend. I enjoy the people, but it is expensive and crowded that weekend.

[udscoobychick]

We usually take our big trip in March/April...it has been shoulder season for several of the places that we've been, and it's also right about when the refreshed feeling has worn off from winter breaks at work.

We also take an "oblication" to Canada every summer, usually the last week in August, to visit DH's family, both because MIL's bday is in late August and because I can't stand the cold, so that would make Canada any other time of year difficult.

[mbcdefg]

MH is a teacher, so we plan pretty much all of our trips around his time off ... summer vacation, winter and spring break, and long weekends (holidays, teachers' convention, etc.). 

We always go to Montreal during teachers' convention in November, although we're talking about possibly switching it up this year. And we always go to Boston in the days between Christmas and NYE to see an annual concert. We do a weeklong (within the USA) trip every summer. 

We can do a weekend in a local place like Philadelphia or Atlantic City without me necessarily taking time off work. 

I work in publishing, so I coordinate my vacation days for the downtime between edit/publishing dates. 

[alleinesein]

When I was married and XH worked in the airline industry we liked to travel in November. It was easier to get a standby flight to Europe during the cold months.

[Peacock]

Jul 20, 2015 17:30:48 GMT -5 @sfgal530 said:

The past few years, there's been no rhyme or reason to when we travel because we've been fortunate enough to have complete flexibility, so it basically is like, "I want to go somewhere at this time," and then I pick a destination that works for it (for international trips). 

I have serious travel envy right now - this is pretty much my dream scenario. Unfortunately dh and I both have jobs that require an in-office presence and we have elementary-age kids. We do travel, as a family, as a couple, and as individuals, but the logistics can be a challenge. For family vacations, we're mostly limited by the school year although we've pulled them out to go to the carribean in January before. Dh often takes a week or two in April-May, and I'm usually limited to the summer months and occasional opportunities in October or May (slower months for my job). Right now, I'm trying to figure out when I can take a week or two to travel by myself and, between my boss and dh's schedule, it's a challenge.

i love my kids and job but man, I'd love to just pick up and go withou worrying about childcare or my work schedule...

[mags]

I work in the school system so i can only go during school breaks. Big vacation in the summer, smaller one during the school year.

[cheezer]

If there's a holiday off work we're generally traveling. I planned our trip to the Maldives over Thanksgiving last year to get a week and a half off instead of only a week. I did the same this year for Spain at Christmas. We generally schedule long weekends over every holiday as well - MLK, Presidents Day, Easter, and the summer holidays.

This year we did a trip in April/May just because those dates worked with mileage availability when we were redeeming flights and it was a good time of year for weather.

[caddywompus]

We always take a week in March/April to go visit family somewhere, and then another week in October to celebrate our anniversary. We may take some short 3 day weekend trips, but those aren't any specific time of year.