What kind of vacation is your type ?

[The Lone Wolf]

Well, hello again DooMWorld's fellow community, yet again we are going to enter to Summer seasion. Vacation, Hotels, Sea/Oceon, drinks and people we love.

Couple of days ago I  had a discussion with my friends about "What type of vacation suits them ?" In my opinion spending your time at home is the real vacation.

I mean going for long ways to reach a Hotel to stay about 1 or 2 weeks and doing nothing is not my type. I don't like it. If I wanted to lay down like a lazy cow

I'd do that at home from the beginning. Well of course, pleasures and choices of people can not be discussed, right ? Anyways, I love to travel frequently, myself and my father have horses since we live in countryside of my country, a village I meant. So every year we get onto our horses and ride them on our harsh sunny steppes for 3 weeks. Visiting new places and making new friends and helping some tourists to guide them here and there (well for a fair price ofc. he he...) Whenever we do this together. I feel like an wanderer from old ages. So long story short what type of vacation is your choice ? Stay at hotel, visit relatives, go camping, sports and trekking at nature, stay at home ?

Edited May 28, 2021 by THE IMP

[Kurogachii]

I just chill at home at the moment, excercise, tea & coffee, music, mapping and other projects, i'm from chile so we are heading for winter here, it's all about turning the heater on and chill with your cat.

[out_of_service]

Taking everything into consideration a staycation is best for me.

[insertwackynamehere]

I like going to foreign cities alone where I can just go around all day to museums and such and then nap at hotel and then go to a bar at night. I’m not the most extroverted person, but this sort of thing has always been relaxing and somewhat freeing. I like not having obligations to friends/family/etc and traveling solo and just walking around and relaxing, and I’ve had great luck making random acquaintances from all over the world just going to bars that have a large portion of global expats. Of course I never see these people again but it’s fun just hanging out with other random people in a different city. This is also so far from my normal “at home” personality of being kind of introverted (I go out but I’m not “that guy” making friends with everyone at the bar) that it’s weird to type out in the first person.

 

Second to that is just hanging out on beach or at pool relaxing in warm weather. That’s a much less “productive” vacation when contrasted with seeing new cities, but I enjoy them as well.

 

I really think traveling solo is great though, I’m sure it’s personality dependent but I have good memories of it. I had a vague sadness every day between museums and going out that I was alone half a world away from anyone I knew but as a general introvert I found that surprising and manageable, and further I found the ease of meeting new people as an introvert also surprising. I met up with friends later in the trip and it was so frustrating to organize plans after 10 days of not worrying about coordinating with anyone on anything.

[Grazza]

True, there are a lot of good things about travelling on your own. You can act completely on the spur of the moment, make things up as you go along, and go off on tangents based on random things that happen each day. Having a good travelling companion can also work really well, but it is a different experience.

 

One time I went to the main station in Budapest and just took a train at random.

 

I always like to travel somewhere when I am on vacation, to see and do things. Almost always I go to a new place, or at least to see different things if going back to an area I have visited before*. Other than hiking (which is necessary to get to a lot of places) or skiing (hey, there's a limit to what you can do in winter in some places!), I don't generally travel primarily to do "activities". It's always a means to an end. [It seems vaguely ridiculous on the Canary Islands to see all these cyclists ride for hours up to an amazing viewpoint, barely even bother to look at it and then set off down the hill. They could have done just the same thing back home on their Peleton without the traffic fumes and the risk of injury to themselves and other vehicles on the mountain roads. But I digress.]

 

I tend to pack a lot in when travelling. Perhaps the most absurd was on Hawaii, where the available flights dictated I would have just over two full days on Big Island. Those two days were so jampacked that my suitcase travelled the island (dumped at tour bases as it couldn't go on the helicopter) the first day until about midnight when I checked into my accommodation, and the next day's activities started around 5am (getting back around midnight again). The next morning I was sorely tempted to work in a submarine trip, but decided against it when working out that I would have had just a few minutes in hand to make my flight (I used the time to buy Kona coffee instead, so it wasn't wasted). At the next stop on that vacation I did pretty much the same thing in Vegas (though there checking into a hotel at 1 am is a little more standard).

 

Generally I prefer cold places to hot places, but as long I know there will be some refuge from the heat, I'll happily go to countries like Singapore and the hotter bits of Australia. Almost anywhere mountainous is good, as is anywhere that feels totally different from the norm. If there is interesting geology or history, that's good too. I don't like going to places where I'd only be safe because there are armed guards about, however. Or places overrun by tourists. If I see a bunch of mongs waiting in line to take each other's selfies at some "awesome" spot, I'll quietly vomit and go somewhere else that isn't ruined yet.

 

* OK, my three visits to Ny-Ålesund might suggest otherwise, but that's a special case.

Edited May 28, 2021 by Grazza

[Serum]

I just left NYC after a week long vacation and it was 100% my ideal vaca. We did 10 million things (museums, Coney Island, Yankees game) and we were never sedentary for very long. The week flew by and I actually probably lost some weight from all the walking. Never a dull moment. Only downside was that it was expensive as hell  

Edited May 29, 2021 by Serum

[ReX]

10 hours ago, THE IMP said:

So every year we get onto our horses and ride them on our harsh sunny steppes for 3 weeks. Visiting new places and making new friends and helping some tourists to guide them here and there (well for a fair price ofc. he he...) Whenever we do this together. I feel like an wanderer from old ages.

That sounds idyllic and something out of a medieval story. Lucky guy.

 

I'm not sure I have a "type". I love hiking in the mountains, but I also like stretching out on a beach chair with a book and listening to the waves lap upon the shore. I'll gladly take a bus or walk to a museum during an urban vacation, but I'm also all for taking a train to a village out in the country and bicycling along pastoral paths. I did a lot of wildlife tourism as a youth, mainly staying in inexpensive lodges or tents. I really want to snorkel along The Great Barrier Reef, but the only time I visited Australia I toured the eastern cities (Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne) and spent a couple of days at Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park. I would love to get to the Antarctic, but that's a f*cking expensive expedition.

[Remilia Scarlet]

Staying home or going fishing up in the mountains.  Either way, the fewer people, the better when it comes to me.

[leodoom85]

What kind of vacation is my type?

 

Had the ideal vacations the last 3 years. Except that I've been alone those times, I chose to rent a home in such a quiet place, with net too and practically undisturbed all day.

Of course, I had to visit other places and had all the time to do it.

[The Lone Wolf]

@ReX It is a common way to travel around my state. You can still find horse carts and old people riding donkeys at road ways, conveying vegetables and fruits and as such to town center. It is a family tradition we have in Turkic culture. My father is a calf and cow shepherd, so do I ? Yes, I was helping him until I became a student at a local university. Since we have lots of touristic attraction places around, I've met many people from different countries. Mostly Russians and Balcanians or some Germans. I learned english at my childhood from them. I still do that if I am avaliable, of course. They also pay good money so I can make out my allowence by the help of them. Fun Fact: Every year at July, we organize cavalry javalin/dart competitions. People show their skills as such archery, sword, long-spear, acrobatics on horses.

Sometimes people from other Turkic dynasties and Afghans, Persians join us at our festivals as well. "Kazakhs, Kyrhyzs, Turkmens, Mongols (I still think Mongolians mix of all Asian countries since Teimüjin Khan but okay), etc..."

Edited May 29, 2021 by THE IMP

[Grazza]

2 hours ago, ReX said:

I would love to get to the Antarctic, but that's a f*cking expensive expedition.

Then try the Arctic. You can fly to Svalbard (so no long/rough sea crossing!) on a scheduled flight, or make a short visit to Greenland via a dinky little flight from Iceland (they normally go from the Reykjavik city airport). Otherwise you're looking at an expedition cruise (necessary if you want to see big icebergs, unless you just fly into Ilulissat), but the Arctic ones are generally a lot less pricey than Antarctic ones, and the departure points are a lot easier to get to. Unfortunately the only scheduled big-aircraft flights into Greenland are from Denmark.

 

One option is to fly into Svalbard and then do short trips (boat, snowmobile or hiking, XC ski, depending on time of year) from there as your base. That's logistically easiest. Useful sites:

https://en.visitsvalbard.com/

https://www.spitsbergen-svalbard.com/

Drawbacks of Arctic vs Antarctic: no penguins; need to practice PB safety (so generally have a guide).

 

If you want to splurge on an expedition, then Scoresbysund in September would be my recommendation. Or the Ilulissat-Uummannaq section of West Greenland; might as well be midsummer for that.

 

Yeah, I have no suggestions for how to do Antarctica on a budget. I was fortunate enough to go at a time when the pound was really strong. Anything that looks inexpensive probably just grazes the end of the peninsula or is on a boat that can't handle much ice.

 

BTW, in Australia, a possible alternative to the Great Barrier Reef is Ningaloo Reef, on the west coast. It's a pretty big reef, and hasn't experienced as much bleaching. It's also just a day's drive (through some very empty terrain) from the awesome Karijini National Park.

Edited May 29, 2021 by Grazza

[SiMpLeToNiUm]

In my wild dreams, an excursion to some exotic and exciting foreign country where I get to photograph beautiful things and immerse myself in wherever it is I'm at is the "ideal" Pinterest/Instagram/Hallmark movie vacation, but in reality such things require tiring planning and lots of money and patience to pull off. In the absence of such grandiose undertakings, a week or so just doing whatever around my local community and surrounding areas just me and maybe a +1 or some friends hanging sounds relatively stress free and what a vacation would look like for me.

Edited May 29, 2021 by SiMpLeToNiUm

[printz]

I had some solo travels, mainly capital city breaks, at the beginning, when I started travelling. Marking off the touristic objectives was alright, but it surely was feeling lonely eating at restaurants (most of them invariably serving bad fatty food) so my phone was my friend... Also, I am even less extroverted and wouldn't go alone to a bar just to talk to strangers. I think bars are for groups anyway. Nowadays I'd probably use social apps like meetup or facebook to find actual events where I can enjoy something and possibly talk to bystanders... Still, the thought of finding expat groups also demotivates me. I don't go abroad to meet other expats - I go there to meet locals, if possible. 

 

Anyway, cities are no longer as cool as they were when I was a kid. Malls are commonplace now and just sell clothes and trinkets. Museums are alright but they feel like studying at school. Amusement parks aren't really localized. Castles and citadels are fine, but usually mean crowds and cityscape photos. The most popular cities suck because they're really decadent with public safety nowadays. 

 

Most of my latest travels have included mountain hiking. Solo mountain hiking is generally a no-no, so for that I need people ready to go to the same place. That's very hard to find independently. People are so flaky it's ridiculous. So instead, I use $$$ to buy guided tours. That way, I get a guaranteed vacation with guaranteed companions and guides. And the nice thing is that it's often the same people, so there is a chance to get friendly with them. Drawback: I totally won't train my skills to organize an independent trip. I can very easily occupy my weekends with paid guided mountain tours. Sometimes I really NEED a group of trained people to travel on the more dangerous mountains, so going indie is not really a good choice. But anyway, I don't really get the chance to try to invite some guy or two (assuming I don't just have a girlfriend) to explore some place. 

 

I avoid guided tours to non-mountaineous areas, as a rule, because they tend to attract the worse kind of tourists. Mountain hiking tourists however are the more fit, nature conscious type, who aren't afraid to get dirty. 

 

Now with the pandemic, it will probably be staycations or unplanned exploration travels. I may bring my mountain bike with me and ride on the trails of the country (minding the dogs). Maybe I should also get comfortable sleeping at hotels again, just to be able to travel farther. I guess I'll try being more solo and independent now, but try to keep in touch with people, maybe I can still propose something. 

Edited May 29, 2021 by printz

[Teo Slayer]

Staying at home, going to the beach, eating at restaurants, hanging out in nights

That's vacation for me :P

Edited May 29, 2021 by Teo Slayer

[Naarok0fkor]

Stay home & make WADs...

[ReX]

8 hours ago, THE IMP said:

You can still find horse carts and old people riding donkeys at road ways, conveying vegetables and fruits and as such to town center. It is a family tradition we have in Turkic culture. My father is a calf and cow shepherd, so do I ? Yes ...

Good for you, my friend. In many ways you're lucky to be able to stay connected with your traditions.

 

7 hours ago, Grazza said:

One option is to fly into Svalbard and then do short trips

..... a possible alternative to the Great Barrier Reef is Ningaloo Reef, on the west coast ..... Karijini National Park

The Arctic sounds like a much more budget-friendly alternative, and the suggestion to use Svalbard as the entry point sounds good. At one point, I was considering getting to the Arctic via Alaska. But the logistics would be too much (equating to high expenses). Svalbard seems to have the logistics well in place, leading to the availability of more economical arrangements.

 

Since my first (and only) trip to Australia I have been interested in visiting Perth and the West Coast. Ningaloo Reef and Karijini National Park would seem like essential stops. Thanks for the suggestions.

[ReX]

7 hours ago, printz said:

Solo mountain hiking is generally a no-no

Mostly, I agree. There are hazards, it tends to get boring, and one doesn't have a companion (or more than one) to provide encouragement when one's energy and enthusiasm flag. I have done a few solo mountain hikes and I generally found them to be quite enjoyable. I did one in the Grand Teton National Park during which I carried bear spray. I did see a mother bear and its 2 cubs across a stream, but they ignored me. Parts of the hike were veritable slogs, and it would have helped me to have a fellow hiker to keep me going.

[Doomkid]

20 hours ago, ReX said:

I really want to snorkel along The Great Barrier Reef, but the only time I visited Australia I toured the eastern cities (Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne) and spent a couple of days at Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park.

You had better get in soon, the right-wingers over here opened the gates to it being used it as a dumping grounds for toxic sludge on their never ending mission to destroy the planet for the sake of cost reduction. I'm lucky enough to have snorkeled in the reef back in 2004, and I can say it was one of the most beautiful experiences I've ever had. I think it's a whole lot deader now than it was back then, though.

Edited May 30, 2021 by Doomkid

[adamastor]

I mostly went to eastern european countries up to now. Visiting historically or culturally rich countries, along with wandering through old cities and mountains, really has been doing the trick for me and my wife.

[ReX]

42 minutes ago, Doomkid said:

I'm lucky enough to have snorkeled in the reef back in 2004, and I can say it was one of the most beautiful experiences I've ever had.

You lucky bastard! When I was planning my trip, a friend who lives in Sydney recommended visiting the Great Barrier Reef over visiting Uluru. In the end I chose the latter, and my friend (who's lived in Australia for decades but never visited Uluru) joined me with his wife and another friend. The drive from Alice Springs to the Uluru Kata Tjuta was something else. I did get to see the Southern Cross Constellation from the light pollution-free area of Central Australia, and I did get to climb to the top of Uluru (which, in retrospect, was disrespectful of me). Maybe the Great Barrier Reef is still in the cards for me, despite the assholes who want to make it a dumping ground.

[Grazza]

16 hours ago, ReX said:

Since my first (and only) trip to Australia I have been interested in visiting Perth and the West Coast. Ningaloo Reef and Karijini National Park would seem like essential stops. Thanks for the suggestions.

We did Perth and that section of the west coast in the same trip by flying from Perth up to Exmouth and picking up a rental car there. We worked our way back to Perth via Karijini and then down the coast. Distances are significant but manageable. Generally coming down the coast we had about four "mandatory" hours on the road each day, leaving a good deal of time to see stuff. Attractions are spread out but good, and the main options are fairly obvious. An extra day around Shark Bay (esp. if we'd had a more rugged 4x4 vehicle) might have been good. Once you're back in the bottom corner there is obviously a lot more choice, but of the National Parks, Fitzgerald River and Porongurup were particularly interesting. Early November proved a good choice of time of year - low season but not yet stiflingly hot in the north (admittedly that was a little lucky), and not wintery in the south.

Tips:

In the wilder areas it is probably a good idea not to drive much after dark due to kangeroos.

In the north, fill up fully at every gas/petrol station.

The petrol station in Paraburdoo really does have the best 75c coffee you will find anywhere.

This book is an excellent guide to the National Parks.

 

At some point we'll do the next section of coast up to Darwin. Don't know when though. Our world map has a lot of green pins in it.

 

[leejacksonaudio]

My favorite is the planned-unplanned vacation. Make plans to go to a specific place, with good location, make sure our fishing licenses are up to date, and then get there and act like you've got no schedule whatever. Case in point - we'd made plans to do this at a beach house in Galveston for our 25th wedding anniversary. Then, here comes Hurricane Ike and flattens - and I do means flattens - the beach house *we'd* been so meticulous to locate and plan for so we could have a week worth of NOTHING to do. Instant change in plans.

 

After much searching, we found a place at the last minute called "Log Country Cove" which had a little 1 bed/1 bath cabin on the cove that we could afford for most of the week. We packed up, drove down, moved in, and had no plans whatsoever (except for one day set aside to fish). Best vacation ever. We did lots of stuff - visited the Falls Vineyard Winery, found Tex-Mex food in Marble Falls, and a bunch of  other unscheduled, spontaneous stuff. Much fun was had.

[Devalaous]

My family always goes on vacation without me and leaves me to watch the house. so...what is a vacation? :p

[MFG38]

On 5/28/2021 at 8:14 PM, THE IMP said:

going for long ways to reach a Hotel to stay about 1 or 2 weeks and doing nothing

 

This begs the question, though - what qualifies as "doing nothing" here? Because if you mean the phrase in the literal sense, I'm inclined to agree. But if the definition in this case is more fluid, the clarification as to what "doing nothing" implies is needed. The vacations I've been on never entailed just sitting in a hotel room 24/7 - if anything, my family and I would spend the better part of any day moving around and seeing the environment whenever we were abroad somewhere. I always enjoyed sightseeing, and if I'm going to go somewhere new, the hotel room is the place I'm going to be spending the least time in.

 

But I must reiterate: what does "doing nothing" entail in this context?

[The Lone Wolf]

@MFG38 I meant there are families who doesn't wander around the city they are in. For example, you reached a hotel and just only lay down and going to swim time to time at pool or beach. It's because if you've come this far to have vacation why don't spend your time on other than staying at hotel only. I am not sure about if I described myself clear t you.

Edited May 30, 2021 by THE IMP

[MFG38]

1 minute ago, THE IMP said:

I meant there are families who doesn't wander around the city they are in. For example, you reached a hotel and just only lay down and going to swim time to time at pool or beach. It's because if you've come this far to have vacation why don't spend your time on other than staying at hotal only.

 

Right, thanks for the clarification. Just wanted to make sure we were on the same page.

[darkreaver]

For summer vacation, my favorite thing is hiking and fishing up in the mountains. Next favorite thing is renting a house in rural Italy with a pool and BBQ and just chill to the max for a couple if weeks. Food and wine in excess.

[ZeroTheEro]

I'd rather stay home because sleeping more and going on the net, especially in current human malware circumstances over here.

[Vic Vos]

I'd really like to fall into a coma for a month or two.

[ReX]

On 6/3/2021 at 9:38 AM, Vic Vos said:

I'd really like to fall into a coma for a month or two.

Although there have been times when I feel like I'd like to take a space vacation, I never feel that being completely oblivious is a good thing. I realize you're probably being facetious with your comment, but I hope you know nothing is worth falling into a coma, even a temporary one.