>

OP: "i have a tiring blue collar job and want to relax for fun"
everyone else: "i have a job where i sit on my ass and want to get tired for fun"
When I hear “vacation” I guess I just assume traveling, so the image of someone flying somewhere just to sleep and play games in their hotel room made me lol >

Some of my fondest memories of being on vacation is when my kid, spouse, and I spent a morning laying at the beach, an afternoon watching a movie in the hotel room, and an entire evening playing poker.  
Lazy days in exotic locations are very satisfying. >

Yep. My gf and I have perfected the art of going away to a cozy cabin or hotel for the weekend and not doing ANYTHING except lay around, eat, watch movies, etc. It’s wonderful. Something about being in a different destination makes it all extraordinary >

My wife and I use the Cozy Cabin Trip to perfectly align our needs on vacations.
We rent a cabin next to a lake. She chills at the cabin and smokes bud and reads books and makes snacks while I run around and power fish from 4:30am to 6:30pm. Then we make dinner and watch a movie.
Two versions of the “perfect” vacation, intersecting seamlessly. >

I will never understand why people enjoy fishing. Spending 14 hours in one place barely doing anything sounds like torture lol >

Bro I rip around in a boat getting hella tactical, working shoreline structure, weird contours, and evaluating water temps, lunar modes, and all kinds of other shit.
You would need to literally beat me with a bong to get me to sit still for 14 hours lol >

I must say, that was the first time I’ve ever been even a little interested in fishing lol you sound like a fun time to fish with >

It’s a whole different game. Run-n-gun with 10 rods each on board loaded with a variety of different artificial baits, using electronics to survey the lake contours, finding patterns that fish are feeding on at different times of the day, and fishing HARD, cast after cast after cast. And through all of that, still having the attitude that sometimes, you don’t catch anything but god damn, it’s fuckin great to be out there with your boys talking shit lol. >

I love many types of fishing, but everything you described sounds like the antithesis of everything I enjoy about them (and the water).
If I feel like juggling that much busy-ness, I’ll be in a kitchen. >

I make it sound hectic but most of the planning happens while you’re hanging out drinking, and you go out with a plan and adapt as conditions change >

I sort of agree.  I hate being rushed.  I hate being on limited time.  Have you ever been to the Louvre.  I swear I suffered sensory overload after like 30 minutes there.  I'd need like a solid year to really enjoy the Louvre. >

The perfect vacation for me has a plan to do like one scheduled or big activity a day, then the rest for free time and spontaneity winging it IMO. >

Same here. I like a loosely structured vacation. I prefer one or two planned activities per day and the rest of  the time to do whatever, including lay in bed if I'm tired. >

I’m similar: generally there’s one planned activity in the morning and one planned activity in the afternoon. Then the rest of the time is fairly unstructured. 
I like doing architecture tours, which are often timed or constrained by opening hours, so having some amount of planning for my vacations is key. >

I sit on my ass all day at work. If I'm going on a vacation, it's gonna be a fucking active one. >

Yeah I bust my balls in the woods all day, working 50+ hours a week. I don't need more activity lol >

He's a lumberjack and he's okay, he sleeps all night and he works all day! >

He cuts down trees, he eats his lunch, he goes to the lavatory! On Wednesday he goes shopping, and has buttered scones for tea >

He's a lumberjack, and he's OK. He sleeps all night, and he works all day
I cut down trees, I skip and jump, I like to press wild flowers, I put on women's clothing and hang around in bars >

HE PUTS ON WOMEN'S CLOTHING AND HANGS AROUND IN BARS??? >

so wholesome, r/gatesopencomeonin >

I wouldn't spend the $$$ on traveling somewhere if all I'm going to do is sleep and game. 
May as well buy 5-10 games and stay in. >

They might be referencing to breaks or time off as vacations >

Yeah if I have time off from work, often the last thing I want to do is deal with the stress of travel and airports. In content to just not work for like a week and hang out and do projects/hobbies or just have friend over to hang in the yard and grill or whatever. Just not having a fixed schedule… not having to give a shit what time it is beyond whether it’s light or dark out. Go to bed and get up when I feel like it… go do what I want whenever with no regard for a time table >

Vacations are for fun. You can sleep at home for free. If I'm paying for something, it has to be a fun experience. Be it swimming in the sea, sightseeing, climbing mountains or snowboarding. >

Yeah I hate adventure stuff but I’m more along the lines of, if you’re going to a different country, make sure you explore the things you can’t get at home. Explore restaurants, beaches, national parks, etc >

Exactly. If you're going somewhere on a vacation, make it worth your while. Otherwise, you can just take some days off and take a rest in the comfort of your home. Idk what OP meant by "vacation", but if it's just days off work, I see their point. >

I mean for me at least that is my idea of vacation. I absolutely hate traveling and I've never been happy doing the typical "go to another country and do things" vacation. >

In my country, we usually either go to the seaside in another town(in the same country) or to the mountains. We usually don't need to travel far but we use our free time the best we can. "Go to another country" type of turism is on occasions. I've been to Germany (Berlin) and it was great. Especially the food. I've also been to Southampton (England) to visit a friend for his birthday. I really like the pubs there. >

If you're in the or around the EU/UK area that definitely makes sense, you can visit just about anywhere since things are relatively close by and there's a high cultural density and diversity concentrated into a small geographic area (compared to the US).
If I wanted to travel but not travel too far it means going to Idaho and looking at some potatoes I guess. >

Yeah. The large distances and all that wasted space is one of my main beefs with the USA(it's infrastructure). I can't imagine having to drive hours every day just to get to somewhere(work, school, supermarket, etc). Idk if that's the case, but I suppose it's because you have too many houses over there, and everyone feels the need to own a house for some reason, while in the EU we mostly live in appartments and owning houses is more like a luxury thing for the rich or reserved for villages/rural areas. So we've got more things and people, concentrated in smaller areas. 
I guess it's also a difference in natural landscape. And how much of the land remains wild and forestry, compared to industrialised. >

I interpret vacations as simply a designated time where you're free to use your own time to your own pleasure. To some that is visiting touristy destinations, others it's vegging by the pool or beach all day, and others it's staying at home and binge-watching TV.
I've traveled with friends who love having an itinerary and it isn't for me. When traveling, I'll even do my best to avoid any reservations or appointments because who wants to be clock-watching? >

I think OP is trying to say they prefer staycations? >

Or just not leaving home. >

This is also what I prefer. I don't believe it's unpopular but I also don't get out much as you might assume >

BINGO.  After years of “needing a vacation” thee we day I get back from vacation, my SO and I started a new practice.  Instead of cramming the itinerary full of crap for the whole trip, we pick a couple “musts”, and a handful of “if we feel like it” things, and decide each day what we’re up for.  Also, we try to separate “resting” vacations (beach, F&F, etc) from “adventure” vacations (touring, hiking, skiing, etc) and do one of each every year.
The amount of actual satisfaction we get from our vacations has vastly improved. >

I literally make that list. It has two parts, the “definitely” and the “maybe”. The “definitely” is an extremely short list. The “maybe” is filler that we’d enjoy and can select one at any time, but wouldn’t be disappointed if we just said fuck it because we’d rather lay around until dinner one day.
Do the same vacations, too. We have two adventure(ish) trips and one relax/indulge trip. >

My favorite vacations have been when I’ve gone camping, and just shut off my brain and chill for a few days, eat, and sleep. I’ll just take a week off in the off season and just go Monday to Thursday and shut my brain off and chill. >

I do like active vacations, butttttt.....
There's nothing better than going to the beach, throwing your keys, shoes, and wallet into a drawer, and seeing how long you can avoid using them. >

The other day it was insanely hot so I went to the beach with a friend. First time in a while. It was kinda nice losing track of time and not checking my phone for hours.
It was insanely hot until late, so there was much incentive to stay in the water! >

There’s vacations, and there’s trips. To me a vacation is to a warm beach location where most of my time is spent lounging around by the water, reading books, snoozing, eating, maybe one or two excursions to see some local attraction. 
Trips are for seeing and doing the best of what the area has to offer. They’re busy and exhausting and you do tons of walking and sight seeing. Also amazing, but I always come back feeling like I need a day or two off before I go back to real life. 
Both trips and vacations are amazing, I want them at different times for different reasons. >

The people from my country think vacation means hauling your ass to somewhere far away that usually takes hours, do activities that aren't relaxing or tires you out just so you can take pictures for Facebook (yes, Facebook).
Bonus points if it's a company mandated vacation that takes up your weekend. >

Interesting, I always found vacations where I'm just sitting around boring and unadventurous. >

Boring >

This is why cruises are ideal for me.
Being on the go go go is stressful for me, but if I’m on a floating party boat, it’s quite ideal . >

And to me a cruise sound like torture. Nothing to do and stuck in a hotel you can’t leave. Like maybe if it stopped in a bunch of places or whatever. 
I’ve always wanted to do one of those Viking river cruises where you get to go to a bunch of places and the cruise just takes you to the next city while you sleep >

The cruise ship has a basketball court, dance clubs, bars, sports bars, a theatre , a casino, pools, hot tubs, spa, gym, food court and more all on deck… it’s not just a hotel.
Also that’s what cruises do, the one I went on went to two separate islands each day. >

Just doesn’t seem like you are really visiting cool places or get a chance to do what ya want. Just going from tourist dock to tourist dock with bad food and the worst of Vegas between stops >

You definitely want to pay extra for excursions which get you away from the dock and to the stuff worth seeing.  We had one stop where we didn’t book an excursion and within 30 minutes of getting off the boat we were seriously regretting it because the area was so kitschy. We found a rental car company and got a great deal on a car because it was already 11 and they weren’t likely to get more customers that day.  Drove 30 minutes to a gorgeous beach and had a great day.
It’s still an abbreviated experience since you only spend a day in each place, but you get to see a lot of different places over the course of 7-14 days without spending all your time in a car, train, or airports.  I was highly skeptical going into my first cruise but I enjoyed it a lot.  I wouldn’t ever be one of those people who only travel via cruise, but I’d definitely cruise again >

So, I don't disagree, totally, but that's a single person's or possibly a couple's vacation. Unfortunately, if you have numerous people along, scheduling reduces the chaos. 
I like to hang out in bed all day, preferably with a view of something awesome like a beach or mountain. But I can't do that with other people along for more than like a day. >

I hate going on group vacations. Because then those people want to do their thing, but they want me to do it with them
 If I'm on vacation, I want to do my thing! Which is usually nothing. >

I’m with you. Especially because my families ideal holiday is totally different to mine. They love sun, beach, swimming pool etc. If I had to plan a holiday I would be going somewhere with a lot of history, art, unique food and going to a bar in the evening to chat with some local people. I just like to chill and take my time to really explore places. No point in a rushing around with a schedule. While there’s nothing wrong with just laying by a pool or beach all day I can’t help but find it to be such a waste of time
Everytime I bring this up as a suggestion for maybe a change of pace for once I just get laughed at and called boring. >

OP is clearly American. 
This is definitely not unpopular in Europe where our holidays consist of doing absolutely nothing whilst laying on a beach. >

This a new one. Americans usually get insulted for not being cultured or well traveled enough >

Eh depends on how you're defining vacation. If you just mean taking time off from work or you're in school and it's time for break then sure I'd agree
If you mean that you just traveled somewhere then hard disagree, im not gonna travel to, say, Europe from the US just to chill in my hotel all day and play video games because I could just do that from home. Maybe at nighttime when I've already gone out and done things for that day. If I'm traveling then I want to do/see things I both can't do from home and/or can only do in that area >

My wife and I stopped making big plans about 10 years ago.
We still like to travel, but while we're there, we completely wing it.
That said, what you're thinking of, is a staycation, or a mental health holiday.  Take a couple days off, sleep in, eat junk, play video games all day.  Nothing wrong with that either, but I'm certainly not driving 12 hours to Myrtle Beach to sleep all day and play video games. >

This is why we start differentiating between a vacation and a trip, bcs your absolutely right >

I came here to comment something similar. I call it a "trip" if I'm going somewhere to do interesting/fun stuff, but a "vacation" if I'm either staying home or going to the beach to relax. >

If i am on a vacation where I can do a lot of things I can’t otherwise do at home, I’m going to do those things. I may space it out to where I one thing a day so that I can sleep a little and enjoy a little spontaneity. >

No, I want to get up and move around. If I’m near historical sites or museums, I want to see them >

You can just do that and not go anywhere... No one is stopping you. >

I very much agree with this. 
I hate traveling vacations. It ends up just being busy, stressful, and tiring. You’re stuck with people constantly, no privacy. Everything is a group or on a schedule. Then I need to recover from the “vacation”. 
If I travel somewhere, it’s gotta be by myself and/or with my partner. I like doing things on my own time without the stress of following other people’s itineraries. I’m low energy too, so one day of activities wipes me out. 
Otherwise, staying home and enjoying my own free time is absolute paradise.
I realized how much I hated traveling when I left the country with a friend and their family for a month. What I was hoping would just be a nice trip to just enjoy the sights and visiting ended up being constantly doing planned activities from morning to night with no time to just wander and be “there”. >

Made the mistake of taking a long vacation with friends. Friends who apparently must be doing something every freaking second. The most non-relaxing, non-fun vacation experience ever. My BF and I would bow out to lay around on the beach and didn’t hear the end of how we were missing out being lazy. Screw that. I was annoyed the whole time. Never traveling with others again cause that was a huge waste of money just to be annoyed. >

Yes all true... but on an island. Not at home lol.
A nice resort where there are almost no kids. Or ..  if there are kids,  they're always well behaved, because you're staying at a nice property.
Lay on the beach,  be waited on, on the beach, hand and foot by waitstaff..  swim,  read.  Go back to the room,  have sex,  shower and dress for dinner, repeat 7 to 14 times.
That's a real vacation. >

This is where it's at! >

Once we did it on a Thanksgiving weekend. Jamaica. Superb. No family nonsense.  Just got on a plane on Wednesday, came back on Sunday. Perfect Thanksgiving weekend. >

100% agree. I fucking despise “itinerary” vacations. I LOATHE them. I have to follow an itinerary all week long in my daily life. I want to be a lazy piece of shit on a vacation. No expectations. No demands. And if I feel like partaking in an event/attraction then so be it. But don’t want to be told “we all need to go do this thing now”. No mf. I’m in the middle of an amazing nap. >

YES >

I guess the distinction here is between Vacation and Travel.  I don't want to travel and do nothing.  But vacation can be staying home and playing video games all week for me. >

Yeah I could travel on vacations but honestly that's really expensive and kind of a hassle. I'm busy enough managing a wood chipping crew, I don't want to manage a vacation too. >

I agree. Over-planning a vacation makes it stressful and not a vacation. Then you get home and need a vacation from your vacation, and you go back to work worse off than you were before the vacation. >

My favourite days are the ones when I do lots of things. >

Reading some of the comments, I think OP means they enjoy just chilling out when they take a day off work rather than doing "stuff". I can definitely agree in that regard that a few chill days here and there to do nothing of substance is rather nice.
However, in the traditional sense of the word where you actually go to a different destination for at least a few days, usually a week or two, then I would have to disagree somewhat. Even if I go to an all inclusive resort, it's nice to have a few excursions thrown in amongst the beach/pool days. >

I agree! I live in Canada so when i leave for the winter i just enjoy the hot weather and hate when people pressure me to do stuff. Like stfu i'm happy just relaxing and looking at birds and shit