Jealous of everyone's travels

[David M]

is 5wks vacation common in Canada?

It depends on the company. In my case, I started with 2 weeks, then one more week was added after each five years of service.

 

[epcmart]

It depends on the company. In my case, I started with 2 weeks, then one more week was added after each five years of service.

Thanks, I work for a large corporation and have been for 10yrs. Ours caps out at 4wks max after 10yrs. of service.



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[SMHarman]

NYC wasn't a planned vacation. My wife had to go there for work, so we all tagged along. We made the best out of it and had a great time. It was just very exhausting and I felt like I needed a vacation after this vacation!

BTW, Central Park was a great place for our 2 year old. It's just the other parts of NYC that were so hectic, dangerous, and exhausting.

As a resident of the UWS I will disagree. There are so many parks and fun spaces for kids in nyc.

The challenge with travelling with a 2yo is the same anywhere. They like schedule and travel tends to mess with that.

 

[1Kflyerguy]

I am 53 and my wife is 50.. Our son is 23.

We bought our first timeshare while our son was in college. We have done a few trips with my son and Fiance to HGVC resorts, but right not they prefer different vacation destinations from us.. I like the laid back feel of the Big Island, or someplace where i can just chill.. My son and Fiance prefer big cities, which is not a great match for HGVC..

As for time off, my wife works in small medical office and most of her time off is unpaid.. I work for a major software company, they implemented "unlimited time off" basically if you can get your work done, and manager approves it, you can take off as much time as you like... in reality, i think i take less time off now than when we had a specific bank of time to use up each year... but i think that was the plan all along...

 

[Jodi0415]

Husband and I are 45 and 48 (I'm the older one haha). Kids are 6 and 11. We resumed traveling when our first child was 12-24 months. We waited until our son was 3 before we started traveling again via airplane. But took many trips by car! Travel has always been a priority!

We each get about 7 weeks a year of paid vacation and we travel with and without the kids each year! We have 5 trips planned next year!! Making great use of our new timeshares and the Diamond sampler package (very glad we didn't buy the Diamond timeshare!!)

We took our oldest to New York at 3 and had a great time! Our son went to Europe at 4!!

We just started the practice of cashing out some our vacay time to pay for accommodations (now maintenance fees) and use airline points for airfare.

Vacationing is my absolute favorite pastime! And now that we discovered Tug we do it in style and at a serious discount!!

 

[slip]

My company gives vacation in days. I've been there 32 years and I get 28
Days vacation plus 6 holidays. My wife works at a daycare in a hospital and gets
A day or two less than me. She's been there 15 years. I'm 52 and DW is 56,
DD is 34 and DS is 26.

When our two kids were young we didn't have the money for traveling. We only
Went away from home for vacation about 5 times when they were young and to
Only driving locations.

They have been out of the house about 7 years now and we vacation with them
Much more as adults. They both have pretty good disposable incomes. We've
Been to Hawaii, Vegas and Florida all as adults. This really makes the timeshares
Great.

We'll all be in the Bahamas in May for my daughters wedding.

 

[Finntastic]

We are 45/50 with three kids. 10,17,19. Very little travel time. In the marriott system. Doing one week in march. We love summer where we live so we do not travel much in summer. Hope to make much more use of time share in about 10 yrs.

 

[SMHarman]

I am 53 and my wife is 50.. Our son is 23.

We bought our first timeshare while our son was in college. We have done a few trips with my son and Fiance to HGVC resorts, but right not they prefer different vacation destinations from us.. I like the laid back feel of the Big Island, or someplace where i can just chill.. My son and Fiance prefer big cities, which is not a great match for HGVC..

As for time off, my wife works in small medical office and most of her time off is unpaid.. I work for a major software company, they implemented "unlimited time off" basically if you can get your work done, and manager approves it, you can take off as much time as you like... in reality, i think i take less time off now than when we had a specific bank of time to use up each year... but i think that was the plan all along...

That is the plan. And it removes the intakes vacation liability from the balance sheet and need to pay you out when you leave.

Track that time off in a spreadsheet so your boss can see you take the same as before and lead by example.

 

[Tamaradarann]

This Thread is titled "Jealous of everyone's travel plans"

I have read many of the comments and I agree with just about all of them. I love to travel and I believe that traveling all over with kids is great if you have the time and the money to do it and can adapt to the needs of children in traveling. However, many people don't get the vacation time or don't have money to travel or travel by air with their kids. When one hears about others traveling extensively it may invoke ones jealousy. However, I tried to pacify and ease that jealousy with the comment about the "The there is a season for bringing up children and a season for traveling extensively. Young people with children sometimes can't afford or can't the time off to travel extensively. They need to focus on the time to bring up children. There will be a time when the children are grown and they have lots of time off to travel and hopefully the money to do so.

 

[PassionForTravel]

I'm 57 and spousal equivalent (SE) is 64. Travel has always been a priority for me and SE (but not for ex wife, I learned from my earlier mistake). Son is 30 and grand kids are 4, 2, 1. SE son is 26.

When we were your age and my son was younger our trips (2 weeks a year) were to visit family and when we wanted to get away my mother in law was thrilled to get a free ticket CA (especially in winter) to take care our son while we went to Hawaii. As a family we also did a lot of cruises because of their excellent kids programs.

Didn't start TS until met SE. Then discovered resale. I'm self employed and I take an average of 6 weeks a year (that's the reason I don't get a real job). SE is a teacher and we are tied to school schedule. But we are gone whenever she has long weekends, and Worldmark works great for those trips. We also love Hawaii so that's at least once and year. Then we have a bit of an addiction to the FF game so we go to Europe in Business class about every other year, in the off year it's a road trip.

We are just starting to travel with the grand kids so are learning about limitations all over again. We just had a great 4 generation trip to Palm desert for Thanksgiving. Two 2 bd units was wonderful.

Ian

 

[pedro47]

I'm looking at everyone's past travels and future travel plans and I get so jealous.

Just curious, how old is everyone and how do they get to take so much vacation time to travel?

I'm married, in my 30's, work full time, have a toddler and one on the way. My future travel plans have definitely taken a back seat for now.
We just got back from a weeklong vacation in NYC and that was so exhausting with a toddler.

It's hard for us to even use 2200 HGVC points a year now. *sigh*

Just wait and one day you will be in your fifty's and you will have no kids to travel with. You will be taken back to back weeks vacation. Enjoy your time with your little ones now before they leave the home nest.

 

[brp]

We're

Both 55
Still working
No kids
23-25 days of vacation per year

We take a bunch of short trips. Weekends, long weekends. As an example, going to Europe, from California, is typically a Thursday->Monday thing.

We have timeshares at W. 57th, Vegas (Flamingo) that we also use at Bay Club and Disney. This provides lodging for many of our trips.

We shoot for American Airlines top status (Executive Platinum) each year, and that requires about 100K miles of flying.

Cheers.

 

[DaveNV]

When my kids were small, it was family camping trips here and there, now and then. Driving trips to visit family for holidays and such. I didn't buy my first timeshare till my kids were adults, and long out of the house. I found I liked taking better vacations as I got to be a bit more mature. And I only bought when I realized how much easier it was to stay in a timeshare than a hotel or a tent. It's mainly the two of us who travel now, occasionally sharing a timeshare with my brother and his wife, probably because we have similar economic options. Most often, we're traveling alone.

And I really like it that way. My vacation time is very precious to me, and is jealously guarded. I save my vacation time so I can use it to go someplace nice and enjoyable. Coworkers who complain that I'm "always traveling someplace" are the ones who take their vacation time a day or two at a time, and then complain they can't afford to go anywhere.

We generally take two, two-week trips a year. I like late Spring and early Fall for travel. That gives us our amazing Pacific Northwest Summers at home, and we're here all Winter due to my spouse's holiday work schedule. it's not a perfect life, but it works well for us.

If I may offer a tidbit of advice: Don't worry so much about where you go with your kids. They'll have better memories that you were present as parents, who were invested in their lives, than they will because you took them on a trip someplace. You only have 18 years or so before they'll be off on their own life adventures. Value the time, value your children, and make your own memories with them as people. The rest will take care of itself. You only get one chance to raise them right. Enjoy the ride.

Dave

 

[Tamaradarann]

Time for Bringing up Kids and Time for Partying

I appreciate the comments made by BMWguynw and Pedro47. They both are on the same theme that I am in addressing this thread entitled "Jealous of everyone's travels"

 

[slip]

That is the title of the thread but the second line of the OP asked the questions
That many people have been answering here. I did like both Pedro47 and
Daves posts though.

 

[missyrcrews]

We are 45 and 46, with 4 children...18 (college freshman), twins who are 12, and a 10 year old. We bought our first timeshare week (now we have 4 weeks!) when the oldest was 4 years old. (So...I've BTDT with traveling with infants, that's for sure!) We bought at a place we enjoy, that has enough space for us all, and that we don't mind going to every year. We usually travel 5 or 6 weeks a year. Only one of those is out of New England...we have to go to Missouri to see my folks, so we stay at a resort close by when we visit them. Our vacations are more about the "together time" than the places we go. My husband gets 5 paid weeks/year. I can take as much time as I want as long as I'm willing to not be paid, so I often take the kids, and then he joins us on the weekends or for just part of the week. We are making memories. Someday the kids will be grown and we won't be tied to the school schedule or to places close by...but I'm not wishing away the "now" to get to that point.

 

[purson]

Planning makes a difference

When we were in our 20's my wife and I (now 60/62) pretty well planned out our next 40 years. Then we both finished great educations, chose good paying jobs with defined retirement benefits rather than 401's, chose no kids, vacationed 5 weeks per year to see where we liked, and now are retired for 2/8 years. We found we really liked Tucson, Hawaii, and the NW coast and so bought several resales at WorldMark to enjoy them all. We now take 7-9 trips per year (most several weeks long), enjoy part-time "dream jobs", have above average income and no debt. The plan has worked to perfection for us and are looking forward to more decades of no-worries fun. Bottom line is to plan hard, work hard, then play hard.

If you don't know where you are going, you are likely to get there.

 

[lizap]

Ditto, we did the same as Denise. There will be plenty of time for different types (and longer) vacations.

When our kids were little, we did kid type vacations - things like camping, beach vacations, and Disneyland. We didn't do fly-to vacations, and more elaborate agendas until they were older.

I think vacations are easier on everyone, when you choose a vacation that is manageable with a toddler. NYC probably doesn't fit in that category.

 

[Duanerice]

Heck when we were younger with little kids the only vacations were to relatives or something within a 3 hours drive. There were no flights to take, resorts to go to, cruises, etc. Of course there was also no internet where we could compare vacation travels so we didn't know how bad off we were compared to others

We didn't start traveling more until the kids were grown as money was spent on other things. But once they were grown we've traveled all over the world. US is still our favorite place to travel.

I was working for a large Corporation and have had 5/6 weeks vacation for the past 15 years or more. Wife is self employed which is good but also bad as she is never "off". I am now retired, earlier than I planned but enjoying it.

Don't compare your life to others, especially on the internet. Some will just brag how well they are doing while others give great advice and insight. Not necessarily on here but overall.
enjoy

 

[camserv]

We have been extremely lucky and are now able to be on the road or out of the country more than half the year. I'm 70 and my wife is 65 and have recently moved to Florida. We had some pretty lucrative investments, we have 2 pensions and 2 social securities.

At your age we were living hand to mouth with no money in the bank. I don't think we had a vacation for about 8 years. However, we both got good jobs, stayed with them and invested a little every month. Boring but worth it to be able to live our dreams.

Just hang in there and hopefully you will be able to live your dreams. Don't expect gratification (unless you have a rich uncle). Just keep plugging along.

 

[JSparling]

The wife and I are both 38. We have 2 little girls and another on the way (due in July). She's a teacher and I have 6 weeks paid vacation a year. So we both have plenty of time to travel with the kids.

The best thing I did as far as timeshares that helped promote and enable travel was buying into HGVC 15+ years ago. That got me started and since then I've just kept adding points (via resale and direct from HGVC). Once you own you are in the "sunk cost" position and it really helps create the mindset of "we've already paid for the vacation, I'll be damned if I'm going to throw it away."

We see all our HGVC points as an investment in our family. The trips to Breckenridge and Hawaii with our little ones are designed to capture this time in their lives (and our lives) that we'll never have again. We want them to grow up traveling not only for the family memories that they'll hopefully pass on to their kids one day, but also for the worldly education piece of it and maturity/growth that comes with seeing the world.

We love the program and fortunately have enough vacation time to enjoy it. A big key for us is living so close to a HGVC resort (Breckenridge) which lets us use the HGVC flexible point system for 3-night stays quite frequently.

 

[Magic1962]

I'm 53 wife 54... When we were younger we would go for a week trip once a year because that is all we could afford..... I remember going to Niagara Falls one year when our youngest daughter now mid 20s slept in a drawer with blankets in it.... That was before pack and plays..... Now my wife gets 6 weeks vacation and i get 4 so now we do one week at a really nice Timeshare... 3 bedroom with both our daughters and their families.... Have been to Bonnet Creek , Hilton Head, Las Vegas, Myrtle Beach etc.... This year my wife and I are going with another couple to Oahu and Kauai for 10 days.... We have lots of points but use them only for one BIG vacation a year, we use our points for both the Timeshare and our airfare or car rental...rest of our vacation time we either go see our kids or they come see us.... Dave:whoopie:

 

[rpw]

Kids have been traveling since they were born

And in the second ones case, before! :rofl:

It was much easier to travel with them when we didn't have the school schedule. Travel off season is easier and cheaper. We used to travel every 9 months. Two weeks Hawaii, nine months later one or two in Orlando.

Now they are both in grade school. We get to play with the schedule a bit, but now it's much harder and more expensive. Now that we go places during high season we are basically just going to Hawaii for two weeks every year (maybe toss a few days in California for good measure) usually around spring break.

Kids now have their own frequent flyer accounts and I think the oldest had enough to pay for her own ticket to HI this year!

We rarely pay for flights, mostly use points to get airfare.

I'd suggest travel while the kids are still small, it only gets harder!

 

[geekette]

Don't be jealous, your time is coming. Timeshare makes more trips possible so relax and enjoy the planning.

 

[Uscjusto]

OP here, just checking in.
I'm still keeping up with this thread and I'm glad to see so many responses. It has definitely made me feel better.

I am going to enjoy the current time when the kids are young. Plenty to look forward to in the future. Keep my vacations small and go bigger when the time is right.

My wife and I are on the same page though. Travel is a priority, and we are looking forward to all the future vacations we will have!