I understand where you are coming from. Here is where I'm coming from. We are retired and are able to take four to six extended (7+ days) trips each year. Half of those trips are seeing everything we can and trying to absorb as much of the local culture as is possible. However, our trips to Maui are our rejuvenation time. The other trips are exciting but certainly not relaxing. I'm sure you've heard the saying "I've been on vacation but I had to come home to get some rest!"
As I've said up higher in the thread, we can spend two weeks in Maui and not leave the resort but two to three times, exclusive of dinner. It's relaxing to us to have no set time to get up, to go and sit around the pool, have someone bring us drinks and then cook a meal or eat at the pool bar. It's even OK to have the occasional day of rain which keeps us in the villa to do nothing but chill and listen to the waves of the Pacific.
That's why it truly is to each their own. Perhaps you're not at the point in your life that we are. Perhaps you will never be at that point. And you know what? It doesn't matter because to each their own.
My work days are very driven by time. I have an appointment schedule to keep while simultaneously keeping multiple other balls in the air. I am constantly stragtegizing seven steps ahead to make everything work out on time. I get pages, interruptions, urgent prescription refill requests, “can you look at this case for me?” all day long on top of everything else.
I am a veterinarian and literally deal with life and death every day. Most days of the week, I make someone cry. I am not a GP veterinarian, I am a specialist and the buck stops with me. People come to me because they want to do everything but sometimes nothing can be done.
Most days my brain is challenged at work. I still routinely find myself in situations that are unique and one-off, even though I’ve been doing this for 20 years now. Things that are routine and predictable are heaven to me. Novel and unique is not so good- it’s harder to stick to cost estimates, tell pet owners what to expect.
My work day ends when it ends, I have zero idea what it would be like to have a job that ends at a specific time. I have zero idea what it would be like to be able to make a plan for a set time on a weeknight. At the end of the day, I’m done talking. My work tries to respect my off time, but honestly there are sometimes things that only I can deal with, so my phone is always “on”.
Oh yeah and two hours a day of commuting. (But only a 4 day work week.)
Sure we sometimes take active trips in which I schedule all kinds of things and try to see it all.
But mostly on vacation I like to chill out. The most delicious thing is no schedule, no traffic, just doing what I want when I feel like it. I like beach vacations but mostly I like cycling vacations. Sure I can ride my bike at home and save money. But I’d rather ride somewhere different and then grab lunch with my spouse and do whatever appeals to us after.
Yes totally to each his/her own. The idea of a vacation is to recharge your batteries. But unless you understand what is draining the other guys battery, it’s hard to imagine what he/she seeks in a vacation. If your work or daily life is full of routine stuff, you might seek novelty and interesting things on your vacation. If your job is crazy all day long, you might seek peace and relaxation and lying around doing not much of anything. Makes sense.
There is a Talking Heads song called Heaven that says “Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens”. Amen to that, makes 100% sense to me.
