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Everyone has their idea of the perfect vacation, either alone or with family. How long should it be? Where do you want to go? What are your expectations?

We’ve done all sorts of vacations, from weekends away to week-long or longer trips. We’ve driven, flown, and taken trains. What has worked best for us? What have we enjoyed the most?

I can say that the major factor in vacations can sometimes be the prep. If the getting-ready and travel-planning process is difficult, it can effect my whole view of the vacation before we even get there. Expectations play a huge part in the success of any get-away or get-together with family.

Take our family “reunion” in Las Vegas a few summers ago. This trip started out as a mandatory family get-together to celebrate some big birthdays. The first “pitch” was for everyone to go to Italy, to rent a villa in Tuscany. Given that the time-frame for some people could not extend beyond one week, and a minimum of four days would have been devoted to travel, we decided we wouldn’t participate in this proposal- too much money and too much hassle for too little time enjoying ourselves and the family.

The second iteration was Vegas followed by Sedona. We said we’d do Vegas but would not do Sedona and the spa- I could only imagine everyone relaxing by the pool, while my kids ran in, yelling “Cannonball”, disturbing everyone else, and making the adults uncomfortable. Or the kids sitting at dinner, picking at poached sea bass, and wondering openly where they could get a hot dog or chicken fingers. (From those that did the Sedona leg of the trip, this prediction was not far off from reality.) We skipped Sedona and took the kids to Disneyland. They are still talking about how much they enjoyed it. Homerun!

I picked the hotel in Vegas (in July- it was 113 degrees outside, I kid you not!) solely based on who had the best pool- the Mandalay Bay won out. It was a fantastic hotel, and the pool, with its lazy river and wave pool, was like having a water park poolside. This part of the vacation was fine. In general though, Vegas is getting more adult oriented- think Epcot with slot machines and a decent number of scantily clad women- and is not a great little kid vacation, no matter where you stay.

And for any family reunion, hotels aren’t the best choice, in my opinion. Number one, finding seating at any meal for groups of twelve and up is difficult. Number two- what I love about family get-togethers is the down time you spend just talking while making breakfast, or having coffee first thing. This relaxed time is much harder to arrange when everyone is locked up in their own room. I think renting a house at the beach or in the mountains is a much better idea to really see and visit with everyone. Plus, meals with this many people become infinitely more manageable.

This past weekend, we took the kids to Washington, DC and stayed in a really nice hotel. (Since DC is such a business-oriented town, weekend rates at even the nicest hotels in town are comparably cheap to weekdays.) The hotel was close to the Mall. We walked everywhere; the hotel had wonderful food and spectacular service- it was simply amazing. In this short period of time, even with kids in tow, I felt more relaxed and recharged than I often do from other longer vacations, where the emphasis seems to be on the “go-go-go, see-see-see”. We saw a lot, but the down-time, where the kids swam while I watched the sun set over the Jefferson Memorial and read a book pool-side, was simply blissful. Everyone was happy and relaxed.

Even with the drive home on Sunday, each of us seemed to be in a sunnier frame of mind. We had unplugged from our usual routines, spent time together in a different place, and explored.

How had this extremely brief “mini-break” had a more relaxing effect than a week with relatives in Florida, or time at Disney, for example? I’m not totally sure. I think part of it was the simple elegance of the surroundings. Part of it was the great service, where the staff also treated our children with the utmost respect. And part of it was unplugging from everything, which is sometimes easier for shorter periods than extended ones.

Regardless of why it worked, the end result has been that it worked beautifully, and I’ve come back better-prepared to take on the annoying little problems like tax-preparation, dealing with a small bank issue (their fault, but required a branch-visit to straighten out), and other book-keeping and following-up type tasks I really don’t enjoy.

So how do you recharge? What works for you? Does bath-and-a-book work? For how long? How do you sustain the relaxed feeling for longer than it takes to do the laundry when you get home? I’m always looking for new ideas on how to recharge the batteries in small bursts- What’s your favorite way of changing perspectives and refreshing yourself?

Photo courtesy of the author,Whitney Hoffman, used under a Creative Commons License.

[tags]relax, vacation, recharge, happiness[/tags]