Trip Length

As a kid I distinctly remember being just a few days into our 7-10 day road trips in the family station wagon and realizing that the trip was already half over. That's just the way it is for most people most of the time and as children, we had a great time anyway. We were pretty easy to please, after all. Going anywhere was an adventure.

Unless you are retired, teachers, or blessed with a job that allows a great deal of vacation time or flexibility, the length of your trip abroad is going to be limited by how much time you can be away from work. If all you can manage is 10-14 days away, you should still go. It can still be an amazing experience. But limit yourself to one, relatively small area, and see it thoroughly.

But something magical happens when the length of the trip approaches or exceeds three weeks. You are no longer just escaping your real life for a brief interlude. Now the trip starts to become your real life, if only temporarily. Now you have time to make scheduling decisions that emphasize that mindset; If you prefer a slower pace, weekly cottage or apartment rentals are now a realistic choice and encourage a casual vacationing lifestyle (and save money). If you prefer to keep on the move, you now have the time to widen the geographical area you can cover in depth. You can make several 2-4 day stops instead of just a few.

Perhaps even more importantly, you begin to let go of the importance of an individual day. That is amazingly liberating. Your trip is no longer held hostage to the weather. You can afford to "take a day off" from your vacation if the weather is poor without feeling frantic about keeping up with your itinerary. Sometimes the most lasting memories are made when you stumble across something during an unplanned part of the day. On short trips there is little opportunity for an unplanned moment.

Staying longer always costs more. But often the extra cost is negligible. Consider our most recent trip to France; Deciding to stay for 30 days gave us time to spend a week in three different locations instead of just a few days and to rent cottages. The cost savings from these lodgings (and food cost savings from making our own meals) were such that the 21 days spent this way probably cost no more than 12 spent in the more usual way - in hotels and eating out. We probably saw a few more things over the extra 9 days and paid a bit more in admission fees, but not much. We also did things at a slower pace. We did pay a bit more for a longer car rental, but car rental costs go down quickly on a per-day basis for longer rentals. Our costs for gas, parking and tolls would have been close to the same either way. So the extra nine days we spent in France likely costs us no more than $500. Compared to the overall costs of a trip like this, it was an amazing bargain.

The point of all this is that you really cannot go wrong making a trip abroad as long as possible (within reason, of course). The benefits are enormous if your life here at home allows it.

There are extra things to consider when trips become long, however. You may have to pay bills ahead as you may not be home when they arrive and come due. Boarding pets is an issue. There are steps to take when closing up your house for long periods. It is even more important to turn off water and gas where possible and to arrange for someone to water plants and keep an eye on things. Hiring a house sitter - perhaps a college student who will gladly live in your house for little more than a modest stipend - is a practical alternative, especially if pets are involved.

But the benefits of taking a longer trip are worth a little more preparation and planning. The real trick is to find a way to be gone that long in the first place when we all have to have income to pay for this indulgence...