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Comment by EtherealEntity | Hacker News Reader

No, just no. I'm going to stay at home, think about the projects I need to do around the house and how much my spare activities are going to cost. The best vacation is an all-inclusive resort. I budget for the booking/flight. I get to see a new place in the world and once I'm there I basically eat/drink/sleep whenever I want to, it's the best.

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I’ve been thinking about what it is about vacations that’s so relaxing since it’s clearly not the lack of work. I quit my job a year ago but my day is still full of stuff to do. What’s nice about a vacation is the lack of physical possessions. You live without a crap load of clothes that need to be washed. You have maids to clean your room. The kitchen staff washes the dishes. You don’t read you email and worry about having to reply to people. You ignore bills and the leaky faucet and the million other things you need to do.

It made me think that maybe my life is just full of too many complications.

I’ve been thinking about what it is about vacations that’s so relaxing since it’s clearly not the lack of work.

You live without a crap load of clothes that need to be washed. You have maids to clean your room. The kitchen staff washes the dishes

Huh? I think you're confused here. Washing clothes, cleaning your room, washing the dishes, and fixing leaks is work. Vacation is exactly having less work.

Yeah the word "work" can be confused. What I meant by work was work where you are paid to do something for someone else. Maybe "job" is a better word. I don't have a job and I don't get paid but I do indeed still do a lot of work.

So does that resolve your confusion about the nature of vacation? :) Your statement "it's clearly not lack of work" should have been "it's clearly lack of job."

To me at least, vacation clearly is "lack of work" :)

Vacation is not about having less work. Vacation is about doing something different than you do usually, on a different schedule and probably with no big expectations to meet. Helping one's uncle to build a shed can be vacation to some people. Writing a program one wanted to write for a long time can be vacation, too. Spending three weeks in one's shop on woodworking can be a fulfilling vacation as well. So can be going on an international tour or doing nothing but reading seven different novels one after another.

Getting out of the daily routine, by either laying next to the pool in an all-inclusive hotel or being busy all day building something in the sun, changes your perspective and increases your stress resilience in my experience. Burnout is often the result of one's inability to put tasks aside for a few days.

With the exception of your email, isn't that the point of services like Hello Alfred? To get somebody else to worry about the annoying stuff that used to be your housewife's job before we got rid of that chauvinist notion of your wife as a homemaker, because even as we got rid of our sexist notions about who was responsible for the work, the work itself didn't disappear?

I mean, if that's what you get out of your vacation... And you compared the cost of a vacation to the cost of a home concierge service, and found the home concierge to be cheaper - wouldn't you just go with the concierge service?

I think by going to an all-inclusive resort you're not really seeing a new part of the world, but rather a resort.

the taxi ride from the airport to the resort is where you get to see the new part of the world, which probably adds to the allure of the resort

> all-inclusive resort

> see a new place in the world

These two don't go well together.

I don't follow this reasoning at all.

Will the projects not need doing if you go away? Is the flight/resort cheaper than the activities you'd do at home? Can you not eat/drink/sleep when you want when you're home?

It's about the stress of delegating time and money.

With an all inclusive resort the questions "do I really need this?" or "maybe I should be doing something else" don't come up.

I wonder what it would cost to hire a maid and butler for your home for a week. Hmmm. I might just need to try that on our next staycation

Even this is work, though. Hiring help is almost as bad as doing it yourself; they need to be endlessly managed between when they'll arrive/ depart, the scope of work, particularities about how to do the work, etc.

I get your point and can relate, but it's an issue that you can control entirely. You already know that those questions shouldn't come up during your vacation, regardless of if you're at home or far away at the beach. So simply don't let them - it's that easy.

> Will the projects not need doing if you go away?

No, but I won't be able to do them, because I'll be gone. I therefore won't feel like I should be working on them, because it won't be possible to work on them.

But you may ask, won't I feel that I should be home working on them, instead of away on vacation? The answer is no, at least for me. I may be somewhat obsessive about the projects (or at least about feeling guilty for not working on them), but I'm not that obsessive. When I leave, I don't feel like I should be home so that I can work on them.

Exactly. For me, being away is like turning my work "switch" to off. I know I may have email piling up, and that my problems aren't going to go away, but I feel that I'm free to ignore them because I'm physically distant from the location where I usually worry about them. I usually worry about work and emails when I'm home, and staying home wouldn't be relaxing, even though in theory I could just ignore everything.

No matter where I go on vacation (or even if I’m staycationing) I tell everyone in my office I will be backpacking in the mountains without access to cell reception.

No, the best vacation depends on you and what you want when you go on your vacation. Sometimes I want to ride my bike as far as I can for multiple weeks, sometimes I want to go to a new part of the world, sometimes I want to go to a resort and sometimes I want to stay home.

The best vacations for me have always been “take it at your own pace”. Sort of like book a flight to a destination and only book a hotel for a day or two. Then it’s all an open book. what to do, how long to do? You do what feels good to you. Sometimes we’d spend an entire day at the spa, or have a picnic by a remote lake, or hike up a mountain to a beautiful view, or just chill at the markets and talk to the locals, try new food.

There is no deadline, no next place to be, one activity at a time that feels good. Sometimes you crave adventure, sometimes just do nothing and sleep, read a book, cuddle, have sex, etc.

The world has a lot to offer than just your home.

Actually I think that doing all the projects I want to do during a staycation is perfect. I know I have a ton of time to do them, and I can actually get them done. Instead of stressing and using up my weekends or weeknights doing them.

I’m actually taking a staycation later this month and that’s my plan.

One part I think the article neglects as a negative for the staycation is that when you're at home, your mind is usually in the habits that you have while you're at home (like you said, thinking about all the projects around the house, other things that bother you).

Being able to get way out of your rut, being somewhere new, with no routines, habits, or subconscious triggers can really be a big breath of fresh air.

Isn't that maybe your fault? I have a lot of stuff to do, but if my project for the weekend is RELAXING, I ignore everything else and focus on that for 2 days. I don't get distracted, get extensive sleep and enjoy all the games I have home. Possibly I'll go out with my wife for a walk to get a gelato, but that's it

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