You’ve saved up money and precious PTO and now you want to plan that dream trip or vacation. But where do you even start? We here at thrifty trekkers start by deciding what we think we’re in the mood for, a trip or a vacation? You might think we’re crazy but we think there is a huge difference between the two!
We categorize our adventures into two different buckets: trips and vacations. When we plan our next adventure, the number one thing we ask ourselves is “What do we want to do?” This is way more important than deciding “Where do we want to go?” (That’s the next step, so stay tuned!). We think this is one of the most essential things you need to do before you go any further because it sets the tone for your entire trip or vacation.
Questions to ask yourself to decide Vacation vs Trip:
Would you rather get some quality time to rejuvenate and relax?
Do you want to hike and go on adventures in nature?
Do you want to go sightsee and explore a city you’ve never been to before?
Trips
Trips are traveling to cities and countries where our main objective is to go sightseeing, learn about their history, and immerse ourselves into their culture. We see trips as more strenuous because you are go-go-going the whole time trying to get everything out of your destination.
Trips take a lot of work to plan and to construct the itineraries. When we book a trip we usually will take an extra day off at home to recover and relax before we head back to work. Some exciting trips we’ve taken have been to Europe, South America, New Zealand & Australia, US National Parks, and roadtrips.
Vacations
Vacations are a more relaxing way to plan your time off. Think of a vacation as getting away, planning minimally, and just going with the flow. We see vacations as long weekends to go see friends, beach vacations with the family, skiing vacations, etc. Vacations tend to rejuvenate us more as compared to a trip.
Frame Your Mindset First, Then Plan Your Adventure
While some trips or vacations can be thrown into either category, the key point to emphasize is framing your mindset first. Then you can decide where you want to travel and what sort of trip or vacation you want to have.
How do you define trips vs vacations, and which do you prefer? Please feel free to comment below!
Thanks for the great advice