How long are your trips ?

First answer coming to my mind by reading headline only: always too short. :-)

Sorry for this 1 cent answer.

Our first international trip in recent years was 21 days. I loved every minute of it and wasn't ready to go home. So our second trip was 29 days. Same, I loved every minute, was not ready to go home. So our upcoming trip this Spring is 35 days. I expect to love every minute of it but I also think this might be the limit (at least my husband's limit) in terms of length. Next trip I'm planing for more like 28 days again.

The first trip was 2-3 days per location except for an 8 day walking tour where we changed lodging every night. The second trip was 2-3 days per location. This upcoming trip is 4-5 days per location. We hope it will be a little slower and allow more time to go deeper in some locations as well as relax a little more.

For us there is no typical travel. Each is different. Sometimes only a couple of weeks. Often 3 or 4 weeks. 6 weeks was our longest, but was about a week too long for me. How often we change places also varies greatly. Sometimes we have a week or 10 days in each place. Other times we are changing location every 2-3 days. Depends on our goals for each trip.

Short answer: as long as I can manage. I’ve gotten better at adding days, and better finances as I’ve gotten older have helped too.

But the truth is, a month abroad is tough for a lot of people, especially Americans. This is one of the things I appreciate the most about RS. It is travel tailored to tighter schedules and budgets. Like, absolutely… slow down, backdoors, local experiences and all that, but at its core is brutal efficiency. Learning I didn’t NEED a month to enjoy Europe was what made it happen in the first place.

Now, does more time make you a better traveler? I met a lady from Australia vacationing in Provence. She had a month to kick around, and so had done literally zero research. She made no effort at any turn to understand the culture, or to know what there was to see and why. A week there and she hadn’t had a pastis!!! Unconscionable lol. Just to say, time does not equal value. Though I’m glad you have it, and hope I do too someday.

I spend 11 nights twice last year in France (Paris only the first time, the second time mostly in the Normandy region) and have a 16 night and 9 night trip planned for this year. At this time, I have minor children I'm leaving at home either with their grandparents or my husband, if it's a trip with our oldest daughter (still a minor). When the kids are all out of the house I am sure I will miss them very much but I would be very open to longer trips then.

Two weeks has been the max for us. We're here in the States and while I technically have "unlimited" time off where I work, practically speaking, I can't take more than 2 weeks at one time.

But I daydream of longer trips all the time. I even have itineraries planned! We're spending 13N in Portugal in September but I have a secret 30N itinerary in my head. Haha Barring winning the lottery, it's probably 10 more years before that 30N itinerary could become a reality.

Two weeks is optimum for me. Not for a lack leave time, I'm at maximum carry over and still have to burn 300 hours for the year. I may travel to Europe for two weeks but I'm taking three weeks off work.

At two weeks i miss home, I love my job & miss my forge and I miss my third place.

Thanks for the responses. What caught my interest is how travelers manage energy and interest levels during a long (3+ week) trip. For example, when building an itinerary do you try to manage the amount of moving from place to place (to keep it interesting) to longer stays in one place to rest and reset? Do you try to mix accommodation types to keep it interesting? Examples, small inns, b&b, apartment rentals or city hotels, urban vs rural locations. Another question would be, what do you do with the days? Is each day scheduled or do you just figure it out on the fly ? Obviously this is mainly applicable to travelers who devise their own itineraries vs. going on a planned tour.

When we were working & kids were in college, the maximum we could be gone was three weeks, including recovering from jet lag.

When we retired, I did some longer European trips, but my husband kept his time there around two weeks (he loved golf at his home course). For instance, we did a 45th anniversary celebration trip to England/Wales for two weeks. He flew home afterwards, & I added the RS Adriatic tour to my time to make it a month in Europe. My longest solo itinerary trip was a month. Now that I am a widow, I don’t travel any longer than a month - some are three weeks.

”…on long trips how do you vary the pace or other aspects of the itinerary to avoid fatigue and keep it interesting?”

It’s not uncommon for me to have at least ten cities in a solo trip. I don’t mind 1 or 2-night stops, and my train rides are typically around an hour for most. That sounds like I’m setting myself up for being exhausted, but it’s not that way at all. It feels very carefree & relaxed! I enjoy the thrill of being there, and my daily itinerary is much more open for spontaneous findings than probably most on the forum. I vary the sizes of cities, the types of activities - cooking classes, boat rides, 3-hr bike tours, sketching, museums, music events and especially festivals. This type of travel has allowed me to enjoy the daytime & evening ambiance of 10 cities in the Puglia region of Italy as parts of two trips in May 2024, 2025, for instance.

Personally I prefer aparthotels especially in larger cities or smaller hotels in smaller communities. In Chichester I stayed in accommodations operated by the cathedral and when I stayed in Ironbridge it was a small hotel that was operated by a pub. I tend to build my itineraries around where I'm going to stay and transportation. I do like long stays - 2023 it was 5 nights in Chichester and 8 nights in London; 2024 was 4 nights in Ironbridge, 3 in Manchester, and 6 nights in London; 2025 was 6 nights in Prague and 6 nights in London with a night in Brussels to break up the train journey between those two cities. I'll have a list of places or attractions I want to see and things I want to do but I don't plan down to the minute. Rather I see what strikes my interest when I get up each morning and go from there.

Our first venture was 11 days in Paris and many years and trips later we have evolved to 35 days. That amount of time seems to work for us but it does require that we ask for help getting our mail for 5 days.

I've devised a watering system for indoors that doesn't need any attention.

Rather than getting over jet lad multiple times we only do it once. Also, that means less transatlantic flights which allows us to devote more money towards other travel expenses.

Sometimes 5 weeks gone is at the expense of home needs or desires. A big drawback is that spring and fall travel interferes with seeing our blooming shrubs in spring and/or seeing the various shades of fall foliage on our property - our many varieties of red maples, oaks and lindens are spectacular. We always miss one or the other every year. We just don't enjoy summer or winter travel very much.

To answer your second set of questions, something that’s different for me is that I really don’t like day trips. And since I travel very light, it’s easy for me to just move to the next location vs. take a train back at the end of the day to the base location.

I’m very picky about my lodging - safety is a priority. I want a small hotel or B&B in the center of the city. Quirky or unusual options have been very memorable & fun! In a traboule in Lyon, France or a trullo in Alberobello, Italy as examples. But my husband & I rented a car in part of England, and that was fun to purposely pick country manor homes, etc. for something different.

My Excel spreadsheet 1-page itinerary (1 line per day) has green highlighted cells for activities reserved and train tickets purchased. Otherwise, I have a few things per city in unhighlighted cells with day-of-week they’re open. All of those are just ideas. I’ve been to Europe 20+ times now, so I don’t feel the pressure of “must do’s”. - that might make a difference to what applies to you.

I should also mention that my husband & I went to southern Spain in Feb. 2024, and that was our laid-back off-season trip, comparable to what we did in Hawaii before 2024. We rented an apartment for a week in Cadiz (the week of their fun Carnaval) & a week in Estepona, along with a few days in Sevilla. We usually did a couple weeks in Hawaii or Arizona with zero plans other than knowing we would go whale-watching in Hawaii & he would play 1-2 rounds of golf.

Just a comment: I like hearing that you’re enjoying traveling together for lengths of time! I have so many wonderful happy memories & photos of my husband & my special trips to Europe. Keep traveling! : )

First trip post-retirement pre-Covid was 21 days. Post covid my solo trips each including independent travel and a RS tour have been 28 days (France) 26 days (Germany & Austria), 30 days (Italy) and 31 days (England & Ireland). This year’s solo trip will be 24 days in Northern Italy and totally independent.

Budget says I can only take one trip a year. Cities and towns determine what I see and do. Plays in London, concerts in Vienna, horsey things everywhere, museums especially smaller ones everywhere, food tours if available.

To avoid fatigue I schedule one, often two, sights a day but if I’m too tired or overwhelmed I don’t go to all. Or I’ll visit a small museum that I hadn’t plan to see, especially in Venice. I overplan but give myself permission to change my mind even if it means throwing away tickets.

Hint: try to get into the best shape you can before your trip, walking and exercising. Stop for snacks, gelato and coffee often.

The length of my trip is mostly dependent on the length of the flights. I really don't like anything about flying except the speed and convenience of getting from my living room to, well, wherever. So my trips to the Far East and Down Under have all been 5-6 weeks long. I'm fortunate to have Europe almost at my doorstep (short flights, no jetlag) but I do like coming home and sleeping in my own bed after using my own shower. So my European trip planning starts with a goal of 10-14 days but by the time I've done a little research, I'm trying to figure out how to keep it below 4 weeks. Until Covid, I was taking at least 3 trips a year.

I never seem to stay in one place for more than a few nights and I nearly always leave wanting more, but looking forward to the next stop. In big cities, I can, and have, spent a week or more - London, Paris, Barcelona. One thing I try to do is include a couple of return visits to places. It's tiring and sometimes frustrating to get oriented in a new place, so even a couple of days in a place I've been to before is relaxing in a way. I know where I am, how to get from place to place, how to use public transport, how to navigate the train station, and so on.

My first European trip in over 3 years (had a little war interfere with things) is coming up in April. I thought it would be nice to go to Italy for about 10 days. The trip is finalized: 17 days, 3 cities, all of which I've been to before. There's always more to see, sigh.

As long as I can make them. My goal is to spend two to three months abroad, but for now, I'm limited to three to four weeks at a time, due to family needs. That said, I did take an almost six-week trip to the UK in 2024 and loved it.

On long trips, the key to not wearing yourself out is to really pace yourself and take a day off from your vacation. I learned that from another poster here and love the idea. There are some days I'll wake up and decide that I'm not going to do anything today. I might go out for lunch at a nice restaurant and maybe take a walk around the neighborhood, but otherwise I'm just going to read and hang out for the day. There's nothing like that to really refresh me and get me going for the next day of sightseeing.

Adding met a retired couple from the Puget Sound area who travel annually for 9 months straight. They say they don’t like rain! Might make more sense to move.

16 trips to Italy as a family since 2001, average 30 nights, longest trip 37 nights, shortest 15 nights. Even after 7 weeks, I am not homesick or tired of traveling --- I have wondered at what point I would be. My husband starts to feel like the trip is "already enough" at about 3 weeks and he misses our dog, grandchildren, cabin, woodworking shop, etc.. He starts itching to "DO something" (like his volunteer handyman work) or "MAKE something" (like a canoe or a table) instead of so much "looking at stuff." About 30 nights is a compromise (in my favor).

No need to avoid fatigue because we take it easy the whole time. I am especially the lazy one unless there is a gallery or museum or church with art I want to see. At home, I hate rushing around and deadlines and appointments and juggling tasks, so why would I do these things in Italy? Neither of us think of our trips as vacation or relaxing, we've just moved our lives to a place that has medieval towns and great food and art and new experiences, and also some language and cooking classes (his).

I guess we don't get bored easily, so we don't need to do anything extra to make a trip more interesting. Before we leave for each trip, we plan a bunch of things to see or do for each location, and then see what seems fun and reasonable every day.

2-1/2 to 3 weeks when we were working. 30 days in Europe since retiring. Domestic trips are still 2-1/2 to 3 weeks, except Hawaii (7 nights; single island). But length of trip is only part of the story.

I can’t say we are “slow travelers,” yet I feel that we travel slowly. By that, I mean that we limit our geographic focus, avoid long travel days, and (on our last four trips) we have included e-bike travel. A week in one location and a single lodging? Not since a week in Paris in 2010 paired with a week in London’s Hampstead where friends lived. But a week cycling the Mosel River or in Puglia, paired with other travel nearby - yes.

Geographic focus allows us to get more of a sense of place and culture. Before we embark, we can read some literature set where we will go, watch some movies, perhaps study up on a little language, and promote opportunities to engage locals with our modest French or broken Italian and their similarly limited English.

I retired 15 years ago and since then we have done 2-3 trips (mostly overseas) every year.

While we were in our 60s we did trips that averaged 4 weeks, with some shorter and some up to 8 weeks(Australia and NZ with a Transpacific cruise home).

Now we are in our late 70s and only do group tours, most from 2 -3 weeks.

Our only problem with being gone for the long trips was that we have cats for pets and hate leaving them for so long. We do have a cat. sitter that comes and feeds them, etc.

We lived overseas over 30 years ago, working for the US Army in Germany. We did shorter trips, since we had kids in school and less money to spend.

Depends when. Pre-pandemic the trips were 5 to 7 weeks in the summer, pre-retirement and post-retirement. Post-pandemic ie, since 2023 the trips are now 12 weeks ranging from 85 to 87 days spent in Schengen.

Obviously, as a boomer mid-70s , I pace myself a bit more while still doing the same summer travel style as in the past. I tend to stay longer in one place, min, 5 nights, one or two night stays I use sparingly, basically not an efficient use of travel time, depending on other factors involved.

No organised tours yet, though "Roads Scholar " after looking at their literature seems tempting as a vague option or maybe a river cruise such as that on the Oder or the Rhone.

I didn't return to International travel until after retirement and after "parent-care" duties had ended. My first real trip after that was just a few days under 8 weeks and I was not ready to come home except I didn't have light packing down very well and my suitcase got too heavy. I did 3 Rick Steves tours back to back to back plus a few days in London ahead of the tours on my own and a week in Paris on my own (well with a friend) in the middle.

Now my trips are mostly 4-7 weeks. I usually have a tour in the middle with independent time on either side. This spring I'm "just" (hahaha) going to Paris for 3 weeks because that is what I decided would make me happy. Already I know I don't have enough time there because my itinerary for the 20 days on the ground is full, hahaha.

I do give myself days off and since I have various passes/subscriptions to museums and sites this time I don't have to do timed entries so if it's a pretty day and I want to sit in a garden instead of being inside I can do that. If it's rainy and windy I can hang out in my hotel room.

I always go with hotels instead of apartments. I cook all the time at home so I have no desire to even wash a coffee mug while on vacation!

Nearly always a minimum of 3 weeks, in the last 10 years the longest has been 7 weeks. If flying to Europe our flights have us on planes for around 24 hours (from Australia) and all up from our door to exiting airport at arrival city is usually at least 32 hours so 64 plus hours of transit.
The only exception are when flights are short such as to Hobart/Launceston/ Adelaide/Sydney. Our most recent trip by plane was from Melbourne to Perth which is 4 hours bum on plane seat. We spent 3 weeks roadtripping as we did last time we flew across to Perth.

Leaving for Europe at the end of March for 3 months, our longest trip ever. Fast paced travel at first and at the end, we slow down for 2 weeks each in Vienna and Budapest. We are in our go-go go years! Previously, our longest trip was 42 days where we moved pretty fast. While I wasn’t ready to go home, I was ready to slow the pace a bit.

The length of my trips depends on the purpose of the trip and how long/expensive the flights are. My sister can only get away for 9 days at a time. If I travel with her (she is a favorite travel buddy), it will be 9 days. If I am traveling by myself, I find 3 weeks is the point where I start feeling like I want to go home. I am about to head to Australia/New Zealand. I’ll be gone 30 days because the distance is so far.

Not mentioned so far in this topic is how the number of trips each year impacts duration. I will have 5 international trips over the course of 2026. It appears I am more likely to choose more trips rather than one long one. For fun I just looked up how long each trip is scheduled for. 30 days, 21 days, 16 days, 25 days, and 19 days.

When our elderly parents were still alive, we typically took 2-week trips, which I always found unsatisfactory. Now that they have all passed, we have tried longer trips, and some of that was due to how far away the destination was. For example, we spent 6 weeks in Australia and New Zealand. That really wasn't too exhausting because we drove, which we find easier than using public transportation.

This past May, we spent 5 weeks in Italy, and while it was a superb trip, we were exhausted by the end. We used trains a lot, which made sense, but we found that was very tiring after awhile. Getting to and from the train stations, and then to our hotels, and then carrying our luggage on board, even though we tried to travel light, was just exhausting by the end. So our trip last September to Romania and Budapest was 3 weeks, which we find is ideal for us. We had a rental car, too. Luckily for me, my husband still enjoys driving while on vacation.

So, our trip this May to Ireland and Northern Ireland is for 3 weeks (23 nights to be exact).

Four summers ago we were gone for 3 weeks.

Three summers ago we were gone for a month.

Two summers ago we were gone for 4 months.

Last summer we were gone for 5 months, with a VLS-T visa from France.

This summer I'm moving to Bordeaux, with the intention of traveling back to the US for 4 or so months a year. Wife to visit several times.

I like France.

Since I retired six years ago, my trips have gotten lomger. Last year was my longest, 88 days.

This year I have three trips planned. The first is 52 days, the second is 33 days, and the third is 73 days.

For example, when building an itinerary do you try to manage the amount of moving from place to place (to keep it interesting) to longer stays in one place to rest and reset?

I try for a mix of longer and shorter stays, but shorter is not less than two nights. I also combine tours with free time on my own before, between, and after. My three-month trip last year was five independent days up front, followed by a three-week tour, then ten days independent followed by another three-week tour, then five days independent followed by a third three-week tour, ending with five independent days.

Do you try to mix accommodation types to keep it interesting? Examples, small inns, b&b, apartment rentals or city hotels, urban vs rural locations.

Absolutely! I like apartment rentals for longer stays, but I like the convenience of a well-located hotel or traditional B&B or guesthouse. I try to mix it up. And I try to mix up types of locations.

Another question would be, what do you do with the days? Is each day scheduled or do you just figure it out on the fly ?

I definitely plan a lot of things in advance, but I also try to keep some free time for spontaneous activities or just some downtime. On a long trip, it's really important not to be on the go every minute of every day.

Almost all of my overseas trips are solo and it has gradually occurred to me I do better with a 21 day time limit. I start to get sensory overload and I miss my husband and dog too much. So it’s worked out to be the optimal comfort zone for me. I admire all you folks that can go longer.

My husband and I are planning a trip to Alaska this summer, we will drive it, pulling our travel trailer, taking our Lab and then I’ll be good for a couple of months, no problem! We have 2 grandgirls, daughter and son in law in Fairbanks and a niece in Anchorage. We live in Texas so it’s a long haul.

This summer I'm moving to Bordeaux, with the intention of traveling back to the US for 4 or so months a year. Wife to visit several times.
I like France.

We also like France, quite a lot… and I’ve not heard of that visa, which allows a six month stay.

At some point it is no longer a trip and becomes “living somewhere else”.

Are you going to lease a car ? To clarify you will move there and your wife will come visit ?

It has varied. In the ‘old days’ when the best airfares were when you stayed 22-45 days, I would stay at least 22 days and twice I stayed 45 days. These days I do 14-17 days

Everybody has their own "sweet spot". For us, even though retired, we have a number of things going on here, plus my wife's elderly parents, plus a dog, that while well cared for with family, we can not leave her indefinitely.

All that puts our sweet spot at about 3 1/2 to 4 weeks, not much more than before retirement (3 to 3 1/2 weeks), but now we try to take two trips per year.

Back when I worked, I told people that it takes about a week to forget about work, a week to enjoy yourself, then a week to get up the nerve to return to work.

These posts have been very interesting - it looks like for those who have the time and money for the luxury of longer trips, the "sweet spot" tends to be mostly around four weeks. That's what the spouse and I have settled on, as we move into semi-retirement (I work remotely from Europe). After about four weeks, I miss my home and surroundings, my pets, and my home activities too much. As much as I love being in Europe, I also love hiking, biking and other mountain activities that I do where I live. (Yes, I could do those in Europe, and I'm trying to do that more.)

We generally try to plan five-night stays, but it varies depending on the location. And, we've found, when moving from place to place, a night or two in a mid-way location can lead to new places that we might not have thought to explore.