Tours vs Vacations

I have taken 12 RS tours and consider every one of them a vacation. We go to Europe every year for about a month and while there take a RS tour plus some time on our own either before the tour, after the tour, or both.
We also travel some in the US and view those trips as vacations also especially since my wife has to take time off of work for either one. Me, being retired, view every day as a vacation.

Except for weekends, national holidays and sick days, any day that I don't have to be at work is a vacation. Even if I'm just lying around the house reading a book all day, it's a vacation. On most of my vacations, I take tours, which serve to enhance the vacation. I don't think I would ever think of a tour as not a vacation.

I think of tours, traveling, and vacations as three completely different things.
Tours are what you take when you want to get an overview of a place or have limited time and want to see as much as possible without the hassle of DIYing your trip. They are convenient, quick, and informative. You are on someone else's timeline and just go with it. To me, a tour seems like something that some people do to check places off their list. Or maybe they just aren't comfortable being on their own and want to have the security of a group and a knowledgeable guide.
Traveling to me is contrasted from a tour in that you are wanting to know more about a place but more in depth than what you would get on a tour. The pace is slower, you take the time to delve into the culture, food, and sights. You get to know the people as much as you can. You participate in local events and traditions. You adapt to the pace of a place in an attempt to more deeply understand it.
To me, a vacation is what you take when you're exhausted from work and want to sit on a beach or by a pool with a drink that has a little umbrella sticking out of it. Maybe a couple of excursions that would fall under tours or traveling happen on a vacation but the idea is mainly to unwind, rest and recharge. I can't take vacations for very long...I get bored!

Master,

to me youre looking at different sides of the same coin.

I would say that if youre on vacation, you can take a tour as you say. But i dont see any reason you would be on a tour without being on a vacation - or away from work. I guess you can take a "tour" as part of a business/political related boondogle, but thats out of my paygrade and up to the bean counters to fight over.

just my 0.02.

happy trails.

While I don't use specific vocabulary to distinguish between the two, in my mind I separate using my vacation time to go to Europe and, say, using it to go on a Caribbean cruise (which I quite enjoy during a long cold winter). The only tour I've done was China so I categorize that with my independent European trips.

Now in July I'm off on a road trip to the States, including New York City. So how do I characterize that? Since I'm mainly there for a sporting event and the accompanying party I class it more with a cruise. If I was doing more museums and other cultural or educational activities, I'd class it more with Europe.

I find the query confusing..

If I am not at home, and not working , it is a vacation.. and one can "tour" around without being on a tour.. but a tour is still a vacation to me.. a vacation may also be 2 weeks at a beach resort in one place.. that is a vacation .. but guess you couldn't call that a tour..

This summer we will be on vacation in Europe for a month.. one of those weeks is going to be what I call a "vacation from our vacation" since it will be spent at a beach resort in a small town on Marjorrca ( an hour and half from main city). There is nothing to do there but beach it all day long.. and drink and eat the evenings away.. while as the other three weeks on vacation we will be in big cities .. visiting museums etc all day long !

WM
Hmmm. Vacation is time away from work/home. Maybe its just semantics or regional or class difference. "what did you do on vacation?" "I went on a European tour." On my own, I might say, "I traveled around Europe." "Tour" implies being guided by a third party, includes multiple places, and maybe some active learning involved. Going to the beach, skiing or a cruise, would be a vacation.

Interesting question. I'll make a 'stab' at an answer.

A 'vacation' is time away from the ordinary routine/ordinary responsibilities. Yes, one typically thinks about time off from work, but retirees also take vacation. HOW one spends (or invests) his/her time during that vacation can vary.

A vacation can be taken in one's own hometown....ala the 'stay-cation,' if they are going to see/do things they may not normally do. One can use his/her vacation to chill on a beach or to do something to help humanity (medical outreach in impoverished areas), or they can travel for pleasure.

The 'travel for pleasure' can be approached two different ways: 1) a leisurely escape (think renting a Tuscan villa), waking up when wants, visiting various villages on no set timetable, etc. OR 2) they can be on tour, which I think of as having a somewhat predetermined schedule. Tours vary in group (more structured with more rigid scheduled) or individual (where one merely hires local guides to share information on a schedule the individual sets.....or they may self-tour, with some idea of what they want to see/when.

To me that is the difference between a vacation and a tour........the structure. All the various approaches have different advantages. Usually when we are on a group tour, we come home rather exhausted, but fulfilled, as we have seen a lot very efficiently.......advantages are just that: the efficiency, not having to 'work' to make arrangements, and the ability to enjoy one's fellow travelers (usually somewhat like-minded individuals). On an individual tour (where one hires his/her own guide(s), that can be arranged where one also has a driver (the least stressful approach for us), but it is usually a bit more relaxing, as you can leave a site sooner, if you are finished enjoying it, or you can stay longer, without feeling rushed. One can also choose to sleep a bit later the next morning after a full day of touring or long road trips....no bus to catch, etc. Depending on where one is touring, the individual approach can be much less expensive, or it can be much more expensive.

Packaged tours have appeal when one just does not have the time to do all the research, or they want the convenience/comfort of knowing every single detail will be taken care of (hotels will be nice, won't have to worry about getting from point A to point B...won't have to worry about parking, tolls, getting entry tickets or standing in long lines...and often, one does not have to worry (as much) about not being fluent in the local language.

We've traveled with a variety of approaches, and most likely we will continue to select different varieties based on where we are going and what we want to see/do. Sometimes cruises make sense, too, when it is just nice to wake up in a new location without losing daylight hours to travel.......just depends on the itinerary. We select the method/provider based on what seems to make sense and what is the the most appealing for each locale.

Personally, I think it is a function of vocabulary. In formulating a response I realized, for some reason, our current family has never used the word vacation. My father did because he worked 48 weeks of the year and always had vacation coming. First two weeks, then three, and finally five. And it was something that was always in the future and he looked forward to that time. It was something to anticipate. With both of us being in education we technically never had vacation in the sense of time off. We always focused on the work commitment - one semester, two semester, summer sessions. But never on the time off. Time off just occurred because we were done. And, of course, then we never measure vacation or time off in terms of days or weeks. For my parents the concept of vacation had a lot of meaning. But for us, it has little meaning. Never really thought about that difference before.

To return to your question. We just travel. Sometimes we cruise, sometimes we tour, and most of the time we just travel. For us a tour would be something that is organized with a definite beginning and end with an objective or two in the middle. A tour could be one hour or one week. The rest of the time we are just traveling. Our traveling can have different objectives from a quick hit of a few places to prolonged leisurely stays or slow travel in other areas. We have a tendency to bookend our traveling time and then slowly back fill the days. We will schedule the airline for the area or areas we interested in visiting and then determine what we can do and when. We do not do a lot of advance reservations either. We miss some discounts but those are not that important to us either.

Any time I take off from work and go anywhere, I call it going on vacation. I would include my travels in Europe that I do on my own, time spent in a resort, visiting a friend in another city, or going on an organized tour or cruise. I usually associate a tour with an organized trip, usually on a bus, with other people. I do also say I am touring Rome or touring Munich if I am going there for a time period to see sights on my own. I would also consider this a vacation. So, most tours are when I am going somewhere to see sights, and this is also a vacation. A vacation is not always a tour since it can include just spending time in a resort, or visiting a friend.

I would imagine that the three terms were result of regional usage, expression or dialect and now we are trying to force unique meanings on them to define unique classes or groups. It appears that this attempt to create these classes has something to do with self promotion. So lets add one more to the pot. The Europeans don't go on Vacation, they take a Holiday. I guess in my mind I might make an exception for a "Traveler" who in my mind describes a person who takes an epic journey. 12 days, 21 days or even 30 days does not begin to describe what I see as a "Traveler". Not even sure if in todays modern society it's possible to be a Traveler the way I think of the term. Patrick Leigh Fermor may have been the last "Traveler".

Hi,

I have never taken a formal packaged, as such, in Europe, not by RS nor any other company, never entertained such an option. That would be different if I went to China, Russia or maybe even Japan,... maybe not in Japan. I 've been on city tours either a walking tour or bus tour. It is indeed a vacation if I am not at home and am not at work. Luckily, my trips to Europe were never work related. In that sense they were in the true of the word a vacation where usually more often than not I arrived solo, traveled solo to places, sites planned out in advance, at least sort of, and tracked them down, using the train or bus, a few times the ferry.

Of course, participating in a packaged tour or cruise is a vacation. It's a personal definition. I am open to doing a river cruise as part of a vacation in Europe, those river cruises going for a set amount of days, on the Elbe, Danube, and above all, on the Oder, all very fascinating and interesting.

My first trip to Europe in 1979 was a sort of customized Amex tour. My first trip to Europe with my wife was about 16 years ago and it was a budget air/hotel package to Rome. It was a wonderful experience but that might have been because we were together in Rome and for no other reason. The past dozen years we have traveled 2 to 3 times a year to Europe. ( I know its a bad thing because of the carbon footprint from too much traveling ... we feel guilty). For difficult locations like Bulgaria or Romania we hire a guide with a car; besides we can afford it in Bulgaria and Romania so why not enjoy the convenience. It's not uncommon for us to hire City Guides for an afternoon or occasionally a full day. A good guide adds value to a trip by having information and insight that is pretty difficult to glean from books. A lot of folks say that they want to mingle with locals, hey, start mingling with that local guide; or why don't they count? Because I have been doing business in Hungary with an English gentleman I have adopted the term "on Holiday" to describe my Vacations, Travels and Tours.

I've taken day tours, half day tours, city walking tours, full city tours, multi day tours--walking and bus--and I would say that they were all a part of my vacation. I think a tour is a subset. A vacation can start when you shut down the computer and before you've even hit the door of your office. It can include the transportation to your destination all that you do at the destination and doesn't end until you are back turning on the computer again.

I've left in a smart phone loop hole. I know that there are the die hards who say, if you aren't completely disconnected you aren't on vacation, but I'm going to disagree. If you are truly in control of the smart phone, then you can check in. I had a great vacation that combined a work trip with two long weekends on either end. I had another where I met up with new work colleagues my first two days in Scotland, went on for two weeks and then connected for work trip in Liverpool at the end.

As for travel. I travel for fun, for family, for work, for learning, for such a wide range of reasons. It's up to me to make a trip more than one more convention in Denver and find a new place to explore. So, if I find the new place for a few hours, am I on a mini vacation? :)

Pam

Interesting question. My colleagues think I go on "vacation" for three months a year. I consider it a combination of research, holiday/vacation, pilgrimage - in other words, travel. I have vacation time in there, somewhere, when I toss the itinerary and just relax, but planning/executing independent/solo travel for a long trip is just a different way of living for a while.

A tour, regardless of length of time - I took a tour of the Vatican museums once - means to me that I show up somewhere and turn myself over to someone else's plan, schedule, or itinerary (sometimes proving the point that hell is other people).

So, while I can see distinctions between touring and vacationing, in practice they can both occupy the same time/space continuum.

I don't think " tour" just means an organized led tour. Remember a century ago young folks of wealthy families did the "Grand Tour" of Europe ,,this could take many months, sometimes involved long stays , sometimes with family or friends, sometimes used the time to improve their languages, art appreciation, or musical abilities.

I agree with most others that it's hard to compare these two terms. Right now I am both on vacation and touring Eastern Europe. I am retired so I'm not on vacation from work but rather I am just 'vacating' my normal day-to-day routine, that's all vacation means to me; it can be a week at a resort or on the beach, a cruise, an escorted tour somewhere, visiting friends in another state. or just lying around reading all day.

As far as touring, like others have said, it can mean an escorted tour with everything arranged for you or just traveling around on your own. For me the term touring means going from place to place, whether on your own or with a group, or with a private guide. But a tour can also just be an in-depth visit somewhere such as a tour of a brewery or even a garden, it's a difficult word to pin down.

I have taken escorted tours and loved them for their ease of planning and for the very reason that you don't have to worry about the unexpected, they can be very hectic or very relaxing depending. They can also be good for solo travelers who want to connect with a group and find it more fun to share the experience with others. I also do tours on my own, such as now where I am going to several different cities in several different countries but I have made all the plans, all the reservations, all the decisions, and am responsible for all the outcomes.

For me a "tour" is any situation of any length where someone shows me and teaches me about things they know more about than I do...in situ.

"Traveling" is all the activities required to go somewhere besides where I live, including all the details.

When I "visit" a place, it is seeing someplace or something with much more specificity.

Before I retired, "vacation" was definitely reserved for the time I had off from work or earlier, from school. Now that I am retired, I really do not use the term much at all. It simply does not apply for me.

So when I was working I might use my vacation time to travel to Greece where I might visit the Palace of Knossos on Crete and take a tour of the ruins at Delphi.

Now that sentence would start with "I might travel to Greece..."

A vacation is any time I don't have to work, as in "I vacate the office". A tour is what I do any time I want to learn more about something or some place that interests me.

When I go on vacation, I almost always go on tours. This could be a half day walking tour in a city, an intensive tour of a church, a food tour, or a tour of some other kind of interesting place, like in Mammoth Caves, the underground vaults in Edinburgh, or a sailing trip down the coast of Morocco. Here in my own city, I also go on tours on a fairly regular basis, though I am not on vacation. There are something like 200 tours in Frankfurt I can go on, cemetery tours, inside hotels, the flora and fauna of our city forest, as well as special historical events, airport and factory tours, and on and on. No need for me to be on vacation for those, though someone visiting on vacation might want to go on them. I think most cities have tours like this of their neighborhoods, food tours, or historical tours, maybe even in costume. Though tourists might go on them, I think they are mainly for the citizens of that city to learn more about the roots of their town and where they live.

Have never gone on a longer tour with a group of people riding a bus, like the RS tours, though they do sound fun. Kind of like going off to summer camp but moving around each day and seeing new things. Exchanging addresses, desiring to keep in touch, having inside jokes that only others that were on your tour will ever get.

I'm not sure about the distinction between "definitions of these terms" and "how you perceive their meaning," but for me, "a vacation" is a trip away from home, but I primarily think of "trip" to describe that activity of going somewhere, more than "vacation." However, "on vacation" is the state experiencing a set time away from work, which may or may not include a trip, and that trip may or may not include a tour. A tour is when someone else organizes an activity (or all the activities for a trip/vacation), but I've taken tours at home, and not considered them vacations or trips.

Time off from work is usually considered "break" or "leave" but is sometimes referred to as "vacation," especially if a trip is involved.

So, Webmaster, are you the SEO CEO?

When we were working, my wife and I would think of "vacation" as pretty much the same as "annual leave." We'd schedule the time, leave our offices at the end of the day, come home for dinner, and say to each other "we're on vacation!" Then the next day we'd take off on a trip somewhere, but the vacation really started the night before. When we got home we'd take what she called a "recovery day" before returning to work.

Now that we're retired, we don't take vacations, we take trips. Plenty of leisure in our lives now, so no need for the poolside umbrella drinks (though we like to cruise). But frequent travel meets our need for variety, stimulation, and new experiences. It isn't to rest, we can do that at home. For us a tour is a guided trip, maybe a short one like through a historic building, or a long one like two weeks in China, where someone takes us somewhere and shows us something. We've preferred independent travel to the long multi-day tours, but we've used tours to see China and parts of central Europe. We're looking for a good tour of Greece for next spring (sadly, we're probably too decrepit for the RS tour).

So a vacation is when you don't have to work, and a tour is part or all of a vacation. But if you're not working you still (hopefully) travel, meaning take trips, maybe including tours. Does any of this help with the SEO exercise? Would it help to put the word "trip" in some of the RS online material?

Vacation is any time that I am not at my job, period. I prefer to take "busy" vacations as opposed to "relaxing" vacations. I like doing things on my own, and so far that's worked well for me, but since I travel alone it can also seem a bit daunting, all that planning and logistical stuff and hauling myself all over Europe. But I've found that even taking a guided day trip kind of tour can seem stifling, so I would most likely not consider a tour for a week or longer vacation--too much interaction with other people and their needs and feeling like I might not get to spend enough time happily wandering a place. When planning a trip I know that I want to see the things that make a place famous and interesting, a bit of how the locals live and also things that are especially interesting to me. I also like some unstructured time spent people-watching.

Vacation for me requires a get away. Just being off work is a day off, PTO, time off or stay-cation. If someone told me they had a vacation and I asked where they went, and they told me they stayed home, I'd think they didn't take a vacation at all. They just took time off work.

A tour is any visit or trip that is guided by a third party. I can take a tour of a museum or I can take a tour of Paris.

A person on a European tour is certainly on vacation. But many people that go on vacation do not go on tours. And a person can take a tour and not be on vacation. You can take a tour of a local museum. You can take a tour while having some downtime on a business trip.

When the husband and I have PTO from the office, we're "on vacation", much like kids are on summer vacation from school.

When we pack a suitcase and leave home for pleasure - on our own plan and schedule - we're "taking a trip."

When all or part of a trip involves an escort, we're "on a tour." We can see a museum on our own, or tour a museum with a guide. I'll even put "cruise" in it's own category as it's a specific sort of trip/tour. As we don't yet book escorted packages, at this point in our lives, "tour" is something we rarely do, and usually only when it's mandatory to visit certain attractions.

I like, and agree with, the way Kathy put it. However, I have retired friends who say they are taking a vacation, meaning they are leaving town for a few days or longer. And I say vacation!?! They are already getting PTO!!

At first, I was confused by this delineation of the words tour and travel and vacation. But then Anita (6/24) explained it perfectly!

All (non-business) tours are vacation, but not all vacations are tours. How's that?

Now, what's the difference between a vacation and a holiday?

Life is a vacation..........from what comes next.
Sometimes you stick a tour in it ..........sometimes you don't.

A tour is a kind of vacation, to me. I might take a tour (China, Costa Rica) on my vacation, or not (Europe). Since I am mostly retired, except for seasonal jobs, I usually use the word "travel" instead of "vacation". If I tell someone I am going to be gone, I generally say, "I will be out of the country" or "I will be traveling then". It seems silly to say "vacation" anymore, though I used to say, "I'll be on vacation that week" or "I'm taking a vacation day" when I was working year-round. I travel when I am not working, but it's when work ends, not a break during the time I am working.

@Tom - all vacations are holidays, but not all Holidays are vacations . . . unless you plan a getaway to Punxsutawney for Groundhog Day.

Thanks very much to everyone that replied!

To me, a vacation is time away from work AND away from home. In my mind, tours are organized and have events planned, whether transportation, lodging, or sightseeing. We are going to Carmel this weekend for 3 nights and call it a "vacation". No tours involved. Last Saturday we went wine tasting in Napa for the day, but just a fun filled day off, not a vacation. Our upcoming trip to Scotland (80 days, 11 hours) is a two week vacation, but will have a couple of tours throughout the trip (distilleries, Edinburgh Castle, etc.).

Even if I took a week off from work and just stayed home, I would not consider that a vacation, but time off work. Although I guess officially, the company I work for calls it vacation time. Several years ago, I was pursuing a new job, and the hiring manager left me a message requesting a meeting the following week. I called back and responded that I was on vacation. He then asked if he could meet on Tuesday, so in response I said "I'm on vacation out of state". Never quite understood if he expected me to cancel my vacation or what, as he never did call me back. Maybe it was just differences in our "vacation" definitions.

Another interesting word to think about is touring. Is it the same as traveling? Probably not quite the same, but close. "I'm touring around Scotland visiting different places." "I'm traveling to Scotland to visit friends and family." "I'm traveling to Scotland to take a tour of the distilleries." Am I touring around Scotland if I'm staying in one place and taking day hikes?

This has been an interesting discussion that plays to the wordsmiths among us. :) English! What a great language!

Pam

When I research for a trip, I'm likely to start a search with the term "itinerary" and the destination(s) I'm interested in. We prefer independant travel rather than tours, but get ideas about how to structure a trip by looking at various tour itineraries.

I think some would call a tour a vacation. I am not one because I do not want to be on someone else's timeline or see what they have chosen for me or have to leave a spot to get to the next. I also don't want to spend my time off with strangers on a bus. I hate small talk and don't want to know your life story.

When we go to Europe we "travel". It's part educational, part vacation but all fun for us. Researching what we want to see, do and eat is a big part of the travel experience. We stay in houses or apartments and not hotels so we can have a more inclusive experience. We spend 2 weeks and include at least 2 areas to explore; one rural, one city.

When we go to Disney World or on a cruise we are on vacation. This is all fun and part relaxation. We don't have to think very hard or do much planning.

We are considering a Mediterranean cruise in a couple of years and I am not sure if it will be travel or vacation! Maybe it will be something totally new for my family.

This is really an interesting question. For me a vacation is going to one place, staying, coming home - funny thing I call a cruise a vacation! When we travel we go to several destinations in one trip. For me a tour is an organized and escorted visit somewhere, be it one destination or many, two hours or two weeks.