Are You Taking a Trip or a Vacation?

If you’re planning to travel this summer, are you taking a trip or a vacation?

One isn’t necessarily better than the other, but it’s worth making the distinction.

A trip is a type of travel with an agenda. There are scheduled events to plan for. Places to be or people to see. Lots of moving around. Trips can be exciting and fun and fulfilling, but they don’t usually leave you feeling rested. If you’ve ever returned from someplace and said, “I need another vacation to recover from my vacation,” you weren’t on a vacation. You were on a trip.

A vacation is much less regimented. Aside from a few planned activities, your agenda is more wide open. It’s more relaxed. There is nowhere you have to be. This type of travel doesn’t usually have an abundance of photos or adventure stories to share and often feels like you did a whole lot of nothing, but you return home refreshed.

Our family went to Yellowstone National Park for a week. We did a lot of driving, stopping, looking, and hiking. There wasn’t a whole lot of time just “being.” We saw things we’d never seen before and came back tired, with a hard drive filled with photos and heads overflowing with stories. It was great. But it was definitely a trip. A visit to Disney World or a pilgrimage to Rome is also a trip.

Later that year, we went to Hawaii. I had a speaking engagement in Honolulu and we spent a few days there (a trip), before hopping over to Kauai for a week (a vacation.) We gave ourselves permission to not do and see everything the island had to offer, opting instead for long stretches of beach time. There was less movement, lots of sleeping in, fewer “have to’s,” and not nearly as many photos. But we filled our cups and came back rejuvenated.

[ An aside: some may presume or argue that travel with kids is always a trip, not a vacation. I find this generally true, but I recall a few treks to Florida when the kids were very young, when the bulk of our time was spent on the beach, playing in the sand and tricking the waves. Kim and I left work at home, relaxed our expectations, focused on enjoying the little ones, and sipped tropical drinks when they went to bed. It was quite restorative. On the other hand, the subsequent cross-country road trip to the Grand Canyon a few years later was fun, but undoubtedly a trip. ]

Of course, it’s possible to take a vacation in Yellowstone or turn Hawaii into a trip. And everybody has varied personal preferences when it comes to how we recharge our batteries.

The point is, there’s a definite distinction between a trip and a vacation.

The problem is when you take one but expect (or need) the other.

Before I realized the distinction, I found it tempting to resent a trip I went on because it didn’t turn out to be a vacation. Which totally discounted all the cool things I experienced. Likewise, finding yourself disappointed with a vacation because it didn’t have the adventure of a trip can also be frustrating.

So if you’re in the process of making some travel plans this summer, be mindful of whether you need a trip or a vacation.

And if something is already on the calendar, determine whether it’s a trip or a vacation in advance to set proper expectations, minimize Adultitis, and make the most of the opportunity in front of you.

Happy travels!