JFF: Would You Rather Vacation Somewhere New or Familiar?

When I was younger , I always wanted to vacation in new or unusual places.

No in my 50's, I want to go to the same familiar place.

What a great question! We do both. @ QueenoftheCastle, my husband and I just celebrated our anniversary in Northern Minn. It was so relaxing!

I prefer a mix. The place I love returning to is Kaanapali, Maui. I've been a few times already and we're taking the kids there for the first time next year.

San Diego calls us back, although we've only been able to go twice. My aunt and uncle's lake place in northern Minnesota calls us back, but it has been about 10 years since we've been there (hopefully next summer!!) San Francisco: what can I say? I left my heart there in high school, and still love going back there.

The only places I never care to return to are Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area. I didn't find anything enchanting about it, and it was just incredibly hot and muggy when we were there.

We do a mix of both. I love new places and returning to old.

I prefer to visit new places but if it has been awhile since I've been I will travel back to the old places as well.

For instance. I did some travel in high school for various school groups and visited New York, New Orleans, Nashville. I have since been back to experience it on my own.

I would love to go overseas. I've been to the Carribbean but I would love to visit England and Ireland. I would love to cruise the Mediterranean. The more domestic locales are more within my pocket book range so we do car trips a alot and depending on where we are heading we always stop at the same "on the way" places.

Great question.There is excitement and energy when going someplace new, but when I return to a place familiar I love the build up of anticipation because I know exactly what to expect and I know it's going to be awesome!

So, I think it depends. If we find someplace good, I like to return and explore it deeper. But then, if I feel like we've explored it enough, I'm ready to move on and go some place new.

We used to always return to our favorite places, but for the last several years we've gone to new places, and I love it! I love seeing new places, and I'm the one who takes the time to plan our vacations, so that's what we'll be doing for awhile. :)

Our vacations are always:
- To the beach (the cold beaches of the North West, that is!)
- To family

I would travel the world with my children. I wouldn't go on a vacation, per say, but I'd rent a house, work, live, and otherwise immerse. Morocco is somewhere I've never been. It is where I'd like to go most (today).

Great question. I'm like you, I always have a hard time choosing. Same reliable place or a new adventure? We mostly camp on our summer vacation so I usually book one long weekend at our favorite local campground, but I'm also on a quest to find the "perfect" campground that's a bit farther from home so I book another 1 or 2 camping trips elsewhere.

As far as a real vacation, we've been to Kauai twice and I could go there time after time if it were in the budget.

I guess overall my comfort zone is to go somewhere familiar. I really like knowing what to expect and what to prepare for. I guess that's the control freak part of me :)

Although I would like to travel to new places I tend to return to the places I have enjoyed in the past. Sometimes travel can be stressful, but I find it less so if I am travelling to a familiar place. Also , you don't need to fear that you will be wasting time and money on a destination you won't enjoy. (I'm like this with restaurants as well. Given a choice I like to go to my favourite tried and true places rather than try new ones.) If I had more time and resources I would be a little more adventurous in my travels. Most of my travel is local, within Manitoba, or just as far into the US as Grand Forks, or into Ontario as far a Kenora. One of my favourite trips is the road trip we have planned for next summer: Saskatoon, Edmonton, Jasper, Banff, Calgary, Drumheller, Regina. I have been to Las Vegas a few times and I have had a good time and would like to go back. It's funny that I don't travel a lot more than I do. My parents were big travellers and usually took three trips a year.

You sound like me. Every year we go to Cape Cod. We love it. It's a relaxing vacation because we don't have to spend a lot of time planning and searching brochures for what we want to do. However, it can get a little boring.

We love Vermont too. We've been back several times. It's our combination spot. Some of it's familar, yet there's still lots to explore.

I also love exploring new places. Every 2 years we try to go somewhere new.

we have several vacations a year. half are to places we go to annualy and the other half to new places. but if we were to choose just one it would always be to a new place because we love seeing new countries.

It depends on if it's a vacation with a purpose or just to get away and relax. If it's a vacation with a goal like ending up at Grandma's for a few days at Thanksgiving but taking several days to get there to stop for some fun then I like going new places.

If it's a vacation to relax I don't want surprises or disappointment or a full sightseeing schedule. So it really depends on the goal of the vacation.

I enjoyed our trip to Billings Montana to visit friends. We left on a Wednesday and stopped in Council Bluffs Iowa, Omaha and Lincoln Nebraska, went to the SAG Museum, Freedom Park (My total favorite), saw some church sights, went on the next day to Hastings to see the IMAX Theater. It was the first time I had ever seen anything like that.

Then we journeyed on towards Minden, Kearney, North Platte where we saw a wildlife reserve along side a train museum that was a lot of fun. The next day we stopped and saw wagon train ruts, went to the top of Scott's Bluff, saw Chimney rock, Castle Rock, and a host of other sites along the way. I got a nice sunburn this day. We spent the night in Casper WY.

We got up and went to church the next morning. They were having a special fast service for moisture. We wanted to get on the road so we left a few minutes before the services were over. When we got outside it was starting to snow. By the time we got to Kaycee there was no visibility and hubby was driving with the window down trying to just watch the lines so he would stay on the road. There were sudden patches of sight though. Enough to see a few cars off the road where they had slid down the embankment. We stopped in Buffalo and called the highway patrol. I was so disappointed in Wyoming because I had thought there were mountains in that state....lol. They were well hidden by the snowstorm.

Then as we traveled north we suddenly came through a wall and it was sunshine and high winds where the pain on our car was nearly sandblasted off by the tons of loose sand from drought they were having. When we finally got to Billings that evening I had experienced almost all 4 seasons since leaving the North Platte area.

It was the best trip ever because I got to have an adventure on the way to a friends house. We stayed in Billings for several days then started the adventure home.

We came back to Sheridan and turned east. We say the Devils Thumb, Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse, through the Badlands, then had to stop at Wall SD for nothing more than to taste the water, and on to Mitchell SD to see the Corn Palace. Sioux Falls was pretty normal for the adventure we had had but it was the cleanest place we had seen.

We turned right at Sioux Falls and headed back through Omaha and Kansas City to get back to I-35. As we came through Emporia Kansas we hit a wall of water and hydroplaned going 70 MPH in our new car. That silly fence that stopped us kept us from making it all the way to Oklahoma...the tow truck ripped out our underside when he pulled the car off the poles and wire. The car was totaled.

So his dad came and picked us up in in Emporia the next day. We missed the series finale of Star Trek Voyager due to the hotel not having that channel. It was totally a let down.....

We made down payments on 2 new cars for the money we got from the accident on our insurance.

It was an adventure and I loved the trip. If we had gone somewhere safe we might not have had the scariest time of our lives driving in a blizzard, hydroplaning past semi's and other vehicles full of families and made so many memories.

This year we went to Branson for the 1st time and those hills between Springfield and Branson are quite scary! But we loved our time there with my dear friends. We also enjoyed the Dixie Stampede and Silver Dollar City. I think that going someplace like visiting friends can be a fun vacation with a few side trips on the way there and the way back. Trips to new places can be fun too but way more stressful since you don't really know much about the reality of what you will get when you get there.