That 10 days is the holy grail holiday (not bloody 14 - when will I learn!)

[sunshinebananas]

Every single time we go on a European sun / beach / villa / complex type holiday, we book it for 14 days and every single time I get to about day 10 and am fed up and want to be at home. I've nothing to complain about except the bed is a bit uncomfortable and I should enjoy my last 3 days of sun and relaxing - but all I can think about is that if I'd bloody remembered and booked 10 days, we'd be flying home tomorrow and I could have had a few days at home in my own bed before going back to work....

I never feel like this on far flung holidays with a packed itinerary etc and holidays are always a few years between so I obviously forget and get all giddy with the booking.....

We do a fortnight but split it between two different location which I like.

This must be a universal truth, because I independently came to this conclusion about 10 years ago, but have never heard it from anyone else.

What is that? A human need for security or something? Boredom with novelty?

Yes I’ve always said 10 days is just perfect!

A friend of mine says that the perfect length of holiday is: HDx0.8, where HD= holiday days booked. Whether it be three or one week, you want to go home at the 80% point, every time

A few years ago after lots of saving my DH and I went on a 3 week, no expense spared honeymoon of a lifetime. Moved around several places, one world class hotel after another... by the end of the 2nd week we were very ready to come home, the final week felt more like an endurance exercise. 10 days for the win!

I was away for 12 nights and it was too much. 10
Is perfect!

@Musicalmistress your holiday sounds perfect, a great mix of seeing family and just relaxing by yourselves. Did it feel like you felt you were living there and not just on holiday?

14 days off work.
2 days to get organised
10 days away
2 days to do stuff before work
Perfect

Yup. This is the ideal

Ooh no I like 12 days of bliss which is what you get with a 14 day as you have to travel on two of them.

I find 7 days usually too short. I prefer 14 days, although 10 is OK

Currently got 4 days left of an 11 day holiday (day 11 is travelling home)
Got 2 more days off when we get home to catch up on washing, visiting and doing very little
Perfect!

Agree, 7 is not enough but 14 is too much.

Normally I would agree with you OP, but tomorrow we are leaving for a 7 day holiday with the children, their OHs and the 5 grandchildren! Feeling like 7 days might be too much........

I never want to come home!
Saying that, walking along the same front does get boring, so you need to tailor your holidays so it’s not too samey.

Depends where you go and what you do. I'd be fine with 14 days - if not longer. I'd find plenty of the stuff I enjoy to do.
But I don't go abroad so I don't have that faffing around with flights and what not.

Mmm, 14 days was fine for us as a family but... we rarely did 14 days in one place.

7 days in one place, either ski resort or beach camp site.. then off to another for another 7 days.

But always a few days after the holiday to get sorted, never straight back from hols and off to work/school.

These days though 4 days is my max away from home, mostly because affording a carer to come with for longer even at rock bottom mates rates is too much, and on top of that I really want my own bed after that. But those are the joys of chronic illness and disability.

11 days all inclusive in the Maldives in Nov-Dec - I can't imagine wanting to leave! We have the joy of a 4.30am departure, though, and on our return land at 9.30pm and I have to be up at 5am for work the next day!

This is spot on!

Concur with all that 10 days is the optimum. Just back from 10 days in Spain, DD did miss the dog a lot though, we only did a week last year because of Covid.
In my wisdom, I booked a 3 day UK break for the day after we returned to 'make the most of it'. Don't do that.

Off this weekend for a 10 nighter - spot on for us as a family with teenagers! Enough time to enjoy it and not kill each other ;)

7 days in all inclusive in Europe
10 days if travelling around in Europe
14 days for longhaul so you don't spend half your time struggling with jetlag.

Travel days are the worst though!!

10 days sounds about right for beach/pool holidays as I imagine they get boring after a while - there's only so much swimming and sunbathing you can do before you get bored!
I don't do those holidays though, our holiday is nearly always going back to the UK to see family and 10 days is nowhere near enough for that, did 6 weeks this summer and even that ended too soon and wasn't enough time to go everywhere and see everyone we wanted to. Or we go up to Lapland and that's usually a week but I'd prefer longer, maybe two or three weeks.

Agreed! We head off next week for 10 nights in Portugal. Have 2 weeks off, so a nice buffer for packing/unpacking/laundry...

Would love 14 but don't get enough annual leave, it's carefully calculated here