If.you have a partner, how often do you do separate holidays?

[SoRainbowRhythms]

Going on my annual girls holiday with 2 other childfree friends tomorrow.

We have invited a very good, old friend along who is going through a tough time and could do with the break / laugh. She has been married for 10 years with 2 kids. This is her first ever holiday without her husband and kids!

DH and I have at least 1 holiday apart from each other every year - he's away for 8 nights in October and I have this trip plus another in December. We check in with each other a few times a day but don't really spend ages on the phone or rarely facetime. I do miss him tho!

I only really holiday with my childfree friends too. Just wondering what everyone else's setup is like?

We are having our first holiday together next week in three years. Always used to holiday together, then our working patterns just refused to sync, so holidays were taken apart. I confess to loving that, as I hate holidays away from home, but Dh not so happy. Now my working pattern has changed so our compromise going forward is one holiday together and the rest separately each year.

Not really what I’d call holidays, but we have separate short breaks/long weekends a few times a year. Never at the same time as someone has to look after the cat. Proper holidays of a week or more we always do together, and I wouldn’t want to change that. I can’t think of anyone else I could put up with for that long, and holiday taste incompatibility would have been a dealbreaker a long time ago.

I did two short holidays without DH & the kids this year - one 4 nighter and one 3 nighter. DH did a similar number of nights away, but split into several 1 and 2 night breaks. I think not going away without your DH for 10 years is a bit unusual - especially if you have kids! Surely it's nice to have a break from them? I tend to use my holidays to do active things like long hikes, biking & skiing, which I can't do with the kids in tow.

Rarely - I'd rather use our limited annual leave to spend time together, and relatively limited budget not to compromise on holidays or location which is inevitable with group holidays. It's not like we never spend any time apart though, he's a shift worker and I'm not so we often don't see each other much in everyday life, e.g. I've seen him for about half an hour a day since Sunday! One in, one out.

Saying that, we're at a stage where all our friends are getting married so there are multiple stags and hens, most of which are a couple of nights away. Unless it was a hen do I don't see myself going away with friends any time soon - I went on lots of girls holidays in my late 20s and it was fun at the time, but I don't think I could spend a week with anyone who wasn't DH now. Not to mention the fact I no longer speak to one of those friends after she was such a nightmare on a holiday!

@SoRainbowRhythms You should probably have put something about being childfree in the title... This thread will now be overrun with parents.

Can't afford lots of holidays so always together ,had 3 weekends with my daughter in the last few years as she's in her 20s.

@Possimpible realising my mistake!

I have health and disability issues so never go on holidays myself. DP goes on his own, or with friends, or with his mum. Works well for us!

I didn't because my husband didn't take many breaks - he did go away with a friend for five days to a bridge week once when he was on sabbatical, but we went away for a month together afterwards.
My my mother took holidays without my father (he didn't - not enough holiday time). She would go visit her family in Ireland/England. Then they took a holiday together without us kids about every other year. Machu Pichu, Galapagos Island, that sort of thing.

DH goes away with friends for a weekend once a year. I go every few years or so.

I go away for up to 4 days with my sister, mum or friend once or twice a year.

I go with DH for my "proper" holiday, a week away. We love that week. He rarely goes away on his own but might take a long weekend to visit his dad.

If I had more AL I would go for longer with my friend. She is CF too and we enjoy our time away together, we have similar interests

Occasionally - last time was 2021.

We don't do separate main holidays but if I have a work trip or need to visit family abroad I sometimes do that alone and tack on a day or two holiday solo around it. I also do some UK nights away alone, as does he occasionally.

We usually have a holiday together once a year, then he has a separate holiday with his friends and I sometimes have one with mine. Lots of separate weekends away too.

I go away with the girls once a year, next year it will be twice because of my hen/friends hen.

He will go away on his joint stag with the hen friends husband.

We holiday once a year without the DC (they go to their fathers) this year we did vegas!

Next year will be honeymoon in Mexico.

I'm hoping the year after to return to vegas again. Or maybe New York x

We don’t do separate main holidays but I do do short breaks away with my sisters or friends from my gym.

We check in with each other a few times a day but don't really spend ages on the phone or rarely facetime. I do miss him tho!

That’s more than we do. I might say goodnight by text, but that’s as far as it goes.

Never- we work at the same place but there's only the two of us who work there so we don't work the same days. We get limited holidays to take per year obviously and I married her because I wanted to actually spend time with her, so we take our leave at the same time and do all holidays or trips away together. We don't really have a huge circle of friends or family and neither of us are the type to want to go on "girls trips" or drunken weekends anyway so we are very content with that.
We do obviously see friends separately for coffee etc!

Never!

Together 22yrs, married 12. TTC 13yrs and no children. I've been away with work, but neither of us have ever felt the need to go on separate holidays.

We have lived/worked in several countries though- so no lifelong, childhood type friends where we are now. I'm not against it, but if I had the time/money for a holiday, I'd prefer to spend it with DH, not friends.

Depends whether you mean week long holidays, any use of AL or simply weekends away.

In terms of trips away without my partner this year, off the top of my head there has been a running camp, a trip to see a friend abroad, a festival, a couple of gigs in other cities, a retreat and then if these count, a few weekend stays with friends and family. All of these have required leave apart from one of the gigs and going to visit most UK based friends/family. Also love going on hiking and camping/hostelling trips with friends (as well as my partner), but the friends I'd usually go with are short of funds currently.

I do more solo travel than my partner as I’m freelance and can work from anywhere so I like to take advantage of that. This year I’ve had 2 solo trips (one to visit a friend who lives in another country) and an accidental third - partner was meant to to come but we got to the airport to find his passport was nearly expired so he was barred from the flight! He goes at least once every year with his best friend and they have a couple of other sports weekends away. I keep telling my single friends I’m not one of those people who has to do everything with their partner and reminding them I’m up for holidays!

DH is off for an 8 day cycling trip to Cyprus tomorrow. Looking forward to a bit of me time but know I'll change that tune when I start hearing noises in the night 😂

We do a range - DH can’t take very long at a time off, so we tend to have several short breaks together through the year (maybe 4 or 5), and then perhaps 2-3 times a year we will each go away with other people to pursue separate interests. We both wfh, so we see a lot of each other anyway!

But imagine having the bed all to yourself! The biggest treat 😁