Go on holiday every 12 weeks

[fangia]

DP and I have a plan to help us get through a stressful year at work. It is to go on a one week holiday every 12 weeks. Nothing fancy. £400 each for b&b with flights and a car for example.

Does anyone else go away this frequently? Does it help keep stress down?

It’s a great idea, and really helps to reset you, but try and make sure you get a longer week break at some point.

Yes we do that here but more often.
It was curtailed when DC at school due to term time but now they are grown up.
So far this year, a couple of beach holidays, a uk break and a city break. Another beach holiday and a city break later in the year.
DH nearly 60 and works long hours and it makes such a difference to him - his face actually looks different after a couple of days of zero stress. It's good to see.

Yes. When my husband was still working, in a highly stressful role, 12 weeks was the longest he would ever have without a holiday. I don't think he would have coped otherwise.

I'm probably heading towards this tbh. As my salary has increased I am spending much more on travel. In the last 12 M I've had a weekend in a UK city (concert) last September, a visit to family in France and Belgium in October, Canaries in December, city gig break in February, 2 weeks in the USA in May, long weekend in London in August (concert). We're going to Turkey for a week next week. Youngest DC now heading to uni so no need to be home or stick to school holidays.

My job is super stressful and having a holiday or break to look forward to really helps, and I enjoy planning trips.

I could spend more on 'stuff' but prefer travel and experiences. Our mortgage is cheap and I drive an 8 year old Fiesta!

Yes. We have three holidays booked between now and December, Kos, Dubrovnik and Munich. Mulling over a sunny break around Feb.

Hell yes!
I work in a school so we have now embraced 4 times a year, might rise. But we have a trade off, under bag set only (Ryanair I'm looking at you!), use a local bus transfer where possible.

Go abroad 4 times a year…..go on U.K. breaks 2 to 4 nights, 6 to 8 times a year…..im 59 so no mortgage, kids all independent ….couldn’t do it when kids were at home

Used to have at least 6 holidays a year. Now retired and spend the winter abroad but still holiday in UK and abroad a few times each year. Life's too short not to.

Yup- I bloody love a holiday but way prefer little and often. In fact this year is the first time we’re going away for 2 weeks. Usually it’s between 3 and 5 nights but we do go away every school holiday.

We go every school holiday. Nothing extravagant just away. We work hard for it in stressful roads so why not?

Yes now we’re quite close to retirement we’re fortunate enough to be able to spend pretty much all our annual leave on trips, and our work is flexible enough that if we are jetlagged on the first couple of days back we can start or finish early or late (or read emails at 3am…) depending on when we’re awake.

Since COVID our trips have mostly been abroad. We also do weekend breaks, mainly to the Yorkshire Dales. We travel mostly outside the school holidays and use a timeshare exchange where we can (we have one that works well for us, which is rare I know) which keeps down the costs. The experiences of the last few years have told us to enjoy life now while we can.

Does it keep the stress down in between trips? I don’t really think so. But we do recharge and de-stress while we’re there, and the planning is kind of our hobby!

This year I've had 4 long weekend breaks without dc. 2 abroad & 2 in uk.

It's been amazing- I've thoroughly enjoyed it.

We've pretty much done that this year, we've taken advantage of the fact that I've been on maternity leave all year as ordinarily my annual leave entitlement wouldn't stretch to allow it. It's been amazing and if I could do it every year I bloody well would!

As mine and my DH's jobs have gotten more stressful, we've really felt that more downtime is needed. We've got 2 DC in school so it's been a case of going away during the school holidays.

Last year and this year we've managed to do 4 holidays in a year; February half-term (7 nights), Easter holidays (8-9 nights), Summer holidays (10-12 nights) and October half-term (5-9 nights). As long as we're still on our current incomes, and health permitting, we'll continue to do this going forward.

I think that Green Party spokesperson was spot on. And the interviewer seemed to suggest that being 'entitled to a holiday' meant flying abroad.

I think it's a really sad state of affairs when people are so stressed out by their work that they feel that in order to balance things out and gain some relief, it is necessary to act in ways which are detrimental to the planet and cause excessive carbon emissions (which, ironically, look set to contribute to making those destinations inaccessible due to heat and / or flood in a generation or so). Considering doing that four times a year isn't a sustainable way of managing work-related stress.

It's great planning and having something to look forward to!

Yes but sometimes I find it more stressful 😂

We go away for a lot of short breaks and 2-3 bigger trips a year

This year we are renovating and have cut down on trips and I'm struggling

I use Virgin and Amex points that we both rack up to keep the costs down

We roughly go away every 12 weeks or less, even if its a UK weekend break.
My mantra is to always have a holiday booked.

Yes, we always did this ( still do, sometimes more, now retired).
Would much, much rather do it this way than the 'one big holiday' option.
It really does help you to 'reset', relax, and remember there's more to life than work.
I also find we talk (properly) as a family,and as a couple, when on holiday ( as opposed to rushing/passing like ships in the night).
One thing to consider though. - our kids did NOT want to go away EVERY school holiday (so we didn't obviously) as they wanted time with their friends too. Getting the right balance is needed.
Being able to have the time, and money, to holiday a lot is something I've always felt very, very lucky to be able to do.

I find these replies fascinating.

I'm curious what type of careers and financial situation people are in to be able to afford so many holidays / weekend breaks a year.

Reading this has made me wonder how the public would feel if the government decided to impose a 20% tax on those who take multiple holidays a year.

What's the difference between people choosing to spend their spare income on private school fees (thus not being able to afford multiple holidays a year) and spending on multiple holidays a year (so unable to afford private school fees)?

Both seem extravagant, the people spending their hard earned money on each of these would view them as a priority over the other and would be choosing how to spend their income.

But why is one criticised and the other not?

Er… the government already does charge a 20% tax on holidays.

It sounds like you're talking about a new tax in addition to those that are already applicable on many holidays, ie you pay 20% if you go away 5 or more times or similar and this is additional to eg the VAT on a holiday let?

If a government made that suggestion, I'd be picking holes in it because the number of holidays a person takes is impossible to properly monitor. Lots would go under the radar entirely, with no official record available to ever check. So that would be the difference between your suggestion and the imposition of VAT on school fees that I presume you're getting at here.

I'd like to start doing this. We've just come back from a holiday and it's really helped to know we have the next one lined up (albeit in 9 months time but it's a big one to Cape Town) I really struggle with post holiday blues and it does make it easier.

Disclaimer: I realise we are very fortunate to be able to do this. For years we went without holidays and other activities to overpay the mortgage and finally paid it off a few months ago to enable this kind of luxury.

Also this year I incorporated a three night break away in the sun (Canaries) in April alone without kids or DH and that was a game changer so going to continue that annually.

Yes, we've started having regular weekend breaks and we're feeling so much better mentally.

Kids are grown, I'm on dialysis and DH is my carer.
Every weekend there is a 2 day break from dialysis so we go to the coast (not far away) every three weeks and enjoy it so much.

Don't do much except relax and people watch but it really has reduced our stress.
Planning on continuing throughout winter months, hopefully.