We have experimented with travel across different durations- from day trips, to weekend getaways, fortnight trips to 4 month extended stay. After all these experiences, we found 10-20 days as the optimum duration, and we have listed why we love short duration travel
I stayed for 4 months in Europe during an exchange program from September to December, experiencing fall and start of winter. While summers have long days and are extremely productive, winters hit you in a different way. Beyond the first day of excitement on snow fall, you will find extremely short windows of daylight, sometimes ending at 4 PM. Your energy levels fall; there is nothing much to see outside and travel becomes difficult. I realized why Scandinavian countries have some of the highest rates of depression despite having best standards of living. Sunshine does add happiness to our lives
I do agree that summers can be long and seasonal cycles average out. You can also argue that tropics offer uniform weather patterns where you can stay longer, potentially forever. However, that almost means having two homes and optimizing life basis weather, like how the ancient kings did
Why we like travel duration of around 2 weeks
- Planning is efficient. There are too many variables that can throw off a trip as duration increases (like running out of currency)
- Your luggage remains manageable, one large and 1 small piece per person. You can manage to lug it around, carry on stairs occasionally where required and take public transport in worst case scenario
- Health is manageable, specially for Indians. We have had some kind of irritation, and it feels like heaven to be back home
- We can manage to carry our ready-to-eat food as vegetarians with the luggage allowance permitted
- You can manage without doing laundry, waiting for days for clothes to dry and avoid carrying wet clothes
- You can focus on 1-2 small countries or 1-2 states in a large country. Beyond that, you start losing track of what you have seen as places don’t seem too novelYou don’t feel homesick yet
- It is easier to manage things at home like watering plants, taking care of pets
For countries that need many days to cover, we suggest splitting your trip into 2-3 visits so that you can come back again and absorb an altogether different face of the country
I am not against people who stay for months to absorb a culture. That has an altogether different motive. You need to stay for months to get to know the culture, say for 3-6 months at least, ideally for a year. The idea is not to go hopping from one place to another, but to find a place to settle and interact with the locals. Staying for a year gives you a flavor of seasonal festivals and annual events
I would say 2-3 weeks is the ideal time for a vacation. I know this could be controversial, but they are my view. Many studies have also suggested that you tend to peak out and then start feeling tired on a longish vacation beyond that, moving into category that starts feeling overwhelming again