Today I asked a question over on our friend Tonya’s site, The Traveling Praters (Facebook/Twitter). After a conversation I had with a co-worker, it dawned on me that there are two distinct types of travelers that have completely different goals that they want to get out of going on a vacation.

Someone is either a Vacation Relaxer or a Vacation Explorer. In which I ask,

What Type of Traveler Are You?

Growing up, my sister and I were very fortunate to have parents that took us everywhere. Camping (Check); hiking (check); Disney (check); new cities (check). My parents were never one to leave us kids at home (except that one time they went on their first week long cruise and left us at home with my grandparents and aunts, and upon their return saw that my aunt let me get my ear pierced. When the parents are away…).

When we traveled with my parents, we were always very active. I do not recall ever sitting around the campsite all day, or laying on a beach till our pale white bodies turned a bright red of “crab.” We went out and did things. We went to museums or explored new areas.

A vacation for our family was never just a relaxation away from the daily grind back home. The joke was always we need a vacation from our vacation when we get home.

Perhaps that is why today I really enjoy the thrill of going out and exploring a new location. Being active in our travels actually works well with three very energetic little men, which sitting still is never an option. Little kids want to be stimulated and interact with new people and places. We have found our boys thrive on travel adventure, and I love how, even when at home, they wake up each day and ask where are we going today?

My first vacation that simulated a vacation relaxer was a trip with my wife’s family to Myrtle Beach in 2007, before we got married. We camped on the beach (a “resort” on the beach, not actually camping on the beach), went to the ocean and into the lazy river, played putt-putt, ate, took naps. It was a wonderful trip, and for the first time in my life I began to appreciate the travel relaxer lifestyle.

Now keep in mind, my wife and I also decided to elope for a couple of days down to Charleston to explore my style of traveling, and even during the days in Myrtle Beach, we would often drive down the coast to explore local shops, etc. So the trip was nothing short of disconnecting and completely doing nothing, but it was a taste of what a relaxing and doing nothing scheduled type of vacation was all about.

Now that I have experienced both types of travel, I have learned to appreciate a mixture of both. I am all for the Disney vacation of showing up at rope drop and staying through the extra magic hours when my late night burst of energy to explore sets in, and yet do the same thing the next morning. Time and money spent are a wasting.

Yet I also need to be mindful of our fast-paced travel lifestyle, and at some point the boys and mama are going to collapse in exhaustion. That is why we now try to schedule in a day or so of downtime to really relax and recoup from our adventures.

So I can proclaim that while the scales are still tilted towards a Travel Explorer, trying to maximize their dollars spent, there is a side of me that now has geared closer towards center thanks to learning the ways of the Travel Relaxer.

Where do you fall into the spectrum?

Save Money, Travel More!

Source: InACents