I think you have the perfect set up, 2 places that are completely different. No reason to not sleep in your own bed(s)!
My son in law loves to travel. I find it exhausting. I’m happy he loves it, I’m happy to travel occasionally.
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I am with you there. I travel to escape normal life. When I am home I am willing to do all the small things to save some $$, like I don’t DoorDash etc. I look for deals all the time. I let the grocery store dictate what we eat on a weekly basis by what is on sale. But when I am on vacation all that goes out the door especially when I am in LV.
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This is from the wife’s perspective. She needs a break from all the routines being at home IMHO (as well as the other comments posted on this thread) - but it may be that she can find another cruise line that will make things more pleasurable for them.
Personally, I have no desire to travel out of the US this year, and maybe even longer - and have not had the desire for some years now. Some of it is due to energy and resources I need to put forth in other ways. I had an enjoyable trip with a local group (utilizing Road Scholar) - went on a trip last year (Pittsburgh) and this year it will be “The Best of New Mexico: Santa Fe, Taos, and Albuquerque” in November. I have never been to either of those two areas, and Road Scholar was well planned and the travel group delightful for the Pittsburgh trip. My DH has traveled extensively nationally and internationally for work and has no desire to travel outside of doing stuff and visiting family/friends and his activities (canoe/camp/fish, or rocketry). April will be our 47th wedding anniversary. DH is the person he is, just as I am the person I am. I thought I would swing through Switzerland on a travel adventure with my sister and a good friend who lives in Switzerland (was planned for a few years ago and we were drilling down details), but friend’s significant other has had cancer treatments (he is older, age 85 now) and sister’s husband needs her (she has only been able to go away for a few days now) - he is also 85. My sister is 71 and my friend is 64 - both of them are in excellent health.
DH and I will be flying in May to San Antonio for a specific event for GD1. DD2 is also planning to come (flying in as well). It will be a festive family time.
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We used to travel a lot more before moving to San Diego but that was partly because of family that are now gone. Also, a fair amount of traveling was to get away from winter, which is no longer an issue. As retirees, life is pretty easy, so getting away from home chores is not an issue. Living in a major tourist area, we do a lot of staycations from home, going places and spending days like a tourist would. We did more day tripping in the first years after moving here. Now it’s kind of, been there, done that. We still haven’t gone to Mexico even though it’s just 20 miles away.
I’m not sure I would have gotten husband to do our big NZ/Oz trip next month if it wasn’t for RMD’s! I got him to move here; that was our big retirement change.
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I’m the opposite. A very nice rental with laundry amd kitchen is MUCH more relaxing for me. I don’t have to worry about where to get every meal. Or even order it. I like having breakfast stuff and snacks at my disposal. But I am someone who finds cleaning pleasurable. I have no need or desire to be out of my routine.
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Same here. I rarely travel.
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People who don’t feel this way look at me like I’m crazy when I say this.
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I love to travel, but I really tire of eating 3 meals a day out.
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I like to travel…with my daughter. With H, it is no different than being at home - I still have to plan everything! D takes care of planning everything when she and I go somewhere together. Our first trip to Paris, she had everything planned perfectly. Our second trip was for the Olympics and again, she had everything figured out. I had hoped to travel in France with H this fall but recent developments have me rethinking this idea, so we will in all likelihood head to NYC, Miami and Scottsdale.
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Eating out is one of my favorite things when on vacation! I love getting a taste of the local cuisine, and I hate to cook anyway. I am happy with a protein bar for breakfast, but our travel budget is largely dedicated to eating lunches and dinners +out.
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@sabaray -I love traveling with my kids! They both do all of the planning as well as navigating around. And they have gotten me out of my comfort zones numerous times.
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Totally agree. We spent 47 nights in a hotel in Dublin a few years ago while DH was there on business and, obviously, had to eat out for every meal. That was the most fabulous part of the trip, and I love to cook, so it wasn’t about relief from drudgery. Plus, we were on a generous expense account, so we didn’t even have to pay for it. That is luxury IMO.
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I would LOVE it if S would plan some of our vacation when we go to visit him but he wants us to come with plans. I work at it, but it depends on how we feel, the weather, etc. I have a tougher time figuring it all out and would love SOME suggestions by him. D suggested having 2-3 ideas and having him choose one for all of us to do. I will try to do that moving forward. I’m better at finding restaurant suggestions that we all like. 
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We did 7 weeks in Europe this past fall and did a mix of hotel and apartment stays. With a trip that long, we needed more space from each other from time to time than a hotel room could give.
The breakfasts we had in hotels in Germany and Austria were top-notch (unlimited espresso drinks! Cheese! Yogurt! Bread and pastries!), but we’d also take advantage of the coffee maker and whatever in apartment for meals in. Having a bottle of wine, some bread, and charcuterie while sitting on the sofa was as close to cooking as we got sometimes. Markets had cooked food we could bring back for meals.
The real apartment advantage is being able to do laundry. Sitting in a laundromat when I could be out enjoying a great city is not on my bingo card.
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I do most of the travel planning. ShawWife expresses preferences for activities and then I tend to figure out how to make them happen. I pick the hotels. I love eating at really good restaurants and really authentic local ones (where the locals eat assuming it works from a health standpoint).
Not infrequently, the trip will start with work that I am doing someplace – I’ve got a couple of days in Mexico City and we will spend a long weekend there and go to Oaxaca for 3 days. Sometimes we will ask our local friends/contacts where to go.
We also love traveling with our kids, but their schedules are hard. We are going to spend 5 days with ShawSon and his wife at Sea Ranch. We are going to take ShawD and her partner someplace after ShawD finishes her degree this spring (she’s taking classes at night) and probably after their wedding in August. We’ve taken the kids over the years on trips in North America, Central America, Europe, Asia, and Australia but not to South America. Maybe a trip to Peru or Ecuador is in our future.
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We take a few annual,trips…one to see DS, one to see my family, and one to the Jersey Shore. I love all three for different reasons.
Right now, we are a little more than half way through a very long trip that is also very far from home. Part of it was traveling with friends and that was fun. This current part is with my BIL and wife who just happen to live here, and want us to be here for two weeks.
We have really enjoyed being where it is summer in January, and could get used to this. But we also don’t love being away from home for five weeks. We are looking at options for future big trips like this. We shall see what happens.
For 19 days, we dined in very nice places! Now my sister in law is cooking, with help from her husband. I’ll be happy to get home when this trip ends, but I have really loved everything about it so far.
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Most married couples don’t have long times away from home during working years. It definitely takes the extra ‘planning’ on keeping things up at home if both travel away for a more extensive time.
We have some excellent long-time neighbors (also retired) who maintain our ‘water plants take in mail’ while we are gone on short trips (and we do the same for them).
I attended the overview meeting yesterday for my 8 day/7 nights Road Scholar November trip “The Best of New Mexico: Santa Fe, Taos and Albuquerque” (program 11005). We have a closed group for this trip in November (max group size is 24), and we had a zoom meeting with 3 people from Road Scholar, including the SW Region person who developed this popular program. Some of the people on this trip are people I have been with on my prior Road Scholar trip to Pittsburgh last year. One of our lead planners is a gal that has traveled extensively and tries to eke out every educational opportunity available (and also asked good questions in our meeting). Some in our group have been to this travel area before and could interject some questions - which was helpful. A couple that are extensive travelers are going to be on our group trip, and they share their travel tips/experiences in our OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) local University Continuing Education OLLI group newsletter. Looking forward to a fun time/fun group.
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We ask my assistant and sometimes another person to look in on our house and take in the mail. We have a 9 day trip to CA, a week in Florida, a long weekend in DC, and a week in Mexico. So it is essential that people check in on the house. We also usually have our cleaning lady come once while we are gone. When we had the ducks, we asked someone to come and feed them once a day.
We now miss our house when we are gone – especially the fancy Japanese toilets and the wonderful kitchen and the calm.
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We and our neighbors have both had situations where we were away for longer than 30 days, the max time the post office holds mail. The first time it was encountered, the neighbors were helping parents out of state longer than expected, so they gave us garage code and location of mail key. Then when we had a road trip that got extended due to family issues, they returned the favor.
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Just got back from two months in NYC where we have a small apartment, kids and grandkids all nearby, and somehow I haven’t cooked a single meal the entire time. Not. One. Meal. 
Cooking for just the two of us? Zero motivation.
And next month—Hawaii with DD’s family, where I get to do absolutely nothing because DD is planning everything. My favorite kind of vacation! 
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