FallGirl–Love when the kids take charge. It’s having tour guides who love you.
Nothing more boring to me than lying on a beach worrying about getting more skin cancer. My favorite vacations involve a mix of things - ideally wine tasting, a few good restaurants, some easy hiking and some galleries or art museums. We’ve had fabulous vacations in Napa/Sonoma, Monterrey, Scotland (just taste single malts instead of wine). If I can see something interesting architecturally that’s also a plus.
I’d love to go on a Hadrien’s wall hike where someone else carts the luggage. I don’t like bikes because I feel like I have to look at the road more than the scenery. Still remember flipping off my bike while touring the Loire Valley… (But it’s a fabulous place to bike - the chateaux are easy biking distances from each other.)
Edited to add - I do really, really love going to our family cabin in Vermont. The best thing about it? No internet. Electricity is through solar panels. You go to hike in the woods, read and detox. If you need civilization it’s about 1/2 an hour down the mountain. Food, art galleries and a really nice Farmer’s Market on the weekends.
Well not all vacations you take are alike. I consider myself mostly a cultural tourist as I like to travel to experience specific museums, specific concert halls, touring historic sites but there are also times when you want to relax on a beach or in the countryside. Having some fine meals is also great! Spending time in the Berkshires is always a great option for me. You’ve got the countryside, fine dining, world class museums, several theater options, Tanglewood and also outlet shopping for a few hours on a rainy day… Coastal Maine works for me too… we enjoy Ogunquit as charming to walk around on the Marginal Way, the Ogunquit Playhouse might offer something of interest, easy drive to Portland and the Portland Art Museum, lots of fine dining, maybe there on the day of the Farmers Market and so on. Boothbay Harbor is another family favorite. Lobster rolls and blueberry pie!!
I am planning a Portugal trip for June and some time in the Berkshires this summer… maybe a visit to Montreal for a long weekend after reading about the Leonard Cohen exhibit and the pilgrimages being made to his grave. Montreal is always a good place to visit.
I also enjoy specific hotels, one of my favorites to spend time in is the Sagamore Hotel on Lake George, comfortable but classy, fine dining, nice pools/indoor and out, nice grounds to spend time walking around and relaxing with a good book.
And so on and so on…
Ha, when I was in college in the '80s, my dad wanted to get a timeshare condo. My mom said, “No way! I’m not going to cook on every vacation!” So Dad promised that HE would do all the cooking! She agreed, and he has stuck to his promise. They’ve bought a few more timeshares and one regular condo since then, so I guess Mom likes the arrangement.
To get me to go camping hubby willingly took on all the cooking and cleaning - absolutely all of it (while camping). He’s raised our boys to think that’s a male job.
I love camping…
My ideal vacation involves exploring an unknown place at the community level. DH and I have taken several bike trips in foreign countries, flying our bikes and camping gear with us. We tend to include a real bed every three nights or so (bed/breakfast, hotel, hostel- depends.)
Exploring this way means we tend to meet people. People love to talk about their community and what is fun to do there. We’ve run into random festivals that way- things we wouldn’t have planned on doing if we’d made a detailed itinerary. Stopping at a dairy farm that serves homemade ice cream while biking through some beautiful countryside- not something specifically planned but well worth the effort of stopping for an hour or so and chatting with the folks that own the dairy. Running into a farm in the woods where the two old folks there sold produce and used a piece of slate to do calculations on - totally quaint as can be and they were super nice folks that we truly enjoyed chatting with.
DH and I are engineers. We aren’t totally sociable people. :)) By biking we are forced to stop and smell the proverbial roses and chat with the locals. And drink with them at night because we’ve earned it by biking all day.
And folks talk to bicyclists especially when it is clear we are foreigners. I have some lovely memories of our trips and the locations.
(Dh and I also love visiting local museums and bookstores.)
I don’t mind cooking for just the two of us when we go to HI, because our meals are not elaborate affairs and eating at home is faster, cheaper, and more relaxing than in a restaurant. I refuse to clean on vacation though, so we usually rent condotel type accommodations instead of directly from owners.
Lakefront with my wife, boys and dog.
^^who does the cooking?
We have a cottage and like @mathmom said one of the best things is no wireless and connecting using data is spotty. We actually all kind of like that de-plugging. If we take a trip into the nearest little town we all crowd in a little spot for 15 minutes and hog off the free internet. 
When the kids were younger I really kind of resented that our usual “vacation” included me having to buy most our groceries before the trip, unpacking them when we got there, and then doing all the cooking - what the heck kind of vacation was THAT?! Now they are young adults and I don’t mind. I make a big late breakfast and we grill dinner and supplement with vegetables from the market stand up the road. If you are hungry between breakfast and dinner, find something on your own to eat! I enjoy the simplicity of it now.
One of the best Vermont vacations which was a without kids one, was when I told dh that my agenda was to do as little cooking as possible. My brothers were impressed with the number of places we were able to review in the camp journal!
Random national, state, and county parks, and wildlife refuges/other public lands. Both the big names, and the kind you find rolling down the road on the way from one place to another and see a sign reading “Big Rock State Park”. Pop out, chat up the volunteers at the visitor center, hike a short loop trail to admire the big rock/nesting ducks/view from the hilltop, then roll on to the local cafe recommended by the visitor center folks. With a bit of advance planning when better facilities are available, book the onsite cabin that has heat, bedding, and towels, and catch dinner and breakfast in the park restaurants. Leave room in the schedule for serendipity - like the desparate need for a potty stop that landed us at the Cesar Chavez National Historic Monument, which in addition to wonderful historical photos and a lovely garden, had the most beautiful (and perfectly spotless) facilities seen in that entire trip.
Historical sites, including historical homes. Art, history, and science museums. Botanic gardens. Local food. Walk, walk, walk.
And when possible, live theatrical events. The Lion King is playing when we’re in town? Sure, scoop up tickets and go!
Perfect activity on a vacation? So many Exploring a new city, museums and historical sites, a beach or body of water but not to sit/sunbathe. A walk on a beach is always at the top of my list. Going out in a boat, snorkeling, taking a cruise, Not much of a shopper on vacation but always up for a unique shop. Not the biggest nature lover unless water is involved and love flowers. Mentioned upthread, my favorite day on our two week Belgium, Netherlands trip last April was our day at Keukenhof (Tulip Festival). Spectacular. Seeing animals in their natural habitat.
Things I prefer to avoid: camping, communing with (most) nature unless water is involved, vigorous physical activity. Being cold although I try to ski each spring. I’ll give up on good conditions for warmer weather. I’m not a foodie and would be happy with a baguette, cheese and grapes but dh is one so we often end up at special restaurants.
My bucket list trip has been to snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef. Dh and I will be there in April. I can’t wait!
I am highly flexible, and enjoy just about anything (except Las Vegas) though need sufficient outdoor and active time each day that camping works well for me. My yearly camping vacation with friends is about perfect, on a Lake Michigan island. Two families cook each evening and the others we just show up for dinner and cocktails while watching the sunset. Days are spent reading, playing music or painting for some and reading and hiking for others. Camping in this part of the country is usually near a town and it is easy to camp and eat out for most meals, as I sometimes did when kids were young. Thinking back, I have never minded cooking while camping as it is usually easy and carefully planned in advance as well as a group project with kids or partner.
However much of my recent travel has been visiting my kids where they live or have lived abroad. One D has led trips to Europe for HS kids. Traveling in her care is a breeze, as she speaks the languages and finds her way around cities and train stations very efficiently. I drive, she navigates. Spain and France last year with her and her twin sister were wonderful and focused on historic sites near the Mediterranean. Ideally I prefer more outdoor hiking and biking time, but wandering the Alhambra and so on was magical. I adore staying in Airbnb’s and cooking with ingredients found in local markets interspersed with restaurant meals. Wandering streets and markets in other countries makes me very happy.
Recently I have made botanical gardens a focus of travel. My local garden gives me reciprocal membership in many gardens in this country and finding gardens in foreign cities has become an interesting project as well as way to spend time visiting people. Last fall I bought the National Park passport, and am happily looking forward to filling the pages with stamps in future.
Exploring. Nature, a city, a country, museums, whatever makes a place unique. I love to just travel and could never own a vacation home a go to the same place every year. 1-2 days to just hang out with a book at the destination is a must but not the point of the entire trip. I’ve been to lots of MLB and minor league baseball parks, skied lots of resorts, walked beaches, glampped in the CA redwoods, gone white water rafting on multiple rivers, wandered big cities and islands, cruised, hiked canyons in AZ, explored whatever local shops exist, etc. Would love to do a European river cruise, go to a Canadian Shakespeare festival, ski at new places, raft the Grand Canyon, tour Maine, see Zion National Park, see Australia, go to a World Cup game and many more things. I love to plan travel but my next trip is one I am pretty much just am showing up for so that is one more thing about traveling to explore.
No burning desire to see more of Texas or cook all meals on a trip but otherwise up for just about anything.
^^The Stratford Shakespeare Festival is less than an hour from our cottage - we go every year - even if we can’t catch a play we enjoy walking the town/grounds!
That’s the one @abasket !
There are different types of vacations.
There is the I-need-a-break beach vacation when you sit in the sun, play in the water, drink pretty drinks with umbrellas in them, take an afternoon nap, then go out for some entertainment and food.
There is the I-need-to-explore vacation when you push yourself a bit comfort-level wise – you go to a very exotic destination, you do a lot of walking, eating strange things, surround yourself with people who are culturally very different from you and see sights you won’t see in Europe or North America.
There is the I-need-a-European-experience vacation when you combine cities, museums, history, food & wine & culture.
There is the I-need-to-connect-with-nature vacation when you hike through forests or mountains, kayak, camp - or, in the winter, ski & snowshoe.
At different times, I long for one of these experiences more than others. I’m happy to be married to someone with very similar tastes who’s always eager to share in the adventure, whatever it may be.
I need a mix of activities that would include: outdoors (snorkeling, kayaking, hiking, walking), cultural (museums, local music, local arts and crafts), relaxation (time to read, meditate), and last on the list (for me) is food, I love food and like to explore local options, although most of my vacations of late have been in rented apartments/condos/houses so having access to local produce & fish has been my happy food place.
Since I’ve been thinking about this I’ve realized that I really like experiencing alternative transportation. Ferries, gondolas, incline railroads, narrow gauge railroads, water taxis, the bobsled at Lake Placid.