JOIN USExperts say mini-vacations, brief holidays of four days or less, offer today’s traveller a restorative pause without the pressure or expense of a long journey.
“The mini-vacation is a fantastic way of changing the scene without breaking the bank,” said Amelie Hurst of travel website TripAdvisor.
“The trip you spend 12 months planning and pouring all your budget into has to live up to a dream,” she said. “With a mini-vacation travellers can find themselves more ready to go with the flow.”
In a recent Trip Advisor poll of almost 1,700 Americans, 22 per cent said they opted to take shorter vacations of two-to-four days due to finances and six per cent said it was due to vacation time.
Peter Yesawich, CEO of Ypartnership, which tracks travel trends, said the weekend getaway has reigned as the most popular American leisure trip for over a decade.
Last year, with the economy still stuck in the doldrums, it accounted for almost half of all US vacations. Yesawich said: “It doesn’t matter how low the Dow goes, how high the unemployment, the majority Americans are still taking vacations.”
Prior to 1996 there was a sanctity to Saturday, but it has disappeared in the 24/7 environment, he said.
Reuters