How long is the longest holiday you have taken in the past five years?

[MichaelCorfman]

In the northern hemisphere it is summertime now, and for many that is the season for holidays/vacations. So for this week's poll I thought I would ask about holidays folks have taken. Besides answering the poll question about the length of the longest holiday you have taken in the last five years, be sure to share some background information. Where did you go? What did you do? Do you have any upcoming plans you are especially excited about?

And how do you handle your business when you are on holiday? Do you work a little, or a lot, or not at all?

Michael

[Renee]

Four weeks to a month.

It was a trip to South Africa with my ex to visit his family. We spent the weekends in Joburg and visited Cape Town and the Midlands and somewhere else in between that I can't remember.

One week we stayed in this treehouse in the middle of nowhere. Being outside at night you could see every star in the sky because it was pitch black. Nothing beats that for me.

While away I'm on the blackberry but I try really hard only to check it once a day otherwise it doesn't feel like a holiday and a waste of leave.

As I've been here for almost 11 years I have long service leave so I'm trying to figure out what to do with it. For those who don't know what that is, in Australia when you have been at the same company for 10 years you get an extra 8 weeks of paid leave on top of the 4 weeks per year you normally get. Then for every year longer you've been at the company you get an extra 3 days. So at the moment I think I have about 10-11 weeks of paid leave owing to me.

As I mentioned in the other thread, I'm taking a holiday every month this year and have a Hawaii trip coming up in August. Nothing else international is planned for the rest of the year yet but I may take a trip over the ditch to see my bestie who moved to Wellington not long ago.

[sweetbet]

I took a little over 2 weeks a couple of years ago and went to Melbourne, Australia during a school break. However, I have never gone for more than 2-3 days in the last 10 years without browsing a forum, serps, an SEO site or something business related. I just can't do it

[TheGooner]

on a 7 week "working" holiday now

[Planet Mark]

Had a few longer ones within the past 5 years... island hopping in Thailand for a month and Australia for 5 weeks. Mostly prefer shorter holidays and more often these days...

Always blows my mind how many people wear their lack of vacations as some kind of badge of honor (more in the corporate world than the affiliate one)... I always imagine them on their death beds 'Sure glad I worked for the man for 10 hours a day for the last 40 years and never took time off to be with my friends and family, I'm just so damn successful in life'.... hmmm.

[wonderpunter]

None, but I live by the beach anyhow so it's kinda like a year round holiday

[golfbettingsystem]

10 days is the max I've done away from home in the past 5 years, although even then I've taken a laptop with me to keep things ticking over. Before that I did 3 weeks in Australia, was sorely tempted to up sticks an emigrate at that point in my life I must say.

[Magic-Johnson]

The longest holiday was a two weeks when we went to relax in Greece. Wonderful country with great architecture. One of the best days of my life!

[Sherlock]

Full time affiliates can not afford holidays. It is a crazy risk. I can outsource everything, but not the core.

I have only holidays of duration of tens of minutes or hours, when I am off the phone. It is sauna, swimmingpool, short trips and body exercises where I am off phone. Those a good techniques that can bring the relief. The problem is when some real problem happens and one needs to work very intesively. Then the life is only work-sleep-work-sleep and all the relaxing habits are gone. The most important part is to develop another technique, which is how to jump back on the train when things settle up.

[nwalker]

I did the corporate thing for 30 years and like most had restricted holidays each year, so the most i could do was 2 weeks here and the odd week there. I'm not complaining that's how it was and was great to have complete downtime.

I'm a Full-Time lifestyle affiliate now - what that means to me is that while work is important it is not the most important thing in my life.
I take time out during my working week to do the things I love and as for holidays I go when and where i please for as long as I want. The restriction on me now is my wife who is still working in the corporate world and is restricted on the days she can take.

We are going on a month tour of the west coast of USA for September and I'll end up in Vegas for the G2E conference. We also have planned a break with the kids in August and I have a couple of golf trips planned before planning the Ski trips for next season.

Anything is possible, it's just how you choose to live your life.

[DanHorvat]

Since 2010.

[poprostumarek]

One year ago I've finished studies. In my job I could get two weeks free.

[ocreditor]

4 weeks was the longest to Thailand ! I really want to know how it to travel for 6+ months at least once in my life !

[ocreditor]

since 2010.

lol

[agsgroup]

2 weeks to Mexico last September is the longest in 5 years, although it's nice to be able to take shorter breaks more often.. and being in Europe every thing is on your doorstep so to say. I can't stay away from my laptop for too long though, that's the problem!

I think a long holiday is in the pipeline, I would love to take 5 months winter ' working holiday' in the Austrian Alps

[LTDAndy]

When Poker was all the rage, I was lucky enough to spend 3 years in Las Vegas to cover the whole of the world series for 6 weeks with another 3 in Ecuador visiting my wife's family.

Good Times - Thats what the Affiliate Lifestyle can be - Living the Dream...

[Renee]

Always blows my mind how many people wear their lack of vacations as some kind of badge of honor (more in the corporate world than the affiliate one)... I always imagine them on their death beds 'Sure glad I worked for the man for 10 hours a day for the last 40 years and never took time off to be with my friends and family, I'm just so damn successful in life'.... hmmm.

Years ago that was me. Never took holidays to the point where I was forced to take extra time when the conference was in Prague because I had 2 months of leave owing to me. After awhile I realised that I was missing out on so many things because all I did was work. So I pulled back a bit and started enjoying myself and taking holidays. When I had that month off I realised I really needed to take time off sometimes so I'm not scared to go on holidays anymore. Sometimes **** goes wrong when I'm away (to be fair that is mostly when it goes wrong) but sometimes you just need to let someone else deal with it.

I have seen so many things now that I can't imagine being someone who has never traveled or seen anything - or to be someone who has no desire to see anything. I want to see EVERYTHING. Just not enough time to do it.

If I was able to work remotely I would be traveling the world. There's no way I'd be sitting in my house.

[FruityJelena]

20 days of Thailand in January 2014.
First time that I didn't work at all for such a long time. Before that holiday, wherever I'd go first thing I'd check is if internet is good, so I could reply to emails and work at least a couple of hours a day.
It was very strange to switch my brain to total off for 20 days in paradise..I felt guilt a little bit, especially because LAC was soon after. Actually, I was late in London one day and came to the conference directly with a luggage.

It was so confusing. 20 days in pure exotica, one sleep in Belgrade and tomorrow cold London. Was still seeing people from Thai travel group on LAC and I remember waking up, thinking: "Ah, time for a beach. No wait, I'm in Belgrade, have to travel. OMG I'm actually in London and I better get up for meetings!!"

At least I was nicely tanned on LAC

[Miles_FTA]

Did an 8 week jaunt to Thailand with My Brother in 2000 was an amazing time and before the Tsunami so was a different place to be we did the entire country N,S E and West was the best experience of my life.

I i later took my Wife back on Honeymoon and we backpacked for 5 weeks and tried following the same routes as i did with my brother but it was changed country after the Tsunami and a lot more commercial.

[Casinorep]

I'm an affiliate so I'm permanently on holiday