What is a Micro-Vacation?

Have you ever come back from a long, amazing and restful two-week vacation with the strongest case of ‘Sunday Scaries’ because the work week is about to start back again and you haven’t done laundry yet or grocery shopping for the rest of the week?

Or have you ever come back from a trip feeling like you need a vacation from your vacation? If you just had that one extra day to get your life back in order after spending the past two weeks in a blissfully zen vacation state of mind?

You’re not only depressed that your heavenly vacation has come to an end, but you’re also feeling the creeping sensation of stress settling in. All of those thoughts are starting to flood in about the many things that you have to take care of and come back to on Monday and you don’t have the time or will to do any of it!

Fast forward a month…you’ve temporarily satiated your travel craving with that delightful two-week vacation, but your friend asks you to join her for a quick getaway to Mexico for some rest and retail therapy. You’re thrilled and jump at the chance, but then realize that you can’t take the days off to make it work. You’re beside yourself with frustration. And even more depressed when you see those pictures on Instagram with your friend having a blast in the city without you.

You’re not alone. I’ve been there. It’s the worst feeling! The Sunday Scaries, the “I’m sorry, I can’t take off that long from work” – I’ve experienced it all. It’s not fair that something so wonderful and well-deserved can then cause you stress and disappointment later.

But, fear not.

Introducing the micro-vacation.

A micro-vacation is typically an expertly planned weekend or extended weekend, usually around 4 days or less (fewer than 5 nights). A typical travel pattern for micro-vacations could look like a Thursday night through Monday morning or a Friday morning through Sunday night.

Because many professional working individuals have a limited number of vacation days, people are more increasingly craving smaller, more focused travel experiences to break up their typical 9-to-5 without blowing all of their time off on a single once-a-year trip.

Micro-vacations offer so many positive benefits:

The shorter durations allow you to spread out those hard-earned vacation days throughout the year.
You can take travel more frequently in a single year to feed those travel cravings.
Save more money with micro-vacations because of the shorter duration and tighter planning.
Check off more bucket list items, more often.
Find travel companions more easily for shorter trips.
Live your life to the fullest potential! And share it on Instagram ;)

Micro-vacations are becoming increasingly popular, especially with the Millennial generation. It’s not hard to see why. In general, Millennials love travel and love authentic experiences. Because we value those things, it only makes sense that we would want to extend that activity throughout the year on a more regular basis.

Additionally, Millennials are tech-savvy and accessible remotely, so we don’t see the need to sit in a cubicle in an office every day of the week in order to be productive. According to the 2019 Vacation Confidence Index by Allianz Global Assistance, 72 percent of Millennials took at least one micro-vacation in 2018, compared to 69 percent of Gen X-ers and 60 percent of Baby Boomers. That’s nearly three-quarters of the generation in America!

I’m not saying that a micro-vacation should replace a good, long one – there is a lot of value that can come from fully unplugging, disconnecting from the chaos, and truly resting. But micro-vacations serve an important purpose too – they satiate the need to travel from one month to the next, they extend the life of your 2 weeks paid vacation, and they can save you some money!

The real key to a having successful micro-vacation though really comes down to the planning, so that you can focus on spending the most time on the trip experiencing the things you love.

Ready for your next micro-vacation? Where do you want to go?