Vacation Length Thresholds

How long a vacation should last isn’t a matter of preference so much as arithmetic against transit. The more of your trip that goes to getting there and recovering, the more days on the ground you need before the trip justifies its cost in leave and fatigue. Two floors and a target:

Minimum days at destination

• Single-day travel: 5
• Long-haul travel: 10

Optimal: about 23 days

Below the minimums, transit and recovery eat too large a share of the trip—a ten-day long-haul is really five usable days. The optimal is where a long trip stops being a trip and becomes a temporary life: jet lag behind you, a routine settled, depth replacing the checklist. Few will have the leave to reach it often, but it’s worth knowing where it sits, if only to recognize how far most vacations fall short of it.