As a student, I would read about kids making their way to Ft. Lauderdale or Daytona Beach for spring break. With my tuition and living expenses in school already burdening my father, any cost for debauchery would be prohibitive, even unthinkable. No doubt some kids could load into another classmate's car, drive to Florida and back in shifts, and share a motel room, paid for by their part-time jobs in the school cafeteria. In all my university years, I never knew anyone at my school who prioritized their amusement that way, though some devoted parts of summers touring Europe with rail passes and hostels. Europe has an enrichment value that recreation on a beach drinking beer obtained by an acquaintance with an of age ID lacks. As a wage earner, I had my share of vacations, some very memorable ones. Few with hedonism as the focus. Not even those on cruise ships or beach resorts. A respite from work became the goal. Sampling new things, staying away from the telephone, protected time with my wife. Nothing close to debauchery on my agenda.
Now in my senior years, not needing a respite from any rat race but still with personal schedules to maintain, I find some chill time seriously overdue. I last took a cruise about six years ago, an Adriatic one that included strenuous tourism in addition to the food, aquatics, and entertainment. I cannot remember when I last checked into a resort for a few days. Not since I retired. My Osher Institute program has its downtime. Six weeks in winter, more in summer. One week at the start of spring. My plans to get away for a couple of days in the winter fell through for the first time in a few years. The last few spring breaks and the summers, I went on touring type vacations to major cities, places of history, or National Parks. All places that required agendas or itineraries. What I need now may be chill time, even if only for a few days.
My funds are ample. So is my health and energy, adjusted for overdue recreation. I disliked most of my visits to Florida. Las Vegas may be a suitable getaway. Facebook friends periodically travel there for a few days, sometimes prompted by a special show or a need to merge relaxation with stimulation. It struck me as a good option. Three or four nights at a hotel, depending on airline schedules. Bright lights, places to get wet. Buffets. Day trips. Shows at night. No rental car needed. Just right for a few days. I would just have to convince my wife, who to my surprise, seemed almost as ready for a few days of minimal responsibilities.
On to the travel sites. Air and hotel. These have now embedded themselves into DIY getaways. Look for airfares. Assess places to stay. Once transparent and straightforward. Now with budget airlines competing with legacy carriers and people turning their homes or investment property as places to stay, comparisons of options require more sophistication than they once did. The sites themselves more overtly serve their subscribers than their end consumers like me. Low Ball teaser rates in big print. Total packages once taxes, resort fees, and cleanup assessments of Airbnbs, change that considerably. And the geeks who could enable sorting any way they desire restrict users to sorting by big print.
So three or four nights in Vegas, getting there and back, sleeping, amenities, and eating. My airport has a dominant carrier with a few budget options. Round Trip about $350 for American Airlines, $150 + baggage fees for the discounters. So I thought. Not that big a difference. Pick based on departure and arrival times. Round trip by American Airlines is not really $350. It is $450. If you pick a discounter for the return trip, it is $350 plus luggage fee in one direction. You are not really buying a round trip but one way trips in each direction added to each other when you get to their electronic cash register to pay. I was willing to spend a flat $350 or $700 for a couple to travel. I am not willing to spend $900 for my own downtime just to get there and back, especially traveling home cramped in a high pack fuselage.
Hotels, or really places to stay, sorted by teaser rates in big print with full cost of three nights in little print. Airbnb or vbro might be great if three couples are traveling or if somebody is staying ten days. The cleanup add-on, part of a hotel's business model, is exorbitant but at least fixed. Divided three ways over ten days, maybe a reasonable consideration. Paid by one traveler who only stayed three days, or even one night, doesn't make sense. Yet I cannot seem to get Travelocity and Hotels.com to eliminate them from my list. I cannot get them to list the options by real price instead of teaser price. Not that it matters. The airfare reality eliminates Vegas. Just as a college kid, or even as a gainfully employed prosperous adult, pampering of self never had high priority, as much as I enjoyed the times when it happened.
If not Vegas, what about Florida? I dislike being in Florida most of my visits, don't want to rent a car. What about Atlantic City? It's a scaled-down Vegas with spas. Its grand hotels discounted off-season, accessible by an amount of driving that I am willing to do if I only need to put myself behind the wheel for the hour and a half in each direction it takes to travel there and back. On to Travelocity again. Bargain resort hotels in Big Numbers, acceptable with the add-ons with adjacent fine font numbers. Except what you see is not always what you get. Some bundle use of the recreation facilities, some hotels go à la carte with a fee for the sauna and steam rooms. The travel middlemen do not distinguish these. After picking candidate hotels, I need to go to each site to calculate my own real costs for what I want to do there, from parking to pool, buffets to shows. I'm getting close to maybe. Generally you get what you pay for. Figuring out what you do and don't pay for takes some exploration. I've not yet abandoned an upcoming respite focused on my physical pleasure.
My age and background give me an advantage. I learned basic numeracy in the 1960s courtesy of the taxpayers of Ramapo Central School District #2. Math instruction and analysis of data in science classes progressed from one year to the next. It was done with brain and paper. My university years in the 1970s saw my own need to travel periodically. Big stuff was sorted by a professional travel agent. Hotels and airfare or train fare to visit family between cities required mostly the skills achieved the previous decade. Air fares had fixed rates until the Carter years airline deregulation. Even then, fewer carriers competed with each other, honoring their teaser offerings. Hotels either advertised in the local newspaper or a handful of chains had begun to emerge. Knowing how to assess transportation and lodging by hand lets me move from travel site boldface numbers to real costs fairly easily. This may be more difficult for younger folks who already had their numerical data pre-digested.
How badly do I need an escape? What is the monetary value of that escape? I know how to answer this. My personal hedonism is definitely price elastic. That price, though, still has some flexibility.
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