I've noticed many posts from our American members, and have met many "septics" ( :p ) on my travels, where you take EXTREMELY long holidays/vacations - eg,"I've just got home after 6 weeks in Spain" / "I'm here for 4 weeks, then I carry on to France" etc - HOW do you guys swing such LOOOOOOONG holidays, so much time off work??????

Well, notyor, most of us are not so lucky! But here are a few groups that are lucky to have lengthy vacations!

University students are lucky to have terms off to travel, which is in and of itself an excellent way to complement their education.

Many college and school teachers also are off contract during the Summer months, well deserved, and they take several weeks off.

Then there are the lucky retired set. Members of this august group get to travel anytime for any length of time and are envied by grubs like me, who can only get away for 2 weeks in Christmas!

Not to mention the most envied of all groups the independently wealthy, whose travel itinerary is unbounded by any consideration common to the other groups!

Ciao!

The ones I seem to meet appear to be "working" people though.

Here in Britain most people, traditionally, take a 2 week holiday,any more is usually only for a special occasion - honeymoon, once-in-a-lifetime etc...

I find people with more "tenure" at their jobs have longer accrued vacation time. It's not uncommon to have four weeks vacation time if you been with a company past five years.But you're right, I know alot of people who travel often but they tend to utilize the long holidays, but even then its only a four or five day holiday.

I'm one of the people with a lot of tenure at work. I typically go to Europe for a month when I travel. Considering the price of a ticket, the long flight, and the rarity of an opportunity for both my wife and I to arrange our schedules to go to Europe, we tend to stay there that long.
Also, as a matter of economics, many Americans have the disposable income that allows them to vacation longer. Staying in Europe isn't cheap anymore.

I'm retired, and my wife will be soon. But she's been on her job long enough that she gets five weeks vacation and six sick days a year. Since she's a healthy person, she accrues sick leave like they were vacation. In fact we just got home from two weeks in Alabama this past Friday and it was all sick leave accrued from over two years ago.

Too anyone interested, we were catching 3 pound crappies in Weiss Lake. To die for!!!

At the present time she has 50 days of vacation coming, and 14 sick days. But remember, she earned this through tenure on a job, and is the longest person in point of service in the company, at her location. It's amazing because she keeps claiming she's ony 29 years old.

By the way. That doesn't include the 5 weeks vacation she will be handed when July 1 rolls around.

Wolf

50 days of vacation left! Can you acummulate one year's with the next's?

Here, in Spain, you can't. If you can't have them, the firm must compensate with money.

Booklady writes: Lucky?? I worked many years before I was eligible for retirement. Europeans (including Spanish) can retire at age-60. For me it was age-64. Keep working and maybe one day you will be able to join this group. Then you should take advantage of your new-found freedom quickly, before your health gives out.

Well, Eddie, I did not mean to offend you! I'm sorry, if I did. As a matter of fact, I have five years to go until I put in my 30 years as a librarian and administrator, in my present position. Luckily for me I will be in my mid fifties when this happens, and hopefully, will be healthy enough to be able to travel as I have longed for, without the encumbrance of time nagging at my back!

Wolf, your wife is fortunate. Here is Florida, my College does not allow us to use sick leave for vacation, I have a sizeable number of days accrued, but must wait until I retire to be reimbursed for it, which is lovely too! One of the drawbacks of being a college administrator is that vacations are very limited, at most two weeks at a time, unlike the faculty who get months off at a time.

Eddie: retirement age for spaniards is 65. In the cases (not all) that a spaniard can retire previously, they are deducted a percentage of all their future income (pensions).

I am not sure if it has decreased a little, but this used to be an 8% a year. Minimum retirement age being 60, unless you are a miner or sailor, ...

This means that, if you retire before the legal age (provided you are alowed), you'd lose a maximum of a 40% if you retired the sooner (60 years), just like my dad did.

Of course, when firms reduce personnel, there are some agreements sometimes, when people leave the firm under 60, but they are not legally retired and, thus, they don't get pensions at least until 60 (with the 40% penalty) or 65. Besides, they are even more penalized in those agreements, usually in their private pensions (if any). You call them '500K' or something?