When did I realize I hate vacation resorts?
Well another vacation has come and gone and it has come to my attention that I don’t want to do it anymore. Taking a vacation is not the real issue…it’s where we end up going that has become the problem.
I understand that some people might be a little miffed that I would be complaining about my vacation destination when many people can’t even afford to take one. I can't help you there...life is what it is for everybody. This blog is merely about what I learned about my choices.
It started a week before Christmas when I had 5 days vacation that needed to be used up before the end of the year. After talking to a travel agent it became clear that we didn’t have a lot of choices. There are many vacation deals here in the UAE but getting flights is the biggest issue. We opted for a beautiful resort in Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt, the location where a woman was recently killed by a shark attack. Perhaps that is why we got such a good deal.
The Sierra Resort was wonderful, with 6 pools, beautiful room and great food. So what was the problem? It became clear after 2 days sitting in this wonderful paradise that I have grown to hate resorts!
A resort is a wonderful place to go to sit on a beach or beside a pool (I don’t like doing that...its boring) get shitfaced on the free booze (I had one beer and it tasted water down and weak) and eat like a pig at the "all you can eat" buffets (which by day 3 I couldn’t stomach anymore). The food was wonderful but it reminded me of mess hall food when I was in the army. There’s nothing specifically wrong with it but there isn’t anything right with it either. By the end of the week I could barely find anything I could eat. (Getting ill part way through the week didn’t help.)
But more importantly, a resort gives you no idea what it’s like in the area. We could have gone to Cairo and taken a Nile river cruise followed by a tour of the pyramids. Even Luxor Egypt would have given us a historical travel back through time with its many ancient temples.
The point I am trying to make is that I want to make my vacations from now on worthy of the time and effort of going. Sitting by another pool looking at Russian women in bathing suits is okay for a short while but in the end the only thing I gained from the experience is that I don’t want to do it again.
There is much to see in this world and while I am living in Abu Dhabi I want us to benefit from it. A tour of Kenya and the Serengeti, the wonders of Thailand and its temples, Petra in Jordan, the Kremlin in Moscow and even the Eiffel Tower in Paris are places I would love to visit. And that isn't even the definitive list…there is still India, Sri Lanka, Singapore, China and Indonesia that all are filled with both cultural and historic meaning.
My wife Carly and I have decided that our vacations from this point on must be meaningful as well as shorter. They will be between 3 to 5 days maximum and we will take advantage of guided tours when possible. This eliminates a lot of pressure on my end trying to hook up hotel/flights/attractions in a foreign country I know nothing about.
Although I like to take care of things myself this will be one thing that I will grudgling leave to a professional.
