Would You Buy A Vacation/Holiday Home??
If you could where in the World would you choose and why?
There seems to be a few folk going with this idea and I wondered where Fodorites would choose!!

Not me. I like to travel around and see new things. We own retirement property in the North Georgia Mountains and even though we love to go up there, I wouldn't want that to be the only or the primary place I would go.

We have a second home (vacation) home in Crested Butte, Co. which we purchased when we lived in Co. Love it for skiing in winter and hiking in the flower-filled fields during summer. Lovely town beyond words. For us, it's a great place to visit and turned out to be a great investment. But I still must travel elsewhere..Europe, etc. As lovely as it is, there's a great, big world out there, and I want to see as much of it as I can.

Never... travel means new experiences. I hate the whole time share concept, too.

Add me to the list. I often thought of buying a place during my more productive working years, since I live in Florida and knew I'd want to escape in the summers after retirement. But I'm glad I didn't. I now travel for up to 5 months every summer. And I'm convinced that I spend less traveling to somewhere new every year (although it always includes Europe for at least two months), than what my investment, taxes, maintenance, and other costs would be maintaining a second home year round to use part time. And NO, I don't want to be "stuck" going any particular place every single year.

We used to think yes, but are now leaning towards buying an RV so we can take our vacation home with us (at least in the U.S..

If I had the money I would definitely buy a vacation home (at the beach) for weekends most of the year. Unfortunately I can't do both that and travel and prefer the latter - I would love a vaction home but I MUST travel.

Sorry - but the amount of money for a home vs travel just isn't equivalent. I can do a couple of whiz bang vacations a year for $15,000 - but that wouldn't do much towards buying a vacation house.

I like the idea of a vacation home, but in practice, I don't think it's for me. Fortunately, my dad is building a vacation home up near Lassen. It's kind of the best of both worlds - almost unlimited access to a vacation home but none of the responsibilities of ownership.

I once owned a condo in Winter Park, Florida. It had its up and downs. My kids loved going there because there was a pool, tennis, and playground not to mention a Disney park practically at our doorstep. Every Easter Sunday we would go to Lake Eola in Orlando and rent one of those little swan boats. Nice memories. However, friends and family always wanted to borrow it. I like to share the wealth but it became a problem when people would leave and forget to turn the water off or wash and change the bed linens. You get the picture. As this point in time I would prefer to be able to take off and rent an apartment in a regular neighborhood of the city I am visiting.

It's much better when a friend or relative buys one!

I was actually faced with this choice when my parents decided it was time to sell the lake cottage where the family had enjoyed many good times for nearly 40 years. We determined that the overall level of resources required to support ownership and maintenance would have severely carved into our ability to have other types of experiences. We enjoyed it while it was available, but we felt it would be an outsized investment and we wanted to be able to make other choices going forward. I have never regretted the decision to go in a different direction. It has made many rich and varied experienced possible that would otherwise been essentially unaffordable.

Have thought about it too, but would rather take the money and go to new exciting places. If you left your vacation home empty, you would have to worry about someone breaking in, taxes, etc, so no way to a vacation home.

I bought a second home in the Rockies and I love it. Working from my home office(s), I love the duality of the mountains and the SF Bay. Do I still travel? You bet! I made three trips to Europe last year and hope I get to do at least that many next year.

I'm with you all - I'd much rather spend my $$ traveling. Although I do envy that Crested Butte place! If we ever had a second home, right now I would pick Colorado. But we're in PA and the logistics of commuting so far would not make it cost effective.
I love visiting different places and I would not be happy at just one place. But we have been very fortunate that my husband's parents once had a place at the Jersey shore, and his boss has a 2nd home in Cape Cod, and we have benefited from those. But we make an effort to always leave the place cleaner than when we found it.
Everyone around here seems to want a 2nd home at the Jersey shore, but the Jersey shore just isn't that nice. And I wouldn't want to be at the shore in the winter. We also briefly considered a home in the mountains in the Poconos until we went up for a weekend one fall and realized that there's not all that much to do there. The mountains are really lame compared to out west.

Sure, if money were no object I would buy a vacation home in Hawaii or maybe Crete. Realistically, I'd rather spend my money traveling to different places.

Until I've been EVERYPLACE, I don't want to lock into a vacation home (will likely never happen).
Could easily afford one, but I much prefer staying at nice and/or interesting hotels wherever we go, seldom same place twice.
Viva la difference.

I think in a perfect world, we would all want some place to escape to that we can call our own; but we would also want to continue to be able to travel to new & exciting places.

Almost everytime we rent a house on some vacation, I consider it. It is usually after an especially nice day, sitting on a porch with a glass of wine. Then, in my clearer thinking AM hours, I notice that in this rented house - the chimney needs fixing, the kitchen cabinets are crooked, and the bathroom is going to need major work. Not sure I want to take on the maintenance worries and expense of a second home.

Also, as friends we have rented from told us - all it takes is one bad tenant (if you are renting it out) to spoil it for you.

We have owned a place in VT for 20 years and have really enjoyed it, since we are skiers but we still travel to UT or CO every winter for a week or 2. We have wonderful family memories of time spent at the condo as our boys were growing up. We were fortunate to be able to travel quite a bit too through the years. Now, we are retired and have another place in Naples, FL. We have lost the urge to travel so much and prefer spending time in our own homes, although we do travel on occasion.

I think it depends on where you are in your life and what you have done. It's a good thing that everyone doesn't make the same choices.