What's your budget for a family vacation and what do you get?

[smiles33]

DH and I haven't taken a vacation since DD2 was born and have been talking about planning one. Even before her birth, our vacations typically involve driving somewhere within 5 hours and renting a cottage/condo. We've hit everywhere within a 5 hour drive and I really want a different experience.

A girlfriend mentioned she and her bf went on a trip to some tropical island near South America and got a great "deal" at $3600 for 10 days all-inclusive. That just blew my mind away! We spend $1000 at most for our vacations so I'm curious what others spend and what you get for your money. For instance, for a family of 4 to travel by air, that's probably $1,000 unless we stay on this coast and only do a 1 hour flight, right?

TIA!

[KrisM]

All our trips are by car. I can't imagine the cost of 5 plane tickets and a rental car right now!

Last summer, we drove to NH (from MI, so a bit more than 5 hours :ROTFLMAO:). We did stay with relatives most nights, but also did a rental house for 2 nights and an amusement park, etc. We spent about $1400 total. Only 2 nights were an expense and about half the food was. We spent about $250 in gas for the car and tolls though.

I don't know that we budget specifically, but we are cheap and try to do things as cheaply as possible.

The rest of our vacations are to my parents lake house and are close to free - food is our only expense most times and I say that because I buy it there and what I want isn't always what's on sale, so I pay more than at home.

[WatchingThemGrow]

We've only really done vacations to visit family, but we fly 2x/year to see her for $500ish, more now that DS1 is of age. We went to WDW and stayed at a moderate for $122 total for one night. We've done a wedding in CT, spent the day in NYC and that kind of stuff for 3 days, but never really a whole week anywhere. We're hoping to go to the IL's beach cottage with MY parents this spring. That's a driving trip. We don't really go far for long b/c it is so tiring to schlep everything we need to an unbabyproofed location for any duration. One day, we hope to be better about saving for vacations and going on them, but we figured while our parents are all in good health, we should visit (or torment?) them.

[SnuggleBuggles]

I'm a SAHM and we can do the basics + some extras on one income. Expensive trips are not in the budget regularly because I have to save for them. I really do not want to go into debt for anything; if it were some amazing, once in a lifetime opportunity then I would be open to it provided I could pay it off quickly. However, I try and keep our trips to $1000-1500 and we go to places that we can drive vs fly to save money. Every few years we have taken a bigger trip. It is planned and budgeted for in advanced. We've never spent more than $3000...back when I was in college and I was paying that off for way too long! When I get a job, I plan to spend a lot more on trips. :) It's something I am really looking forward to!

eta- we visit family or split the cost of a rental property at the lake or ocean with another family for our trips in my normal budget.

Beth

[bubbaray]

We try to take a tropical vacation annually, though its been more like every other year since having kids. Not quite sure why.

In 2009: Maui (air, hotel & rental) for 7d, plus food while we were there and various sundries, around $6K. Disney (air, hotel and parkhoppers) was around $3K, plus food (that $3K included some pre-booked meals, I can't remember exact figures). Our annual RV trip is probably around $3K all told. $1500 to $2k for the rental (depending on when we travel and for how long), around $250 in park fees, plus food and gas -- probably $3500.

DH and I have travelled extensively. I'm just not into cheapo, backpacking & hostel holidays anymore. I'd love to figure out how to travel cheaper (especially Disney, which my girls love), but it seems like it could be a full time job figuring out how to do it cheaper and I don't have the time.

[kijip]

Anything from a few hundred dollars to go "camping" (we usually rent a heated yurt for this- I don't have any ability to get my older son to sleep in a tent and after 2 tries, I am done with "waking up" in a wet tent with no sleep and a cranky kid underfoot) or a few thousand dollars to go on a nice trip where we stay at a hotel and rent a car. We went to San Diego/Carlsbad/Legoland last year and are going to Hawaii this year. Even on this coast, plane fare alone for 4 people is well over $500, sometimes about $1000. We never go into debt for a vacation. We don't go far- places like Denver, Portland, Vancouver. We used to go to Florida to visit my nephew but he does not live their anymore, which frees up funds for real vacations (I hate the heat factor in Florida).

We have thus far been lucky to have jobs with reasonable amounts of paid leave so we can do several things a year even if we don't spend a lot of $$. My current job is actually upping vacation time this year considerably so I am excited.

[hillview]

We spend a lot on vacations. I work to vacation. :)
/hillary

[sste]

Usually one expensive vacation in the 3k range and one cheaper vacation in the $1500 range per year. We are constantly second-guessing this because vacation is a mixed bag with toddlers - - parental r&r is obviously limited and my son wouldn't care where he was so long as we were there. However, our very cold climate generally pushes me toward spending for a winter trip despite these drawbacks.

[kozachka]

We spend a lot on vacations since we like nice things. It would be several thousands per week for the three of us if we were to fly some place. International flights are fairly expensive these days given the high cost of airline fuel and taxes post September 11. So even if you were to get a bargain for $500 per person, that's already $1.5K for the three of us. Add another $100 per day for hotel, $100 for food (we normally would spend more than that for lunch and dinner) and an occasional visit to a park/fishing trip and it comes out to well over $3K for a week.

I try to minimize costs by a) travelling off-season (e.g. going to Thailand in May, when it's very hot and might rain), b) using Priceline for hotel reservations, c) staying in hotels with free parking, WiFi and breakfast, d) eating breakfast in the room, if free breakfast is not provided by hotel, e) buying drinks and snacks at retail stores, f) packing sandwiches (most of the time DH rebells against it), and g) taking advantage of AAA discounts, using discounts/coupons for parks. I also try to avoid tourist traps for food and not buy trinkets.Still, we end up spending a lot on travel since it is the one thing we love. We live to travel and eat well and can't see it any other way.

[TwinFoxes]

I don't have any tips on budgets, we haven't taken any big trips since the girls were born (which will change next year...I'm going stir crazy!) But I did want to tell you that it's often cheaper to get package deals than it is to price everything separately. If you have frequent flyer miles on an airline check them out. We've had good luck with www.nwaworldvacations.com and www.unitedvacations.com for international flights. www.southwestvacations.com is great for domestic flights. Sometimes their prices are so low it's hard to believe it's not per person! Good luck!

(I'm wondering if the island your friend was talking about is Aruba? Right off the coast of Venezuela? That's where we got engaged, it was beautiful.)

[Tondi G]

we took our first true family vacation this year and it happened to be a 7 day cruise. Ours was from a local port so we were able to cut out the price of airfare. It was essentially $700 per person (family of 4). It's all inclusive aside from the money we spent in port (food, souvenirs, renting jet skis in Cabo). Our vacation probably was right around $3000.

Our previous vacations were driving to San Diego and spending time at Sea World, Legoland etc. We also like to book short stays at the Disneyland Hotel. We live in LA and have annual passes. Our boys love the D-land hotel so we often book a 2 or 3 night stay in the low season with an AP rate which makes it more affordable!

After taking the cruise this past summer my DH and I decided we will make the attempt to take at least ONE week long true vacation every year. I figure it will be somewhere around $3000 or so... we'll be saving our tax return and saving up through the year so we can be sure to book something. Our boys really enjoyed the cruise and we found it to be a pretty good value as far as vacations go. You might look into what your closest ports are and try a cruise. Ours was the Nickelodeon cruise on a Royal Caribbean ship but there are several family friendly lines Royal caribbean, Disney (the most $$$ option), Carnival, Norwegian.

[jenandahalf]

We've never spent $3600 on a vacation and we're not likely to!

We haven't really taken an actual vacation in the last 3 years because we just don't get enough days a year to do it, esp since mine have to go to sick days too. We have taken a few weekend trips, Vegas, NYC and DC. Each weekend was 3-4 days and under $1,000 for flights, hotel and car if applicable. When we lived in Europe we would usually go for a week in Spain for around $600 once or twice a year.

We have looked at doing Disney a couple of times and could get it down to about $1.5k with flights, hotel, tickets and dining package for the 3 of us for a week. We just never have the cash spare sadly.

We are planning a trip to England next Christmas which will probably be our most expensive vacation, since we will have two kids to pay for by then. Flights will probably be $2k (of which $1200 is taxes :eek:), hotel $500, car $200. And it won't even be a real vacation since we will be spending it parading the new baby around for various family members and friends :gloomy:. Oh well.

[niccig]

To visit my family in Australia, the cheapest tickets were $800 for DH and I EACH and DS was $600 - so that was $2200 and it just gets us to my parents house. Most expensive at peak season, which is Christmas, the tickets are around $1700 each for DH and I and about $1300 for DS - so that's $4,700. Yes, you read that right. We have enough miles for one ticket, and I'm going to try and get that for Christmas 2010, but with DS's school and DH's work requirements, we can't be as flexible as needed. Once we are there, it doesn't cost us too much - my parents have a car we drive, we put in for groceries and we eat out a few times.

It's the cost of living on the other side of the world to your family.

And visiting DH's family isn't all that cheap either. We fly from LA to Detroit, and tickets can range from $250 each to $700 each...we always try for the $250 price. But for 3 of us, well it can be $750 to $1500 or so just to get to them. Again, not too much to spend once we are there.

We were talking about budget and I mentioned the travel, and FIL said "well, don't travel" and I then said "then you won't see DS very much."...it's just how our families are spread out. I have a budget line item just for travel, we try to use miles, and we have a cashback card and those savings go to travel...

[smiles33]

Wow, these posts are all very enlightening! It makes me realize that we're total homebodies compared to some of you more adventurous travelers. Pre-kids, most vacations were focused on eating out at restaurants (or cooking it ourselves with local ingredients like crab bought directly from a fishing boat), sleeping, reading good books, and drinking beer. :) But with 2 girls, I figure we need to re-think those types of vacations now.

Both our entire extended families and almost all our friends live within a 15-30 minute drive, so there's no one to stay with outside of this area. The other issue is that if we're taking the girls with us, they're still very young and won't appreciate certain experiences yet. For instance, we will eventually do the Disneyland/Legoland/San Diego Wild Animal Park circuit (that's an 8-9 hour drive or 1.5 hour flight!) but DH wants to wait until DD2 is old enough to appreciate it (which is at least 3 years from now!). I guess that's another reason we're trying to keep these vacations low-budget. We'll go to the snow later this winter but we do that trip every year. I guess I should just resign myself to local trips until they're older!

[wellyes]

I am nuts about vacations. Travel is important -- and addicting LOL. Pre-kids we've spend way more than $3600. But I wouldn't do it for a "lounging" vacation, only for an "adventure" vacation. I figure you can recreate the experience of being in a Mexican / Caribbean resort relatively cheaply. But there is no way to experience, say, two weeks traveling through Turkey except going there.

But with a toddler? Fuggetaboutit. Camping or if we get wacky, rent a house one state way. $1000-$2000ish.

[JenaW]

We try to take a few vacations a year. DH never vacationed as a kid and it is something he really wants to do now as a family. My family did at least one big one a year, but my parents are extremely frugal, so while we always had fun, we never spent a ton of money on them. I think vacations are a wonderful way to create memories. They do not have to be expensive to be fun. My husband is a physician with a great salary, but we have inherited a lot of my parents' frugal ways, and we are saving aggressively for our own retirement and our kids' college funds. I don't think we have a set limit in mind - for instance we don't say we won't spend more than x dollars on a trip, but we usually sit down and decide if that amt we would need to spend is worth it for a 1 or 2 week trip, or if we could spend that money better elsewhere.

Our favorite thing to do now is cruise. There are some incredible deals to be had if you are willing to take the time and look, and when you factor in what you get for the price, they really can be a great deal. We are leaving on our 3rd family one in 3 weeks. (DH and I have done a few before we had kids, and one without the kids a few years ago). There is a cruise line based out of Italy that is relatively new to the US - MSC Cruises - that offers "kids sail free!" The reviews on cruisecritic are HORRIBLE (although I found a lot of the complaints unfounded) but we cruised with them last year and had such an amazing time that we booked the same cruise again this year. Last year we scored an amazing deal. For our family of 7, it cost us under $1600 TOTAL (incl airfare). That was really a once in a lifetime deal as we had air travel vouchers and only spent $400 to fly all 7 of us to Fort Lauderdale from upstate NY, and the cruise line was offering a sale so we got an ocean view cabin for an interior price - about $389 per adult for the 7 night cruise, and only an additional $40 something for the kids (you pay taxes only for them). This year we splurged on an aft balcony cabin, but it is still coming out around $2500 total, incl airfare. Keep in mind that cruises include all your food too, so IMO $2500 for food and "hotel" plus all the beaches/ports for 7 days for a family of 7 is really incredible. To get the kids free my parents come along, since it is only 2 kids under 17 per each 2 full paying adults. My two brothers are also coming this time so we can say that our 5th child will be in their room (while in reality they will probably stay in our cabin).

We also do at least one camping vacation each summer, although we usually end up doing several long weekends. Around here, all the state campgrounds are very clean, safe, and have nice showering/toilet facilities. The kids absolutely LOVE doing the tent thing, and I can handle it for about 4-5 days before I start feeling gross. We bought a HUGE tent at Target for under $100 that fits two queen-sized air mattresses, plus two twins. It also has a large screened-in area that we put the picnic table under if it rains or is buggy. We take board games and cards, bikes. The food can be as simple or as elaborate as you like. DH was big into camping before we met, and his idea of camping is carrying everything in your back pack, hiking all day, then collapsing in a heap somewhere at night, eating freeze-dried food and one pot meals. He was so surprised the first time we camped as a family and brought a coffee maker, stuff to make smores, steaks to grill, pancakes for breakfast, etc. Camping is pretty cheap, especially once you invest in the "equipment." We are also hoping to do a longer RV trip this summer, but haven't figured out all the logistics yet.

[billysmommy]

DH and I love to travel and we're very lucky that the boys love it too. We generally take between 1-4 vacations a year that aren't to visit family. They can be anything from an overnight in a city nearby to a week somewhere tropical.
The boys are a great age for it now (6.5 and 3.5) and love everything about it. We went to Disney last Jan and DH was so impressed with how the boys did that he was all for another one in Dec.
This coming year we have about 5 planned because we have lots of "milestones" in our family this year. We have a vacation in NC with all of DH's family, our 10th anniversary to Georgia, my grandma is turning 94 in May so the boys and I are going to see her this summer, a cruise in August for my parents 40th anniversary and then we are renting a house on Nantucket for all our siblings, parents, etc. This definitely isn't the norm but we're all looking forward to it :)

[khalloc]

Last year we went to Aruba with both kids for 1 week (DH and I stayed another week and sent the kids home with my parents- they came along specifically for that)...

Anyways, the plane ticket for DD was $800. DS was a lap baby for that price. The first week for the timeshare cost $1200, and DH and mine plane tickets were $500 each.

I never track food and drink but I am sure that cost another $100 a day at least. We did go out to some restaurants, but we ate alot of meals in the timeshare as well since it had a kitchen. We rented a car which was another $500 or so for the 2 weeks DH and I were there. Probably more like $650 actually.

[Katigre]

We just spent a week in Mexico at an all-inclusive for $2,500 (that included airfare for 3 kids, DD was a lap baby).

We booked using www.cheapcaribbean.com and I was very pleased :).

[alexsmommy]

Once DS2 came along, we stopped traveling by air. It's not just a $ issue but all the toys, equipement etc, it just makes more sense and we really like traveling at our own pace. DH and I both enjoy road trips so for us it's not a problem. One year we did two "big" trips because DH's extended family had a trip planned and we wanted to get DS1 to Disney before he began "real" school because DH and I are not big crowd people so we wanted an off time. We have hotel memberships and we are really good about watching for deals. We always stay in a chain with breakfast included, stock up on snacks for the room, and try to find coupons for local places for dinner. I also look for coupons for activities online before we go. We don't penny pinch, but we do try to find easy ways to save money. We did not go on vacation last year, but we will probably at least take the new baby to see my great-grandmother in Knoxville, TN (8-9 hour drive) this spring.
I think our original (pre-recession) budget was about $3000K for the year on vacations and that forces us to try to be somewhat frugal in an attempt to stretch that into one big and one little trip each year.
DS1 is just happy if our hotel has a pool, hot tub and game room so we make sure to book somewhere with these ammenities and take advantage of them.

[jenmcadams]

Our kids are just now getting to the ages (4&7) where it's fun for us to vacation with them and we went a little crazy this past year on vacations:

Disneyland - Presidents Day Weekend ($3000)
We had airfare for 4, modest motel room across the street from Disneyland, a car (super cheap deal and allowed us to drive to Newport for a day), food, 2 character meals and 3 Day Park Hopper Passes for all of us.

Adults Trip to NY City ($800)
My DH had a last minute business trip and my parents happened to be in town, so I got a cheap flight and joined him for two nights. We ended up being able to expense his airfare, the first hotel night and all ground transportation, so the costs were just my ticket, a second night in a hotel, a few meals, tickets to a show and one night lodging.

Weekend Trip to Nearby City ($400)
We stayed two nights in a Residence Inn and took in the sites of a city about an hour away...really mellow and we normally do one of these once per year

Weekend at Lake Resort Town ($500)
We stayed in a super cheap cabin in a resort town about 2 hours away for two nights, but did rent a boat for 1/2 day and we did eat out a lot

Week in Playa Del Carmen ($3500)
We rented a 3 BR condo with my In-Laws for a week (the week leading up to Thanksgiving) in Playa Del Carmen Mexico; it wasn't an all inclusive ... we had our own kitchen, balcony, pool, etc. We ate out most days for lunch and dinner and primarily just hung out at the pool/beach and explored the town. We did rent a car for one day and took in some ruins, etc.

Camping ($150 total)
We did two different weekend trips to nearby campgrounds (within 2 hours of home). We finally are pretty set equipment wise (took us 2-3 years to get fully set-up for car camping as opposed to the backpacking we did pre-kids), so the only cost of these trips is food and cheap site rental fees.

This was a gigantic year of travel for us. This year, we have far more modest plans :) I think we'll probably do 1-2 weekend trips (within Colorado), a summer trip to Oregon to see my family and a summer trip to Minnesota to see my DH's family and some camping. There's a remote possibility we would thrown in a grown-up weekend away (maybe in conjunction with one of the family trips) and an even more remote possibility we would do another tropical vacation in the Fall, but I think we might stay close to home and try to stay within our budget a little better this year.

I spend a ton of time planning on sites like Tripadvisor, I watch airfare prices and we normally stay in fairly modest (but not super cheap) accommodations. My kids still go to bed at 7PM every night, so we always splurge on suites type rooms so that my DH and I can hang out after the kids go to bed.

I didn't grow up traveling by air much, but my parents took us on long camping/RV trips all over the West/Pacific Northwest and we camped a ton.

[geochick]

Our favorite place to go is an all-inclusive resort in Mexico. Here's how the price breaks down (at least this year...we paid more the year before because I've learned how to watch for sales now).

Air to Cancun - $399 each - direct. $1596 for the 4 of us.
Amazing resort 1 hour south of Cancun - $1250 for the 4 of us for 7 nights in a suite.

Total - $2846 for our family of 4 at an all-inclusive with fantastic restaurants and buffets, an awesome kids' club, and the most amazing beach (6" waves, powder white sand, and oodles of shade within 20 feet of the shore).

Bargain! And - our kids' passports last 5 years, so we don't have that expense each year.

The year before we paid about $1000 more because I wasn't watching prices. It's amazing how much prices drop a few weeks before travel.

[Katigre]

Our favorite place to go is an all-inclusive resort in Mexico. Here's how the price breaks down (at least this year...we paid more the year before because I've learned how to watch for sales now).

Air to Cancun - $399 each - direct. $1596 for the 4 of us.
Amazing resort 1 hour south of Cancun - $1250 for the 4 of us for 7 nights in a suite.

Total - $2846 for our family of 4 at an all-inclusive with fantastic restaurants and buffets, an awesome kids' club, and the most amazing beach (6" waves, powder white sand, and oodles of shade within 20 feet of the shore).

Bargain! And - our kids' passports last 5 years, so we don't have that expense each year.

The year before we paid about $1000 more because I wasn't watching prices. It's amazing how much prices drop a few weeks before travel.
Which resort do you stay at? We were at Grand Sirenis and i'm always looking for recc's.

[geochick]

Which resort do you stay at? We were at Grand Sirenis and i'm always looking for recc's.

Grand Palladium. There are 5 resorts within the big complex. We like to stay in the White Sand section in a suite. I watch for bargains on these sites:

http://palladiumaddict.net/PAForum/viewforum.php?f=1

Applevacations
Funjet
Travelocity
Orbitz
Expedia
etc.

We always travel the week after Thanksgiving. The prices always drop because no one else seems to like to travel then.

[liz]

It's amazing how much prices drop a few weeks before travel.

Just curious, how long do you wait to book your travel? Do you book your accomodations or airfare at the last minute? Or both?

[geochick]

Just curious, how long do you wait to book your travel? Do you book your accomodations or airfare at the last minute? Or both?

We buy airfare when we find a sale usually in the spring (Through Travelocity Fare Watcher). That sets the dates. Then we book through the hotel (Fiesta Hotel Group). These reservations are cancelable. Then I start watching for price drops on all the other sites (I love Applevacations for Fall sales). It always drops for the week we like. If, for some reason it doesn't, we still have a reservation through the Fiesta hotel site.

[BeachBum]

Interesting thread! We loved to travel before having kids. We would do weekend trips about once a month, and one or two week long trips per year.
After having our first we would do a few weeknds away (with him) and a bigger trip once a year. Now that we have 3 kids we feel at such a loss.

We've taken them on a cruise--and it was great! (Spent about $3500 for a family of 5--2 infants). But I just don't want to take more than one "canned" vacation like that per year. I want to see something new, not just lounge. But many of the things we liked to do on vacation (fine dining, shopping, meandering) just aren't conducive to kids. We really just don't know where to go with them!
Why aren't more people catering to our market segment? ;)

[purpleeyes]

We aren't a big "travel" family by any means..but we do have a few traditional vacays we take every year.

1- my grandparents rent a place a lake in MD. ALl I have to pony up is groceries and one dinner for the gang. We've (me and the kids) only recently started going on this trip. I am very grateful that my grandparents are so generous and we have a great time with extended family that we don't normally see.

2-a trip to the beach each summer.We go to the outer banks in NC. We've been going forever. When I was a kid we stayed in a little tiny cabin near the beach, now we've stepped it up a bit. Between my parents and I, we rent a $4000 house in a nice 'neighborhood' with amenities. Between groceries and gas, we add about $500.

And, finally, I am trying to do a new 'traditional' trip with the kids- to a water park in W'burg: Great Wolf Lodge. We go for 2 nights and I try to spend between $500 and $600 including hotel, gas, etc.

We're not very adventurous, I know, but it works for us!

[liz]

We buy airfare when we find a sale usually in the spring (Through Travelocity Fare Watcher). That sets the dates. Then we book through the hotel (Fiesta Hotel Group). These reservations are cancelable. Then I start watching for price drops on all the other sites (I love Applevacations for Fall sales). It always drops for the week we like. If, for some reason it doesn't, we still have a reservation through the Fiesta hotel site.

That's great! Unfortunately my DH and I have to pick our vacations weeks practically a year ahead (for work), so that makes it harder to find airline deals. Over the past couple of years we have been traveling with little ones, so we do condo rentals, and there aren't really any deals neccesarily. When the kids get older (and we don't have so much cr@p to carry) I plan on looking into all inclusive resorts. I will definitely keep your rec's in mind. Thanks!

[hillview]

We just spent a week in Mexico at an all-inclusive for $2,500 (that included airfare for 3 kids, DD was a lap baby).

We booked using www.cheapcaribbean.com (http://www.cheapcaribbean.com) and I was very pleased :).

Thanks for this info. Could you tell me more about your experience?
TIA!
/hillary

[hillview]

We buy airfare when we find a sale usually in the spring (Through Travelocity Fare Watcher). That sets the dates. Then we book through the hotel (Fiesta Hotel Group). These reservations are cancelable. Then I start watching for price drops on all the other sites (I love Applevacations for Fall sales). It always drops for the week we like. If, for some reason it doesn't, we still have a reservation through the Fiesta hotel site.

We used to do this before kids. I've been too chicken to do it since. That said it saves a BUNCH. Now that the kids are older I might try it again!
/hillary

[baymom]

Interesting thread! Before kids, DH and I would travel at the drop of a hat...we have spent months on every continent except Antarctica and easily spent in the five digits on a couple of trips (mainly because of travel costs to remote areas, NOT because of fancy accomodations). Since the kids were born, that part of our life has slowed down significantly. Still, this past year we went on two international trips with them (ages 5 and 4). Camping and road trips still are favorites of our family, but we do make a point to go somewhere new and 'away' as much as we can. Travel is an important hobby for both DH and me and we always make sure to budget for it throughout the year--we would never go somewhere we couldn't afford upfront. That means that we don't eat out as much as many of our friends and avoid many big purchases so that we can afford it. Also, DH is in a profession where he seems to be always working....getting really far away from home and the office (blackberry, computer, ect.) is one of the only ways that he can truly take a break.