Today, Explained - Vacation? In this economy?

Episode Date: August 9, 2026

Gas is expensive and Europeans want us to stay home. How can you still make use of that precious PTO? This episode was produced by Denise Guerra, edited by Jenny Lawton, fact-checked by Melissa Hirsch, engineered by David Tatasciore, and hosted by Jonquilyn Hill. Tourists take selfies in front of the Barcelona Cathedral. Photo by Paco Freire/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images. If you have a question, give us a call at 1-800-618-8545 or email [e-mail] to Explain It to Me ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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You can't reach nobody. Can't nobody reach you. It's really starting to become overpriced to travel through the state. I know we're living in perilous times, but if you ain't got no money to go on a vacation, stay home. Okay, you guys, it's time to admit something. I'm really, really bad at taking time off work. The last time I took a week-long vacation was about a year ago. And I know I'm the walking cliche of the American with PTO who doesn't take it.

But part of the reason why is that for something that's allegedly relaxing and feeling, fun, vacations are a lot of planning and even more money. Plain tickets, hotels, food, and of course, I got to buy that corny souvenir shot glass. I'm John Glyn Hill, and today on Explain It to Me from Vox, how to get that recharge you deserve, even if you're on a budget. So, am I alone in how difficult it is to get in a vacation these days? I asked Business Insiders Emily Stewart. It's a tricky year for vacation. How is me staying in a hotel for three nights?

More than my mortgage for the whole month. Out of principle, I'm not paying $800 to fly within the United States. It's literally insane to me. We're on years of inflation happening. And also we're in the midst of a moment with the war in Iran, where oil prices are really high. And so what does that mean? That means gas prices are really high. That means flight prices are really high.

That means even maybe your cruise might be a little more expensive. So a lot of people are looking around and they're pretty worried about prices. No, that's not the only thing going on. This is breaking news. U.S. embassies across the Middle East are urging U.S. citizens to reconsider travel to the region. American tourists in Puerto Varta are now sheltering in place as flights out there get canceled. Earlier this year, also all of the stuff with TSA and the airports being a mess. It is in this country a horrible day to fly.

Every time we check, the agony gets worse. Now 9,300 flights delayed nationwide. So a lot of people, I think, just this summer, kind of looking around and being like, I want to go on vacation, but also is this going to be a really expensive disaster? How are travel companies responding to people who want to, you know, enjoy vacation, but they're worried about money? The story I feel like of consumers,

American consumers in the past, like, six years has been, things are expensive and they're doing a lot of stuff anyway, right? And they're mad about it. They're mad about vacation, but they're taking vacation. And that is true now still to some extent. The Delta CEO recently said in their earnings report, like, we've raised prices, but we think so we think that those prices have staying power. And he said he kind of feels like Delta is competing on service more than price now. Delta is not a low-cost airline. We can't win by trying to provide the cheapest. we have to be able to win by providing the best. United also said in their earnings, demand was really strong. Demand is strong for leisure.

Demand is really strong across the board. I think the economy is doing well, probably better than people appreciate. And a lot of these travel companies, whether it be airlines, hotels, are really relying on loyalty programs to kind of get people in the door and say, you know, hey, here are all these perks and benefits. And they want you to book directly with them. So, you know, maybe you're like, I'm on the fence, but you're a Hilton member. You keep getting ads from them. That's hot. Totally.

Hilton honors. You keep getting offers from them. And eventually you say, you know, fine, I'm going to go on vacation with them. But there's only so much, I think, some of these companies can give, or at least that they want to give, that they're willing to give on price at the moment, especially with fuel costs being as high as they are. Are vacations going to become a luxury item? I mean, a vacation, by definition, is a store. splurge, but are we getting to the point where only the wealthiest people can afford them? I mean, I don't know if I'd go as far as to call it a luxury item, but I do think it's becoming

something that's segmented. A lot of, like, in economic jargon, you hear sometimes about a K-shaped economy, right? Where it's like, it looks like the letter K, where one segment of people are going up and one segment of people are going down. And this doesn't necessarily mean super rich in everybody else, but it might mean like middle class, upper middle class, going up. up, you know, middle class, lower middle class going down. And I do think that we are a little bit in that situation right now with vacation. I was looking at a survey from earlier this year today, and it said that some Americans said they were planning a vacation this year, which is the lowest that they've seen in several years. But spending was up. So when people were on vacation,

they were willing to splurge. And now some of that is people who can't afford it. Some of it is people who maybe are going to be paying off a credit card bill for a little bit longer than they would like. But I do think to some extent, this has kind of been the story of the broader economy for, you know, a couple of years now where people who do have the means are doing okay. They are still spending. And the people who don't have the means are kind of looking for more ways to cut back. You mentioned the unrest going on in the world and how that's impacting vacations. I'd love to dig into that a little more. What anxieties are people feeling? How is that factoring into how people are taking time off? America has not been playing super nice on a policy level with a lot of countries in the past couple of years, whether it be Europe, whether it be Canada.

And so I do think some travelers have this question of like, will I be welcome? A recent survey by the European Travel Commission shows just 33% of Americans plan to visit Europe this summer, a 7% drop from last year. Unease over how the U.S. is now perceived, cited as a reason for dampening enthusiasm. That moment when you go into a Northern Ireland bar and are immediately accused of being a bad person because you're from the United States, doesn't feel very good. Last year I did a story on Americans, kind of feeling a little bit anxious when they're traveling abroad. And I talked to one woman, I think she was from California,

who had gone to Canada and was at a ski resort and was talking to a Canadian woman. The woman kind of got a little bit prickly about, you know, American-Canadian relations. And, of course, this lady is like, I have nothing to do with it. But then she and her husband had asked for, you know, recommendation on, I think, a ski slope or whatever. and the Canadian lady sent them down whatever path recommended the path and it was like a really bad path

and afterwards she thought like did she do that on purpose? I did she get back at us? Oh my gosh. Which is like obviously very funny. She should know but she said, you know, I wondered after. Was she mad at us and like, you know, forget you guys have fun on that bad ski path? So this isn't necessarily like a new situation but I do think some Americans are kind of having this feeling of, you know, will I be super welcome abroad? even though I do think most people understand that not everybody, every citizen's politics are the same as the federal government's politics.

Are there places people are choosing not to travel to right now for whatever reason? A lot of popular international destinations have been kind of American out in the past few years. You think about places like Japan, Spain, Italy have started to be like, hey guys, like, why don't you try staying home instead of all of you coming to the exact three, you know, three. you know, three cities and kind of ruining everything, at least their citizens have been a little frustrated. Residents of Mayorka are fed up with mass tourism. The streets of the Balearic Island filled with protesters over the weekend

saying the area has reached a limit in capacity and resources. This is Kyoto today. Overcrowded streets. Frustrated residents. Things like vandalism and litter becoming commonplace throughout the city. Kyoto's infrastructure simply can't can't keep up. I was looking at data from this aviation analytics company called Syria,

and what they had found was that travel from the U.S. to major destination in Europe, it's done about 6% this year compared to last for like the month of July, but it's also a lot of people do not want to come here. Number one reason why people are avoiding the U.S. is the political situation. They don't want to endorse the U.S.'s politics. We are feeling the Trump slump because of the policies and the U.S. the war that he's kind of essentially brought on, those things have really affected our business and slowed it down. Travel from Europe was down, like, 9% from last year. And so it really is kind of a two-way street at this point. And some of it is people not wanting to come here

because they're worried about, you're being stopped at the border, being stopped at the airport, being stopped by ICE, so they're just like not feeling welcome in the U.S. right now. It's also kind of important to point out because so many foreign tourists are not coming to the states right now, that might mean that some popular destinations can have a little more space, a little less lines. Think about the Grand Canyon. You think about Disney. Like, it might be nice to kind of go to one of those places. And this doesn't mean, again, that everybody's just staying close to home. But I do think it's kind of one of those summers where it's not a bad idea.

see what's a little bit more in striking distance and see what you can do. So a tighter budget doesn't mean you have to skip out on that beloved PTO. The solution might just be a tried and true American tradition. That's next. Support for Explain It to Me comes from Fetch Pet Insurance. Here's something that might surprise you. Every six seconds, a pet owner in the U.S. gets hit with a vet bill over $1,000. That's according to a study from a pet insurance company.

Be prepared with Fetch Pet Insurance. Fetch is the most complete coverage for dogs and cats according to consumer advocate.org. Fetch covers accidents, illnesses, diagnostics, and more. Every vet in the U.S. and Canada is in network. You can build a plan that fits your budget and, once approved, claims are paid back in as little as two days. To learn more, go to fetchpet.com slash save. That's fetchpet.com slash save. Support for the show comes from tachyatry.

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and she just got back from her very own vacation. So I went down to Arches National Park with three of my grandchildren and their parents. And believe it or not, yesterday morning, I got up at 5 a.m. and hiked to the top of Delicate Arch to see the sunrise. Oh my gosh, that sounds beautiful. It was beautiful. It was a three-mile hike and it was up all the way. But I'm okay today.

But it's wonderful to do. And lots of people were there from all over the world. That seems like a classic American vacation. Tell me about how national parks became so popular. Going to the national parks was a very economical vacation for people. They could rent and borrow camping equipment. You could take your children to see these wonders of the world. East or west, north or south.

In fact, I think it was the birth of our modern ecological movement with the advent of the National Park travel by families. The all-inspiring wonders at the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. Mighty Niagara, the sparkling waters of the Atlantic. National parks are America's cathedrals. Isn't America wonderful? And our vacation is wonderful, too? Yeah, what's the timing for the popularity of national parks?

They became hugely popular after the war. And the family vacation became popular then, in part because of consumerism. A lot of people were making money and moving to the suburbs and driving in cars. The National Federal Highway Act was announced in 1956, very quickly, 1,600 miles of highways all over the country. So people could leave their driveways or their apartments or their city parking place and get in the car and go anywhere in America for a pretty cheap cost. 28 cents a gallon for gas. That was a long time ago. Oh my gosh, 28 cent gas feels like a totally different world. Can you describe how important the automobile was for the American vacation through the years? It was hugely important. Car ownership rose. Station wagons peaked in 1956. Today we have SUVs. But back in the day, we would just get thrown in the car. Sometimes they would put a blanket over the suitcases and the children could sprawl. out of car could be had for $2,000.

And as vacations and traveling became more popular, roadside businesses became more popular. Howard Johnson's in the East. Howard Johnsons. Next stop. And McDonald's. One of the great inventions of the era was Disneyland, 1955? Oh boy. And also motels. Motels were really popular. Holiday Inn was invented. So that's where you would

in your car pull right up to the door and unload. So that's all car centered. The food, the lodging, the driving. It's all centered around the automobile. Is there something about the road trip that's uniquely American? The fact that we have this idea in America that we have freedom of the road. that we can at will go and explore. Of course, it was not true for many vacationers. It was not at all true for African-American vacationers in this time period. They were severely restricted

to travelers from the South who came north. Back in the old day, when dark comes, you don't want to be caught over here after 6 o'clock. You want to be on this side of the tracks. Three or four times a year, I would go back and forth to Georgia, but I knew I wasn't supposed to stop at night to buy any gas or do anything, not even to use the bathroom.

Black people had to stay in segregated conditions. Many people are familiar with the Green Book, which was a guide for African-American travelers throughout the South and throughout the nation. It will be a great day for us to suspend this publication, for then we can go wherever we please and without embarrassment. But until that time comes, we shall continue to publish this information for your convenience each year. But segregation, while it was legal in the South, it was practiced in other places in the country.

You would find segregated restaurants and hotels throughout the nation. And most prominently in Washington, D.C., where many people wanted to take their children. And those barriers began to be broken by veterans, African-American veterans who had served in World War II, and the NAACP, you know, had 400,000 members by then, and people began to ride in, and the NWACP began to file suit. It was a very different experience for those travelers. It's a shameful history. So we have kind of this golden age of the road trip, you know. When did that change?

When did we stop doing that? I think it hit its peak in the 60s. in terms of road travel, I think competition from airlines and an increased push to travel overseas. The hard stop where I end my study is in 1973 with the Arab oil embargo. The immediate shortage will affect the lives of each and every one of us. In our factories, our cars, our homes, our offices, we will have to use less fuel than we are accustomed to using. And I think, of course, this has echoes of today. When gasoline is hard to get and oil prices go up, then people don't travel as much.

And by then, the age of the family vacation, as the primary vacation was kind of waning, and there began to be these couples getaways. So the tenor of the vacation changed in terms of promotion, and these vacations were promoted by the oil companies and the auto companies and the sales of cars, and we don't have that dominant in auto industry like we did in the 50s and 60s. As families change, vacations change. Families are smaller. Today, women have jobs that they didn't in those days.

So vacations are probably shorter. So time is more precious, I think. But on the other hand, people can work while they're on vacation, which is probably not a great idea, but they can. I think why people vacation remains much the same. they want to learn about their country. They want to show their children, the country. It's also a great way to spend money and come home and brag about it.

Back in the day they would show slides, now we just put up on Instagram. How many people do you know who are putting vacation shots on Instagram, right? Oh, everybody. I'm going to do it. Sure, sure. So it's a way of asserting your own status. And it's a way of showing your wealth and what you, what you can. do in your experiences. So I think being together with the people that you love and just exploring, you get to swim in a swimming pool, you get to eat fast food. It's fun. It's a change from the

routine. And that's what vacations have always been a change from the routine. Coming up, how to change that routine without booking a hotel. Support for the show comes from Bombas. We're talking socks, people. quality well-made socks to be specific. Are you looking for socks? Bombus wants to talk to you about socks. They've got a whole line of pro-level sports socks made for specific activities like golf, yoga, the gym, and socks for every kind of runner. I don't know if I've ever done yoga while wearing socks, but, you know, follow your bliss. On top of their sports socks, Bombas is known for their soft and supportive compression socks. Perfect for all your summer travel. Has Nisha Chital

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Go to IM8health.com slash explained right now or click on the link in the description and use Code Explained for a free welcome kit, five free travel sachets, plus 10% off your order. That's code explained at IM8health.com slash explained. Code explained at IM8health.com slash explained. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Hi, my name is Savannah, and I was calling about the vacation episode.

I've been married now for five years, been with my wife going on 12. And when money's tight, but we want to, you know, have a staycation, we will pull our mattress out into the living room and get our favorite snacks and drinks. and everything, and then we'll try to, like, get movie tickets. And then, like, coming home, opening the door, taking your shoes off, it just gives this faux hotel room vibe that just makes an ordinary weekend 10 times more fun. It's just something silly and simple, but it's fun and cute.

This is explained to me. I'm JQ. I'm Hannah Sampson and I write about travel for The Washington Post. All right. I want you to do something for us and that's define a staycation. So it's taking the time to spend in your community or nearby to do things you normally wouldn't do in your regular life and put on hold all of the burdensome things that you would do in your daily life and just go out and have fun and be a tourist like in your own city. My personal favorite is going a hike. It can be long, short, a little trail, or just a fun adventure to get outside and spend time and some nature. Another idea? Add some extra flavor to dinner. Order a cuisine you've never tried. But to me, you're staying at home also. You're not like going to a hotel anywhere nearby.

I just paid my rent. So this weekend, I will be enjoying every wall in this apartment. Every room will be enjoyed. And you're enabling yourself to discover something that you might have taken for granted. So it's not this entire new atmosphere, but it's a new look at a familiar atmosphere. And that is really fun and rewarding while also being budget friendly and hopefully allowing you to maybe put money aside for the bigger trip that you want to take some time. I discovered a wonderful way to have a full making. in one day last year when I decided that me and my kids would take public transit to visit their dad in Monterey. And it took a grand total of 12 hours. We took the bus, the smart train,

the ferry. Most of the rides were free for my kids because they're under 18. It was incredibly affordable and it was a lot of fun. I think that the way to really get into the staycation zone is planning and preparing and getting yourself hyped for what you're going to do, which is like reading reviews for places that you might want to go. If you've picked a restaurant, look at the menu and start to drool over what you're going to eat. Think about your favorite bookstores or paths or discover a new corner of your neighborhood that you want to explore. Like in advance, start doing that as soon as you decide to stay. and as soon as you decide what you're going to do, start to plan the trip.

And then the anticipation of that experience will give you, like, that vacation high. And I think all of that helps you to stay, like, in the vacationy zone and also, like, make the most of your time and not think about all the things that would be distracting you and annoying you just when you're home doing your boring tasks. It's so hard, though, because you're around the house. How do you romanticize your home? How do you make it feel like, okay, let's turn this into a hotel or pretend that I do not need to actually clean out that pantry, even though I know I do. How do you make your home feel a little more special? I think we all got too much practice on this during the pandemic, but there are a lot of things you can do which kind of change the vibes of your house if you're not afraid of candles or scents. just like a candle that reflects one of your favorite places.

Like I have a candle that is like National Park scented, so it's like piney. In my house, we do a lot of like audio setting the mood. I have small kids, so we'll play like a ride, audio of a ride at Disney World or just ambient sound from a park that we like. Or we'll live stream. During the pandemic, my husband and I meant to spend our anniversary at, the beach where we got married, but I was pregnant. We couldn't travel. So we found a webcam that showed the sunset on that beach, and we got takeout, and we just, it was really sad, but we watched the sunset. Yeah, it's sad, but it's also, like, quite sweet. It's like,

awl. It was sweet. We'll bring the beach to us. Exactly. And it was a beautiful sunset. I think for me, one of the challenges of a staycation, and kind of all vacations, if I'm honest, is not letting real life creep in. And beyond, like, taking time to do administrative tax around the house, but work. Like, I don't know, that slack goes off. I get that email. A news alert goes out. And I'm just like, well, what if I just take a little gander?

How do you keep from letting that happen? Yeah, unplugging is so hard. You could have a couple of small kids and teach them to tell you to get off your phone, which mine have learned to do. Get off in the phone, Mom. Get off in the phone. My husband actually has a brick device, which, like, locks your phone for you. So the discipline is real there.

It takes work to, like, force yourself out of that constant need for, like, scrolling through TikTok or just seeing what's up at work. You don't need—if you're off, you don't need to be on there. If there's an emergency, they know how to reach you at work. So, like, trust that process. Just be super. in the moment, super present with whatever you're doing, because you need that mental break, even if you're not gone somewhere, you know? Like, you need to make the most of the time that you have, especially if you're taking vacation time and spending it at home. Like,

vacation time is a precious resource that you should be using to the best of your ability. That's it for this week. Next week, I'll be using my vacation to the best of my ability, but fret not. We've been working really hard. And, have new episodes coming your way. Speaking of, we'd love to know what you want us to explain. Call in with your questions and ideas to 1-800-61845 or email AskVox at Vox.com. And you know what makes a vacation even better?

Listening to this podcast, add-free with a Vox membership. For more info, head on over to Vox.com slash members. This episode was produced by Denise Guerra. It was edited by Jenny Lawton, fact-checked by Melissa Hirsch, and engineered by David Tattashore. Our executive producer is Miranda Kennedy, and I'm your host, John Glenn Hill. Thank you so much for listening. I'll talk to you soon. Bye!