Having just come back from our time in Mexico, which some characterized as a vacation, or if you’re across the pond, a holiday, I wondered where vacations started. Technically, it wasn’t really a vacation for my wife and me because we are retired. We often joke that we are on perpetual holiday. Our trips to Mexico and other places in the world, we generally consider them travel. But I was really curious about how vacations or holidays started, so I did some research, and here’s what I learned…

The definition of vacation is “a specific trip or journey for the purpose of recreation or tourism.” So I suppose, by definition, our trips to Mexico are considered vacations.
The concept of taking a break from work and getting away from it all solely for relaxation didn’t fully develop until the last couple of centuries.
As with many things, vacations began with the ancient Romans, who were among the first people to travel for recreation. Because peace was necessary before the ancient Romans could take a break, this started after the Romans had conquered all the neighboring lands. And because the Romans had conquered so many neighboring lands, the concept spread. Travel was also made more convenient by the construction of roads, a development attributed to the Romans. At the height of the Roman Empire, roads spread from Portugal to Turkey, covering almost 75,000 miles in total.
Vacations disappeared during the Dark Ages because new wars began, and it was no longer safe to travel long distances. In its place were pilgrimages that were journeys taken for spiritual fulfillment, not recreation.
Vacations returned during the Tudor period but were limited to the elite.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, vacations evolved to what the Europeans called a “grand tour” and were primarily taken by young, affluent men for the purpose of increasing their worldly knowledge–a sign of maturity and rite of passage. However, this did not extend to those across the pond in America with the Puritans, who were strongly opposed to idleness, worked six days a week, and attended church on Sundays.
What is known as the modern-day vacation began as a result of improved transportation, greater work efficiency, and affordability. Railways built across the US in the early 1800’s allowed people a chance to travel farther distances in less time. Then, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Henry Ford began manufacturing cars that enabled even greater freedom of travel. Then came commercial flights in the 1920s.
Shorter workweeks led to vacations really taking off. Henry Ford was one of the first employers to offer his workers a five-day workweek. He noticed that rested workers who had a chance to enjoy leisure time with their families came back better rested and more productive. Other businesses soon followed suit, and the “weekend” became a cultural norm. Despite the evolution of vacations, in the early 20th century, they were still mostly available to the very wealthy, and that remained the case until the post-WWII period.
Although vacations are more accessible to middle-class workers today, we still have a ways to go. Many low-wage earners cite that having the time and money to take a vacation is what would elevate them to the “middle-class.” About 25% of workers in the US receive no paid vacation time, and over 70% leave their vacation days on the table each year.

I feel fortunate to have saved throughout my life and not taken many vacations over the years, which affords my wife and me multiple opportunities to spend time in Mexico each year. I know I have at least one book, written with Ali Spooner, titled Trouble in Paradise, that features a group of women on vacation in a tropical land. It’s the third book in the Trophy Wives series and is available in ebook, paperback, and audiobook! Feel free to check it out as well as my other books by clicking the links below!