Work plays a big part in it, If I left for 2 weeks.. I would be returning to a mess and be possibly putting my job on the line. It's not a risk I'm willing to take. No one in my office has ever taken a vacation more than 7 work days. I could only manage to accrue 5 vacation days off for my last trip.

I agree that saving up for a big long vacation is so much more practical than little ones, as far as airfare is concerned. I wish I could do that, and I haven't given up hope at the possibility of one day having a long trip.

The only way we managed to take 2 short trips in one year was by setting up airfare alerts with every airline that exists and every flight search website. I also had to be really flexible regarding the days, fly out mid-week red eye and return flight home on another mid-week day.I saved over $400 that way. Saturday is a good day to fly too. I've also never booked a flight more than 3 months in advance. There is this weird sweet spot at about one month and a half before when the flight prices dip down real low. That's the time we try to grab it. If you wait too long, it shoots back up.