Make a resolution to vacation in 2005

NEW YORK -- A two-week vacation?

Ha!

"For quite some time, the average leisure trip has been at four nights," said Cathy Keefe, spokeswoman for the Travel Industry of America, which surveys the travel habits of 300,000 households a year. "This shift toward shorter vacations has been happening for the last 20 to 30 years."

"We see fewer and fewer of the longer trips," agreed Amy Bohutinsky, consumer travel expert at Hotwire.com. "We've definitely seen more of the four and five-day weekends. People tend to take several of those a year, and most of that just reflects work schedules and how much time people can get off."

But there's a gap between the vacations people take and the vacations they want. Eighty-six percent of 4,000 families surveyed in a Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown & Russell poll earlier this year said vacations of five nights or more are ideal, and more than half said seven nights or more would be ideal.

So how do you realize your vacation dreams?

* Make a New Year's resolution and start planning.

"The first thing you do is you put it on your calendar," said Carol White, author of "Live Your Road Trip Dream" (RLI Press, www.roadtripdream.com). "It becomes as sacred as anything else you are forced to do in your life. It's an appointment with yourself. If someone asks you to do something that week, say, 'I'm already booked. Can we do it some other time?"'

* Sign up for time off as soon as vacation schedules are posted at work -- which happens in January in some workplaces. "Setting the date makes it a reality," added White, whose book chronicles how she and her husband Phil lived their dream of traveling the country for a year.

* Reinforce your plan with research about places to go and stay. "Think about making reservations," said White. "Bring your family into the planning."

* Solve potential problems on the home front. Can a neighbor or friend collect mail, water plants, feed the cats, maybe even look in on your elderly mother? Can you offer to do those chores for someone else while they're away so they can return the favor when you're gone?

* At work, arrange your responsibilities so that clients, colleagues and your boss can function in your absence.

"Make contingency plans," said Phyllis Weiss Haserot, who consults on business development and organizational effectiveness as president of Practice Counsel Development in Manhattan. "What if something goes wrong? Who's going to take care of it? Find someone to cover for you and make an arrangement that you're going to cover for them when they go away."

* If money is your biggest impediment to taking longer trips, look for bargains in the offseason for your desired destination. Just after Labor Day is a great time for discounts in beach areas, and September weather can be gorgeous -- just watch out for hurricanes. Buy cancellation insurance for plane or cruise tickets if you're worried about potential last-minute changes.

Discounts for longer stays are a trend at hotels and other attractions. Disney World recently restructured its pricing so that $1,500 covers admission and lodging for a family of four for a week. Disney president Al Weiss said the change was directly related to research on vacation aspirations for the average family. "Their No. 1 wish is that they would take a longer vacation."