Rav Avigdor Miller on Trips for Relaxation
Q:
What do you say about a person going on a trip for relaxation ?

A:
It depends what you mean by a trip. If you want to take a trip down Ocean Parkway, I’m all for it. It’s fresh air, it’s exercise, and you’re not wasting money. But a trip someplace by a vehicle, airplane or whatever it is, is not refreshing.

Now, sometimes a person is so confused in his mind that he has to do anything to get his mind off his troubles. So I’m not saying anything about that. But ordinarily, for relaxation you don’t go on trips. Trips make you tired and you don’t get the required exercise and fresh air that help a person come back to normal. And therefore it’s all a hundred percent waste of money.

Now, if you’re serious about relaxation you would take up a system of touring the city streets – by daytime, not by night – walking for miles and miles and then coming home and eating a nice meal and going to sleep. And if necessary going out again for a walk if you’re so serious.

But traveling is no answer for the problem of relaxation. People travel back and forth; they go to Eretz Yisroel and to Florida, and some go to Switzerland too. And all they do is spend money and get more and more tired so when they come back they need a vacation.