What President Took the Longest Vacation? (And Other Fun Facts)
Google QuestionsJAMES MADISON
4 months
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JOHN ADAMS
Seven Months on the Farm
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THOMAS JEFFERSON
Runner Up
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CHESTER ARTHUR
His Mysterious Vacations
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GROVER CLEVELAND
It's Cancer, Sir
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DWIGHT EISENHOWER
Vacations Aren't Good For You
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Eisenhower was just a few months into his first term when he took his first vacation, in Augusta, Georgia, at his favorite golf club. There he suffered what now appears to have been his first presidential heart attack. (He'd had another apparent heart attack in 1949, which was covered up.) His spokesman put out the word that Ike was suffering from indigestion. Unfortunately, Ike could not afford to rest. The very next day he was scheduled to return to Washington to deliver his first major foreign policy address, in which he was to hold out an olive branch to the Soviet Union, which was undergoing change as a result of the recent death of Joseph Stalin. Despite his illness Ike insisted on returning to Washington and delivered his speech as scheduled, though he nearly collapsed. To steady himself he had to grab hold of the lectern. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead. He finally succeeded in finishing the speech only by skipping whole paragraphs. |
RONALD REAGAN
The Western White House
![]() Ronald Reagan loved his ranch in Santa Barbara, California. According to the Associated Press," Reagan spent all or part of 335 days in Santa Barbara over his eight-year presidency." |
BILL CLINTON
The Margin of Error is Plus or Minus Two Points
![]() Clinton, famously, loved to party with the rich and famous in Martha’s Vineyard and the Hamptons. But in 1995 and 1996 he went to Jackson Hole, Wyoming for his summer vacation, on the advice of Dick Morris, who cited polls showing it would be to Clinton's advantage. Even Morris later admitted it was a dumb idea. |
GEORGE W. BUSH
Five weeks in Crawford

Initially it wasn't Barack Obama, but his wife, who received flack for taking a vacation. In 2010 Michelle Obama, children in tow, went on vacation to Andalusia, Spain, just as new reports indicated the loss of 131,000 jobs. In 2013 and 2014 Barack Obama was criticized for vacationing in Martha's Vinyard. |
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More Comments:
Norm Norm - 8/25/2010
You missed one. President Teddy Roosevelt took his pleasure for four months at Oyster Bay in July 1907. See the historical article on AlabamaTeaParty.org.
Kent Franklin Cohea - 1/28/2009
I think the reason ex-Presidents vacation at the Grove is that they are away from the press and the popperazi and it is a totally "safe" place to be themselves. I met Henry Kissinger there along with many other "famous" men and they were friendly and relaxed. It's a place were the famous can go and act as if they weren't famous. It's kind of like a boy scout camp for adults with great entertainment to boot.
Nathaniel Brian Bates - 8/4/2005
B"H
I'm curious about (ex-)Presidential Vacations to the Bohemian Grove. Why there?
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