Presidential Vacations and Working Retreats

There is no law giving the President vacation days, and the job never stops: the President travels with aides, the military aide carrying the nuclear football, communications teams, and the Secret Service, and can be briefed and sign bills anywhere. Presidents have long escaped Washington's summer heat at a second home or retreat that the press calls the summer White House, such as Theodore Roosevelt's Sagamore Hill, Franklin Roosevelt's Hyde Park and Warm Springs, Lyndon Johnson's Texas ranch, Ronald Reagan's California ranch, and George H. W. Bush's Kennebunkport.

Camp David, the Navy-run retreat in Maryland, is the most common getaway, and many Presidents spend weekends there or at their own homes. Recent Presidents have favored Crawford, Texas, Martha's Vineyard and Hawaii, Mar-a-Lago and Bedminster, and Rehoboth Beach and Wilmington, Delaware. Taxpayers pay for official travel and security wherever the President goes, and private homes used by the President are fitted with secure communications.

Counts of presidential days away, such as those kept for decades by CBS News reporter Mark Knoller, are regularly used by the opposing party to accuse a President of slacking, and by supporters to show that the work goes with the President. Critics point to the cost of security and travel, while defenders say Presidents need rest and that modern technology means they are never truly off duty.