James Lipton: In that picture.. Kelly's grandfather invites the entire gang to Hawaii for summer holiday.
Dustin Diamond: Yes! The thing about that-
James Lipton: [ interrupting ] They expect a marvelous time at the beach, sans Mr. Belding. They arrive.. and discover Mr. Bedling is there as well, don't they?
Dustin Diamond: Yes! Yes, he is! [cracking up] They didn't think he was gonna be there, but he is! That's the twist part! [laughs]
In an ongoing series that normally takes place in a few fixed locations, the Vacation Episode is a one-off episode where the characters leave their familiar grounds for a well-deserved rest. The vacation will invariably be set in a faraway and exotic location for maximum impact; given the higher costs of shooting on location, the episode will often be longer than usual, to make best use of the budget. A Special Guest or three might also be included.
May overlap with other types of episodes depending on the destination; for instance, a Vacation Episode to Hawaii will inevitably also be a Beach Episode. It may also turn out to be a Busman's Holiday. Occurs in lots of anime, often as a Beach Episode.
Also see Christmas Episode, Beach Episode, Road Trip Episode, and the Episodes index. Parent trope to Aloha Hawaii and Viva Las Vegas. Add Horror and it becomes a Deadly Road Trip.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
Love Hina spent most of its time in the Hinata Inn, but had a Beach Episode and a few other trips.
The Season 3 premiere was a three-part trip to the Grand Canyon, with gold mining, ghost towns, and Jim Backus as a crazed prospector.
Season 4 started with a three-part family trip to Hawaii, where the kids toured the local beaches, got involved with a cursed tiki, and ran into Don Ho and Vincent Price.
In the final season, one episode took place almost entirely at an amusement park in Ohio.
The show had an entire vacation Story Arc that ate most of the fourth season and leaked into the fifth. It pretty much inflated every aspect of this trope to fit — especially, since it was a trip to Hollywood, the Special Guest part.
Also later in the fifth season, the tour through Europe.
Family Ties has the TV movie Family Ties Vacation where the Keatons went to England*
(the movie has not, apparently, been shown in the UK due to Channel Four not running the entire series)
Subversion: one entire episode was built around the family stuck in a traffic jam on their way to the vacation.
Played Straight: the previous episode was them at a water park. The traffic jam episode was the drive home. And the B-plot with Dewie was a 2-parter.
Another played straight, but also played 'with': Malcolm and Reese try to snealk off to 'Burning Man' only to be caught by their parents...who decide it sounds like a delightful family vacation. Reese embraces the spirit of Burning Man, Lois does to yet still acts like its a family fun time, Malcolm gets into it in a sense but can't completely let go, Hal tries to act like its any other vacation but his conservative nature and hatred of the free spirited nature of the festival makes him hole up in the RV (the other people thinking he's making a live art piece about pretenciousness, and Dewey....is forced to do everything Hal doesn't want to.
This was parodied/invoked in The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse, when Pauline suggests that a possible plot for the League of Gentlemen movie might be that all the characters go on holiday together.
Head of the Class had the class go to Moscow, the first American show to film there.
Sesame Street had a series of episodes where the characters went to Puerto Rico to visit Maria's family. Also, there were one-hour specials like Big Bird in China and Big Bird in Japan.
Roseanne had an episode where Dan and Roseanne go to Vegas, featuring nonstop gambling and a visit with Wayne Newton (and a Wayne Newton impersonator). Another episode featured a trip to Walt Disney World.
The Jeffersons went to Hawaii in a four-part episode arc.
Season 3 of My Wife And Kids started with a three-part episode in Hawaii, with stops in New York, Chicago, Denver and other cities before they arrived (two days later).
In season 3 of Boy Meets World, Topanga wins a trip to Disney World. Cory follows her to make up with her.
Step by Step had two of these: one in Hawaii and one at Disney World.
The Monkees episode "The Monkees in Paris" where the guys walk off the set tired of the same old scripts and go to Paris.
Gossip Girl season four sees Blair and Serena enjoy their summer vacation in Paris.
Subverted in a first season episode of Criminal Minds. It starts with the team getting time off and Elle and Morgan going to Jamaica (?). They promptly discover a dead body and the rest of the team is called in.
Home Improvement had two, one where the Taylor family goes to a lake house, and one where Tim, Jill, Al, Heidi and Wilson go on a rafting trip for Tim's birthday.
Late Show With David Letterman spent a week in London (which also marked the only time the series has seen the light of British terrestrial television - BBC2 aired those episodes). Johnny Carson and Bill Maher also had UK jaunts.
Steve and the kids win a trip to Universal Studios Orlando on The Steve Harvey Show. Regina tags along because she's always wanted to ride The Hulk rollercoaster, and Cedric uses the trip to give Lovita a honeymoon.
In the second-season 2 Broke Girls episode "And the Bear Problem", Caroline, Max and Andy go on a weekend trip to a cabin.
Web Original
Episode 3 of Llamas with Hats: Carl enjoys himself rather more than Paul does...
Word Of God has said that after the first one, the commercial specials are done whenever The Nostalgia Critic is in need of a break from proper reviewing.
Western Animation
The Ni Hao Kai Lan episode, "Ni Hao's Trip to China" is a textbook example. It's a double-length episode where everyone visits Kai-lan's great-aunt in China, tries various new things, and meet a newborn baby panda.
Before they had gone everywhere on the planet they had one of these where they went to the beach for a week, using Flanders's beach house.
Early in the first season, they rented an RV and went camping. It crashed down a cliff at the end of act one, leaving the Simpsons stranded in the woods.
American Dragon Jake Long: Jake Long will always have some magical emergency even during what would otherwise be vacation episodes.
"The Long Weekend": His Dad took him into a camping trip, where Jake ended up having to save a village of sprites.
"Feeding Frenzy": The Longs were visiting relatives in Florida and a gang of magical sharks caused mayhem.
"The Hong Kong Longs": The Longs went to Hong Kong for a two-week vacation. It was also the time for all dragons on Earth to meet at Victoria Peak and the Dark Dragon captured Lao Shi to force Jake to slip a mind-controlling potion to control all dragons. This was also the only episode of the series to have no scene in America.
