What is a holiday?

What makes a holiday or vacation...
holiday: an extended period of leisure and recreation, especially one spent away from home or in travelling.
vacation: a period of time that a person spends away from home, school, or business usually in order to relax or travel
A little distinction between the 2 terms. For a holiday the goal is leisure and recreation. This would match up to a typical Irish holiday where they will often rent a self-catering cottage at the beach in ireland or in one of the easy sun countries (Spain, Portugal). I suppose that a vacation doesn't have to be leisurely, as long as you are away from work.
Also saw somewhere that holiday is a day off chosen by others (work, school , government) while a vacation is a day off chosen by you..

So far our holidays while living in Ireland have been focused on seeing things (tourism) .
We have been to UK (Wales and Northern Ireland), France and Portugal,also many sites in Ireland. A list of a few sites seen on holiday
Beaumaris Castle, Conwy castile, Penryn Castle, Caernafon Castle, Llechweld Slate Caverns, Belfast Castle, Giant's Causeway, Dunluce Castle, Carrick Fergus, Innis Oirr, Cliffs of Moher, Burren, Hook Head, Moors Castle, Pena Palace, Sao Jorge Castle, Monument of the Discoveries, Santa Justa Lift, Eiffel Tower, Sacre Coeur, Athenry Castle, ...
The busy tourist calendar does not leave a lot of extra time for the relax and leisure components. Do we need a new term for time away from work spent touristing and educating kids?

Might be time for a relax, leisure holiday.... though as Sarah say that is a little more challenging with 2 little people in tow

Rob