Meaning:
Lit. “holidays under a pear tree”. A stationary holiday in a Polish countryside which you organise on your own – as opposed to a trip to Asia or South America fully arranged by a travel agency.
This poetical expression also has a practical dimension: many Polish companies and governmental institutions cover costs of such vacations either fully or partially. They’ve had even forty or fifty years ago, as the term has quite a long history.
The most popular areas to spend your holidays in have been the Baltic coast and the Mazury (especially for people living in southern Poland) or Polish Carpathian mountains, for people from the north. But “wczasy pod gruszą” might as well mean that you leave your big city and drive for an hour r two to visit your parents and spend a week or two in their little village.
Examples:
Wczasy pod gruszą, czyli dofinansowanie do urlopu wypoczynkowego mogą otrzymać pracownicy zatrudnieni na umowę o pracę.
Leniwe wczasy spędzone na kocyku rozłożonym pod gruszą zostały wyparte przez wypady w poszukiwaniu uroków szerokiego świata.
Obiekt Ośrodek Wczasowy “Wczasy pod gruszą“, usytuowany w miejscowości Biecz, oferuje ogród, bezpłatny prywatny parking oraz taras.