Going on Vacation- Hiding my items vs. Extended hold time

[*applecore*]

I am traveling for 7 days for the holidays- Don't want to incur any defects for late shipping. What do you guys recommend doing? Hiding my items for the week or using vacation mode with 10 day handling? That would cover my 7 day return plus a couple safety days.

I am kind of reluctant to use the hide mode, as I don't want people to look for my items and think I left ebay? 

[datemike1]

If you have a store, using the vacation mode and pushing your handling time back IMO is the best approach, i've done it before and actually sold a decent amount while I was out.  I did include a note in the description of each listing just in case the buyer missed the notifications and I emailed each buyer separately after their purchase just to make sure they knew I wasn't shipping until X date and all were fine with it and appreciative of the overcommunication.

[mvls1]

We always use vacation mode and extended our handling time. We leave a store message for buyers telling them what date shipping will resume. If we will be away more than 1 week we reduce our handling time every few days using the bulk revision tool.

We have never had any buyer problems and ALWAYS return to many orders to ship. Have a great trip and make lots of sales!