Attending and participating in conferences and professional meetings is an important aspect of your education.

You can never overestimate the inspiration you can gain from listening to other people and devoting your time to hearing about research that tightly or loosely relates to your work.

Keep in mind that a trip to a conference is not a vacation.

In case the destination is exotic and you would like to do some tourism, you may schedule a vacation before or after but never during the conference.