I deactivate my listings, as opposed to using the 'vacation' mode. I have heard horror stories in the forums about the vacation mode -- 2 of the big ones have been customers still completing purchases unbeknownst to the shop owner, and the shop takes a huge hit in the search engines and it takes a long time to get back in the standings.
If you deactivate the listings then they are not visible to customers, and you can reactivate them when you get back and are ready. I've done that twice, and have no complaints about that process :-)
