Writing for "Entertainment Weekly", Abby West focused on Carell's acting, explaining that "the way that Michael's desire to boast and his healthy fear of offending Jan played out on Steve Carell's face was fantastic. From his braggadocio on the phone with Todd Packer (Packer!) to his death march up the stairs to face Jan, it was a thing of beauty." BuddyTV's Oscar Dahl believed that "Back from Vacation" was "one of the two or three best of the season", opining that "simplicity" was the key to the series' success. Dahl continued, "Each episode's premise can be entirely mundane and inconsequential. It will still mine laughs from the situation at hand. We also had some nice development in the Jim-Pam-Karen triangle, with Pam giving Jim relationship advice, then bawling her eyes out afterwards. Maybe the best scene in the episode saw Dwight comfort her." Television Without Pity graded the episode with an A.