I would suggest looking for a new saddle. Pain in the soft-tissue area tends to be a cumulative problem in nature, it just gets worse & worse. There is no toughening up in that part of the anatomy.

Your pain-free vacation could be due to a lot of different factors -- since you say you took just the saddle & not the bike, how you were set up on your trip is probably not the same as how you ride back home (frame geometry, top tube length variation, etc, etc). Also, there is an adrenalin charge to trips away from home, riding in new & unknown terrain, sightseeing, trying not to get lost, all these things take your mind off saddle issues & your butt.

So try another saddle, and when you get it down to a saddle you can ride comfortably with maybe just some chaffing, try the lubricants. That's what they're designed to help with, even if they seem expensive.