How to get the most from a short vacation break

Steve and I had a getaway to Ontario over Labour Day long weekend to go sailing with family. It was one of the best holidays we’ve taken despite it only being a few days. It felt like we had been away a lot longer and the holiday afterglow stretched into the week after our return. Research supports that holidays don’t have to be long to have a restorative effect if you know how to get the most from a short vacation break.

Happiness and Vacations

There’s been a 2010 paper circulating online recently that was published in the journal Applied Research in Quality of Life. It examines research that concludes that vacationers are happiest in the planning stages of taking a holiday. Not really surprising—vacation is most perfect when it’s in your imagination before you actually take the trip. You’re anticipating the great time you’re going to have, how you’ll feel and the things you’ll do.

The study revealed that the vacationer’s level of happiness following a trip was not remarkably different than happiness levels of non-vacationers. But this was dependent on how relaxing and free of stress the vacation was. The happiness boost from a relaxing, stress-free vacation is greatest, even though it appears to endure for just a couple of weeks.

Floating along on the water in the sunshine with few responsibilities is practically the definition of relaxing. We spent a lot of time during our getaway in idle conversation, napping a bit, and eating simple, satisfying meals. Pretty low stress.

Making Short Trips Seem Longer

Time perception is a funny thing. Although the actual minutes and days of our lives pass at exactly the same pace, whether we perceive that time moving slowly or quickly depends on our activities and how we perceive them. Claudia Hammond explores our perceptions of time in her book Time Warped. It seems that the time we spend engaged in new activities often feels longer in retrospect. It’s why we have memories of childhood summers stretching on endlessly – we are having many novel experiences when we’re young. As we age, time can seem to speed up because our brains aren’t processing as many new experiences. The perception of time is very elastic.

Getting the most from a short vacation break is about the right mix

So, based on the above, I’m thinking that vacations that are both relaxing and involve a novel experience are the magic combination in terms of maximizing positive effects.

We have been on lots of boats in our travels, but we had never gone sailing. On this trip, we learned how sailing works, we practiced a few knots, tried steering, and learned how to navigate. It seems the experience was the right combination of novelty and low stress to make it seem longer than a weekend.

It also may be best to take more frequent vacations rather than one trip a year that is longer in terms of maximizing positive effects. Remember to also savour that pre-trip anticipation.

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