That Vacation High Does Not Last

On the occasions when I had the chance to go on vacation, I have found the vacation was good while it lasted. The moment I arrived home, all the stress of reality is back. Did I feel rejuvenated? I can’t really tell. Maybe I was mentally refreshed but it would be more of an unconscious thing.

I find it stressful, travelling to a foreign land on my own. I am not an adventurous person. And being directionally challenged, if I have to turn two corners, I will be hopelessly lost. So it’s not much fun. I am not keen on shopping, and I am not excited about tourist attractions. I have found that tourist attractions do not necessarily mean that you will be impressed by them. More often than not, these are places where they try to milk your money.

So, not only did the ‘Vacation High’ not last for me, I didn’t even have the ‘High’ in the first place. This lead some to comment that I am hopeless, that I wasted my money going away. They might be right. I prefer to stay in my comfort zone, and I don’t feel that I need to travel, to go away for a holiday at all. So, going away for a few weeks because everybody expected me to was a waste of time, money and effort. On top of that, I came back more stressed.

That is why home-stay holidays suit me best. You get to understand a bit of the people, the culture, the way of life of the place you visit. That is more interesting to me than going to a country, rushing from one tourist attraction to another, and coming back with souvenirs to prove that you have been there. That is not my idea of a holiday.

Anyhow, back to why ‘That Vacation high does not last’. The following was an article that appeared in The New York Times some time ago. I am glad to have come across it, because it sort of proved to me that I am not the only one who thinks that vacations might be a little over rated. While some people love goings on holidays, there are those who are quite happy to remain where they are.

Here goes...

You may feel you are in seventh heaven while lazing on a sunny beach or exploring some quaint faraway little town. But will you be able to take home that feel-good factor? Probably not.

A recent study says that happiness from vacations may be short-lived.

Researchers from the Netherlands set out to measure the effect that vacations have on overall happiness and how long it lasts.

They studied happiness levels among 1,530 Dutch adults, 974 of whom took a vacation during the 32-week study period.

The study, published in the journal Applied Research In Quality Of Life recently, showed that the largest boost in happiness comes from the simple act of planning a vacation. In the study, the effect of vacation anticipation boosted happiness for eight weeks.

After the vacation, happiness quickly dropped back to baseline levels for most people.

How much stress or relaxation a traveller experienced on the trip appeared to influence post-vacation happiness. There was no post-trip happiness benefit for travellers who said the vacation was ‘neutral’ or ‘stressful’.

Surprisingly, even travellers who described the trip as ‘relaxing’ showed no additional jump in happiness after the trip. “They were no happier than people who had not been on a holiday,” said lead author Jeroen Nawijn, a tourism research lecturer at Breda University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands.

The only vacationers who experienced an increase in happiness after the trip were those who reported feeling “very relaxed” on their vacation. However, even among those people, the vacation happiness effected lasted for just two weeks after the trip before returning to baseline levels.

Mr Nawijn said: “Vacations do make people happy, but we found people who are anticipating holiday trips show signs of increased happiness. Afterwards, there is hardly an effect.”

One reason vacations do not boost happiness after their trip may have to do with the stress of returning to work. Also, for some travelers, the holiday itself was stressful.

The study did not find any relationship between the length of a vacation and overall happiness.

Since most of the happiness boost comes from planning and anticipating a vacation, the study suggested that people may get more out of several small trips a year than form one big vacation.

• The New York Times

So, what do you think? Care to share your opinion?

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