Vacations are a chance to take break from work, see the world and enjoy time with family. But do they make you happier? 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 showed that the largest lift in happiness comes from the simple act of planning vacation. In the study, the effect of vacation expectation lifted happiness for eight weeks.
After the vacation, happiness quickly dropped back to baseline levels for most people. How much stress or relaxation a traveler experienced on the trip appeared to influence post-vacation happiness. There was no post-trip happiness benefit for travelers who said the vacation was “neutral” or “stressful.”
Surprisingly, even those travelers 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 holiday,” said the lead author, Jeroen Nawijn, tourism research lecturer at Breda University. The only vacationers who experienced an increase in happiness after the trip were those who reported feeling “very relaxed” on their vacation. Among those people, the vacation happiness effect lasted for just two weeks after the trip before returning to baseline levels.
One reason vacations don’t increase happiness after the trip may have to do with the stress of returning to work. And for some travelers, the holiday itself was stressful. “In comments from people, the thing they mentioned most referred to disagreements with a travel partner or being ill,” Mr. Nawijn said.
Since most of the happiness boost comes from planning and expecting a vacation, the study suggests that people may get more out of several small trips a year than one big vacation, Mr Nawijn said.
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