Everyone who knows me well will concur that I love my holidays. My foreign, preferably with a plane ride, are my favourite but to be honest I just love holidays anywhere. I graduated with a degree in Tourism Management in 2004 and as much as I reiterate to people it’s essentially an industry focused business management course (which it most definitely is) my love of travel and tourism no doubt drew me towards it. If you were to ask my daughter what mammy’s favourite thing is I can guarantee she’ll tell you holidays without missing a beat.
For me, the biggest attraction is the break from routine. All inclusive holidays are my favourite as they literally give me a break from everything; no cooking, no washing up, no making beds – perfect. However I’m also in my element in a caravan in a UK coastal location, or rural lodge as that’s a break from the responsibilities of home and work. I also love absorbing new sights and environments, but above all, I love the opportunity to give my full attention to and spend quality time with my loved ones. And It seems that I’m not alone though and that links have been established between holidays and happiness, you only have to put this into the internet search engine to see that many other agree and corroborate it with scientific research.
However it is also believed that the happiness brought about by holidays is not made to last. Dr Dillner suggests in an article for The Guardian online that the positive effects of a holiday tend to wear off after two weeks, maybe this explains my intrinsic need to get trips in the calendar throughout the year as I do find this gives me a boost when the post-holiday blues kick in. And it seems that Tara Parker Pope, who writes an article for The New York Times about research undertaken in the Netherlands (published in the Journal Applied Research in Quality of Life) agrees. Her piece showed that there wasn’t a significant difference in the level of happiness in those that had and had not taken a holiday. Instead, it was the planning and anticipation of an upcoming trip that really boosted happy feelings. So it’s suggested that booking as many trips as possible will increase this further. At present I try to book in one forgien holiday and ideally two mini breaks for the year, and knowing I have these in the diary most definitely gives me a boost. In my old office we also had a holiday countdown board for the team – a fun activity where we would all list our holiday plans counting down the days to a break.
I’m also conscious about living in the moment and believe that you can’t pin all our hopes for happiness on a few getaways a year and I do wonder what our lives would be like without our holidays. My husband and I were brought up with one forgein holiday a year so this has been routine for us in all of our years together and we are very appreciative that we were able to experience far away places as children and be in a position where we can do the same for ours. During both my maternity leaves our budget was tighter so we forewent our overseas holidays and extended our normally weekend-long caravan breaks. The memories we made on these were just as precious. We also have what I refer to as ‘Sacred Sundays’ (no religious connotations intended) – a day we keep free for fun or relaxation. We don’t have any work (well my husband works every other!) and there are no extra curricular activities planned. On these Sundays we have stay-at-home days, day trips to the park, beach, shops, or another attraction. Furthermore during school holidays when I’m not working, I’ll try and plan a trip into a theme park or some other attractions like a farm park.
I think the main thing that drives me is that I believe that life is short and memories are there for the making. I understand that these are also made in the everyday living but it’s great to have the anticipation, for me it’s one of the greatest feelings.
Are you a holiday lover like me? Or can you give or take a holiday? If so what drives you instead?
Featured links:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/7906452/Holidays-can-make-you-live-longer.html
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