Avoid this vacation mistake

For too many harried and exhausted workers, when it comes to vacations there’s the dream, and then there’s the reality.

The dream is a relaxed, refreshing, stress-free time away in some idyllic paradise.

The reality is a rushed, confusing, poorly-planned stress-inducing time in some hassle-filled location that may or may not be so idyllic, and where no one, it seems, is either available or willing to do those things that will reduce your stress so you can have even a teeny tiny bit of the dream vacation for which you had so hoped.

Author researcher and stress-reduction expert Shawn Achor, writing in the Harvard Business Review, provided statistical evidence that taking time off for work can, in fact, make you happier, healthier and more productive once you return to the job -  but only if that time off included lots of low-stress or stress-free time and activity.

He and partner Michelle Gielan of the Institute of Applied Positive Research conducted a study in December 2013 and came up with some eye-opening results on the subject of stress and travel. They concluded that merely taking a vacation trip DOES NOT make you happier when you return to work. But if that travel is relatively stress-free, you are far more likely to be happier when you return to work - and to have more energy. Just the opposite is true for stress-filled travel.

But their research provides a more sophisticated and more specific understanding of that common vacation “problem.” They conclude that post-vacation happiness and satisfaction is closely correlated with the amount and quality of the advance planning done before travelers ever leave home.

Put another way, poorly planned vacations are stress-filled vacations that zap all the positive benefits you want – and need – from your vacation. Conversely, well-planned, relatively stress-free vacations can have a significant positive effect on your energy and stress levels. Achor and Gielen discovered that 94% of travelers reported having at least as much or more energy upon returning from a positive vacation, and 55% reported having more energy upon their return to work.

Okay, so how do you pull off having a relatively stress-free, refreshing, relaxing vacation – a “positive” vacation in Achor’s and Gielan’s terms?  As a senior executive with the world’s largest leisure travel and cruise company, I could just say “book a cruise” and be done with it.  But, while that’s clearly a great way to do it, here are some specific suggestions.

• USE YOUR VACATION TIME. Oddly, Americans left about a half-a-billion paid vacation days on the table in 2013 (and presumably every year), according to an Expedia survey. That works out to four days per employed adult – or a whole week if those four days link to a week with a Monday holiday.  You can’t get the stress-reducing and happiness-inducing effects of a vacation if you don’t take it. That means that now that we’re one quarter of the way through the year, you already should have used just about a week of your vacation (the average American gets three weeks of paid vacation) and you already should be planning your summer vacation.
• FOCUS ON THE DETAILS. 74% of Achor’s and Gielen’s respondents found the most stressful part of travel to be figuring out the details. That includes dealing with travel uncertainties, transportation between airports and hotels or to recreation and entertainment venues; planning sight-seeing excursions; dealing with unfamiliar surroundings, language barriers and foreign social and travel customs.
• ENLIST THE HELP OF AN EXPERT.  Work in advance with a really good travel agent to plan your trip, hire the services of a local guide or service that will handle the details at your destination for you, or enlist the help of a friend who lives in the area you’re visiting. On their best trips 77% of Achor’s and Gielan’s respondents knew or met with a local host, or had a knowledgeable friend at their destination.
• PLAN YOUR TRIP WELL IN ADVANCE. About 90% of Achor’s and Gielan’s respondents said they had planned for their most recent trip well more than a month in advance. But of those who said they had had negative trips, 28% said that they didn’t figure out the details of their trip until the last minute before departure, or even until they were on the trip itself. As with most things in life, advance planning gives you confidence, ease of mind and the ability to be flexible if unexpected difficulties do arise.
• GO FAR AWAY.  To get the most relaxation, stress reduction and energy enhancement, research shows that distance matters. Achor and Gielan discovered that 84% of the best trips their respondents had taken were outside the United States. That supports a well-known Twitter study that found that the happiness level of users increased the further their geotagged posting location was from their home.

Naturally, as a cruise industry advocate, I must note here that one of the many great aspects of a cruise vacation is that we provide all that in a neat package to our guests. But whether you’re going on an Alaskan cruise, flying to Europe to see all the sites of the Old World, or spending a month trekking in the Himalayas, you’d certainly be wise to follow these tips in order to get the most relaxation, stress-reduction and energy increase possible from your next trip.

See you onboard.