What is the best way to holiday? Scientists may have the answer

Times

5 days ago

According to some the ideal holiday is a week by a beach. According to others it is a cultural city break.
And according to a meta-analysis of more than 3,000 holidaymakers from nine countries, research suggests that most holidays have their virtues. What matters more is you do something active, switch off as much as possible from work and perhaps consider splitting a fortnight break in two.
But the good news is, whatever the destination, your summer holiday will give you more of a wellbeing boost than scientists previously thought.
The research, published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, found a significant wellbeing boost from going on holiday that was still detectable weeks after returning.
Being able to disconnect from everyday stresses is key to getting the most out of a holiday
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Ryan Grant, from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, said that he and his colleagues conducted the research in part because of a sense people were undervaluing holidays. 'We're seeing these trends where people just were not using their vacation time,' he said. 'And this is juxtaposed by trends where stress and burnout are all increasing.'
Previous work had found a modest but not massive boost to wellbeing from taking a break. In the past 15 years, however, there has been a lot more research. Grant amalgamated this to produce an updated assessment of the effect of a holiday on measures of wellbeing — both psychological and physical. The physical measures were important, he said, because of the effects of stress on things like headaches and backache.
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After synthesising 132 studies Grant said he was surprised. 'The spike we found in wellbeing was much larger than we expected,' he said. It was a lot bigger than most of the other day-to-day life events he studied.
It also persisted. 'Wellbeing doesn't reach what it was before the vacation until 43 days after.' This was a stronger effect than had been assumed. 'It is a much more optimistic view of vacations.'
But why are holidays beneficial and are all holidays equal? Within the data there were clues. What was key, researchers found, was 'psychological detachment'. A staycation at home seemed to be among the worst ideas. 'It is about mentally disconnecting from work. It is not checking email, not communicating with colleagues. The more you can do that, the better,' the researchers said.
Ideally, if people can do all that while hiking the Cornish coastal path or windsurfing, it is better still as physical activity seemed to be among the most beneficial activities, followed by socialising. Simply relaxing, with a book by the pool, for example, had a less strong association with wellbeing.
There was also intriguing data on the length of holidays. In terms of enjoyment at the time, the longer the better, but there is a catch. The highs of a fortnight break precipitated more rapid lows and it was unclear why this would be.
One theory is that going away for longer means, come the first Monday morning back, there are depressing amounts of stacked up work to catch up on. Another possibility, said Grant, was simply that holidaymakers had adjusted to a more pleasurable existence and 'the shock to the system when you get back on Monday morning and get hit by the ice water of the office life is all the worse'.