I just read an article in The Week called “The perfect vacation: How science can help you make the most of your precious time off.” Given how stressful I find planning a vacation, I was relieved to read that there are pretty much three things that make us happy on a vacation:  anticipating, experiencing, and remembering.

*Anticipating: Looking forward to a vacation makes us happier than the actual planning of it. So..I might not have vacation time for the summer, but as long as I have something exciting planned in the future, I can anticipate it – look forward to it – and I’ll be as happy as someone who has a summer vacation! Cool.

* Experiencing: As humans, we adapt to any situation. So, having a trip that has different experiences gives us greater happiness than 10 days doing the same thing on a resort. The newness of our experience wears off very quickly, so it’s important to break up any vacation experience and do things new and different no matter where you are.

*Remembering: The intensity of a situation makes us remember it enjoy it more rather than the duration. So…having an intense experience on a trip – good or bad, can you believe it – creates more pleasure even than a long trip. I totally agree…I believe I had a “better” vacation to Poland visiting concentration camps than going to a beach resort! Seriously, I love the beach, but boy will I remember that Poland vacation for the rest of my life – I’ve stored it in my memory as life-changing, whereas the beach vacation I hardly even remember it!

Given this information, how will you plan your next vacation? I’m thinking of taking 2 days this summer and filling them with lots of intense experiences so I have a lifetime of memories!