Taking regular breaks from everyday working life is important to staying happy. Holidays offer a chance to forget about the stresses of the daily grind and help keep your work and personal life in balance.
That means holidays should not simply be regarded as periods of frivolous fun. In actual fact, getting away from it all is really essential to keeping yourself psychologically healthy and well.
Below we are looking at the great holiday ideas that will give you the mix of escape and relaxation needed to recharge your batteries.
A Sailing Trip
If there is one type of holiday that stands out above the others for relieving stress it is a sailing trip. For one thing, it offers the actual physical release of drifting out to sea.
It is like a visual metaphor for leaving behind your cares and will get you in the mood to relax and forget your normal life right from the start. A sailing holiday lets you travel at a gentle, floating pace that is ideal for soothing a stressed-out mind.
It will also force you to forgo necessary but frustrating aspects of everyday life in the modern world – such as technology. It is unlikely that you will be able to use mobile phones, tablets, laptops, etc while you are out at sea, and unplugging from these for a while has established psychological benefits.
Furthermore, chartering a boat for a sailing holiday will let you go scuba diving or swimming. Swimming in cold water has been proven to improve happiness levels by increasing the amount of dopamine in the brain, which unleashes endorphins.
Even the act of booking a charter boat is simple and hassle-free compared with other types of holidays. There are online companies like Borrow a Boat that offers flexible options for you such as a catamaran charter in the BVI’s with crew or even a bareboat depending on your preference. This allows you to find the right vessel and carry out each stage of the booking process online in just a few clicks.
Most people pick either a catamaran or a yacht for their trip. The main difference between them is that a catamaran is a larger boat with two hulls, compared with the single hull of a yacht.
This makes it very stable to sail, whereas a yacht is more challenging and exciting on the water. The greater size of a catamaran will make it better for a family holiday and you can pick a charter with or without a crew depending on your sailing skills
Among the popular sailing holiday destinations are:
• US Virgin Islands
This trip offers three wondrous islands to explore – St Thomas, St John and Croix – as well as an ocean full of dolphins and sea turtles to swim with.
• British Virgin Islands
Sailing here is fine at any time of year, but September and October are when the sea and winds are calmest. With four large islands and multiple smaller ones, the only way to really get the measure of the BVIs is by chartering a catamaran or yacht.
• Greece
The sailing season in Greece is from April to October, with July and August being the peak months. Greece is popular because it has close to 3,000 islands with bleached white sandy beaches and deep blue seas to explore.
The Sporades, Saronic Gulf, Ionian Sea and the Dodecanese are among its most beloved areas for sailing.
A boating holiday is ideal either for families or a romantic getaway, which is also true of this next option.
A Road Trip
This could be considered the land-based equivalent to a sailing holiday. Again it is about moving around rather than staying in one place.
It is also another holiday idea that has recognized happiness-boosting benefits. Getting out onto wide open roads miles away from anywhere is fantastic for clearing all of the everyday clutter out of your mind.
It will also offer lots of opportunities for seclusion and romance with your partner, or excitement and adventure for the family. That quality of adventurousness and exploration will help to dig you out of any rut you may be feeling trapped in.
Then there is the chance it brings to meet new people. As with sailing, a road trip lets you stay in one place as long as it is interesting you, before moving on when it starts to pall.
It can be undertaken in your own car or by hiring one for the trip and the US is full of great road trip possibilities, including:
• San Francisco to Los Angeles – National Parks Route
This is one of the most epic road trip adventures the country has to offer. You will journey through no less than four states and take in National Parks like Yosemite and Zion as well as the Grand Canyon.
• California – Pacific Coast Highway
This breathtaking road trip will take you from Monterrey to Los Angeles and it is a stunning scenic route. There are beaches that you can stop to sunbathe on as well as impressive sights like Big Sur, the Bixby Bridge and Carmel by the Sea.
• Lake Superior Circle Tour
Lasting anything from four days to two weeks depending on your speed, this route takes you into Canada. It runs through some of the wildest and most scenic areas of Ontario and incorporates beautiful coastal views.
Take a sailing holiday or road trip to guarantee a really happy holiday.
