Maybe Your PTO Doesn't Need To Go Toward One Big Vacation
A three-day weekend can feel almost comically short when you're used to saving your vacation days for one big escape.
But sometimes, you come back from a week away feeling refreshed only to watch that feeling disappear by the following Monday. What if you didn't have to wait months for your next reset?
In a recent study1 of more than 1,200 travelers, researchers found that how often people traveled was linked to several measures of well-being, including how satisfied they felt with their lives and how well they felt equipped to handle challenges.
About the study
Researchers surveyed more than 1,200 Australian travelers across three separate points in time between 2020 and 2023. Participants reported how frequently they took leisure trips, and researchers measured their happiness, psychological resilience, and overall life satisfaction.
They also asked about two related factors: how well people felt they could cope with stress and how vulnerable they generally felt in everyday life.
This helped researchers look at whether the relationship between travel and well-being was different for people with different levels of stress and coping ability.
More frequent travel was linked to greater life satisfaction
People who traveled more often tended to report greater life satisfaction. The researchers also found a potential explanation for that connection.
More frequent travel was associated with greater happiness, which was linked to stronger psychological resilience. In this study, resilience essentially meant feeling more capable of handling challenges and bouncing back when things got difficult.
That stronger resilience was then associated with greater overall life satisfaction.
So the potential benefit of travel may not stop when you unpack your suitcase. The researchers' findings suggest that feeling happier may be part of what helps people feel more equipped to deal with everyday challenges.
The biggest benefit showed up among people under more stress
The relationship between travel and well-being was strongest among people who already reported having a harder time coping with stress or feeling more vulnerable in their everyday lives.
For people who already felt confident in their ability to handle stress, taking more trips wasn't meaningfully associated with better well-being.
That doesn't mean vacations aren't enjoyable when life is going well. Rather, frequent travel may have more potential to make a difference when you're already feeling stretched thin.
It's also important not to read this as proof that vacations directly make people happier or more resilient.
This was an observational study, meaning it found a relationship between these factors but couldn't establish cause and effect. Still, the same pattern appeared across all three surveys.
A different way to use your PTO
You don't need to turn every vacation day into a travel day. But if you usually save everything for one annual getaway, this research gives you a reason to experiment with spreading some of that time out.
- Break up your PTO: Instead of putting every day toward one trip, consider saving a few days for long weekends or shorter getaways throughout the year.
- Keep it simple: A nearby town, road trip, or change of scenery can still count as time away. You don't need a passport or elaborate itinerary.
- Use it when you need it: If you're heading into a particularly stressful stretch, consider taking a couple of days off before you're completely depleted rather than waiting for the perfect time to escape.
- Think beyond the trip itself: The goal isn't to eliminate stress with a vacation. It's to give yourself regular opportunities to step outside your usual routine and recharge.
The takeaway
One giant vacation doesn't have to do all the heavy lifting. More frequent travel was linked to greater happiness, resilience, and life satisfaction, with the strongest relationship among people who already felt less able to cope with stress. A few smaller breaks throughout the year may be worth considering too.
