Looking forward to your vacation and making travel plans often makes you happier than the trip itself

People are often happier when planning a vacation than during the vacation itself. Research shows that people who are going on a trip are happier in the time before their vacation than people without travel plans. This is because they are looking forward to a good time. By planning a vacation, people can dream about new experiences. This makes them happy.

When people prepare for a vacation, they are busy choosing places to go and what they want to do there. They imagine how fun it will be. This preparation time makes people excited and happy. They look forward to getting away from their regular life and seeing new places.

After the vacation, people are often not happier than before, except if the vacation was very relaxing. There is usually no difference in how happy people are after their vacation compared to people who did not go away. This is because people quickly get used to their normal life. It seems that planning a vacation makes people the happiest, even if the vacation itself is sometimes less enjoyable than expected.

Jeroen Sangers @jeroensangers