We are always busy: working, family, running around, shopping, etc. But when we take some time for ourselves, we can experience the numerous benefits of vacation.

Some of us travel and experience new cultures, while others rest on the beach. Some visit family, and sometimes we have the opportunity to travel halfway around the world. None of these approaches to vacations are wrong – all forms of vacation can be highly beneficial.

Vacations Give Us a Chance to Recharge

One of the biggest benefits of vacation is simply getting away from the daily routine.

Our everyday lives tend to become a cycle of work, errands, chores, bills, and obligations. Even if you enjoy your work, it is difficult to appreciate how much the routine wears on you until you step away from it for a while.

A vacation gives us an opportunity to slow down, relax, and recharge. Sometimes that means sitting on a beach with a book. Other times it means travelling somewhere completely new and spending every day exploring. Either way, you have broken the normal routine.

I have always enjoyed travelling, and for me one of the best parts is the feeling of being somewhere different. Different food, different architecture, different weather, different people. Even a relatively short trip can make normal life feel surprisingly far away.

And when you return, you often come back with a little more energy and enthusiasm for the things you left behind.

Vacations Let Us Experience Something Different

Travel is also one of the best ways to experience other cultures.

You can read about another country, watch documentaries, and look at pictures, but none of that is quite the same as actually being there. Eating the food, walking through the neighbourhoods, figuring out public transportation, and seeing how people live gives you a much better understanding of a place.

International travel can obviously be expensive, especially once airfare, hotels, meals, and transportation are added together. But there are also more ways than ever to research destinations, compare prices, and plan trips yourself rather than relying entirely on packaged vacations.

You don’t necessarily need to travel halfway around the world either. Canada is a massive country, and there are probably places within a few hours of home that most of us have never explored.

The important part is getting out and experiencing something different. There is something valuable about deliberately choosing where you spend your time, which is an idea I explore more deeply in The Playgrounds Flag: Where You Spend Your Time.

Vacations Give Us Time for Family and Friends

Vacations can also give us something that is increasingly difficult to find in everyday life: uninterrupted time with family and friends.

During a normal week, everyone has somewhere to be. Work, school, appointments, errands, sports, social commitments – there is always something pulling people in different directions.

A vacation changes that.

Whether you are travelling together, visiting family, camping, or simply spending a week at home, you suddenly have time to actually do things together without watching the clock quite as closely.

Those are often the memories that last much longer than whatever we would have accomplished during another week at work.

The Staycation

Of course, you don’t actually have to go anywhere.

There are plenty of benefits to a staycation as well.

Sometimes staying home gives you the chance to tackle the projects you have been thinking about for months but never seem to have time for. Build a raised garden bed. Start a vegetable garden. Build a hen house. Plant some fruit trees. Install solar panels. Work on the house. Read a few books.

For anyone interested in self-sufficiency, a week at home can actually be extremely productive.

The important distinction is that a staycation should not simply become another work week without going to your job. If you spend every waking hour checking items off a giant project list, you may return to work needing a vacation from your vacation.

Leave some time to relax.

Sit outside. Read a book. Go for a drive. Visit somewhere nearby that you have never bothered to see.

Take Your Vacation

Whatever form it takes, use your vacation time.

Travel somewhere new. Visit family. Sit on a beach. Stay home and work in the garden. Build something. Read something. Or do absolutely nothing for a few days.

We spend enough of our lives working and worrying about everything that needs to be done. That question of how much of our lives we want to trade for work eventually leads into the much bigger idea behind FIRE, FIRE Light, and Coast FIRE: gaining more control over your time.

Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is simply get away from it for a while.