Vacations are deceptively complex.
By their very nature they're meant to be stress-free, so we assume we shouldn't put too much thought into them.
But behavioral science research actually tells us that certain strategies will almost always make certain types of trips better than others — both in cost and overall satisfaction.
Here's how to take the perfect vacation.
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Plan as far ahead as you can to build anticipation.
Behavioral economist Dan Ariely points out that a week-long trip to Disney World is actually composed of three things: months of anticipation, the trip itself, and the pangs of nostalgia you experience for years afterwards.
To maximize your enjoyment, you should cater to all three stages.
Airfare is cheapest approximately 57 days before a flight, so it's wise to hold off on finalizing until then. But you can still browse hotels or take virtual Mad Tea Party rides on YouTube months before that. One 2010 study found that the majority of people were happier before their trip than they were after they returned.
That's because anticipation is a powerful thing — it's essentially the same reason you're happier on Friday than on Sunday.
Limit yourself to a few options to minimize regret.
Do you take a cruise in the Caribbean? A hike through the Rockies? What about a food tour in New Orleans? And how do you guarantee that selecting one won't make you regret not choosing the others?
Psychologists have shown that when the human brain encounters too many options, it shuts down. Psychologist Barry Schwartz calls it the "paradox of choice." Some choice is better than none, he says, but it doesn't hold that more is always better than less.
Before your trip, narrow down your choices to just two options. You'll feel better knowing you picked the best one.
Take a one-week vacation; you won't remember two.
Famed behavioral economist Daniel Kahneman argues we're made up of two selves: our experiencing self and our remembering self. The experiencing self lives in the moment. The remembering self lives in the past.
Our remembering self has a hard time telling apart a one-week vacation from a two-week one because, as Kahneman says, "there are no new memories added.You have not changed the story." From the perspective of the remembering self, short and long vacations are effectively equal.
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