Unlocking the Holiday Paradox: How to Make Your Next Vacation Last Longer

Is it just a sign of ageing or is there something we can do about it?

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When you were young, summer holidays seemed to stretch on forever—an endless expanse of sunny afternoons and new adventures.

Now, those same holidays feel like they pass in an instant.

One moment you’re unpacking your suitcase, and the next you’re back at your desk, wondering where the days went.

So what changed?

We often brush it off as a byproduct of getting older—one of those unfortunate quirks of ageing, like greying hair or forgetting why you walked into a room.

But is that really all it is?

Or is there something more profound happening beneath the surface—something that changes how we perceive time itself?

Let’s dig into this phenomenon a little more and see what we can do to address this.

It turns out, the way we experience time has more to do with how we fill it than with the years on our clock.

Time perception isn’t fixed; it’s fluid, shaped by the richness and variety of the experiences we encounter. When life is packed with novelty, our brains slow down to take it all in, making moments feel richer and more abundant. But as we grow older and our days become more predictable, time accelerates.

The clock keeps ticking, but the sensation of it passing changes drastically.

Time Feels Slower When We’re Young

Think back to a childhood summer. The six-week school break seemed like an eternity, didn’t it? Days spent building sandcastles, afternoons running through sprinklers, evenings playing football over the park - each moment felt vibrant and unending.

That’s because, for children, every experience is soaked in novelty.

They’re not just going through the motions; they’re encountering the world in all its complexity for the very first time.

Imagine time as a book. For a child, each page is crammed full of detail: new words to learn, new games to play, new faces to recognise. The story unfolds slowly because every chapter is dense with content. Their brains are working overtime to process all this information, leaving an impression that stretches and expands their sense of time.

Each day, then, feels like a journey of discovery—making the book of childhood appear much longer than it really is.

But as we grow up, something shifts.

The brain has a way of compressing time - clever but rather annoying

By the time we reach adulthood, we’ve read this book of life over and over again.

The days are more predictable, the characters and settings familiar. We develop mental shortcuts to help us navigate repetitive experiences more efficiently. Our brains, once eager and wide-eyed, now skim through the text, skipping over what they’ve seen before.

That’s why an ordinary workweek can blend into one fuzzy blur.

It’s not that we don’t experience the week. It’s just that our brains decide it’s not worth storing away as distinct, memorable events.

The brain, faced with a routine commute or yet another Monday morning meeting, processes the experience faster because it recognises the patterns. The details get ironed out, flattened, and folded away, and we’re left with a version of the week that’s been distilled into a few key moments, like bullet points on a to-do list.

And this is why time seems to accelerate as we age.

When novelty diminishes, the brain’s use of these patterns speeds up our subjective experience of time. It’s why, even though a week might objectively have the same 168 hours it always has, it feels like it’s gone in a flash.

If a child’s life is a book brimming with rich, vivid chapters, our adult lives often feel more like a highlight reel—a series of repetitive snapshots that blur into one another.

We remember the big events, but the days between them are the empty pages.

To slow time down, we need to fill the gaps with something unexpected, something new. Because when everything feels like it’s worth reading again, that’s when the days start to feel longer, richer, and more meaningful.

Let’s consider the "Holiday Paradox" for a minute

For kids, a holiday is more than just a break from routine—it’s an entire world waiting to be explored.

Each day feels like a sprawling adventure, filled with surprises that spark their curiosity. A trip to the seaside isn’t just a day at the beach—it’s learning how the sand shifts beneath their feet, tasting salt on their lips for the first time, discovering the strange sensation of floating in water. Every new experience adds a layer of vivid detail to their day, so much so that even a simple holiday dinner at a restaurant can become an event worth remembering.

That’s why, for children, each holiday day stretches on endlessly.

They’re navigating a world they haven’t yet mapped out, where every meal is a chance to try something new, every person they meet is a potential new friend, and every activity—even building a sandcastle or learning to ride a bike—becomes a monumental achievement. To a child, a single day can feel packed with enough newness to fill a month.

Contrast that with the adult experience of a holiday.

We’ve been to beaches before. We’ve eaten out a hundred times. After a few days of lounging in the sun, the initial novelty fades, and the days start to bleed together. We find ourselves on a loop: wake up, have breakfast, go to the beach, read a book, have lunch, repeat. It’s not that we’re not enjoying ourselves—it’s just that the activities start to feel familiar, predictable.

This is why, when we look back, holidays as adults often feel disappointingly short. Because the brain treats repetition as less noteworthy, our minds compress these repeated experiences, making them occupy less space in our memory.

It’s a bit like recording over an old cassette tape where each new day at the beach subtly erases the one that came before, leaving only a faint impression behind.

So what’s the“Trip Duration Effect” and how can it help us?

Enter the Trip Duration Effect, a fascinating phenomenon that helps explain why the beginning and end of a holiday are so memorable, while the middle often feels like it’s on fast-forward.

Researchers have found that people tend to recall the start and finish of a holiday much more clearly than the middle days.

Why? Because the bookends of a trip are filled with transitions and heightened emotions.

At the beginning of a holiday, everything is infused with excitement. The drive to the airport, the first glimpse of your destination, that first dinner out—these moments all carry the thrill of the new and the anticipation of what’s to come. Your brain takes snapshots of these experiences, filing them away as meaningful, distinct memories.

The same thing happens at the end, but for a different reason. As a holiday winds down, we become more aware of time running out. This heightened awareness causes us to pay closer attention to the remaining moments, as if we’re subconsciously trying to hold onto them. Packing up, the last swim in the pool, the farewell dinner—they all feel significant because we know they’re the last.

But the middle of a holiday? That’s where the novelty often evaporates.

Once we’ve settled into the rhythm of a place, we stop noticing the details as intensely. We stop looking at the scenery because we’ve seen it already. We stop tasting the food because it’s become a known quantity. In short, our minds go into autopilot. The middle days blur together because the brain doesn’t see them as worthy of detailed storage.

The days become compressed, edited down to a quick montage, reducing our perception of how long the trip really was.

But there are actions we can take

If the key to making holidays feel longer is breaking out of routine and adding novelty, then it’s time to rethink how we approach our travel experiences.

Many of these tips we can bring into our daily lives too.

Instead of defaulting to the same patterns—relaxing by the pool, hitting up a few tourist attractions, and heading back home—consider building in opportunities that stimulate your senses, challenge your comfort zone, and create new mental markers that your brain will remember long after the holiday has ended.

Here are a few strategies to make your next holiday feel less like a blur and more like a vibrant tapestry of distinct memories.

1. Build in More First-Time Experiences

We tend to think of holidays as a chance to unwind and relax, but sometimes this laid-back approach can be the very thing that accelerates time. To slow things down, inject the trip with “first-time” experiences that activate your brain and stretch out the moments.

• Try Something That Scares You a Little: It could be signing up for a beginner’s scuba diving class, zip-lining through the jungle, or attempting a new cuisine with unfamiliar flavours. When we push ourselves beyond our comfort zones, our brains light up, trying to make sense of the unfamiliar. That heightened state of awareness makes each second feel richer and more intense.

• Go Off the Beaten Path: Swap the usual tourist traps for a hidden gem that’s less explored. Seek out lesser-known trails, visit remote villages, or take a road trip to a part of the country that isn’t featured in the travel guides. Venturing into the unknown infuses your holiday with a sense of discovery that keeps your mind engaged and on high alert.

• Immerse Yourself in the Local Culture: Instead of staying insulated in the familiar step out. Attend a local festival, take a cooking class, or learn a few phrases in the local language. Even minor challenges like deciphering a menu or navigating a new city layout can trick your brain into slowing down time.

The Psychology Behind It: New experiences force the brain to work harder, forming richer and denser neural connections. This increased mental activity means that each new experience gets stored as a distinct memory. In turn, this makes the holiday feel longer and more satisfying in retrospect.

2. Change Your Environment Frequently

One of the easiest ways to reset your time perception is to change your surroundings. When you move to a new place, even for just a day or two, the newness jolts your brain into “explorer mode,” where it starts cataloguing the differences and taking in new stimuli.

• Break the Holiday into Mini-Trips: Instead of staying in one location, divide your holiday into multiple segments. For example, spend a few days in a bustling city, then move to a quiet countryside cottage, and finally wrap up with a beach retreat. Each time you move, you reset the clock in your brain, making each segment feel like its own separate experience.

• Explore Diverse Environments: If you can’t hop between different accommodations, you can still vary your environment within the same destination. If you’re at a beach resort, plan a day trip to a local village, take a boat tour, or head inland for a hike. Shifting from one type of landscape to another—be it from sea to mountain or from rural to urban—creates fresh contexts that your brain latches onto as novel.

The Effect on Time Perception: Each change of scenery disrupts the sense of sameness and prevents the brain from slipping into routine mode. This fragmentation of the holiday into distinct, memorable chapters elongates the experience in your memory, making the trip feel far more expansive than if you’d stayed put in one place.

3. Embrace a Child’s Sense of Exploration

One of the reasons kids experience time so expansively is that they approach the world with a “beginner’s mind.” Every encounter, no matter how small, is worthy of attention and wonder. To make your holiday feel longer, try to see things through the eyes of a child—seek out the small wonders and the hidden details.

• Engage in Micro-Explorations: Don’t wait for the big-ticket activities to have an adventure. Take a morning to explore the local neighbourhood, noticing the architecture, street art, or even the sounds and smells of the area. Strike up a conversation with a local vendor, try to spot as many different bird species as you can in the nearby park, or hunt down a little-known historical landmark. These mini-adventures provide bursts of novelty that punctuate your day and break up the routine.

• Play the Role of an Amateur Naturalist or Anthropologist: Bring a small notebook or a sketchpad with you. Jot down observations or draw what you see, even if you’re not an artist. This act of observing and recording changes how you perceive your surroundings and makes each detail more vivid in your memory.

• Introduce Games or Challenges: Create small games for yourself or your travel companions, like “Spot the Most Unusual Souvenir” or “Who Can Learn the Most Local Phrases by the End of the Day.” These playful exercises force your mind to be present, slowing down the passage of time.

Why This Works: Curiosity rewires the brain to focus on details it would otherwise gloss over. By heightening your awareness of the seemingly mundane, you turn ordinary moments into memory-rich experiences that make the holiday feel longer.

So the aim is to seek meaningful variety

The goal isn’t to pack every minute with activity, but rather to inject your holiday with meaningful variety. This also works for you whole life too.

By introducing first-time experiences, shifting your environment, and adopting a mindset of exploration, you can stretch out the perception of your trip. In doing so, you’ll create a holiday that’s not just memorable but one that feels satisfying and substantial, where each day stands out as a distinct chapter rather than a blur in the book of time.

Next time you plan a holiday, think less about the itinerary and more about the texture of experiences. After all, it’s not just about how much time you have, but about how much time you feel you’ve had.

And that’s something you can influence with just a little bit of intention and creativity.

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