Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to end your vacation on a high note.
Speaker 1: We tend to remember an experience based on the most
Speaker 1: intense moment of it and the end of it, So
Speaker 1: engineering a really great end to a vacation means you
Speaker 1: and your fellow travelers will likely think of the entire
Speaker 1: vacation as having been wonderful. Today's tip comes from an
Speaker 1: episode of Laurie Santos's Happiness Lab podcast, during which she
Speaker 1: had a conversation with Tim Hartford, a Financial Times columnist.
Speaker 1: That conversation drew on the late Daniel Conneman's research about
Speaker 1: the peak end effect, that is, the tendency to remember
Speaker 1: an experience based on the end of it and the
Speaker 1: most intense moment of it. Because of this effect, Harford
Speaker 1: and Santos suggest making sure your vacation ends on a
Speaker 1: high note so that you remember the vacation as great.
Speaker 1: As you are planning a summer vacation, perhaps this could
Speaker 1: be a very practical tip to keep in mind if
Speaker 1: you are hoping to go out for an amazing tasting
Speaker 1: menu dinner maybe you can do that on the last
Speaker 1: night of your trip. You might save Big Thunder Mountain
Speaker 1: Railway to be your last ride at disney World. You
Speaker 1: could have a slide show and campfire the last night
Speaker 1: of a family reunion. Or you might go out for
Speaker 1: lobster rolls in blueberry soda for your last luncheon main
Speaker 1: before you hit the road to drive home. Even the
Speaker 1: journey home could be fun. Get to the airport in
Speaker 1: enough time that you can have a nice breakfast at
Speaker 1: a cute cafe, or if it's midday, go to that
Speaker 1: quirky restaurant that serves sushi from a conveyor belt. On
Speaker 1: a recent trip to Spain with my older boys, when
Speaker 1: we were flying home on a public holiday that was
Speaker 1: likely going to feature zero actual business travelers, I got
Speaker 1: a very reasonable offer to upgrade to business class, so
Speaker 1: I took it. My kids definitely remember that as a
Speaker 1: great end to the trip. You could adopt this strategy
Speaker 1: even during a staycation or a time when your kids
Speaker 1: are off from school. For instance, you could book a
Speaker 1: massage for the last day of a staycation, or plan
Speaker 1: a family outing to a favorite restaurant for your last
Speaker 1: summer break dinner, of course, even with the best planning,
Speaker 1: travel can sometimes be a night If you have a
Speaker 1: terrible journey home from a vacation. To avoid having the
Speaker 1: whole vacation seems spoiled, Santos and Harford suggest reframing your
Speaker 1: experience as a great vacation followed by an awful trip home.
Speaker 1: In other words, the trip home wasn't part of the vacation.
Speaker 1: They were two totally separate things. The vacation itself still
Speaker 1: ended well, So as you are thinking about making great
Speaker 1: memories on your next vacation, give a little extra attention
Speaker 1: to making the end especially wonderful. If you do, you
Speaker 1: can help everyone remember the entire vacation as being really great.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
Speaker 1: you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
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Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.