Take More Vacation Time Off

Mark Your Calendar to Celebrate “Vacation Memories Day” Every Year

The only thing better than reminiscing about your past vacation is creating new vacation memories. Since we can’t travel all the time without quitting our jobs (read my reasons why this is a dumb idea), I advocate for taking time every year to relive your past vacations. Here’s my proposal for a new holiday – Vacation Memories Day.

Capturing Vacation Memories in Print

Looking at the Family Photo Album on the couch

I don’t need to remind you that before the Internet took over our lives, people used film cameras and took photos that needed to be developed (i.e. printed) to capture their trip memories. These photos were sorted and pasted into photo albums for safe keeping. You or your parents and grandparents surely have photo albums sitting in the closet or stored away up in the attic or basement. How often do you take the time to browse old photo albums to recall your past vacations?

Capturing Vacation Memories Online

Capturing our travel memories today may be a bit a different than in the past, but there is one thing that hasn’t changed. It’s the need to relive our family vacation memories lest we forget them. Revisiting your vacations taken is not a new idea, but it needs a new solution so that you never take your precious time off from work for granted. A vacation brings positive benefits to your health and happiness during and well after you return.

Flickr Vacation Photo Albums

Our lives are becoming more digital as we capture our vacation photos and moments online in the cloud. I store all my family photos on Google Photos which connects with Google Drive, an easy place to also store my reservations and trip itineraries. My iPhone user friends tend to stick with Apple cloud products but many people prefer to upload their photos to Flickr or simply create DropBox folders.

Not sure where is the best place to store and share your photos forever at the lowest cost? Here is a roundup article by CNET on which photo online storage site is right for you. If you’re like most of us, you currently have photos and videos stored on multiple platforms which makes it is far too easy to lose track of. Where ever you store digital travel files, document it in a central place so you can find and rediscover all your vacation memories without fail.

My wife and I also have an external USB hard drive that stores the original full-size (sometimes RAW image format) copies of our travel photos in case our computer dies on us. We also take the best photos each week to create a Top 10 photo memories album to share with family members. While I don’t blog about our vacations personally, my wife “Dr. J” documents all our regional and worldwide trips online on her Sidewalk Safari travel blog.

Sidewalk Safari travel blogging

Why Take the Time to Go On Past Vacations

Regardless of how you capture, store, and view your vacation memories (subscribe to VacationCounts to be notified when we post more about this), I believe it is essential to schedule time (like you schedule a vacation) each year to “go on past vacations” with your loved ones. You spend so much of your free time and hard-earned money on every vacation, don’t you? I for one want to cherish every vacation as an important part of my whole life story.

I’m guilty of quickly forgetting a memorable vacation a year or more after the time has passed. You aren’t likely to forget your best vacation ever, but what about the third best or 8th best? By documenting and then reliving our vacations on a regular basis, we can regain similar benefits as taking those vacations.

Vacation Memories Day (Peru)

In our family, I create the vacation itineraries and my wife photographs and then writes about our travel experiences after we return home. Without her commitment I would quickly forget the pleasurable details of our past vacations. Taking photos, blogging about our trips, and displaying our souvenirs is how we capture every vacation. Taking the time to reflect and relive our past vacations is the essential next step for us and I hope for you too.

When is Vacation Memories Day?

This “holiday” can happen on any day you like. I would never propose adding yet another made-up holiday to your official calendar. Pick a day and mark your calendar to get notified about your vacation remembrance holiday.

Vacation Memories Day Mark Calendar

What I’m proposing is for you to pick a date and time period to create a “Vacation Memories Day” calendar event. It can be once per year or you may wish to celebrate your travel achievements multiple times per year. You’ll use this “holiday” to reflect upon your past vacations in any way that helps you relive those vacation experiences.

The actual date can change every year, but I highly recommend that you set a calendar reminder now so you get an email notification in advance. Are you excited about stopping to look back to your past family trips, solo adventures, relaxing getaways, city breaks, outdoor explorations, and global travels? Never take your vacation memories for granted.

How to Celebrate Vacation Memories Day

What you actually do on the holiday to reminisce about your past vacations is entirely up to you. You could sit together and watch streamed photos on your TV, talk about your trip over drinks and food that remind you of a trip, or read your travel journal in a quiet place.

Here are a few of my own tips to help you to bring back the images, stories, and feelings about vacations past. Just like you go to all the effort to plan and take vacations every year (and spend a lot of money), put a little bit of planning into celebrating and remembering your vacation successes.

Vacation Memories Day How To List

Pick a date on your calendar (online, desk, or wall) and block off a few hours of time.

Select 1 or more vacations to remember on the day (I suggest no more than 3) and add that information to your event invitation.

Invite your family and travel partners who went on those vacations with you. If they live far away, invite them to Skype or do a video Hangout.

Bookmark the online photo albums and video playlists for your vacations or paste links to slideshow web pages in a vacation memories event document.

Gather all photo albums, souvenirs, clothing, art, and other memories of your selected vacations.

Ask your family members and travel partners to bring their own memories of these trips.

Serve food and drinks and decorate your house to remind you of those trips as you sit around reminiscing.

Search your social media accounts like Facebook and Instagram to view your updates in sequential order. Tip: Tagging each social media post while on vacation with a unique hashtag like #VacationNewOrleans can make searching possible in the future.

Keep your tourism maps and travel guidebooks and brochures to browse through and point out the places you’ve been.

Did you write a travel blog? Read it to bring yourself back on vacation day by day and destination by destination.

Finally, take photos of your Vacation Memories Day party. You will want to document the fun. Post social media pics to encourage others to make time to embrace their own vacation memories yearly.

Your Turn to Take A Vacation Memories Day

So do you make the opportunity to relive your vacations by viewing photo albums (online or off) and reminiscing about your past trips? How often do you pick up a souvenir or read your travel journal? Do you smile (and get back to that happy vacation place) when Facebook resurfaces old photos in your feed to share with friends? Don’t wait for Facebook to remind you; schedule a date to be mindful about reliving the best vacations of your life.

Share what you do to bring back the wonderful vacation and travel memories by yourself or with friends and family. Post your comments and tips below along with why you think this is an important holiday to add to your vacation-filled calendar.

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Scott (VacationCounts)

Scott (VacationCounts)

The Vacation Days Maximizer who delivers Work-Life-Vacation Balance advice so everyone can Take More Time Off.

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