5 Ways to Keep the Vacation Magic Alive After You Come Home
Holly, BreAnn, and Karen on Flamenco Beach during the 2025 Puerto Rico mommymoon. It was a magical day I want to relive over and over!
We’ve all been there: the post-vacation slump. You just got back from an incredible trip that was full of relaxation and fun, new discoveries and maybe even new friends.
It’s easy to fall back into your old routines, and before you know it, you’re wishing you were back in that gorgeous locale with all the novelty that comes with it. It can be depressing.
This has happened to me so many times — especially when coming home from a particularly beautiful, intellectually stimulating, or emotionally fulfilling trip. When I’m caught up in those moments of vacation bliss, I often think to myself: “How can I bottle this feeling and take it home with me?”
I’ve figured out 5 ways to keep that magical “on-vacay” vibe and to avoid the post-trip doldrums.
Create a post-trip recap album or video.
Gone are the days of lugging around heavy and expensive camera equipment to capture the perfect vacation photos and videos. Now, you have an incredible camera right in your pocket! Take all the pics and worry about your data storage later.
Once you get home, go through all your photos and videos and put together a recap album that you can share with friends and family, or try your hand at creating a video using a free tool like CapCut, which works on both desktop and mobile operating systems.
It’s science! Research suggests that looking at photos from your vacation can significantly enhance memory recall, boost mood, and provide a sense of nostalgia, essentially allowing you to relive positive experiences even after returning home.
Incorporate Trip-Inspired Rituals
If there was a special moment on your trip, try to recreate the joy from those times in your routine at home. For me, those extra-happy moments are usually centered around food or beverage.
When I returned from an amazing trip to Paris in 2021, one of the first things I did when I got home was buy a new set of drinking glasses. Yes, you read that right. At Parisian bistros, the Duralex brand is the gold standard for drinkware. They’re iconic — and best of all — super durable (hence the moniker). These drinking glasses always remind me of Paris when I reach for them, and that makes me very happy.
For you, it might be recreating a favorite dish you had at a restaurants, or ordering a fun candy you found while you were there, or playing music you heard while exploring or dining or in transit. Music is incredibly powerful for evoking emotions and jogging memory.
Display Souvenirs or Travel Photos
From the gallery wall in our living room, to the top of my piano in the playroom, to the shelves of my kitchen, and the midcentury china cabinet in the dining room, there are souvenirs of my travels all over my house. Even my daughter’s room features a few art pieces and some trinkets I’ve purchased for her from around the world.
We also have tons of art and photos from our travels displayed in our home, and every time I look at them, it reminds me of the fun we had as a family when exploring the world.
I love when my daughter notices a new item on the shelf and asks where we got it. It gives me a chance to tell her the story of the item and relive the memory over and over again, like the pair of toros (bulls) we bought in Cusco, Peru, or the mosaic ceramic cat I bought at Park Guell in Barcelona, Spain.
Stay Connected to the Culture
Before a trip, I love to follow bloggers, tourism boards, and chefs in the place I’m visiting. When I get home, I don’t unfollow! Often, they post lots of fun photos and reels about the destination and I get to have an “I’ve been there!” moment.
I am also a huge fan of visiting bookstores (English-speaking ones, if I’m in a non-English-speaking country). Oftentimes, they will have titles that haven’t been released in the U.S. yet, or that aren’t being marketed in the U.S. because a publisher thinks Americans won’t be interested.
While there, I like to pick up cookbooks in English with recipes from the place I’m in, or iconic books from the locale. For example, when I went to Dublin in February of 2021, I bought a copy of James Joyce’s masterwork, Dubliners — a seminal work for all Irishpeople.
Another way to stay connected to the culture is to consider learning a few phrases in the native language of the destination you visited. On a trip to Andalucia, Spain, I was captivated by the Arabic calligraphy in many of the Moorish buildings. I bought a “how-to” book on Arabic calligraphy so I could learn a few words and relive the wonder I felt at the Alhambra in Granada or the Alcazar in Sevilla.
Plan Your Next Getaway
Even if it’s months or years away, research has shown that planning a vacation is even more pleasurable than actually going on the vacation!
So if your vacation has you feeling a little wanderlust, go ahead and start dreaming about a future trip — even if it’s just hypothetical. It doesn’t matter if it’s a trip you’ll actually take, one your family has been dreaming of for a long time, or something you’d like to do as a solo traveler one day. Start that Pinterest board and fill that itinerary with fun.
Researching your next dream destination keeps the excitement alive and gives you something new to look forward to. I just got home from our Puerto Rico mommymoon trip, and I’m ready to dive into planning our summer sojourn to Copenhagen right now!
Even better, let us plan your next getaway for you — whether with our Custom Trip Planning offering or on one of our spectacular mommymoons coming up!
If you’re still feeling bummed that your vacation is over and you’re back to the same-old, I get it. Something that always helps me is just to brain dump into my journal. I go through the entire itinerary and remember all the amazing moments — big and small — that happened on the trip. That’s often enough for me to move past the slump and take the things I learned or experienced on vacation into my daily life.
