Four Vital Needs for Vacations

Did your last vacation leave you refreshed or drained? Satisfied or blue? Feeling blessed in your relationships or bitter about the people with whom God has smote you? 

Vacation success or failure depends on understanding four human needs.

Photo: Michael Klebig      Graphic: Creative Commons BY-SA

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Remember Abraham Maslow from psychology class?
His “Hierarchy of Human Needs” looks like the USDA food pyramid. But instead of “Healthy Fats”, his top tier is “Self-actualization”.

​Yes. Just as our bodies need extra virgin olive oil, our spirits need a regular dose of feeling awesome.

​But let’s start at the bottom with Level 1 - the four basic needs for human existence:

• Food
• Water
• Warmth
• Rest

Obvious, right? But surprisingly, on vacation - in unfamiliar surroundings and situations - these four needs often get neglected. Here are eight real-life examples. 

• The Johnson family gets off the ski slopes, ravenous. The kids are cranky and soggy. But they can’t get seated at a restaurant until 8:00 p.m.
• Chase and Kim are hungry, cross. They don’t know the area and they’re caught in a frustrating infinite loop of flipping through restaurant reviews and mumbling “I don’t know, where do you want to go?”
• Friends Travis and Teena discover how much they hate each other as they silently trudge the last four miles of their hike with no water.
• John drank nothing but beer for four days. Grandma was worried about bathroom stops and didn’t drink enough water. Now they’re both at Urgent Care.
• Chelsea didn’t pack layers because “it was supposed to be warm”. She shivers and complains the entire sunset cruise.
• Brad is cold, wet, and miserable. Rather than rent or borrow water-proof gear, he’s on a winter snowshoe adventure in sweatpants and tennis shoes.   
• Lakshmi forgot to pack ear plugs or a sleep mask and lies awake all night in her hotel room, cursing a noisy wedding reception and the glow of the street light outside her window. 
• Cole saves money by packing extra people into a small vacation rental. Now, the uncle trying to sleep on a cot by the coffee maker, the kid sleeping on an ironing board, and two casual friends forced to share a bed vow never to travel with Cole again. 

No food, no water, no warmth, no rest = No Fun.  Maslow did try to warn us.

It's easy to avoid mistakes like these. Write down these words: Food. Water. Comfort. Rest.
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Now, for each activity or for every four-hour block of time on vacation, think of how and where you’ll meet these needs. This one simple act could save your vacation.

Meeting basic needs establishes the foundation for a happy, full-stack vacation that includes all of Maslow's other levels - security, stronger relationships, sense of accomplishment, and even the self-actualization that comes from getting away and just plain having fun. Psychologists and medical experts agree, humans need this. 

If things get tense on vacation, take a breath and reflect on the reasons you are where you are and with who you're with. Time exploring together is so special and some of the greatest memories and most enduring moments are created on vacation.

Maslow may need to add a whole other level for this. 

Wishing you Only Good Times!