Travel isn’t exactly easy right now. The partial government shutdown has security lines jam-packed, flights are crazy expensive, and planning a trip can feel like a part-time job. Yet, people keep doing it because it makes us feel better in ways that go deeper than a vacation glow.
There’s a reason for that—and it has to do with how your brain responds to new experiences.
A growing body of research has found a link between filling your days with diverse, novel experiences—anything from exploring a new neighborhood to taking a cross-country road trip—and enhanced happiness and wellbeing.
Here’s what the science says about the connection between travel and feeling your best.
The relationship between travel and happiness
Friends enjoying a carefree moment during a road trip—new experiences like this are closely linked to happiness, research shows.
(Ivan Pantic via Getty Images)
For a study published by the journal Nature Neuroscience, researchers from New York University, Columbia University and the University of Miami collected data on 132 people in New York City and Miami for three to four months. The participants, which included 90 women and 42 men, ranged in age from 18 to 31 years old.
Participants first went to the laboratory to complete baseline assessments that measured depression and anxiety. Then, researchers asked them to install a geolocation-tracking app on their smartphones and respond to questionnaires about their moods via text messages throughout the study. After the mobile-tracking period, the participants returned to the laboratory to repeat the initial depression and anxiety questionnaires.
After analyzing the data, researchers found that people had more positive emotions, such as “happy,” “excited,” “strong,” “relaxed” and “attentive,” when they visited a variety of places in a day and spent roughly equal proportions of time in those destinations.
In other words, the more you mix up your environment, the better you tend to feel. Novelty is chemically rewarding for your brain.
Your brain on travel: why it feels so good
Novel, diverse experiences can directly boost happiness—and the science proves it.
(blackCAT via Getty Images)
Toward the end of the research, about half of the participants also underwent MRI scans so the researchers could see if the connection between exploration and positive emotions had any relationship to the activity within the brain.
The MRI results demonstrated that a strong association between positive emotions and diverse experiences correlated with activity in the hippocampus and the striatum—the parts of the brain that process novelty and reward. The research echoed the findings of previous studies that found similar results in animals.
“These results suggest a reciprocal link between the novel and diverse experiences we have during our daily exploration of our physical environments and our subjective sense of wellbeing,” said Catherine Hartley, associate professor at New York University’s Department of Psychology and one of the paper’s co-authors, via a statement on the research.
The findings suggest that novel, diverse experiences can directly boost happiness—a finding that rings true for anyone who loves to travel.
However, the data may also indicate the reverse—that people are more motivated to fill their days with new, rich experiences and a variety of locations when they’re in better moods.
“Collectively, these findings show the beneficial consequences of environmental enrichment across species, demonstrating a connection between real-world exposure to fresh and varied experiences and increases in positive emotions,” said co-author Aaron Heller, professor in the University of Miami’s Department of Psychology.
Getting to the bottom of whether happiness drives us to see new places or whether diverse experiences create a state of joy will require more research, the authors say. However, the findings show an undeniable connection between exploration and feeling our best.
There’s even evidence that simply planning a trip can boost your mood—the anticipation of something new is part of what makes travel feel so good.
How to feel the benefits of travel (without spending a fortune)
Exploring a new neighborhood or taking a simple walk somewhere different can deliver many of the same happiness benefits as travel.
(bojanstory via Getty Images)
If travel feels harder to justify right now, it’s not just in your head. Airfare costs have gone up 7.1 percent over the last year, and the expense of dining and entertainment is also up, according to NerdWallet. Your next vacation will cost more.
But the research suggests you don’t need an expensive, far-flung trip to get the mental health benefits of travel.
Even small changes in your environment and routine can boost your mood in similar ways.
That might mean taking a different route on your daily walk, trying a new workout class, or spending time in a part of your town you’ve never explored before. Picking up a hobby in a new setting—whether that’s practicing guitar on your porch or going birdwatching in a local park you haven’t been to before—can also create that same sense of novelty your brain craves.
And if you are planning a trip, keep this in mind: it’s not necessarily about how far you go or how much you spend. Research suggests that variety, anticipation, and new experiences play a bigger role in happiness than luxury or distance. Plus, there are still plenty of destinations you can visit on a budget this spring.
The bottom line: You don’t need to blow your budget on a once-in-a-lifetime adventure to feel the benefits of travel—you just need some novelty in your life. That’s why even a quick day trip or a change of scenery can feel surprisingly powerful.