Travelling Beauty
 Sawyer isn’t alone in having found some sense of hope or relief when traveling in the aftermath of trauma or tragedy. In July 2022, Hara Maderich was widowed after being married for 40 years “to the love of my life,” she says.

“Staring months ahead at a lonely Christmas and bereft New Year, I decided to go back to my solace, the ocean,” says Maderich, an AFAR reader who lives in Costa Rica. She booked herself and her best friend on a southern Caribbean Celebrity Equinox cruise over the holidays.

“New Year’s Eve was both spectacular and heart wrenching at the same time,” says Maderich. But, she adds, “realizing I was on a ship in the middle of the ocean, hearing live music, drinking champagne, and watching lasers and fireworks with tears streaming down was so much better than sitting home and crying alone.”

Maderich started 2023 with, quite literally, a new outlook—a breakfast view of a rainbow over Martinique “and a glimmer of hope that life going forward alone could be a new adventure with ports as yet unexplored.”

For many people, including Sawyer and Maderich, travel—escaping either to new or familiar places—can and does play a critical role in how they manage grief, loss, tragedy, trauma, mental health challenges, or physical health setbacks.

Waking up to a beautiful view of a new place can bring a fresh perspective on life.

Photo by Daniel Oberg/Unsplash

We’ve all been through a lot—travel can help

During the pandemic, at a time when many were experiencing the collective trauma and isolation of living through a deadly, global public health crisis, travel was one of the tools in the traditional coping toolbox that was made temporarily unavailable to us.

“Research has shown that there is a link between social isolation and loneliness to poor mental and physical health, which was then further exacerbated by the pandemic,” says Terry Randolph, a licensed professional counselor and chief program officer at Pyx Health, a female- and LGBTQ+-led telehealth service dedicated to helping those suffering from loneliness and isolation. “The pandemic rescinded the ability for [people] to physically escape their daily routines and responsibilities, leaving people feeling trapped and isolated. This ultimately impacted their mental health.”

For some, they were able to get an emotional boost just by thinking about the ways in which they might get away in the future. In August 2020, a survey of 263 U.S.-based adults commissioned by a coalition of travel companies revealed that 97 percent of people felt happier simply planning future travel.

And a small but growing body of research indicates that there are some very real mental and physical health benefits of travel that we can finally fully access again. A 2018 study conducted by a team of researchers in Austria who analyzed a group of 40 “middle managers” found that stress decreased and overall well-being improved for a period of 15 to 45 days after a vacation or getaway. One year later, a study published in the journal Psychology & Health concluded that higher vacation frequency reduced the odds of metabolic syndrome, a group of conditions that can increase your risk of heart disease, diabetes, and stroke.

“Traveling contributes to a happier and more fulfilled life, and it does more for our minds than simply giving us a break,” says Randolph.

The health benefits of travel

According to Randolph, there are “numerous lasting benefits travel can have on your mental state.” They include:

• Lowered stress and anxiety: Travel provides a mental reset, which reduces your overall stress and anxiety levels.
• Better relationships and connectedness: If you are lonely, traveling is a great way to form closer connections and stronger bonds with both your travel companions and new people you meet along your journey.
• More creativity: Experiencing new cultures, food, and arts can broaden your perspective and open your mind to fresh ideas and ways of thinking, which can be applied to your work and home life.
• Improved physical health: Often people are outdoors more when they travel and walk around new places to explore, which can improve their overall physical well-being.

In fact, the gains are so pronounced that in January 2022, Canada’s national parks service Parks Canada developed a program called PaRx that allows doctors to actually prescribe travel by way of a free annual pass to Canada’s national parks for patients who could benefit from time spent in nature.

The program “is a breakthrough for how we treat mental and physical health challenges,” Steven Guilbeault, Canada’s Environment and Climate Change Minister who oversees Parks Canada, stated in a press release about the nature prescription program. “Medical research now clearly shows the positive health benefits of connecting with nature.”