I followed the 8-day holiday formula for relaxation, it was perfect

Looking for a way to feel truly refreshed after travel? Try this.

If you’ve ever returned from a trip groaning about needing a holiday, it’s time to consider another strategy. For every extended or overstuffed journey there’s an equal and opposite need to decompress. Cruising could be the antidote.

I suspected a cruise holiday-within-a-holiday would be needed when I planned my family’s trip of a lifetime. We would see it all, do it all and feel all the feels except “rest”. We spent months driving on the opposite side of the road, navigating barely signposted routes and taking pot-luck with accommodation. We stumbled through strange languages and unfamiliar currency. We ordered food off foreign menus not knowing what would arrive on our plate and persevered in weather that kept locals inside. By the end, we were pooped.

But I still had my plan. Top it off with a cruise. Because the right cruise removes the friction points that make travel so exhausting. It’s not just the “unpack once” benefit (although that feels especially sweet after a long trip). Cruising solves the problems of unpredictable costs, unreliable beds and getting to the next destination. There are the comforts of familiar food and English everywhere, at least on board. By finishing with a cruise the cost of the trip’s finale is known – and likely paid before leaving home – just as the holiday budget is drying up.

Frequent floaters know this already, which is why many make cruising their primary holiday experience and tack on a few days at either end of the trip. Why would you fly to Europe and not enjoy Amsterdam’s canals before boarding? Cruise lines know this, too. Many offer one- to three-night pre- or post-cruise packages bundling a hotel, airport and pier transfers.

But what if you flip that travel experience on its head? Spend most of your time on land then refresh with a cruise before heading home. Sure, a sun-drenched flop-and-drop resort also offers rejuvenation but feels a little, well, landlocked. Cruising’s advantage is seeing more sights minus the bother.

If slowing down is the goal of a holiday-ending cruise, then pick the sailing carefully. Perhaps avoid river cruises where each new day boasts another town to explore. Likewise, expedition cruising is better suited for digging deeper into each destination. Repositioning cruises – when ships relocate to a new base – hold the lure of more chill-out sea days, but may be harder to match to your schedule as they’re seasonally dependent and often longer.

Science says that for the most rested glow, pick your holiday-within-a-holiday’s length accordingly. A study showed relaxation levels of holiday-makers (not specifically cruisers) peaked on day eight of a break before returning to normal. While the average cruise duration is seven days, according to Cruise Lines International Association, choices have expanded so you can find a cruise with that magical tipping point.

I applied the formula: a nine-day cruise of the eastern Caribbean. If we’d flown the family to Miami only for this cruise, the cost would have been too great for us. But seeing as we were in the area, more or less, off we sailed.

For the first time in months the kids roamed relatively freely. The youngest ate a hot dog for dinner every night. The grown-ups relinquished control of the itinerary and turned off the alarm clock. Finally, we could cut ourselves a break.

Originally published as I followed the 8-day holiday formula for relaxation, it was perfect