Why Do We Think Alcohol Makes Vacation Better? What You Discover When You Remove It

One of the biggest fears people have when they consider quitting alcohol is simple:

"What about vacation?"

What about the beach?
What about all-inclusive resorts?
What about Europe?
What about cruises?
What about sitting by the pool with a drink in your hand?

We've been taught that alcohol is part of the vacation experience. That it helps us relax, have fun, celebrate, and make memories.

But what if alcohol isn't enhancing your vacation at all?

We explore:

Why we associate alcohol with vacations, travel, and relaxation

• How alcohol impacts sleep, energy, recovery, patience, and emotional regulation while traveling
• Why so many people come home from vacation feeling exhausted instead of restored
• How alcohol-free travel improves presence, memory-making, flexibility, and enjoyment
• Why vacation can become powerful evidence that you don't need alcohol to socialize, celebrate, or have fun

If you've ever worried that vacations won't feel the same without alcohol, this episode is for you.

When you're no longer recovering from alcohol, you may discover that travel becomes more relaxing, more meaningful, and more fulfilling than you ever imagined.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Good morning, good morning, everyone. Thank you for tuning in to the Pink Cloud Frequency. I am your host, Brianna Wynne, and today's episode is all about vacationing alcohol free. Because one of the biggest fears people have when they consider giving up alcohol is vacationing. What about the beach, the all-inclusive resorts, the trips to Europe, the cruises? What about sitting by the pool or happy hour? Somewhere along the way, we've been taught that alcohol is part of the vacation experience. But after traveling alcohol-free to London, Nashville, Florida, after attending other celebratory events, I've discovered that the things I love most about vacation were never alcohol. And the things that alcohol promised to enhance were actually diminished by drinking alcohol. So today I want to talk about the difference between escaping your vacations and experiencing your vacations. Vacation for most people represents freedom, relaxation, fun, celebration, adventure, connection. And alcohol gets attached to those feelings. But alcohol doesn't actually create those feelings. The vacation itself does. The beach does. The people do. The food does. The memories do. And perhaps most importantly, the break from your routines does. Alcohol simply receives the credit. And over time, it's easy to mistake the alcohol for the experience itself. You start believing that alcohol is what makes the vacation relaxing and fun and exciting and memorable when in reality those qualities already existed before you even pour a drink. But after years of pairing alcohol with vacations and celebrations and beaches, resorts, those two things become psychologically linked. And eventually the thought, even of a tropical drink or arriving at the airport and the airport bar or a resort, just thoughts of those things can automatically trigger feelings of relaxation and anticipation and of drinking. And that's simply just conditioning, right? Human conditioning. And so you begin to associate those things with drinking alcohol rather than the experience. So when we imagine vacationing without alcohol, it may feel as though something important is missing because we've learned to condition alcohol alongside our vacations. But why do we even take vacations in the first place? To relax, to recharge, to make memories with the people that we love, to experience new places, to disconnect from work and from our responsibilities, and to enjoy ourselves. Alcohol begins being your vacation companion, so to speak. Yet it's the one thing that disrupts all of your intentions. If alcohol helps you relax, right? Which is what everyone says, then how come you return home from your vacation more exhausted than when you left? How many vacations have you come home from saying that you need a vacation from that vacation? So sure, alcohol may create temporary relaxation, but then it increases your anxiety and your next day's stress. The alcohol dehydrates you, especially if you're traveling to a warmer climate. It lowers frustration tolerance in patients. It disrupts your sleep quality and impacts your recovery. So your vacation that is supposed to be fun and exciting yet restorative actually ends up becoming another form of exhaustion. And that's why you come home feeling like, okay, you need to go somewhere else or you need to rest for a full week. Let's say that you're traveling with your family. You arrive late at night, and then you wake up early the next morning to sightsee. By mid morning, you're ready for the drink. It's vacation, right? So you guys go to brunch, you have a couple beverages. Now you're walking through a crowded city with your family. The temperature's warm. You've been on your feet for hours. You arrive at a major attraction only to discover that they're still a long line, even though you have tickets. And as you're waiting, the crowds start to bother you more. The noise bothers you more. Your kids start to bother you more. And everything around you starts to feel more irritating. And you don't even realize why. Part of you is enjoying the experience, but the other part of you is already starting to feel depleted. And to take that edge off, you're already thinking about your next drink. Now you repeat some version of that scenario four, five, six, or seven days in a row. Of course, you're exhausted because your body never fully gets the opportunity to recover. During the day, it's constantly working to compensate for dehydration, disrupted sleep, fluctuating blood sugar, and the physiological stress alcohol places on your body. Then at night, when you should be resting and restoring, your sleep quality is compromised. So you wake up the next morning not fully recharged. And that cycle continues day after day throughout your trip. What was supposed to be restorative slowly becomes draining. And I know because I've experienced it many, many, many, many, many times. But it wasn't until I stopped drinking that I realized firsthand how much better vacations are without alcohol. London wasn't my first alcohol-free trip, but it was my first time traveling to an entirely new destination without alcohol. And I was about eight weeks alcohol free at that point. And I went with one of my best friends as well as my son. And she drank, which is totally fine. And I obviously had made the decision not to. In fact, experience. You begin to just experience the day. But that starts with a good night's rest. Waking up recharged and excited every single morning. Being ready for the day. On that trip, even if my friend and my son they were still sleeping, I would just get up, make a coffee, or leave the hotel and go grab one. I would journal, I would shower, and I would start getting ready before they woke up. And that sets the tone for the day for being available and wanting to explore more and booking more activities and having the energy to do more and see more, and having even the emotional stamina to research and plan. It is being able to stay out longer, but still being able to wake up in the morning. And at one point, we had an attraction booked. And somehow the guy didn't show up or we showed up late. I can't entirely remember what it was, but needless to say, we were there. He or she wasn't, or the group of people weren't. And rather than get upset and swear off the experience, which I absolutely would have done when I drank, we just continued on. And what happened was without the guide, we somehow got an up close and personal experience that I don't think we would have gotten if we were there with a group of people. That is the difference of being able to remain present in the moment, to be flexible when mishaps may happen, and to learn to appreciate what's going on around you, regardless, and still be in the moment and not lose sight of what it is you're doing in the first place, and not allowing your emotions to get the best of you. And that's that's huge for me because I travel a lot. And I have been so many places. And when you go through inconveniences, whether it's just big crowds, long lines, not being able to get into places that you were expecting to be able to visit. It can be laying on the beach. There's no beach umbrellas and towels available. I mean, it's all of those little things that really are what make up your experience. And to backtrack, it's not those things, it's how you respond to those things that determine how your day is going to play out. Are you going to let any minor inconvenience get the best of your day? Or are you going to be thankful for laying on a beach in Aruba, for being at the House of Parliament in London? Are you going to be thankful for being in Mexico? You know, scuba diving in Bermuda. How are you going to decide what your vacation looks like? So now, with an alcohol-free perspective, I can just appreciate that so much more. And previously, when I would travel, I remember I would stay out late at night drinking, laying in bed the next morning, and then whomever I was with, I'm like, no, you get in the shower first. No, you. And it's this volley back and forth of who's gonna fucking get their ass up and get in the shower because none of us have the physical energy. And what happens? You don't have the physical energy, you don't have the mental clarity, and you don't have the motivation to even get your day going. But when you're alcohol free, you have that clarity. You have the capacity to fully participate in your vacation. And that's not just the major attractions, but it's the experience as a whole, the mornings, the conversations, the meals, the walks between your destinations, the unexpected moments, the memories, and even the inconveniences. Because all of those things add up, and those things are the trip. And when you're when you are well rested, emotionally regulated, physically energized, and mentally present, those experiences become so much easier to enjoy because you become more patient and more flexible, more resilient when things don't go according to plan. And that's what I noticed most in London because it was my first big alcohol-free trip. Everything felt easier and the days felt more enjoyable. Those little inconveniences weren't a source of stress. But this only happens when you're operating from a place of capacity rather than a place of recovery. The vacation is now less physically taxing, less mentally taxing, and more enjoyable, which is what you were looking for in the first place when you booked a vacation. I mean, what is the purpose of vacation in the first place? Is it to escape your life or to experience it? Because the vacation already removes work and responsibilities. It removes the daily routines and those daily life stressors that you may experience at home. You're not on vacation doing loads of laundry or driving to and from practice, nothing like that. So, what are you trying to escape with alcohol when the vacation itself already is the escape from all of those things that are normally the source of your stress? So the opportunity to vacation is to experience your life from a different perspective. And you can do that during alcohol-free moments because you have more energy, you have better sleep, you have more patience, you have more flexibility. You are actually there physically, mentally, emotionally, and energetically. And instead of recovering each morning or delaying getting up and getting ready or having a headache and trying to find the closest source for food around you, you start your day with a clean sleep. You remember conversations, you remember meals, you remember attractions, you remember experiences. Rejuvenate and reset when you're doing it alcohol free. If you're going on vacation and drinking, you're coming back in a worse off place than when you left. Sure, you may have obviously, you know, done a few things and experienced more. But when you are so depleted, that starts to pale in comparison to the, I'm sorry, the things that you did start to pale in comparison to how you feel because you feel depleted, you feel more exhausted, you feel like you need another vacation. So my reminder for you, or my encouragement for you is to consider taking your next trip alcohol-free. Because I promise you, you can socialize, you can relax, you can enjoy yourself, you can celebrate. And it actually feels a whole lot better than it would if you drank. Your days start being about looking for alcohol and finding bars and finding the server when you're at the pool because you're looking for another drink. And they start being about the moment that you are in, whether you're with your significant other or your children or your friends or family. One of the greatest gifts of traveling alcohol-free was coming back again to the realization that I don't need alcohol. The city of London was beautiful, the experience was meaningful, the people were enjoyable, the memories were beautiful, and alcohol wasn't what was creating any of that. So, for your reflection, ask yourself if alcohol wasn't available on your next vacation, what are you most afraid you would lose? So, thank you so much for listening today. Please follow the show if you are not already. I will talk to you all next Wednesday. Bye bye.