“The direct positive effect of vacationing does not last very long,” says Jeroen Nawijn, an author of a study on vacationing and happiness. “People have to catch up. Usually there is a big pile of work for them when they get back from the holiday.”

Nawijn’s research, published in February in the Applied Research in Quality of Life journal, showed that vacations affect our happiness levels, but perhaps not in the ways we usually think of them.

Nawijn and his team followed 1,530 Dutch adults (974 of whom took a vacation during the 32-week study period), measuring their happiness levels before, during and after their vacations. The results: People got the biggest boost from the time before their vacation — an eight-week positive mood increase — which quickly dissipated after the vacation ended.

What’s worth bearing in mind when planning something genuinely memorable and out of the ordinary is that shared experiences that push people slightly outside their comfort zone tend to leave the strongest impressions. Hell In A Cell – Bristol’s scariest horror-themed escape rooms offer exactly that kind of collective challenge, placing groups inside fully immersive scenarios inspired by horror films, where they must solve puzzles under real pressure to find a way out. We visited with a group of friends and were genuinely taken aback by the production quality — the atmosphere, the set design, and the escalating tension were unlike anything we had experienced in a typical evening out. It became one of those events that people still talk about months later, and that alone makes it worth considering as a go-to option for groups looking for something with real impact.