What to do if your vacation was absolutely not fun?

It's your last week of hustling, just three more nights of sleep and then you're free. No alarm clock, no cooking, with a bit of luck plenty of sun: heaven. But then your vacation suddenly turns out to be incredibly disappointing and you're intensely let down. What now?

I left in January for a week to the Ardennes. In my mind, I envisioned long walks along beautiful streams, by the fireplace on a terrace, and it was also close by. It couldn't be better, right? Yes, because it turned out to be one big misery. The Ardennes are sadly gray, it's damp there, I had to crawl on my hands and knees over slippery patches through the forest, the hiking routes are also completely off, and the Belgians there are far from friendly (sorry if you're a Belgian from there, but it was like that). I just didn't have a very good vacation, while I'm usually quite skilled at going on vacation.

The point is that you shouldn't complain, because you, as a luxury cat, can at least go on vacation. You're absolutely right, but sometimes it falls a bit short when you've been looking forward to that trip for half a year. And I'm not alone, it turns out. This morning I heard Joe Intern from the Show on Qmusic ranting about his week in Athens. By the way, I had an amazing time there (sorry Joe). The dissatisfaction about the vacation seeped through the radio. But what to do if your vacation sucked? You have options.

1. Remember that there are people who get stressed out by going on vacation and thank God on their bare knees when they are back home. It can always be worse than your shabby little apartment, the disgusting food, and that screaming baby next to you on the plane, indeed. You have people with vacation stress. My week in the Ardennes suddenly seems a lot more fun in my mind than it actually was.

2. Google: worst vacation ever. Really, your rickety apartment in Greece where the mold is in the joints suddenly seems like a godsend. You are immediately cured of whatever type of self-pity you were experiencing. Running cockroaches, terrifying staff, two days of delay. Name it and it has happened at some point.

3. Vacation is overrated, say experts. You might be incredibly bummed that your dream trip is falling through, but just remember that it was already a lost cause. ‘Touristic musturbation’ is what professor Ad Vingerhoets calls it. The pressure to have the most amazing vacation. If you had seen that vacation day as just an ordinary weekday, it would have been a lot less bad.

4. Express that this vacation has greatly disappointed you. It is even more miserable to have to pretend that your vacation was fun when it fell short in every way. You're labeling those slippery, sliding muddy walks through the forest as a heeeerrrlijke afternoon in that beautiful nature. Open up that bite. There's a good chance that your employer/manager/whoever will give you the green light for that next vacation faster.

5. Book a new vacation as soon as possible. The best time to do this is during that incredibly disappointing vacation. Even if it's just a weekend in the Wadden Islands. Anything to quickly erase that sad vacation from your memory. You just have to combat a failed vacation with a new vacation. Not backed by an expert or professor, by the way, this is my philosophy.

A girl laughing while holding a cup with a building in the background And never go to the Ardennes in January. Just a tip from me to you, it's that deep gray, depressing gray. Just book a tropical destination or a trip to Lapland.