The 'Science' Behind a Perfect Family Vacation
You can now measure the most important elements of your getaway.
— -- If you're curious about how enjoyable your family vacation is going to be, science may be able to offer some answers.
A psychologist has teamed up with an online ticket company to formulate what makes the perfect getaway -- and it could mean leaving your smartphone at home.
"Kids are very proficient at using mouses, screens, or clicking onto things," said Dr. David Holmes of the United Kingdom told ABC News today. "The tendency is that their attention spans have been reduced. In order to have good family interaction, you have to kind of limit, or put a ban on using technology and that goes for adults as well as children."
Holmes worked alongside FloridaTix.com after the site surveyed 2,000 families about what they feel makes the ideal family vacation.
Holmes then created the formula that he says measures the factors of a perfect family vacation.
Those factors include lifetime experience (LE), quality family interaction (QI), quality activities (Q), accommodation quality (AQ), weather (W), screen freedom (S) and overall cost (C).
Screen freedom determines how much your technology use can affect your vacation and is a negative factor in the formula, and will reduce your score at the end of the survey.
"If you can get all of the above somewhere near right and score well in the following formula, you may very well have the experience of a lifetime," Holmes told ABC News in a written summary of the findings. "Then as your kids get older and look towards their own families, they will have a good model of a family holiday to pass to following generations."
The three most important factors of a successful family vacation are cost, destination, and the attractions or activities available, Holmes said.
Surprisingly, only 5 percent of families said that the amount of time spent together was most important to them, according to Holmes' findings.
Holmes said he recommends leaving all but one device -- for emergencies -- at home when leaving for your family getaway.
He added that technology should be replaced by conversation and activities.
Take the test here to find out how perfect your vacation will be.
