For many of us, a holiday is supposed to be the ultimate escape - a rare window of time with no alarm clocks, no deadlines, and no reason to rush anywhere. Yet the moment we finally unpack, doing absolutely nothing can feel surprisingly uncomfortable.
Driven by the guilt of needing to make every moment "count", we often turn our vacations into packed itineraries that mirror the very stress we were trying to leave behind. But according to experts, permitting yourself to slow down isn't lazy; it is essential recovery.
A Talker Research survey of 2 000 American adults, conducted on behalf of Margaritaville Vacation Club and published in March 2026, found that 55% of respondents said they did not know how to simply do nothing while away.
Almost half (48%) felt guilty about doing nothing on holiday, while 22% felt an active need to remain productive.
And yet, the same research suggests that downtime is exactly what many holidaymakers need.
Around 88% said doing nothing helped them feel like they had experienced a real break, 86% said it helped break their routine, and 84% reported greater trip satisfaction.
Perhaps the problem isn’t that we don’t enjoy resting. Perhaps we’ve simply forgotten how to do it.
The pressure to make every moment count
There are broadly two types of holidaymakers. Some arrive armed with an itinerary, determined to see every attraction, try every restaurant and squeeze as many experiences as possible into a few days.
Then some consider a holiday successful if they barely leave the hotel.
Both approaches have their place. But the pressure to make a holiday “count” can sometimes turn rest into another source of guilt.
Closer to home, Trafalgar’s research in 2023 found that 63% of South African travellers felt guilty if they were not making enough of their holiday by sightseeing.
South Africans were also particularly likely to struggle with disconnecting from work, with 67% saying they felt guilty about staying on top of their emails while on holiday.
The findings paint an interesting picture of the South African traveller: even when we are physically away from work, our minds can remain firmly plugged in.
That makes the case for deliberately doing less even stronger.
Your body needs a break too
According to Durban-based GP and wellness practitioner Dr Felicia Manickam, rest is not simply about feeling lazy or indulging in a little luxury.
“When we rest, the nervous system shifts out of ‘fight or flight’ and into recovery mode,” she explains.
“Cortisol and other stress hormones settle, blood pressure eases, and sleep deepens.”
After months of deadlines, commuting, family responsibilities and constantly being connected, a holiday can give the body an opportunity to recover.
But that recovery requires more than changing your location. You have to permit yourself to slow down.
Doing nothing is not wasting your holiday
Doing nothing can look different for everyone. It could mean spending an entire afternoon beside the pool, taking a nap after lunch, reading a book on the beach or sitting on a balcony watching the world go by.
It could also mean leaving one day completely unplanned.
The Talker Research findings suggest this kind of downtime can make a meaningful difference to how people experience their holidays.
Despite the guilt around doing nothing, respondents reported spending significant portions of their trips relaxing privately in their rooms and enjoying hotel amenities.
Manickam says those quiet, unstructured moments can benefit the brain too.
“Our brains are rarely allowed to be idle,” she says. “Yet it is often in those unhurried, unstructured moments - lying on the beach, watching the waves, doing nothing in particular - that we consolidate memory, process emotion and restore our capacity to focus.”
Permit yourself to switch off
The next time you plan a holiday, don’t just schedule the sightseeing. Schedule the rest too.
Leave gaps in your itinerary. Put your work notifications on mute. Resist the urge to document every moment. Sleep without setting an alarm. Have a slow breakfast. Sit somewhere beautiful and do absolutely nothing.
Because a holiday shouldn’t leave you needing another holiday to recover from it.
Sometimes, the greatest luxury isn’t seeing more, doing more or ticking another attraction off the list.
It is having nowhere to be and nothing you need to accomplish. And perhaps that is the real art of doing nothing.
zamandosi.cele@national.co.za