There is a moment, right after you get back from holiday, when the suitcase is still standing in the hallway, the washing machine is running at full speed — and your head is buzzing with more travel ideas than during the entire rest of the year. You have seen new places, met new people, tried things you had only read about before, and suddenly everything feels possible. This is exactly when the boldest plans are born. The only question is: what should you do with them?
A head full of ideas, a suitcase still packed
Coming home from a holiday is, paradoxically, the most creative moment in a traveller’s year. Emotions are fresh, memories are vivid, and your appetite for the world is bigger than ever. “Next year we’re coming back for longer”, “next time we go further south”, “we have to bring our friends here” — sound familiar? These thoughts carry enormous energy, but they have one flaw: they appear precisely when the next holiday is furthest away.
Too early to book?
Common sense says that August or September is not the time to book anything for next summer. Holiday schedules at work don’t exist yet, ticket prices are still settling down, and the plans of family and friends are one big unknown. Getting into details now feels like cooking dinner right after leaving the table — technically possible, but why?
On the other hand, waiting has its price. Those who put everything off “for later” often discover in February that they no longer remember where they actually wanted to go and what had delighted them so much.
Let your ideas mature properly
There is a third way, and it seems to be the wisest one: let your ideas rest for a while. Good plans, like good wine, need time. Some of your holiday raptures will turn out to be a passing infatuation, while others — after a few months — will still excite you just as much. It is the latter that deserve to happen. Half-jokingly: let your ideas become legally binding. If they survive the winter, they are real.
Write them down before they evaporate
There is just one catch: memory. Ideas that are not written down evaporate faster than water from a pool on a hot day. Psychologists call it the forgetting curve — after a month, only an outline of your holiday revelations remains; after six months, often just a vague “we wanted to go somewhere”. So the only moment to honestly write down all your plans — the sensible ones and the completely crazy ones — is now, while they are fresh.
A letter to yourself — the e-wehikul in action
And this is where the e-wehikul comes in. Write a letter to yourself: list all the ideas you brought back from your holiday, without censorship and without judging them. Then set the delivery date for the moment when the real planning begins:
- January — when it’s time to request leave and catch the first ticket deals,
- February or March — when you should get your friends on board and book accommodation,
- a few weeks before departure — for shopping and the packing list,
- or any other day when you want your past self to remind you what you were dreaming about.
Your letter will arrive exactly when your ideas have had time to mature and you are ready to turn them into bookings, leave requests and shared adventures. The past will give the future a hint — and you will lose nothing along the way.
Suitcase still packed? Perfect. This is the best moment to write a letter to yourself.