Everyone always loves a holiday – at least, that’s how we portray them. Holidays present a chance to unwind, relax and decompress from life’s day-to-day struggles. But they don’t always go to plan, and they’re not always as amazing, relaxing or enriching as we like to think.

Yet admitting you didn’t enjoy your holiday remains surprisingly taboo.

For most of human history, ordinary people didn’t take holidays at all. Holidays were once the preserve of the extremely wealthy, like those aristocrats who embarked on a Grand Tour of Europe in the 1800s.

Echoes of that aristocratic impulse still pervade the way we talk about holidays to this day. On social media travel has become a form of very visible cultural capital – a way of overtly signalling not just where you’ve been, but your tastes, knowledge and refinement. The trip itself isn’t important. What is important is what the destination – and the way it’s shared – says about you.

A holiday is the perfect stage to perform status, by jetting off to the right (most popular) destinations or by photographing........

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