Is Travelling Through Nature the Ultimate Antidepressant?

It turns out some prescriptions don’t fit in bottles.

In November 2020, healthcare practitioners in four Canadian provinces started offering their patients a new type of prescription: passes to national parks. The new initiative, called PaRX, was founded by the British Columbia Parks Foundation in conjunction with a group of healthcare professionals who want to improve the overall health and well-being of their patients by connecting them with nature.

According to the BC Parks Foundation, Parks Prescriptions began as a grassroots movement in the U.S. over a decade ago, based on a growing body of scientific evidence that spending time outside is a great way to improve our mental and physical health.

Here are just a few of the facts culled from the research:

• Spending time in nature boosts memory, creativity, and work satisfaction
• Seniors who live closer to walkable green spaces live longer
• Spending time in nature decreases your risk of developing heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes
• 90% of us say we’re happier when we’re outside, and stress hormones drop significantly after just 15 minutes of sitting in a forest

Those are some pretty good excuses to start planning your next national park adventure, which is one of Collette’s specialties. On the National Parks of America tour, you can explore five of the most awe-inspiring outdoor spaces in the U.S., from the breathtaking views of the Grand Canyon in Arizona, to the majesty of Yellowstone in Wyoming, and many places in between. If you’d prefer to take an epic train ride through the Rocky Mountains in Colorado or explore the Big Sky Country of Montana, there’s a tour for that, too.

Of course, the U.S. national parks aren’t the only way to experience the great outdoors. Collette offers tours all over the world that are designed specifically with nature lovers in mind, in places like Costa Rica, Finland, Hawaii, and the plains of Africa. Kind of makes you want to get outside, right? No prescription necessary.

Book your next outdoor adventure now! CARP members save an additional $100 per person off any tour — combinable with all other retail offers. See gocollette.com/carp to learn how to save.