How To Have a Staycation
There are so many reasons why many families are foregoing travel and traditional vacations right now, but that doesn’t mean that we all don’t need the benefits of just a little “R & R” even if we are staying home. Get your rest and relaxation needs met by learning how to have a staycation, instead!
The important thing to remember is that during your staycation, you have to purpose to make your life feel different than the same ole drudgery of day-to-day routines. Otherwise, it won’t feel like a vacation at all!
In this article, I am going to give you some great family staycation ideas that will help you build fun memories with your kids and make you feel refreshed and pampered!
#1: Take Time Off From Work
You can’t focus on relaxing and having fun if you are distracted by work...even if you work from home. So use up some vacation days, let your clients know that you are not available, and step away from the emails!
#2: Unplug and Disconnect
One of the best ways to get into relaxation mode is to get off social media, turn off the news, and put your phone on silent. Use this time to stay present with your family and truly engage in alternate activities that promote restfulness and create fun memories.
#3: Leave the Chores and Housework to a Pro
When you go on vacation, you don’t spend your time washing dishes, doing laundry, or picking up the house. So, while having your staycation, you need to replicate this. Make a point to hire a housekeeper who handles all the cleaning so that you and your kids don’t get bogged down with these everyday tasks.
#4: Let Someone Else Do the Cooking
To be as hands-off as possible from your usual meal prep, make a point to eat out, order in, or even hire a chef to come to your house and serve up delicious meals to make your home feel like a fancy restaurant. Make sure to keep the menu unique and make a point to try new things!
#5: De-schedule Your Life
Whatever your regular routine is, don’t do that. This is a key factor in how to have a staycation. Sleep in or stay up late, or wake early to catch the sunrise. Whatever it takes to mix it up, that is what you should strive for. If you have a certain pattern, break it and fill in the time with fun, new activities that don’t resemble normal life at all.
What exactly is a staycation according to YouMatter.World?
A staycation is a form of alternative tourism that is fully in line with the slow tourism trend. Slow tourism invites you to live in the present moment. It encourages you to take your time, discover nearby landscapes, reconnect, and spend more time outdoors in nature with the people you enjoy.
#6: Explore Nearby
Use your staycation as an opportunity to explore the local attractions. Are there cool places in your city that you never otherwise have time to go to? Have you had the chance to check out all the nearby parks? Maybe you just need to take a drive through the countryside to get out of the house and appreciate what lays just beyond your backyard.
#7: Create Memories
Staycations need to be every bit as engaging as vacations are in order to have the same effect. When you have kids, you want them to remember these times with fond memories. Get your camera out and document all the fun you have, play games together, try to find something totally unique to do each day so that everyone associates your staycation with fun stuff, rather than being bored.
#8: Let Downtime Have Its Place
A staycation should be fun AND relaxing, so carve out lazy moments that allow you to totally let go. Get out the hammock, take a nap, relax with a great book, turn on some tunes and zone out, or bask in the sun. You don’t have to fill every moment with go, go, go. Make sure you are getting the rest that you need to recharge.
#9: Camp Out in Your Backyard
Family staycation ideas run the gamut but nothing quite beats just pitching a tent in the backyard and having a campfire to make you feel like you are in a whole new world. Wake up with the sun and listen to the birds in the morning. Cook breakfast on a camp stove and roast marshmallows and hotdogs after the sun goes down at night.
#10: Make Things Feel Fancy
If your idea of a vacation is to live it up, put special touches around your home. Buy new sheets for your bed, light candles for a romantic feel, order bouquets of flowers for the table, and wear fancy pajamas or robes. To really give the luxury feel to your staycation, hire a massage therapist to come to your home, replicate a spa day so that you feel pampered, or simply take a bubble bath.
Whatever a staycation means to you is highly personable but the idea has much merit and may be just what your family has been needing!