1. Refreshes your mind
It is important that your mind-set is geared toward a vacation. If you view a stay-cation as though you are just home hanging out for a few days, you won’t experience the rewards you can reap from this adventure. Look forward to this time exactly as you would for an extended vacation. Clear your mind and schedule of the things that preoccupy your time during ordinary days. If your budget allows, it is an added bonus to stay at a local hotel or bed and breakfast. This isn’t necessary to do, however by doing so, you are not in your home and distracted by daily living. The goal is to keep yourself distracted from the daily grind so that your mind and body have a vacation. Tip: Check out local newspapers or discount ticket places online such as Groupon or Wag Jag to see if you can find any exciting offers to events or places in the area. I have been able to find cheap tickets to Broadway Productions and vineyards and other events near my area. Make sure you research things before your stay-cation so you have things of interest to do.
2. Be a tourist in your own town
We all live busy lives running here and there, spending countless hours working, and balancing a home and social life. How often do we drive by a place in our own town and think, “hey, that looks like a cool place to check out?” However, weeks and months go by and we never really fit it into our schedule. A stay-cation is the perfect time to be a tourist in your own locality! Check out all the things that your vicinity offers and pick out a few of them to explore. You might want to try a new restaurant. It’s fun to pretend you are visiting from another place and critique new places of interest. Observe the area you are living in with fresh eyes just like an outsider would do. It’s amazing how different we view our surroundings when we look at them as though we have never seen them before. Another benefit of becoming a tourist in your own location, is you learn the history and stories of the area you call home. It’s so nice to be able to share random facts with others when they come and visit you from another area! Be as creative as you like in your expeditions of your area. Grab your camera and shoot some amazing footage of where you live!
3. Travel time is minimized
Are we there yet? Thirty minutes later; are we there yet? We have all experienced those long car rides where we just can’t wait to get to the destination. The miles slowly go by as get closer and closer to the vacation spot. When you take a stay-cation you can avoid being stuck in traffic and endless hours of travel time. All the time that would be consumed travelling, whether by car or another means, can be used actually doing activities locally. This adds precious time to the limited time that you have. By exchanging the long trip with remaining local, this also allows you to be refreshed without the feeling of exhaustion from hours of travel. Your stay-cation can start right away not hours after a major road trip. Don’t forget that it is the same for the return home. You won’t have to pack up and face another long journey in the car but rather you can squeeze out more hours of enjoyment of your stay-cation.
4. Works great for a weekend
I remember one time wanting to go visit a place but I didn’t have any extra days left to take off at work. After counting the amount of time needed to travel to and from the destination, I realized it really wouldn’t be worth it just for a weekend because I wouldn’t have time to actually relax and enjoy the visit there. Feeling a bit discouraged, the idea popped into my head, why not take the weekend and have a stay-cation instead? I wouldn’t need to ask for vacation days from work and yet I would be free to enjoy my weekend as though it were a mini-vacation. I fell in love with the idea of stay-cations after taking my first one. It is refreshing to take a couple of days off without focusing on work or home. A stay-cation is a perfect way to do this.
5. Cost
It isn’t necessary to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars for a vacation. If you choose a stay-cation you will be curbing the cost. Some of the costs that will be slashed or even eliminated will be the expense of traveling, (especially with the current prices of gas) the expensive accommodations, and the cost of eating numerous meals out. I know that I have taken trips where before I have even reached my destination, I will have spent extra money for snacks on the way and stops made at rest areas. These are all savings for you when planning a stay-cation. You can take a stay-cation on any level of budget. There are plenty of events in your local area that are inexpensive that you can look in to. As a matter of fact, I just received an email last night about a local bowling alley that is offering two weeks of “free” bowling, you only have to pay for the shoes! If you investigate venues in and around your area you will find opportunities that exist that many never even stumble on. The communities where we live enjoy bringing in people from their area. This is a way of free marketing for them. If they offer discounts and specials to those that live in the area it will boost their sales in the long run. Investigate cost-cutting ways to make your stay-cation an enjoyable time. I have shared 5 reasons a stay-cation might be for you but really it is up to you. You need to do the investigative work on the area you live in. Seek out your interests and find venues that cater to it. More than likely you will find more than enough to fill a one time stay-cation. I also have discovered that there are different types of activities available at different seasons. As for me, well, I am already planning another stay-cation. This one will be for Autumn!
