Summer holidays are approaching and many of us are wondering about their options. While traveling is possible again in many areas, staying at home is more attractive than ever. It is a really safe option for your vacation in times of Corona to limit infection risk, but also has other great advantages. Staycations can be beautiful! But how to make it enjoyable and memorable?
The advantages of a vacation at home
Staying at home for vacation is not just a fallback for all those whose vacation was cancelled – there are actually a lot of reasons why it is a good idea! Our home is supposed to be the place where we feel most comfortable, so it has ideal requirements for a relaxing and fun time. And we won’t have to abandon any of the comforts we are accustomed to!
Also, in economically challenging times like these a vacation at home can be a great way to save money. With no expenses for travel or accommodation, the remaining money can be spend on nice activities or great food!
And in terms of time it is also fantastic as you don’t need to spend time on the road or plane – so you can make the best use of the time available! Imagine waking up in a hotel room bed, it actually is just like that!
Finally, it also is a great option for an environmentally-friendly vacation. You don’t have to travel and therefore avoid emissions and you can continue with your sustainable habits which could be difficult to maintain in a hotel room.
Enough reasons to give it a try? Then first let’s look into the preparation!
Prepare your staycation
To make sure that you able to enjoy the staycation, you should take some time to prepare it:
- Clean the apartment. You want to be able to relax and not be annoyed by anything you feel like you should be doing right now – for me that includes dust balls flying around.
- You might even go one step further: Looking at the high interest in hardware stores, many seem to do home improvement lately. This will also make the staycation nicer! A nice balcony or a beautiful reading corner will make it much more enjoyable.
- Make a list of things you want to do. You should not expect to do everything on this list during your vacation, but have nice options lined up for when you are in the mood for it. A day trip is always a nice change of scenery! But it could also be a common activity inside your home, e.g. planting a garden or painting the living room – just as long as it is fun and not work for everyone! Make sure that everyone in the household has at least one item on the list that everyone could agree to spend time on.
- Clear expectations to avoid disappointment! Discuss what is important for everyone involved during the staycation before it starts and adjust your list accordingly.
- Have a backup plan e.g. for bad weather. This might be a movie (marathon) which you have wanted to watch for some time or a good book, a board game, puzzle or similar. Just make sure that you have something nice to do for when you don’t feel like going out!
- Discuss what you want to eat and go shopping before the vacation starts to get that out of the way. You can throw in some restaurants visits like you would do on a vacation!
- Make sure everyone knows you are on vacation – even if you are now leaving! You have your own plans and might not like surprises.
Making the best of your staycation
Your vacation has arrived and you have prepared everything. Now the most important thing is to make it a vacation: Just last year we spend a vacation in our new home town Hamburg visiting tourist places where we had never been, doing things we do at other city trips, too. This involved going out to fancy restaurants, visiting a spa, sleeping in, just strolling through the city and enjoying the weather – most of these things are also possible now.
You don’t need to do everything on your list. Just go along and have a good time! If you feel like doing it and the weather allows, do one of your items on the list. If you don’t feel like it, discuss if everyone is happy with a day inside. We had a rough plan laid out and adjusted it along the way to make the most of it. After three day trips in a row you might feel like spending the day at home, so don’t overdo it!
We already had to cancel this year’s vacation plan and are now looking into two short staycations during this summer. I am really looking forward to spending some quality time with my S.O. on the balcony, reading some books and starting the next movie marathon we have lined up. We just finished the MCU chronologically during lockdown, a time-consuming but definitely worthwhile activity! What are you planning for vacation this year? Can you recommend a fun movie marathon?
