Staycations

Introducing the “Staycation”You don’t need to spend a lot of cash to take a vacation or drive for hours to go to the beach or an “official” vacation spot. Instead, you can take a “staycation.” You’ll save money and support business in your community. How to find out what’s going on in your neck of the woods? Look online; it’s free! Website hosting deals and easy site builder tools have made it easier than ever for the cool spots and hot venues in your area to be easy to find on the Web.Some define vacation as three-plus days away from home, where you and your friends and family partake in relaxing activities. Of course, that depends on your definition of “relaxing activities.” Relaxing can entail spending time in a cabin, on a beach, boating-anything.But what if you can’t afford to take a traditional vacation? Does taking a vacation really require spending money, going to a new destination? Maybe not. There’s a fairly new word that’s being used every now and then: “staycation.”A staycation is taking a vacation while staying at home. It’s finding fun things to do that do not require spending a large chunk of change. There are relaxing, entertaining things you can do within driving distance if you explore locally.Where do you look? Online, of course. You see, others have been in your position. Businesses (restaurants, shops, ice cream parlors, hotels, zoos, museums-you get the idea) within 50 miles or so from your home have planned ahead, anticipating that someday, you and others will search for them online. They have websites that let you know that interesting, fun, exciting adventures await just around the bend.GooglingThe first thing you can do is to search. Go to your favorite search engine and search words like “staycation your town.” If you live in the St. Louis area for instance, you can search “staycation stl”. Or if you’re in Florida, try “staycation south Florida”. The first couple of links should list some activities and places to visit in your area.What to Look ForWhat could you possibly do close to home? So perhaps a festival or an outdoor concert might be fun. Botanical gardens, museums (art and history), miniature golf-places you normally wouldn’t visit because you’ve ignored them, are now front and center. You can check your community calendar for ideas.If it’s summer or early fall, farmers’ crops are bursting with natural sweetness, ready to be picked by you and your family. So gather your baskets and head to the nearest orchard. Pick some juicy peaches and make a cobbler with the kids. Have the kids find the perfect pumpkin to carve later. You can even throw in a science lesson.Your town is celebrating homecoming. Food, carnival games, friends-small town goodness that comes around once a year. Take your staycation the week of homecoming.Have you seen any flyers for local theatre productions lately? Or perhaps your kids are in a play. Make it a huge night with dinner beforehand and ice cream afterwards.Money TalksLocal businesses often offer promotions online. So check out their pricing. Either way, you’ll be saving since you’re not taking that expensive trip to the beach. Larger groups often can get more affordable pricing. So invite another family to join you and split the cost.Time Off PleaseAre you ready to plan your next staycation? Here’s how you can start planning:Be mindful of local events. Check out your town’s online event calendar.
Take out your own calendar and schedule some time for you and your family to do nothing but have fun.
Pencil in activities for each day.
Tell family members that your only rules are to have fun, sleep in, and smile.
Meals and clean up: Plan fun meals that won’t make a big mess and require participation. At the end of each day, have everyone pitch in for 15 minutes to clean up.And there you have it…staycation fun. To create a souvenir of one staycation or keep a log of all of your local adventures, consider getting a free website and sharing your experiences with extended family and friends who have moved away. Web hosting companies will offer affordable or free website hosting that includes an easy website builder tool. You don’t have to spend a lot to “publish” your online scrapbook!

The term staycation has been on everyone’s lips in recent times… but what is a staycation?A staycation is the term used to describe persons spending their vacation within their own town, city or country. In other words it’s playing tourist in your own backyard. The rise in popularity in this form of vacation has come about for a number of reasons.These include the skyrocketing oil prices, the severe world recession and to a lesser extent the increased security checks at airports. All these factors have forced individuals to rethink their spending habits or simply to consider issues related to personal safety.Whatever is the reason for the rise in popularity this method of vacationing has brought numerous benefits to both the individual and the local economy. Here are five benefits of the popular staycation…Reduces Travel MisfortuneThere probably isn’t a traveler who hasn’t suffered some travel misfortune or another. Actually mishaps when traveling seem par for the course they range from lost luggage, stolen merchandise, delayed and cancel flights. Staycations tend to eliminate most of these unfortunate incidents simply because you are basically on your own turf.You therefore have greater control over your luggage, your merchandise and your schedule this eliminates most of the common mishaps.Keeps Money in Your PocketTravel over long distances whether it’s overseas or inland really tugs at the purse strings and with the cost of inputs such as fuel constantly rising traveling has hit the pocket hard. Travelers have been forced to dig deeper in their resources to afford the escalating cost of everything from baggage fees to increase ticket prices.By keeping you in your area the staycation has eliminated all of this putting more money for leisure activities in the pocket of the persons taking that much needed vacation.Keeps Local Economies a floatMany of the local economies based on tourism have found the going pretty tough lay offs and reduce hours of work has been the order of the day during this recession. As many vacation seekers hit by increase cost has refrain from spending money in areas such as travel.The local economy therefore has been hard hit; the staycation therefore provides the opportunity for persons to spend money within their communities. This has led to numerous spend offs such as keeping jobs going within the restaurants, hotels, car rental agencies and even manufacturing.Increased Rest and RelaxationOne of the main reasons for traveling and vacations is rest and relaxation but traveling to distant places can be tiring. Standing in long queues, flight delays and lost luggage all add to the stress in today’s world. The staycation because of its close proximity removes most of these factors allowing you to have that extra time to relax and enjoy the amenities on offer.Increased Local KnowledgeMost of us live in community’s too busy going about our day to day lives often oblivious to all that’s going on around us. Many of the facilities, attractions, accommodation and even restaurants tend to go unnoticed.Take a staycation and all this seem to change once you are switch off from the daily grind you instantly become more aware. This is great especially if you have kids this certainly increases their local knowledge putting them in a better position to speak with knowledge and passion about their communities.While the staycation may have come about because of the recession and other global challenges its popularity as the perfect alternative to the traditional vacation guarantee that it is here to stay.