What is a staycation
What is a staycation
What Is a Staycation?
These days, it costs a fortune just to think about getting away. Airfare is even less affordable than it used to be. And even though gas prices are low, they’re crawling back up, making a lot of people nervous about planning a road trip. With traveling to a vacation spot out of many people’s budgets, not to mention the carbon footprint of driving or flying long distances, vacationing has become an outdated notion for some people.
But others are working around the logistical difficulties of travel. It’s called the «staycation,» and it’s much better than nothing.
A staycation is a combination of vacationing and staying at home. That may seem kind of lame, like calling a string of sick days a vacation. But a staycation can be a real vacation if you do it right.
Just like a traveling vacation, a staycation is about relaxation and enjoyment. It’s about «me» time or «us» time, whichever the case may be. And, counterintuitively speaking, a staycation can even be about experiencing new things. After all, can you really say you’ve seen and done everything your hometown and the surrounding area have to offer?
Of course it depends on where you live, but in a lot of ways a staycation can be remarkably similar to a getaway vacation. What comes to mind when you think «vacation?» A lake and a picnic, holding a glass of wine or an iced tea while you lie on a blanket with a book? Breakfast in bed? An amusement park and happy, squealing kids? Wandering a museum followed by a fine dinner out?
Now just tweak the setting to a local lake, getting your kids to bring you breakfast in bed, or an amusement park that’s just an hour away that you haven’t had time to get to in a few years.
It may not have the draw of putting yourself in a whole new setting, but in some ways it can be a lot less stressful than a getaway. There’s no packing, no waiting in line at airport security or sitting in traffic, and no scrambling to get where you’re going by a specific time. And while amusement parks and fine dinners don’t come cheap, they’re not bad compared with a couple hundred dollars a night for a hotel, and hundreds for gas or a couple of thousand for a family’s airfare.
But there are pitfalls to staycationing, and you’ve probably already thought of a few of them. Let’s take a look at some staycation dos and don’ts that could help you avoid sabotaging your time off.
What is a Staycation and How to Have One Close to Home?
For the first time in living memory, going on a vacation overseas or even domestically has become difficult to nearly impossible. The global health situation has created numerous barriers to travel in 2020, and instead of vacations a term we’ve nearly forgotten has re-emerged. Staycation! If you can’t go out to the world for whatever reason, bring the world to you. Have a vacation in your home town, locality, or even at home. It can still be a lot of fun, and if we’re honest, staycations tend to cost a lot less than traditional vacations. Plus they’re kind of safer. Now, we’re not encouraging anyone to become a long-term hermit. Eventually things will go back to normal and you’ll resume your globe-trotting vacationing. But for now, with the help of technology like portable projectors that create cinematic experiences at home, staycations more than fill the gap.
Shall we look at what a staycation is and why a staycation can relieve the 2020 blues and be a lot of fun while you’re close to home?
What you can find in this article:
What is a Staycation?
So, what is a staycation holiday? Clearly a portmanteau of stay and vacation, staycation has several connotations. For some, it’s a vacation minus any long distance travel. Essentially having a vacation in your daily environs, the same area where you live and work. For others, and this may be growing in prominence these days, a staycation is literally staying put at home while going into vacation mode. That is to say, you’re home, but you’re not working from home or doing anything particularly constructive. You’re just relaxing and resting at home. You may even pamper yourself as you would in a resort or fancy hotel. While at home. Staycations don’t involve luggage, check-ins, passports, lengthy travel times, or delays. Unless you want to roleplay some of those, which you can, but we’d advise against it.
Why Have Staycations Resurfaced from 2020?
Because proper travel-based vacations are nearly impossible right now. Domestic travel may be limited or just bothersome in many parts of the world, and international sojourns have become virtually untenable due to restrictions imposed by different governments. By late July 2020, international air travel was down roughly 80% compared to July 2019, and most of the 20% that remain were reserved for non-leisure travel. So staycations clearly have a role to play in a world where people still want to feel like they’re on vacation, but are compelled to stay close to home (or actually at home) due to factors beyond their control. We’re all in this together.
Cool and Totally Doable Staycation Ideas
Now that we have covered what is a staycation, what can you do while on a local or homey staycation? Let’s get you going in the right directions. And yes, that was plural, because there’s a lot you can do on a staycation.
Local Museum Tour
Most people daydream about museums in far-flung places but forget that many places of knowledge remain open and available very close to home. Art, history, nature, technology (where you possibly could take in a display detailing the history of projectors!), and more. Museums cover a wide range of topics depending on where you are. And many offer a high degree of interactivity, which is especially great for kids. Staycations therefore can be educational. An edu-cation? No, that one’s already taken!
Nearby Hotel
People have been doing this one for centuries. Hotels have a unique charm, and as soon as you step in the lobby, you’re already on vacation. Doesn’t matter where the hotel is, if it’s a remotely nice one, it could be across the street from your house, you’d still feel on holiday soon as you stepped foot through the door. So get a room, some room service, a spa, swim in the pool, enjoy the bar and restaurants. Who cares if the view from your hotel room is more or less the same as the one from your bedroom at home? You’re there to relax, unwind, and feel different.
Backyard Dinner Party
A highlight of your staycation can be inviting family and friends to a nice meal right outside your home. Dine under the stars and enjoy good food with fine company. If you focus hard enough, it’s like having dinner at a resort, but infinitely more affordable! Plus, you control the menu and entertainment, which can be anything from music to movies.
Outdoor Movie Night
Cinematic staycations call for excellent portable projectors designed for outdoor use. These light and durable fun enablers showcase big screen joy onto nearly any surface with bright projection. You could have a movie marathon thanks to long battery life and enjoy favorite films with your audience of choice. As for the “outdoor” part, it could be your backyard again or a local campsite, park, beach, and so on. At least going outside is still OK!
Go Camping
Most places have relatively-untouched areas and campsites that make for a wonderful escape from the daily routine, even during these challenging times. Just because you’re only a few miles from home doesn’t mean you can’t feel lightyears away. Take a few days to set up camp, walk the woods, brush up on your outdoorsy skills, and maybe even enjoy some movies – again.
Sightseeing Tour Bus
Wise people once said when you feel like a tourist in your home town, it’s time to leave. We don’t think those people had to live through a global health crisis with numerous restrictions on travel. In short, they were wrong. It’s perfectly fine to feel like a tourist at home once in a while, you may learn to appreciate your local area in a whole new light. Whether by yourself or with family and friends, going on one of those “touristy” sightseeing buses can be a lot of fun and very relaxing in a tense period for everybody. Hop on and start taking pics and videos – which you later can show off using your portable projector, naturally!
These are just some suggestions. We encourage you to come up with more staycation ideas, just be safe, courteous, and responsible while you’re at it!
Preparation for a Staycation
Short and sweet, this tip is all about knowing that your upcoming staycation is indeed a trip. It may not involve much travel distance, but you’ll be going places you’ve never been before nonetheless. You’re not staying put, and you’re not doing the same old after-work ritual. This is something different.
As we said, approach the staycation as you would a vacation. The first thing that entails is planning the budget. Whenever we budget for entertainment activities, we get in a leisurely mindset. Those old instincts will kick in and you’ll feel the vacation vibe coming on. Plan how much you’ll spend on food, lodging, shopping, and even travel (like taxis and buses). Write it down, create a spreadsheet…whatever works for you.
Similarly, create an itinerary. Don’t do anything vague, specify how long your staycation is going to be. If it’s one week, then plan activities for each day, for example the outdoors movie marathon for Thursday at 9pm. Having a schedule to keep is part of the thrill of a good vacation. Let’s all admit to this: one of the great things about vacations is that there’s never enough time to do everything we want to do. Which is what makes vacations so precious and memorable.
Equally important: pack. Yes, pack suitcases. This isn’t just role playing, it’s practical. It’ll help get you in the vacation sensation plus you will be away from home, even if it’s just a few miles down the road. For extra effect, pack things you’ve never taken on a vacation before. Since weight restrictions don’t really apply to staycations, why not take a mini drone, cool and durable portable projector, or Bluetooth speakers? Even your game console or streaming box can come along. Why not!
Be a Tourist
We all have special tourist clothes we wear for vacations but not so much when at home. Wear those clothes. Additionally, behave like a tourist. We don’t mean be loud and ask the locals annoying questions. We mean don’t sleep at home and only go on familiar activities during the day. If hotels where you live are open, stay at the fanciest one you can afford. Drink coffee in the expensive lobby café, not your usual Starbucks or equivalent.
Eat at expensive restaurants you normally think of as tourist traps. It’s OK to fall into tourist traps when you’re a tourist, if we’re being honest. You’re not really on vacation if you’re saving money. You can save money by not going on vacation, but that’s kind of not the point of this article, and life’s really too short for all of that frugality.
Not all touristy activities have to cost a bundle. That park you pass every day on the way to work and never notice? Buy a sandwich and a drink and sit on a bench in that park for an hour, just soaking up the atmosphere. That street market you think of as cheesy and for out of towners? Go there. Become the out of towner. Buy souvenirs, silly souvenirs. They won’t seem so silly in a few years. You’ll appreciate them in a whole new light and have very fond memories of the moment you picked them up.
Embrace local traditions that seem cliched in normal times. Because in 2020 one can’t take anything for granted, local clichés may deserve to be cherished. So if your hometown specializes in cheesecakes and you haven’t had one because you scoff at them as gaudy tourist magnets, go to the most famous cheesecake place in town and indulge.
Disconnect, Capture, and Reconnect
Even if you work from home these days, put all of that on hold for the duration of your staycation. Tell your coworkers you’ll be away, even if they walk past the window of that cheesecake place we just mentioned or see you eating that sandwich in the park. No matter. You’re on vacation. That means no emails, texts, messages, or calls. You’re not reachable. As far as work is concerned, you’re not five miles away, you’re on Mars. Disconnect from your daily life, and if you’re taking this staycation with other people, encourage them to do the same. After all, if a significant other or any person close to you keeps talking about work, you’ll soon find yourself drifting out of the vacation zone, and that’s not good.
Capture every beautiful moment, even if it’s places you’ve grown to take for granted over the years. Take lots of photos, stare up at tall buildings and pose next to statues. That’s what you do as a tourist and you’ll be surprised how much you overlook when you get used to a place.
Besides, taking lots of pictures means you can later share them with others on the big screen like the good old days when we had slides. It doesn’t get more touristy than that!
Reconnect to the places where you live and spend most of your life. When we have the option to travel overseas or far away from our homes, we gradually start to forget what makes our hometowns and home locales special. But there’s always something new to discover when you reconnect. There are plenty of streets you haven’t walked along. Restaurants, museums, galleries, shops…so many places you never even set foot in but always said you would. The staycation vacation is your opportunity to catch up with that backlog and make new connections with your home environment. You’d be surprised what new adventures await in your proverbial backyard.
Share and Plan the Next One!
What do you do when you get back from a vacation? Why, of course share on social media. Do that. Don’t feel awkward just because you didn’t go to some “exotic” place. This isn’t a competition, and you don’t need to one-up your friends this time. Everyone’s in the same boat, few people can travel these days, and your social circle will be happy to share in your staycation action. And it’ll make the whole thing that much more memorable. There will be a record of what you did, which is an essential element of vacationing. People have always recorded their travels, yours is no exception.
Then, get in the habit of planning the next staycation/vacation. We’re not sure how long current conditions will persist, but in any case you know very well that one of the best parts of a vacation is already dreaming of the next one on the flight home. For your staycation, do the same. Begin planning a new one as soon as you’re back to your routine. Trust us, no matter where you live, you’ll be hard pressed to exhaust every vacation option in one go. There’s always plenty more to see, do, and experience.
In this life, the best part is looking forward to something good.
What Is Staycation: Discover The Latest Trend In Sustainable Tourism
After studying and working in HR, André studied sustainability management at Lisbon’s School Of Economics & Management. He is responsible for the English speaking market of Youmatter since 2018.
Published at 2020, January 28 th
The term staycation, originally from the United States, is a neologism deriving from the contraction of “stay” and “vacation”. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, it means vacations that you take at home or near your home rather than traveling to another place.
Staycation isn’t, nonetheless, a vacation model for students or low-budget travelers (though it may be a concept a large share of these audiences decides to adopt).
Rather, a staycation is an ecological way of spending your vacation close to your home. It is synonymous with less pollution, saving money and not contributing to the overwhelming chaos that takes place in some of the world’s most touristic areas. Let’s take a closer look.
Staycation, A Movement Born From The Economic Crisis And Ecological Awareness
The concept of staycation was born at the time of the 2008 market crisis in the United States. Because of it, many households were forced to restrict their expenses and consequently limit their vacation budget. The shortage of money to travel abroad is at the origin of why many people started to (re) discover their most immediate surroundings.
At the same time, awareness of the environmental impacts of tourism, especially on what concerns the impacts of transportation, started to increase too. And so has the perception that some of the main cities (abroad) are increasingly overloaded with people – with places such as Barcelona, Venice, or the Seychelles planning on introducing a tourist cap.
Staycation appears like a great solution for the challenges above mentioned. It is a great way of spending joyful vacations while helping one’s pocket and the environment. In fact, staying close to home eliminates the budget for accommodation (15% of the budget of average households on vacation) and transport.
Apart from the financial savings gained by leaving behind expensive plane tickets or by not booking hotel rooms that aren’t cheap, staycation also has the benefit of keeping harmful GHG emissions in the ground. Cars, boats, and planes are not (or are less) used and other means of transport such as public transport, bicycles, electric scooters or just walking are favored instead. This allows people’s carbon footprints not to increase as much as they would if long distances had been traveled.
Staycation: A Slow And Sustainable Touristic Movement With Many Benefits
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.
There are no fully-booked days, you do what you feel like doing (with proactivity and without constantly falling into temptations such as Netflix) and there is no rush to go from one activity to another just to stay busy all the time.
Hence, provided you stimulate your curious mind and push yourself to find out new tracks and new things to do, here are some of the benefits of a staycation:
Given the multiple advantages of local tourism, you no longer have a reason to be embarrassed at the coffee machine at work when you are asked where you are going on vacation this year.
On the contrary, not going to the other corner of the world like everyone else to “visit” instagramable beaches, but instead to discover your region is an eco-friendly and economical choice you should be proud of.
10 Ideas For What To Do During A Staycation: Different Plans And Activities
We will leave you with some nice tips that you can use to make the best out of your staycation:
Note: Some paragraphs from the first half of this article are an adaptation from Emma Henrich’s piece, available at youmatter.fr
[Image credits to hiking on Shutterstock]
Staycation Tips & What Is a Staycation?
Last Updated 23/09/2020.
I’m a traveller, a dedicated globe trotter and wanderluster, but something weird has happened lately. I’m loving just being at home. It’s hard to fathom but it’s almost like, most options have been removed so I’m not constantly pondering where to go next. I know I’m stuck here, as most of us will be this year and next, so instead, my mind is on possibilities at home. I’m having fun without travelling. Some staycation tips, ideas and thoughts on what is a staycation, below.
We normally travel because we crave the unknown, we want to learn about cultures, countries and cuisines, but actually, we’re getting our fix within our own house. I never thought I’d say that.
Our post on why people travel is immensely popular and in it I ramble on why travel is better than just about everything. But is it? I’m happy not travelling. For now. So let’s all do our best to enjoy our staycations this year!
Because it’s better than staying at home.
The Great Staycation
When we travel, go on holiday or vacation, we normally do what we enjoy. For me, I like learning about cultures and experiencing destinations. I also like to climb mountains, Everest Base Camp was a recent highlight.
Clearly I’m not somebody who travels to relax or pamper, my indulgences are different. But whatever your indulgences are, you can actually get a dose of them from home on your staycation or holistay.
Think about what you enjoy when you travel or go on holiday? What’s your jam? Do you take lots of photos? Do you enjoy fine dining or local cuisine? Do you take classes or courses? Do you exercise or love a physical challenge? Do you find time to read that book? Most of these things and more can be done from home.
Staycation Vs Vacation
A staycation can be the ultimate budget holiday. Take out flight costs and you just saved yourself a whole bunch of money.
A staycation can also be the ultimate in eco-friendly travel if you make it that way. My son goes off camping and volunteering for weeks on end. It’s a local, useful, staycation for him. Is there anything like that near you? Lockdown has cancelled this recently, but it will return.
By taking a staycation you also just bought yourself time. A staycation doesn’t necessitate two days of waiting at airports, layovers and flight time.
Packing is stressful and annoying. Even if you’re a master of carry-on only travel packing, it’s still a process most of us don’t enjoy. No packing on a stay at home staycation!
I love flying, I love the meal service, movies and glass of red wine. You could easily recreate that enforced downtime in front of a movie at home. You could be a lot more comfortable too. Put headphones on and make a tiny serve of nuts last as long as possible to make your in-flight movie more authentic!
What is a Staycation?
I had to look it up. A staycation, according to the dictionary, is a holiday or vacation spent in one’s home country rather than abroad or overseas. Or it can be one spent at home and involving day trips to local attractions. I’d like to add something to the meaning of staycation. It can be doing all the things you want to do and enjoy, at home, that you never have time to do otherwise.
A lot of us are unable to even leave the house right now and will be holidaying at home or domestically for quite some time yet. So below you’ll find some lockdown and staycation tips to help you stay happy and fulfilled at home. We’ll aim to get staycation ideas posted for every part of the world we know well, just give us time.
Domestic travel will undoubtedly return first and, frustrating as that is, we’re just going to have to make the most of it.
Staycation Tips
Think about “self-care,” “me-time”, “us-time”, stretching yourself, trying new things and doing more of the things you love. Most importantly, be present and fully engaged.
Staycation Suggestions
How To Find Things To Do Nearby
Even if you’ve lived somewhere forever and think you’ve done everything fun or of interest nearby, I bet you haven’t. Go to museums and galleries, exhibits change all the time and often museums are free. Another of our staycation tips, and we do this all the time wherever we are. Go to GetYourGuide and enter the name of your home town. I bet there’s some tour or activity, maybe even a class you didn’t know about. Look here. Everything is probably shut right now so try entering a future date.
How We Are Enjoying Our Staycation
We enjoy exercise, food, movies, wine, photography, online gaming, books, gardening, wildlife, learning and creating our websites. We love travel of course, we are a nomadic family, but we can’t do that right now. That’s OK. As soon as local travel returns we can get out and about more.
We stopped crying over travel bans a long time ago and honestly, our last trip to Malaysia was a stressful, traumatic ordeal, not a joy, so travel wasn’t in our minds anyway. We are just getting on with having a good time at home.
We have no money, our income is smashed but we’re not on the breadline and we know it will come back. If you’re doing it tough, I’m sorry. If you’re sick or have lost loved ones you have our deepest sympathy. Maybe you’re working on the front line and juggling kids? Thank you for your hard work.
For now and into coming months we can try to take lemons and make lemonade.
Please save our staycation ideas to Pinterest. Thanks
Admittedly, at times like these being introverts helps a lot. Sorry extroverts, we’re not like you. You might have to do facetime or such like. A friend of mine dressed up for a facetime and not just any old dress-up. She wore her wedding dress. I like her style!
I already posted that the hardest part of being a digital nomad family was in too many choices. Choices have been slashed and, surprisingly, brought greater happiness. Like so many, we suddenly have a lot less cash and we could well find ourselves in debt here, but still, we’re enjoying this at home staycation opportunity and are looking forward to better times for the world.
A few years ago when we first moved to Romania I published a post called winning the lifestyle lottery. Being thankful for what we had and have goes a long way towards that feeling. We found that simple life suited us well. We hope you’re doing likewise. Once we can get on a plane again we’ll be heading right back to the poorest countries where people will be desperate for tourist dollar. Just right now we can’t. Luckily, on this site, we cover over 50 countries, so it’s quite likely we have staycation tips and ideas for your area already. It’s about seeing with new eyes.
staycation
1 staying at home for your holiday in a bid to save money
2 каникулы
3 отдых в собственном доме
4 отдых у себя дома
5 отпуск дома
6 отпуск отпуск в своей стране
7 отпуск, проведённый дома
См. также в других словарях:
staycation — UK US /ˌsteɪˈkeɪʃən/ noun [C] INFORMAL ► a holiday that someone spends in their own country or at home, rather than travelling somewhere else: »Lack of cash meant more Britons chose the staycation this summer … Financial and business terms
Staycation — Spending time in a backyard swimming pool is one of the activities sometimes enjoyed during a staycation A staycation (also spelled stay cation, stacation, or staykation) is a neologism for a period of time in which an individual or family stays… … Wikipedia
staycation — n. A stay at home vacation. Also: stay cation. staycationer n. Example Citations: Amy and Adam Geurden of Hollandtown, Wis., had planned a long summer of short, fun getaways with their kids, Eric, 6, Holly, 3, and Jake, 2. In the works were water … New words
staycation — UK [steɪˈkeɪʃ(ə)n] / US noun [countable] Word forms staycation : singular staycation plural staycations humorous a holiday in which you stay at home and visit places near to where you live, or a holiday in your own country … English dictionary
staycation — 1. noun A vacation spent close to home. It’s holiday time again. Having invented the staycation – no, I don’t like the word either – four years ago when we ran out of money and out of patience with French traffic, we are sticking to principle and … Wiktionary
Staycation — A vacation spent at or near your own home, rather than traveling to another location. People take staycations for many reasons, including but not limited to, saving money, avoiding travel, and taking advantage of and enjoying what is available in … Investment dictionary
staycation — /steɪˈkeɪʃən/ (say stay kayshuhn) noun 1. a holiday taken at home or near one s home, usually with a program of events and entertainments undertaken as if one were a tourist in one s own city. –verb (i) 2. to take such a holiday. staycation — … Useful english dictionary List of SpongeBob SquarePants episodes — SpongeBob SquarePants is an animated television series broadcast on Nickelodeon, an American cable network. The series premiered on May 1, 1999[1] and is currently in its eighth season. As of November 11, 2011, a total of 316 individual episodes… … Wikipedia Corner Gas — The Corner Gas logo Format Comedy Created by Brent Butt Starring Brent Butt … Wikipedia Marc Horowitz — For the Stanford professor, see Mark Horowitz. Marc Horowitz Marc Horowitz at Analix Forever Gallery in Geneva Switzerland Born July 19, 1976 (1976 07 19) (age 35) … WikipediaИсточники информации: