Your staycation plans can make or break your well-deserved vacation. These tips for planning your staycation will keep you on track for a great break.
Are you looking forward to your staycation?
Whether you planned it all year or cancellations have you staying at home for your vacation, a staycation can be the perfect thing to de-stress and rediscover your home.
But staycation plans can make or break your well-deserved vacation. Afterall, a bad staycation is just a normal day!
These 10 tips for planning your staycation will keep you on track for a great break.
1. Have a Picnic
A great way to do a staycation is to have a picnic. If you’ve got a yard or outside space, that’s the ideal spot.
If you haven’t, you can still bring excitement with an indoor picnic!
All you need to do is set down a picnic blanket, add some fairy lights and flowers if you can for an extra touch. And don’t forget the food and drinks!
You can even try those little finger party foods like mini burgers. Or, you can stick to the tried and tested sandwiches as your ‘main’.
Just don’t forget the wine!
It’s fun for all the family that adults and kids will enjoy alike. You can make mealtimes feel special and create your own mini-vacation feel.
The best part is everything is on hand at home and you don’t need to worry about packing up at the end.
2. Set up a Cocktail Bar
Vacation mode doesn’t start with a vacation, it’s a state of mind. With only a little effort, you can create it right there in your home.
If you like to enjoy cocktails and wine on the beach as your favorite part, you don’t have to miss out. Bring that tropic beach bar right to your own home.
Set up a space in your dining room, kitchen, or outside (if you have the space) for a designated cocktail bar.
Be as cheesy as you like with the decorations but make it special. Make a sign, put some flowers around, use some novelty beach themed items.
Research a few tropical cocktails and learn to make them for some extra fun. Pineapple wedges and those little umbrellas will be all the final touches you need.
This will help your brain find it’s vacation mode and set this time and area apart as being memorable.
3. Plan a Theme Night
If you’ve played all your board games and you’re running out of things to watch on Netflix, plan a theme night to mix it up.
Each week, it’s a different member of the house’s turn to pick a theme, decorate the house, and plan menus and outfits.
It’s a chance to do things you usually wouldn’t do and go all out with creativity
Don’t be afraid to be daring and bold; you’re only in your own home after all!
Think outside the box, the wackier and more creative the idea the better.
You could have an online cooking class competition.
All the family learning to make the same dish and one person is the taster.
Or you can take a tour of the museums of Paris, or even enjoy the virtual ride simulators for Disney World!
4. Do Yoga, Stretching, Relaxation Time or Meditation
Another great staycation idea to set the mood is to do daily yoga, stretching, or meditation. With how busy our lives are, relaxation pleasures often get left behind.
We say we’ll get around to it, but there is always something that gets in the way.
Try to start out with some stretching every day, followed by some relaxation time. This can be a simple as laying on your yoga mat focusing on your breathing with your eyes shut.
Focus on all the things you’re grateful for and that gives you joy in life.
It will help revitalize you and leave you feeling as though you’ve come back from a relaxing vacation.
5. Have a Spa Day
Speaking of relaxation, what better way to relax and unwind than with a spa day! Don’t sit around feeling gross.
This is a staycation, so you deserve to pamper yourself and give yourself some “you” time.
Take the time to do the personal maintenance you enjoy best.
Blow-dry and style your hair, do your nails, experiment with that new make-up you bought. When you’ve showered, put your moisturizer on and then lounge in your robe.
Wear it for as long as you want to.
Take the time to pick out the outfit you want, brush your hair, or whatever you want to do. Even sit down and enjoy a nice cup of tea.
The important thing is to relax and look after yourself.
6. Go for a Bike Ride Adventure
Chances are, you’ve hit up every park and open space in your area at some point.
But, by linking them together in one bike ride, you can turn familiar spaces into a brand new adventure.
Take outdoor equipment to stop and have fun along the way.
A Frisbee for the open field, a kite if you have wind and hills, or even some fishing gear for any ponds. Be prepared, and don’t worry about visiting favorite locations.
Going back to a favorite nature spot can be grounding and calming. It can be educational for the family too. Going throughout the different seasons lets you get to know nature.
You’ll discover the animals, plants, and all the hidden gems it has to offer.
7. Disconnect From the Outside World
With a shift to working from home, and our lives getting busier and busier it can be problematic. The lines between work and downtime are even more blurred than ever.
The biggest thing to do on your staycation is to disconnect from work and the outside world.
You wouldn’t be answering calls and emails on an actual vacation, so don’t do it now.
Take a few days off, put up your out-of-office alert and out your feet up. Keep that laptop switched off and no matter how tempting, don’t give in.
Even avoid doing every day things like watching the news or browsing online too much. Stay away from the likes of Twitter and Facebook too.
Switch off any notifications, social, and work-related.
Tell friends and family you’re having a staycation with yourself/family/partner. You can check in with them later on.
By disconnecting from the online world, it will reduce anxiety and help you make the most of your time off.
8. Every Night is Date Night
If you are looking for romantic staycation ideas, your staycation is the perfect time to reconnect with your partner for a date night. Every night.
Whether it’s just the two of you, or the kids are off with grandma and grandpa, take this time for yourselves.
You could have a theme, like cooking a dish from a different country each night. Or going through your favorite meals, cooking them together.
Turn that dinnertime chore into a fun chance to bond and enjoy each other’s company.
And the plus side, you don’t have to ring around, juggling restaurant reservations.
Let your imaginations run wild with table decorations.
You can either take the chance to dress up in your best outfits, or even dress to the country your dish comes from.
Have music to set the tone and ambiance. Most importantly though, have fun together and enjoy yourselves.
9. Do Your Own Film Festival
You can set up your own film festival from the comfort of your home.
Set up seats (make sure you have gel seats like https://www.everlastingcomfort.net/products/back-cushion-gel-infused on normal chairs to keep everyone comfortable) and have everyone to pick a movie.
You can then take turns binging through them.
Or, you could pick a set of movies and watch them back to back. Things like Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit, Harry Potter, or Star Wars.
If you don’t have the stamina for that, you could pick a theme and get people to bring movies for that.
Like rom-coms, Christmas or road-trips. To get a cultural, vacation feel why not even dip into the world of foreign films.
You never know, you might even inspire your next trip abroad.
10. Ditch Your Schedule
Another thing we all enjoy about vacations is the lack of a schedule.
You might have a loose plan for what you want to see and do, but there is no minute-to-minute schedule.
If you want to sleep in, you can. If you want to make the most of the day, you can do that too.
Your time is your own to organize how you want it.
On your staycation, don’t check your phone, watch or clock too much for the time.
You don’t have to be anywhere or have anything to do that you don’t want to. For a few days, throw the home-life schedule out of the window and get into vacation mode.
Get up late or go to bed late if you want to and don’t sweat it if it’s past lunchtime when you do emerge from your bed!
Staycation Plans for the Ultimate Vacation
A staycation can be the perfect way to detox — no stressful travel plans, impossible itineraries or lost luggage!
But you need to be careful not to stay in the same routine and waste your time off.
These staycation plans will make sure you feel your staycation is a real vacation.
If you found this article useful, be sure to check out our other blog posts.