Staycations

Staycations – The Pro’s and Con’s Episode 348

Sometimes the best vacations are staycations! These fun times are so close to you that you never see them or make the time to enjoy these places. In this episode, we will discuss why staycations can be the best vacation your family ever takes.

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So, what is a staycation? It is a vacation at home.

Let’s look at why people take vacations.

Spend time with family
Relax and unwind.
“Get away.”
Experience new things.
Avoid work.
Visit different places.
Try different foods.
Learn something new.
Enjoy local culture
For the mystery, uncertainty, and excitement

Staycations ~ Best Vacations at Home

Often we overlook the wonderful things happening right in our own town in order to travel to another destination, live out of a suitcase and spend lots of money. Don’t get me wrong, vacations are wonderful and sometimes just getting away can bring so much enjoyment it makes it worth the time to plan and the money spent. But what if you decide to do something different this year?

If you are like me, you might live in a city that is a vacation destination. There are so many things to do, however, most would be considered off the beaten path. We don’t have a theme park in my town, but we do have gorgeous beaches, two baseball stadiums, a hockey stadium and not one but two indoor skating rinks. People fly to southwest Florida from all over the world to enjoy our white sand beaches, local seafood, and glorious and endless sunshine. Even the days it rains you can count on the fact that the showers are typically localized and short, with the sun peeking out of the clouds soon afterward.

Truthfully my area is a tourist hub anytime from October to the week or so before Easter. The traffic becomes congested with tourism and all those who come to see the two major league baseball teams that play in my area. And, the locals pay money to leave.

How do you make a staycation a vacation? In the next episode of Vintage Homeschool Moms I’ll go into details on how to plan one to make the most of your time, but just let me explain the basics here.

Create categories of what you would like to do if you were on a typical vacation. These may include accommodations, site seeing, attending events, or an experience like parasailing
Think about the foods you would eat or restaurants you would frequent.
What activities would you do? Adventure, active or passive?
Length of time.

What are the pros and cons of a staycation vs. a vacation?

Staycation	Vacation
Pro’s	Con’s
Save money	Costs More
No packing	Packing clothes for different events
Less stress	Stressful – unknown hard to plan for
Less planning	More planning
No time off from work	Time off from work
No travel	Plan travel time
Can be done on a whim	Need time to make arrangements
No need for house sitter – care for pets	House sitter – pets, etc.
Con’s	Pro’s
Harder to relax and unwind	Easier to relax and unwind
Staying home	“Get away”
Same surroundings	Different surroundings
Harder to experience new things	Easier to experience new things
Harder to try new foods/ events	Easier to try new foods and events
Harder to sightsee	Easier to see new sights

Ultimately the choice is yours – but recently when I was looking at a vacation in nearby Georgia for my family I found the average house that would fit my size family, close to nature walks, the rapids, and other local events would cost six thousand dollars for one week. That is not including food, although since it was a house we could save money and cook. However, we decided that while it would be fun to see the mountain views the cost was more than we wanted to spend.

So, instead we plan on visiting the local beaches, trying local cuisine on nearby Sanibel/ Captiva Island, and take nature walks along our beaches. The kids will fish, again locally and perhaps take SCUBA diving lessons. This is a fraction of the cost of going away for one week.

And, there is more! I have some fun podcasts upcoming. Stay tuned for more ideas and a way to plan out your staycation so that you’ll wonder why you ever vacation!