Staycations are real vacation too! Plan a weekend or vacation around your city and state. There are many attractions that bring tourists to your area each year! Often we skip hometown for more exotic destinations – an home is begging you to click your heels and say “there’s no place like home – there’s no place like home”!

We love a great Staycation and especially enjoy creating a theme to take us through the entire time. We have a set of rules – we think you’ll find them help too.

How to plan a great Staycation?

Make it look and feel like a vacation – it’s not about hanging out on the sofa for the weekend and chilling-out or surfing the web or cable channels for “something to do”. A Staycation must be a planned event – with an itinerary!
Create a theme to design your Staycation around. I love to highlight a favorite country or culture. Everything evolves from there.
Plug-in adventure and out-of-the-box ideas:

• Camp out in the living room/ bedroom or backyard if weather permits.
• Decorate the house to match your theme: How about Mexican – place blankets, piñatas, sombreros around for a cultural atmosphere. And, enjoy food that matches the theme. Think it through and make it authentic.

This is not the time to fit in a couple of chores. Stay focused – remain committed to the Staycation.

• Remember Staycations are about getting away too! Be absent from what you normally do on weekends.

Plan time to go out – stay with your theme – for dinner try either traditional dishes or go for a gourmet twist. Or take in an exhibit or festival. Branch out from your main theme – try another culture or county you are interested in – you can make it multi-cultural!

Plan a small get-together – For Mexican invite friends over for a margarita contest – each person must bring their own recipe for a special drink.

Movies are filled with scenery, foreigin langaugaes and cultural themes; each can whisk there and heighten the feeling of “being there”! Choosing a movie is a personal choice – what speaks to you – but choose one that also includes the scensories that put you in the place.

What a perfect opportunity to roll out the slideshow and brag about a previous trip. Share funny stories, mishaps and all the joys, jollies and calamities which are bound to fill our journey.

Research before hand about the country or culture of your theme – if there are children in the home get them involved and excited. This is a great learning opportunity for them to learn what children do in that culture on a day-to-day basis, what holidays they celebration, what foods they eat. A little research can go a long way!

Staycations  help inspire you to take that special trip sooner than later. And, hopefully inspire other Staycations too!

While we love travel and going to different destinations around the world that’s not always necessary to experience a culture and learn more about other people, places and traditions.