Tips for Creating Your Own Staycation

Here’s a little secret: As wonderful as vacations are, they can also be a little bit exhausting. Flights are delayed, airplanes are full, driving is tiring, sightseeing sometimes seems like so much milling around.
So while you may be feeling deprived if this year’s fuel prices are putting a damper on your vacation plans, reframe it as a way to have all the downtime with none of the hassles. The buzzword is “staycation” and if that’s on your calendar this year, then make the best of it. The trick is thinking about what you enjoy most about vacation and recreating those things as best you can. Here are some ideas to get you started.

• Before your staycation starts, get the house spic and span. Hire someone to come in and give it a scrub if you can.
• Put fresh sheets on all the beds and nice soaps in the bathroom, just like a hotel.
• Stock the fridge with summer treats. If you don’t gain three pounds, is it really a vacation?
• Consider a theme for the week. Do you love to cook? Plan and cook exotic meals each day, perhaps visiting various ethnic neighborhoods to shop for ingredients.
• Put your alarm clock in a drawer and forget about it.
• Wake up every morning and think, “What do I feel like doing today?” Do that and nothing else.
• Go out for brunch. Drink mimosas.
• Read the book you would read on the beach if you were on the beach.
• Go to places you would take visitors if they came to see your town—museums, the zoo, the aquarium.
• Explore neighborhoods you don’t know well. Buy souvenirs.
• Pack a picnic and spend a day a nearby park. Bring a beach chair and sit in it to read your beach book.
• Go out for ice cream every evening.