Staycation: Take a Vacation in Your Own City

What if you took a vacation without traveling? If you stayed home, but weren't actually at home? With a staycation, you travel right where you live. Yet, it feels completely different.

The term 'staycation' is a neologism from American English, combining 'stay' and 'vacation.' It means a vacation spent at home instead of traveling. A staycation is essentially a trip without the journey. It's like: a break right at your doorstep.

In everyday life, we're often blind to things we pass by daily. For each of us, there are corners of our hometown we don't know. Or a list of things we've always wanted to check out.

But: While on a city trip, we're always highly motivated to explore the coolest neighborhoods, hippest cafes, and most exciting museums, at home we tend to keep postponing such activities. With a staycation, you have the chance to change that.

First, you have to trick yourself into dismissing the idea that a vacation without travel isn't a real vacation. Embrace the project and don't treat it as a small deal; make it big. It is vacation!

You're traveling! Finally on the road again! Once this message has sunk in, you're ready to go. Here are seven tips to make your staycation a smashing success.

What's the first thing you do after booking your next city trip? Right, you start reading up. Whether on Instagram, Pinterest, blogs, or travel guides, you're searching for the coolest hotspots.

But have you ever done this for your own hometown? The result can be quite exciting because when you research your home as intensively as a city trip, you're bound to end up with a long list full of ideas for your staycation.

Plan your staycation in places you never usually visit. Change the neighborhood in your city, choose the corners you know the least, or the ones you've always wanted to get to know better. It's important to leave your everyday environment and broaden your horizons.

We all know that feeling: the moment we check into a hotel and enter the room often feels like the start of the vacation. You need the same feeling for your staycation. Staying in a hotel in your own city might sound odd, but it's an excellent experience.

And since you're saving on travel expenses, you can splurge a little. Where you might stay in a hostel or a budget hotel on a city trip, you can now choose a hotel that has been long on your bucket list.

Have you always wanted to try that one special hotel? Or book one that offers something truly unique: the spa in the winter, the mega pool in the summer? Go for it! Seek the extraordinary. Google the coolest boutique hotels in your area, the most beautiful spa hotels, or look for superlatives that might delight you: the hotel with the best view, the highest rooftop bar, the best breakfast.

When researching, don't focus on prices first, but on experiences. Once you have a list of possible hotels, you can check and compare prices. Tip: Even expensive hotels lower prices during weekdays. So why not plan your staycation from Sunday to Tuesday instead of from Friday to Monday?

When at home, we usually go to the same restaurants for a good meal. Having a favorite restaurant is nice, but for a staycation, it's about breaking old patterns and trying new things.

Restaurants you're familiar with are therefore off-limits. The same goes for any other activity you want to do: on your staycation list, there should only be things you don't know - from shopping trips to museums to night bar tours.

Vacation isn't about ticking off lists but about relaxation. This applies to your staycation too. Don't feel like running around? Then spend time at the hotel and binge-watch your favorite show. Everything is optional, nothing is mandatory.

Because simply being in a hotel instead of at home already gives you a vacation feeling. And if you do venture out and explore your city anew, let yourself wander. Stroll through the streets, turn into small alleys, and give yourself a chance to get lost. That's how you'll discover a new side of your hometown.

Have you always wanted to climb the mountain outside your city, or dive into the lake in the next town over? Check out the concept store or bookshop everyone's talking about? Dream of spending a day doing nothing but lounging in a spa? Or maybe take a closer look at that city landmark you last saw as a kid?

Your staycation is also about fulfilling old wishes. Think about what you've always wanted to do but kept postponing 'because you could do it anytime,' and then go enjoy the fact that your staycation shows you a whole new world, even though you're spending your vacation at home instead of traveling.