5 Ways To Make A Staycation Feel Like A Vacation
Here’s to all you awesome individuals that want to travel right now but realize it’s not in the cards either “jobwise” or “lifewise”. Either your budget is tight and/or you are too busy keeping your job to even think about splurging on an epic trip to some exotic location.
Fear not thrifty would-be travelers, we have 5 tips to make your soon-to-be staycation memorable and on budget! Remember, you won’t be spending any money on flights, hotels, or sightseeing activities – so you can dial up your dinner and entertainment spend (within reason) on this trip.
Our 5 staycation tips are for a party of one or family of five – happy travels (at home).
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Set The Lighting Mood
Lighting is so important when trying to set the mood for numerous occasions. That can be for reading, rainy days, or at different times during the evening.
A good way to look at setting the ideal mood is would you rather have those bright fluorescent lights typically in an office or ambient lighting when out at dinner?
One new technology we think is pretty awesome are the remote controlled LED light bulbs that work with Google Home and Amazon’s Alexa. They have so many color options and varieties to set the mood from dinner table meals, disco parties in your living room, to a quiet night of Netflix binging. You use the included remote, the mobile app, or just speak to your virtual home assistant and say “Alexa, dim the lights please“.
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Stock Up On Exotic Meals And Drinks
What’s the one thing you remember from a fun vacation? Probably, the food and drinks you tried that you normally don’t eat or drink at home.
So, get adventurous, and either order in from food apps like Grubhub or DoorDash and give that Ethiopian restaurant a shot you’ve always been meaning to try. Or you take a quick ride prior to your staycation start date and visit your local specialty market in town and order something you’d never normally cook at home.
As for booze, you can go to your local liquor store or order in “room service” with apps like Drizly and Minibar and give that expensive bottle of wine or whiskey a try you’ve never been able to justify.
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Purchase New Movies Or Concert Releases
Now, we know Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime have many free titles to watch. However, if you’ve exhausted all your free TV shows and movies that you’ve wanted to watch it may be a good idea to see what new releases have recently become available for a fee.
Normally, you wouldn’t even think about buying that latest movie or live concert for $19.99, but, come on, you are on staycation right now! You deserve to live the good life while eating your exotic meal, drinking your new expensive wine, and perfecting your new mood setting LED lights for whatever scene you are trying to create tonight.
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Tell Your Friends, Family Neighbors – No Contact
Once your staycation begins, let family, friends, and neighbors know you are taking a trip and can’t be reachable. They may ask where you are going and that’s up to you how you want to handle it.
We think you should be honest but depending on your relationships with those closest to you, and your need for a true at home vacation, it might be fun to tell a white lie – and perhaps you’ll finally know whose been using your weed whacker without your consent.
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Ship Yourself A Completely Filled Piece Of Luggage
Yes, we are aware that this may be a very weird thing to do, but hear us out – it’s good. So, you are trying to get in the vacation mode, right?
What better way to get in the mood then by having either your significant other or a friend / family member send you a random filled piece of luggage with stuff you may want on your staycation. You can set a theme or just have it be completely random and see what comes to you. Hey, you never know, it could really add to your trip at home in so many useful or humorous ways.
And when you are ready to take an actual vacation away from home you should consider shipping your luggage ahead of time with LugLess and avoid lugging your bags to and from the airport and paying those annoying airline baggage fees.
For now, enjoy your staycation and live it up and act “as-if” for the next few days and pour us a glass of that expensive wine or whiskey for giving you these fun and unique staycation tips.