A staycation is a short vacation to a place close to home.
If you’re not used to doing things on your own, this is a way to ease into solo travel. Read on for more info and ideas!
I recommend booking a staycation in your city but staying away from home. For example, I live on the east side of Los Angeles. As silly as it sounds, east siders don’t get over to the west side very often. It’s only a 45-minute drive, but with traffic, it definitely feels like a trek. And so I present to you…the perfect staycation opportunity.
For my birthday a couple years ago, I booked a one-night stay at the Proper Hotel in Santa Monica, a superb place to enjoy a side of LA I don’t get to see often. New restaurants, new scenery, new crowds of people.
Staying at a hotel, bed & breakfast, or Airbnb will get you out of the house so you can be a tourist in your own city. This means you’re not grabbing a latte from your favorite café in the morning and going to the local bar to hang with your friends at night. You’re going to explore a different area of town and try things you’ve never done before.
Some women love the experience of staying in a hotel for a night and exploring the area the day before and after checkout. Or you might choose to take several days off work and have a staycation that lets you explore the city for a weekend or longer.
Many people live in a city for years without hitting the popular museums and tourist attractions. There are people in New York who haven’t been to the top of the Empire State Building, people in Memphis who haven’t toured Graceland, or even people in Arizona who haven’t made it to the Grand Canyon. When you live somewhere, you tend to feel like you’ll get around to such experiences eventually, but for now, you need to work, hang out with friends, and stick to your routine. A staycation removes those elements from the equation, freeing you up to see your city through a new lens.
If your own city doesn’t excite you (it needs to excite you!) then look at neighboring cities an hour or two away. Maybe a nearby city has an annual festival you’ve always wanted to experience, or your favorite band is playing at a venue there. Or maybe you don’t have a reason to visit beyond it just being a close location that’s worth exploring!
Once you have a city or town selected, look at the attractions, restaurants, and stores you’ve never been to. You might notice that many of them are in the same location, like several galleries and museums downtown. Maybe you choose to book a hotel downtown so you can walk or take public transportation instead of depending on your car. If your points of interest are scattered throughout the city, that works too. Driving your car gives you a lot of freedom to get where you need to go.
