Now that summer is on its way, the pressure starts to set in to plan a great family vacation. Of course, a family vacation is supposed to be a fun, memorable event – but if money is tight, it can be a supremely stressful event for the parents! When money is tight, one great vacation solution is to not plan a vacation that requires travel, and to instead plan a “staycation” – a stay at home vacation.
Setting the dates and making sure everyone recognizes that these days will be treated the same as if you were on vacation is the first step to planning a staycation. This can be especially difficult if you have teenagers, as they might try to say that the staycation is a “lame” idea, and that they want to hang out with their friends. But a successful staycation requires you to make sure the kids are not heading off to spend the night with their friends, and that you and your spouse are not spending your time shopping or playing golf! 101 Great Staycations! Keeping the staycation shorter than a regular vacation would be is also a big key, as this will make it easier to convince everyone to be around. If your typical travel vacation would last for about one week, consider shortening this time to about four days for your stay at home vacation. And anyway, about two of those seven days for a “travel vacation” are usually consumed with traveling anyway, so you still have plenty of time with your staycation! And making sure you have things planned to do is the biggest thing left once you have set the dates and have convinced everyone to be there. If you have a staycation that just forces everyone to sit around the house, they will be on the phone, in front of the television, with a book, et cetera. Plan games for the time when everyone is at home, and plan events away from the house – just like a real vacation! Lots of people end up saying that their staycations are the best vacations they have ever taken; if you plan properly, you can feel the same way!