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I can’t tell you enough how much I love a good staycation! Yes, traveling the world is exciting , but sometimes, it’s nice to just be a tourist in your own town.
Especially for the holiday season, a good staycation can provide you with a stress free and cheaper alternative for spending time with those you love the most.
This is what we’ve chosen to do this year, and I honestly think that this will be a new tradition for us. So I’ve listed below why you too should give doing a holiday staycation a try.
Get the best deals for your staycation
Before we left for our staycation, I made sure that I was getting the best deals on everything we did with Groupon coupled with Rakuten.
Groupon made it easy to find new and interesting things to do in our city and offered great discounts. We were even able to get our hotel suite right on the river at a discounted price for the night with Groupon!
And did you know that Groupon offers rebates with Rakuten? We got 6% cash back booking our hotel reservation through them. That money adds up! And if you’re new to Rakuten, you can earn $10 cash back on your first qualifying purchase. Sign in here before you head over to Groupon to make your staycation a memorable and an affordable one!
Cheaper than longer trips
In the past, Stephen and I would travel to Boulder and Seattle during the holiday season. And while we love doing so, it isn’t exactly the cheapest things to be catching so many flights.
Round trip flights to Boulder for us are about $320 a person, while flights to Seattle run about $100. Multiply that by 3 (soon to be four) and we’re looking at about $1,700 just in flights for November and December.
So when we saw that we could book a luxury hotel suit on the river, reserver a fancy Christmas dinner and breakfast for our family and pamper ourselves with a spa day– all for around $500, the staycation suddenly made A LOT more sense.
Creating wonderful memories
Many folks never take full advantage of all their town has to offer them, and that was certainly the case with us.
We’ve been living in this town for about 4 years now, and there’s still so much we haven’t seen or done. Taking this staycation has allowed us to be tourist in our own little city and create wonderful family memories together.
For our Christmas dinner, we revered seats right by the water at a wonderful seafood restaurant Anthony’s–who also happens to have bomb vegan, vegetarian and children’s options.
They had they most beautiful, nautical Christmas tree I’ve ever seen, their drinks and wine selection were amazing and their staff was so friendly. Generally for special occasions, Stephen and I go to our tried and true spots. But taking a staycation opened our minds up to seek out new things in our town and it really paid off.
Easier traveling
If you’ve ever traveled through an airport with a toddler during the holiday season, then you already know the nightmare that it is.
Even with TSA Pre Check (very much needed with kids) or CLEAR, lugging around the stroller, carseat, emergency pack for the plane and food, while sometimes having to literally drag your child so that they don’t get left behind is tiring.
Getting your child in the car with a weekend bag and driving 15 minutes to an hour to a hotel however is MUCH easier.
Would it be nice to be on a sandy beach somewhere soaking up the sun with beautiful turquoise waters around me? Absolutely. But as a parent, nothing beats a stress free vacation.
Stress Less
Generally for the holidays, I wake up early on Christmas eve and make a big tea for our family to enjoy. I love baking yummy pastries and making cute little sandwiches for us to google down. But it’s a lot of work.
This holiday however, I’ve found that taking a staycation has relieved a lot of that stress.
I fond myself up at 6am on Christmas eve, not to cook or clean or fix last minute decorations, but just to finish up the last of this blog post here and get some alone time with just myself (and I NEVER get along time with just myself!)
Right now, I’m sitting in the living room of our suite by the fireplace, drinking my favorite tea, eating Christmas cookies and watching the fog roll in over the river.
I didn’t have to make my tea or breakfast and I don’t have any dishes to clean. How relaxing is that?
Portable Holiday Cheer
I think my biggest worry about a holiday staycation was ‘but how am I going to make this feel festive?’
If you know me, or have seen any of my holiday videos, then you know that I’m a very festive person and I’m proud of that. Every inch of my home is decorated for the holiday season. So if I’m leaving that behind for a hotel, I need to make sure that the hotel room is just as festive too.
I was worried that making a hotel room feel festive would require a lot of effort on our part (something I’m actively trying to avoid), But I’m happy to say that the wasn’t the case for us.
We pick up some cheap string lights from Loews for about $6 total, brought some LED candles and a mini Christmas tree from the dollar store from our home and got a holiday ballon set from Target again for about another $5
We spent maybe $15 buck decorating our room and it took less than 10 minutes to put it all up. But the look and feel of this room is absolutely priceless. Edison loves all the light and I love how magical and cozy it all feels.
Best part? Clean up is only going to take minutes verse the hours it will take at home.
Staycations get a lot of unfair flak from those of us who love to wanderlust. But they truly are an amazing option for those who just want a quick, relaxing getaway. Take the time to be a tourist in your own city.
Are you planning on a staycation for 2020? What are some of your favorite things to do in your hometown!