Staycation Nation!

When you skipped the trip to Paris or Maui this summer, whether you knew it or not, you were on the vanguard of the latest trend in travel: the Staycation.

Staycationing is a fine art, and while intrepid globetrotters might dispute this, one not without a significant element of challenge. Instead of deciphering a Costa Rican road map, clambering up a glacier in Patagonia, or communicating your drink order to a sullen waiter in Prague, your challenges are not answering e mail, not heading to PetSmart for cat litter, and not returning phone calls from those people you foolishly told you were “just sticking around town.”

The joy of the staycation is discovering great new places and activities, close to home, that are as satisfying and horizon-stretching as ones you find in distant lands. (Caution: staycationing can make you unbearably smug, as you listen without a drop of empathy to tales of airport delays and hacking toddlers in adjacent seats.)

For future reference, here are some helpful guidelines I’ve amassed from my staycations this summer:

1. Have a plan. Like any good vacation, it’s important to stake out some key activities. Some marquee activities or events form the armature of a good vacation. Danger awaits those who don’t plan. Before your staycation, do some research, just as you would if you were heading to a new destination. In the weeks and months prior to your next staycation, keep a file of articles you run across on day-trip destinations. Encourage your family to make contributions.
2. Don’t have too many plans. An overly full schedule will make your staycation feel like a forced march. Alternate structured and unstructured days. A trip to the De Young museum and lunch at the Ferry Building in San Francisco one day, followed by a refreshing palate cleanser of hammock-and-novel time the next.
3. Completely alter your daily routine. The danger on a staycation is that you will lapse into (or never venture out of) familiar routines. Even if it’s as small as going to a different coffee place for your morning double-half caf-mocha-latte-ya-ya, your brain will be refreshed. And while you’re at it, you might get a little crazy and try the acai-soy-chai-latte.
4. Don’t discount “touristy” activities. Many of us have never visited the key attractions of our area, fearing the crowds of, uh, tourists. Oh, get over yourself! Has a line ever stopped you from visiting the Louvre, or caused you to leave Disneyland in a fit of pique? When you’re on “vacation” your sense of time and perception of inconvenience undergoes a radical shift. Instead of watching precious minutes of your much-too-brief weekend tick away in a queue for theatre tickets, you’ll view the inconvenience in a different context when you’re staycationing.
5. Take enough time off. For some reason, staycationers often cheat themselves of a full vacation (cutting a full week down to five days, say), citing excuses like “well, I would have spent that time on a plane, anyhow.” No ma’am. Spend that day glorying in all the things you can do when not imprisoned in an 18” wide seat, legs pinned by the reclined seat in front of you (Yes, I’m writing this on a plane.)
6. Avoid the news. On staycation, news-avoidance is an essential brain detox. I increasingly think this is a good practice for daily life, too.
7. Make sure all members of your staycationing family are on the same page. Set groundrules, but keep them playful. Are we allowed to pick up voice mail, call the office? How long should these tasks take? Institute fines for running over time on “real world” activities, with punishments like foot massages or a freshly prepared batch of Mojitos served by the perp. The Wii may make a curious and untimely disappearance. More than a coincidence?

I’d love to hear staycation stories from you. What was your staycation discovery this year? Please share!