The Benefits of a Staycation

When I traveled for the first time in 2.5 years from the Middle East to the United States in early May, I strongly considered swinging off a trip to a new country, but I had a to-do list that literally had over 20 items that needed to get done in the US, so no travel was done at all. However, From July 8 to July 16, I had time off and had an opportunity to travel, but strangely enough, I chose to have a staycation. In the past, this would have been somewhat anathema to me. Previously, I would have no problem heading off somewhere if I had at least 5 days off. Maybe I am getting older, or COVID and life at home has somewhat changed me, but I have developed a strange fondness for the staycation.

Admittedly, this staycation happened for several reasons. First, I wanted to really get everything in order for when I start traveling again. Second, I had a lot of domestic duties to take of. Finally, I did not have time to plan a trip. While I considered heading off somewhere nearby in the region, I did not have a chance to thoroughly plan out a short trip. By the time I had time to think about it, I would have had only a couple days to book a flight, set up a hotel, and book tours. This would not be enough time for me to carefully research everything, especially with COVID regulations still in effect in many places.

However, during this down time, I genuinely enjoyed this staycation and discovered the following benefits.

1) Save Money

Probably the biggest benefit of a staycation is the fact that a lot of money can be saved. Flights these days are very expensive, and when you add accommodation, transportation, and other items, such as tours, souvenirs, food, gratuities, and admission fees, this can add up significantly and quickly and easily blow a budget. In fact, the cost was a big reason why I decided to stay home this time. Since I had already booked the flight and hotel for country #100 in August, I made the decision to save money for this holiday period and put money toward future trips in possibly October and December.

2) Explore Locally

Another benefit of doing a staycation instead of traveling overseas is one has the chance to explore locally. Despite having lived in this Middle Eastern country for almost 10 years, I have traveled surprisingly little in it. However, during COVID, a friend and myself took a few day trips to areas relatively near to the city we live in. This gave an opportunity to check out sites that I had never seen before, and it was definitely a lot cheaper than booking a flight and hotel, especially since these were just day trips, so it was not necessary to overnight somewhere. In addition, if one explores locally during a staycation, it allows one to discover new places that others may not know about, so it is definitely possible to find a great new restaurant or attraction that is not inundated with other visitors.

3) Declutter

For those who want to be a bit more domestic, a staycation allows time for decluttering. Personally, I am a huge fan of decluttering. In fact, some people say I might do it excessively, but I find that when I am surrounded by clutter, I feel stressed and irritated. However, when you decide to take a staycation, the time can be used to go through each room of your home and determine what can be thrown away, given away, or donated. I think you’ll be surprised at how much can be gotten rid of when there is time to genuinely think about whether it is needed or not. During this particular staycation, I was able to do a detailed cleanout of each room in my home, and I honestly feel less stressed because I’m not surrounded by extraneous items, and I actually feel like I can breathe.

Along with physical decluttering of a room, a staycation can also be used to do a digital decluttering of devices. In my case, I spent a good portion of my holiday cleaning out/organizing files from my laptop, iPad, and phone. This was particularly good for me since files tended to accumulate, and I was even surprised that I had old documents that were no longer needed. This definitely was a benefit and freed up some much needed space on my devices.

4) Read

In my opinion, this is probably one of the best parts of a staycation. Granted, I think the pandemic turned a lot of people (myself included) into voracious readers. Before the pandemic, I would only typically read while in the airport or on an airplane. As a result, some books took me months to finish. However, for this staycation, one of my favorite parts was literally laying on the couch and reading. There were times when I did nothing the entire day except read since I became engrossed in the book and had to know what happened next. Ultimately, I read 7 books that had been on my list. I cannot speak for everyone else, but when I travel, reading tends to be put on the backburner or something that happens at the end of the day in bed or while waiting in the airport. If you do a staycation, use that extra free time to catch up on a book that you’ve been itching to read.

5) Catch Up on Sleep

Finally, a great benefit of a staycation is the chance to catch up on sleep without having to worry about deadlines or appointments. Whenever I travel, I do not typically use that time for catching up on sleep. Instead, I am usually out and about early in the morning and come back in the evening to crash. In some cases, I might have to wake very early for a tour that is going quite far away. However, when you stay home, you can wake up when you want and go to bed when you want without worry.

6) Less Stress

I love traveling as much as the next person, but traveling can be stressful. There are always all kinds of things that can and will go wrong. Problems can arise at the airport or destination itself (believe me, I know). However, a staycation takes away that stress since you don’t have to worry about getting to the airport early, whether the flight will be delayed or cancelled, or whether the airline will lose your luggage. In addition, you don’t have to deal with extremely tight or long connections, or a whole host of other issues that can come up while traveling. Admittedly, even after all the traveling I have done, I still experience stress at airports and even while in country. However, with a staycation, those problems are not an issue.

Ultimately, does a staycation beat actually traveling? In my opinion, no. Personally, I find traveling somewhere much more interesting than staying home, but I definitely enjoy staying home and just taking care of domestic duties and making sure everything is ready for when I travel again.

What do you think about staycations? I’d love to hear your thoughts.