Vacationing at Home—The Works

women with red wine

The cold seasons are nearing, and yet you haven’t gone beyond your community park. You’ve been so used to barely seeing your home, always online to check if there are price drops in flights to your next travel destination.

The pandemic has surely dampened most travelers’ plans this year. While some may have opted instead to go on road trips and go camping in the local natural parks, the great outdoors is not your kind of adventure. Living with only the bare essentials is tedious instead of fun.

It’s OK. You are not alone in your sentiments. There is a large part of the population who would prefer being holed up in their homes rather than rough it out in the open. But it doesn’t mean you can’t go on a vacation. Sure, you don’t have the money to hire a private jet or an RV, but real travelers have good imaginations.

Let’s make use of that imagination. Here’s what you can do while waiting for the borders to open again and you can resume your dreams to travel the world.

Prepare for your trip

Like going on a normal vacation, you prepare your itinerary, and you pack your things. How long would you want your trip to be? What do you want to accomplish for that day? For the purposes of this guide, let us suppose that it is just a quick trip, something you would take when you get a long weekend.

Now, pack your things. You cannot cheat-you should only wear whatever you put into your luggage for the duration of your trip. Forget that you have an entire closet of clothes in your room. Do what you usually would when you pack your bags. You need to plan your outfits-the clothes, the shoes, down to the bracelets and earrings you would wear for the day-so do it now.

Set your accommodation

Where you would sleep on those three days would help with the experience. If you have a spare room in your house, use it. Clean it, put on fresh sheets. This will be your hotel room, so temporarily hide the personal items that might be in the room. The same goes if you are setting up your room. Try to have it tolook similar to any hotel-impersonal, but clean and comfortable.

Dine out

Normally, your travel itinerary would be packed with places to see. But now, populate it with things to do. Usually, you have a list of restaurants you would want to go to-sometimes for their delicacies, but most of the time for their unique interiors. So prepare to dine out. Set up your patio for a nice brunch area, put a proper tablecloth, arrange the cutlery and plates. If you can-that is, if you get the support of your family for this temporary extravagance-set up a breakfast buffet table in advance. On the day of your ‘travel,’ it would be nice if someone from your family can put on the coffee maker, fill the trays with bread, eggs, sausages, and fruits. If none, you can prepare a simple brunch and still enjoy it in your alfresco café.

For dinner, you can set another table at home, complete with the formal dinnerware. But if not, just add fairy lights to your patio to make it look extra. Set up a sound system so you could play ambient music. If you want, you can cook your dinner, but you could also order food you don’t usually have at home.

Follow your travel itinerary

So you set up your accommodations and meals at home-the safest place because you are in control here-but it doesn’t mean you can’t go out. Think about what places in your locality have you always thought interesting, but you never got the chance to stop by and admire. It could be a simple welcome sign to a village, framed with beautiful flowers. It could be a picturesque bridge, a small brook by the roadside, a historical monument everyone has taken for granted. Plot them out on your two-day trip.

Now, of course, you never go on a trip without having some entertainment. For this, set up an outdoor movie screen. Don’t just watch another Netflix show in your living room. Get a projector, find a good sound system, and set up a home theater in your garden.

You could think of other ways to explore places or enjoy your staycation at this time. Deviate from what you usually have or do on your usual days. Whatever you decide on doing, the important thing is you have fun.