15 Tips to Create a Staycation During Self-Distancing

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In 2009 we learned what staycations were during the financial crisis and how helpful they were to reframe the mind when going through a tough time. Fast forward to 2020 and here we are with COVID-19. Once again, we are sort of stay-cating again by physically isolating ourselves from friends, relatives, colleagues, and many activities we enjoy. After a week or so of trying to figure this out, it dawned on us we could use the same tips we used for our staycations in 2009 for our current self-distancing situation now. These staycation tips will help you and not break the bank. In addition, we learned a lot about our habits and ourselves. Over a lifetime, you may staycate for economic, logistic, or medical reasons. Creating a staycation can also be an amazing personal learning and enrichment process to reset your Contentment Compass.

My husband and I are pretty structured. We enjoy checklists, project lists, and activity schedules.  We prefer not to “fritter” away time, but we do understand the importance of pausing and clearing the mind. The thoughts and tips below may not work for everyone, but here’s what we learned:

15 Tips to Create a Staycation During Self-Distancing

1. Define your goal. Do you want to recreate your normal vacation routine or create a totally new experience? For example, what do you normally do on vacation? Sleep late? Eat breakfast in? Have a morning or afternoon activity or both? Stay at boutique hotels or the rustic cabin on the lake for seclusion? For a new experience, do you want to create a Tuscan holiday or a spa weekend in the Texas Hill Country, or a long weekend in Sedona? Were you supposed to go Spring Break this year to a really cool destination, but because of COVID-19, you can barely go to the grocery store?
2. Define your time frame. Will you staycate for a long weekend, a week, 10 days? Be sure and have a specific “departure” or start time and a “return” or end time. For us, we were supposed to be in Provence for the first time during the first week of April. By the time we started this staycation, we were a couple of days behind. So, we extended our staycation the same number of days with the idea that we loved Provence so much, we would stay an extra two days or the airlines happily helped us out!
3. Define some staycation rules. Here are some examples. No heavy-duty seasonal chores. Limit reading or sorting mail. Under normal staycation rules, minimize eating at home. In the case of COVID 19, consider eating in a different room such as a bedroom to pretend it is room service or a picnic on the patio or yard.
4. Learn at least one thing new every day related to your destination vacation. Learn the language, the food, the area, etc. Just as if you were on a real vacation, read something about the area and share it with your family or significant other.
5. Manage technology. If you can, respond to no emails or put an “out of the office” on your email. Use your computer time as you would on a real vacation – only once a day for a specific period of time during the day.
6. Determine any prep work. Do what you normally do before you go out of town for any period of time. I personally found a clean car mentally equated to a rental car mentality. I didn’t get distracted by noticing the grass on the floor mats and the dust on the armrests. Get your major chores done so you won’t feel compelled to do them during your staycation.  Mow the lawn, water the plants, change the litter box, etc.  Then buy only food that you would normally buy for a vacation. Consider what take-out or delivery food corresponds to your vacation as well.
7. Create your staycation language. Have some fun with this! Is your home the hotel room, cabin, or Airbnb? Where is the “business center” to get those few things done that are “must-dos” in regards to technology? Your kitchen can be the “refreshment center” or “breakfast buffet.”
8. Align activities with your vacation destination. When you do get out for a walk or bike ride, invent a destination that relates to your vacation. For example, when my husband and I go for a bike ride, we ride on a trail that has a semblance to a European trail, along a waterway, or scenic view. We walked to Sprouts to pick up a few things and created a morning walk to a French farmers market. Our lunch bike was a  Peanut Butter Pretend Picnic in Provence (on the Poudre River).
9. Be sure and celebrate. Add in a special timeframe to celebrate and say “good-bye” to your staycation. My husband wisely included a cocktail time before our “flight departure” back home to relax and be thankful for what we have and remind ourselves how little it takes to be truly content.
10. Sleep in another bedroom. If you have an additional bedroom, set up your vacation in that room. Create your favorite vacation experience with flowers, pillows, candles, scents, or whatever will provide you with sensory details to remind you of a vacation destination. Bonus points if you pack your bag and live out of a suitcase – just like a vacation!
11. Create a video frame of your vacation favorites. My husband moved the video frame of several of our vacations to the second bedroom. One might think you might regret that you can’t take that big trip this year, but really, it makes you thankful you were able to go anywhere at all and relish in the memories of the trip.
12. Enjoy Simple Pleasures. Use your leftover hotel products to reinforce your vacation or “away” mindset. Buy some special soaps or lotions that reflect the destination you are trying to create or make your own spa cleanser. Or, try your hand at plein air painting!
13. Use up your gift cards – whatever they are!  If you are a gift card saver, this is the time to use them up. In preparation, consider ordering a few things online that will help create the theme you want, even if it is some pretty napkins to decorate your table.
14. Design your trip around a popular event.  For example, do you love the Tour de France? Bring France to you. Watch the tour, enjoy some French wine. If you are cooking at home, set a Provence-style cafe table and cook a French meal.  Or go out to a French restaurant. For COVID 19, perhaps there is a French restaurant that is offering takeout.  Take a French cooking class or learn to cook French lentils on YouTube. Buy some French products online and enjoy opening and using them. Use a map to “visit” a couple of popular cities, read up on your destination’s history, virtually visit a museum with the Impressionists’ works, or even go online to learn historical details. Go for a bike ride. Order a French movie online.  Learn a couple of simple French phrases or sign up for Duolingo and take as many lessons as you can.
15. Create a wine or brewery tour – My husband is a homebrewer so we always include a brewery tour or brewpub wherever we go. Since you can’t go to a winery or brewery during self-distancing, bring it to your staycation.  Choose a region such as Colorado, California or the Northwest and design a tour with the brew or wine a few regional treats.

We learned some great things in our recent staycation experiment. First, both of us did better than expected in not letting the regular home environment interfere with “vacation.”  Second, it gave us an even greater perspective of “enough” – true contentment with what you have. With enough creativity, you can transition days at home into interesting staycation days of learning and relaxation. Finally, a few days of pre-planning helped tremendously. Most of the time, when you go on a trip, there is some planning. So do take the time to plan your staycation.

The most important thing is to separate from your routine, disconnect from chores, open and clear your mind. A staycation is a great way to manage the ceaseless “listing” of things to do, the possible anxiety of how to fill your time during these self-distancing times, and practice resetting your Contentment Compass.