A “Staycation” doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to actually stay at home.

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A “Staycation” doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to actually stay at home.

Staycations, or vacations that are close to home, often involve remaining at home and exploring sites and activities in your own backyard (for example, as a Seattle resident going to the top of the Space Needle – something you would do as a tourist, or with out of town guests, but you would likely never do that excursion on your own). Think about where you live, what you’d want to do or see locally and an activity that you normally wouldn’t participate in. What about expanding on that idea and thinking about something local you’d like to do that may involve more time than just a day trip? Now you’re talking about an extended staycation….

The extended staycation; that’s what I did for my last birthday, I wanted to go on a trip to celebrate, but both my time and my budget were limited. For this trip I didn’t want to spend one whole day at the beginning of the trip and another whole day at the end of the trip at the airport and on a plane – my allotted vacation time was just too restricted. I hadn’t been to Vancouver, BC is years so that sounded like a great idea.  I was up early in the morning and, with my best friend, we headed north. We made a stop in Bellingham for breakfast, wandered around and did some sightseeing, continued north and checked in to our Vancouver hotel. By 1:00pm we were enjoying a martini toast to celebrate the weekend. It was a relaxing drive, we were at an amazing hotel and enjoying that “ahhhh, we’re out of town” feeling that you get on a vacation (and we were literally 2 hours from home).

Recently I have been helping some clients research and book great staycations in the Seattle area, here are a few of them:

• A wellness retreat for (10) women on Lopez Island in the San Juan’s. This will be a combo spa/yoga/health trip combined with mentoring from a life coach.
• A 5-day riverboat cruise down the Columbia River, departing from Portland, OR and exploring wineries in Eastern, WA.
• An overnight Holland America Line cruise from Seattle to Vancouver, BC. They departed on a Saturday, spent the night enjoying the cruise and then took an AMTRAK train back to Seattle on Sunday for a “girl’s weekend” getaway.
• This one is on my personal “bucket list”. A 7-day, beer themed, small ship cruise in the San Juan Islands with beer tasting and brewery tours on each island, kayaking and hiking.

These are just a few ideas of vacations that you could take in the Seattle area that are close to home, reduce your vacation budget with no flight costs and maximize your vacation time by eliminating travel days to and from the destination.

If an extended staycation sounds like an idea that you’d like to explore let me know, I’d be happy to help you with the planning.

Happy travels,
Kyle