10 Ways To Feel Like You’re On A Vacation – When You’re Not
This post is all about at home vacation ideas and how to enjoy a staycation either alone or with family.
If you’re reading this in 2020, then you are most likely stuck inside for 2+ weeks. If you had any vacation plans, those are indefinitely cancelled.
During this time of stress and uncertainty, we could all use a vacation but just because we can’t hop on a plane doesn’t mean we can’t have our own staycation.
We can still enjoy culinary experiences, cultural explorations and the mental recharge that travel brings from the comforts of our own home.
Whether you’re stuck in a studio apartment or modest townhouse, you can cultivate those vacation vibes without breaking the bank or quarantine.
So sit back, board your imaginary plane or cruise and embark on your staycation with some helpful hacks below:
At Home Vacation Ideas
Enjoy a Spa Day
Self care is essential and this is the perfect opportunity to indulge. Put on your comfiest bathrobe or lounge wear, throw on your slippers and create an incredible mini spa.
Start by lighting candles or diffusing essential oils, boil some tea and put on a soothing playlist to set the mood. Now it’s time to start your treatments:
Body Scrub and Soak: Pick up a sugar or salt scrub and massage gloves and give yourself a DYI scrub in the shower. If you have a bath tub, finish off with a nice soak paired with the perfect bath bomb or salt.
Soothing Massage: If you have a partner, take turns giving each other massages. If that’s not your situation, now’s a great time to learn some self-massage techniques– use a foam roller, a tennis ball or just your hands.
Facial: You can buy any type of face mask, but you can also get creative and make your own.
Finish off with some rose water or toner, and then massage in moisturizer with a gua shua roller. Trust me- these are things you want to use daily, spa day or not.
Mani-Pedi: End your day with a DIY manicure and pedicure and sip some herbal infused water. You’ll feel so blissed out you won’t even realize you’re not at a 5-star resort.
Lounge by the Pool
Ideally, you have access to the outdoors that meets social distancing guidelines. Be it a balcony, yard, or a nice corner by a sun-facing window, it’ll work if there’s light and hopefully fresh air. Don your swimsuit, slather on tanning oil, grab a beach towel, an easy read and spend an hour (or five) just lounging. Put on your favorite vacation tunes or the sound of the ocean waves, slurp down a fruity drink and soak it up.
Enjoy a Fine Dining Experience
My instagram feed is saturated with everyone cooking up a storm while quarantined. It’s definitely a tasty time filler, but you can take it a step further and feel like you’re dining at a Michelin star restaurant- at home.
Do some research, work up an appetite and prepare your own tasting menu with multiple courses. Get creative and design an actual menu with mouth watering descriptions and give your dining room area some ambiance.
This experience is ideally shared, and if there’s physically more than one of you, take turns creating tasting menus for each other. Serve each other and make it a surprise to capture that fine dining feel.
Create an Activity Calendar
Just because you’re not on a cruise or at a resort doesn’t mean you can’t play some trivia and host a game show.
There are different apps, like houseparty, that give you endless virtual options.
If you have someone at home, you can set specific game times and take turns hosting the activity.
Get creative! Make an activity calendar so you have something to look forward to each week and stay social.
You May Also Like: 15 Productive Things To Do Instead Of Social Media
Enjoy Happy Hour
Ideally paired with a sunset or game night, set aside once a week (or everyday, I’m not judging) to plug in a happy hour to your calendar.
Experiment with a new cocktail or mocktail and cheers with your housemates or virtually.
Create the vibe you want, be it a make-shift tiki bar or grabbing some peanuts and loud music to replicate your favorite Irish pub.
Go Wine Tasting
If you have multiple rooms to play with (even two will do), you can create an at home wine tasting experience.
Get dressed up, and set up each tasting station with a different blend. You can take turns pouring each other wine and spouting pretentious facts while you’re drinking to really drive it home.
Hey, you might actually learn something about wine in the process.
Try Beach Yoga
The beach may be nowhere in sight but fear not- you can still take that scenic yoga class with a little help from youtube.
Many online videos feature picture perfect backgrounds, so pick your ideal scenery and get sweating.
Get Cultured
I don’t know what type of vacation goer you are, but if you usually take part in a cooking class, or try to learn the language, don’t let this stop you.
Set aside some time to pick up a new skill or take a class- virtually.
Be it through youtube, instagram or a set course, you have options to explore a subject or language that entices you and feels like fun.
If museums are your thing, take a virtual tour from some of the most well-known institutions.
You can still learn some new facts or pick up some Spanish to wow your friends without actually jetting off to London or Colombia.
Experience Exotic Cuisines
The internet is a magical place. You can admire the cuisine from anywhere in the world without leaving your living room. There is a plethora of cooking and culture shows on Netflix or Amazon Prime.
Some of my favorites are:
Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner (or anything with David Chang)
Anthony Bourdain- Parts Unknown
If a dish strikes your fancy, good news- you have time now to attempt it in the kitchen!
See New Sights
Guess what, you can still travel, virtually!
Whether you’re taking a virtual tour of the National Parks, or watching a travel show on West African settlements, you can still feast your eyes and ears on new places and cultures.
Not only will you start to quench that thirst for travel, but you’ll learn more.
You might even add new places to your bucket list for when you can finally board that plane.
A full time traveler, vegetable enthusiast, beach addict and an extroverted introvert trying to balance her love of a great happy hour with her love of an isolated mountain top. You can find her on Instagram
A full time traveler, vegetable enthusiast, beach addict and an extroverted introvert trying to balance her love of a great happy hour with her love of an isolated mountain top. You can find her on Instagram
