staycation

10 Free Things to Do This Summer 2021

July 8, 2021 By Kathryn Vercillo Leave a Comment

You’re probably itching to get out and do things this summer. After all, many of us spent a lot of time cooped up and nesting during COVID-19. Now that things have relaxed a little bit, you might want to get more active. However, you don’t have to spend a lot of money to have fun this summer. Here are ten free things to do this summer 2021.

1. Everything Your Library Offers

I can’t exaggerate enough how much I love my local library. I’m lucky to live in San Francisco, which has an amazing library system. Their offerings go far beyond just books. However, even in small towns I’ve seen some amazing library activities and services. Therefore, start there when looking for free things to do this summer 2021.

Go to a local branch or check the website to see all of their events and activities. Just a few of the things they might offer include:

Book readings and other talks
Multi-media presentations and performances
Online and physical rental of books, movies, music, games, and more
Lessons: in craft, computers, cooking, and so much more
Educational tours, sometimes around town
Summer camp activities for kids

2. Read Every Day

One of the summer challenges that libraries often suggest is a reading challenge. You might even find that your library gives rewards for logging you’re reading. (Yes, even for adults. San Francisco’s Summer Stride 2021 is one example.) Whether or not you do it through the library, though, make it a point to read every day. It’s a great way to start a day, end an evening or take a break each afternoon. You might have reading hour in your house when everyone puts the devices away and just reads quietly. This is one of those free things to do this summer 2021 that can actually build lifelong good habits.

3. Visit Every Park In Your Area

Do some research to learn about the different parks in your town, city, or region. Then make it a point to visit each and every one of them this summer. You might want to rank them. Alternatively, you might want to name the best thing you like about each of them. Another idea is to take a photo at each one to create a scrapbook. From the tiniest park to the largest, there’s always something to see if you look closely enough. You just might discover magic right in your own backyard.

4. Host a “What’s In The Pantry” Potluck Party

Hosting a party doesn’t have to cost any money. Make it a low-key afternoon potluck. Invite everyone to bring something that’s already in their fridge or pantry. Pull out some of the stuff that you have. Then let that be enough. So often we think that we have to get elaborate if we want to invite people over to our homes. However, that’s not the case at all. The company matters far more than the snacks.

5. Dig the Balls, Bikes, and Kites Out of the Garage

What equipment do you have sitting around your house that you haven’t used in awhile? Put it to use this summer. Got a bike that just needs to be pumped up? Get it ready for a ride? Have a science kit, kite, or drone that you’ve always planned to use but never gotten around to. Summer is a great time to declutter your house. As you do, use the things that you haven’t used, yet. If you see some things that you’re still not going to use, then donate them. Let someone else make use of them this summer.

6. Visit Your Local Landmarks

I went to go visit my sister in Brevard, North Carolina, recently. Her neighborhood has started a local signage project to honor the Black history of the area. We walked around, reading the plaques, learning about the history of the region. It was something we just happened to stumble upon. However, pretty much every town has self-guided walking tours and opportunities to visit local landmarks at no cost. These are some of the best free things to do this summer 2021. It’s a great way to learn about your area’s history. This helps you connect to your community in a new way.

7. Free Outdoor Movies, Plays, and Concerts

There are so many free entertainment options each summer. In Ashland, Ohio, we used to go to this tiny park where we would some of the best musical performances ever at no charge. I’ve been to Shakespeare-in-the-Park in several cities. There are small concerts and large ones, outdoor movie screens, street fairs, and so many other opportunities to mingle with creative people at no cost. Pack yourself a picnic dinner. If you are just tired of sitting at home in perfect weather, and you do not have company for walking together, then you can visit meetville.com. You can find a company for evening walks or like-minded people.

8. Go Window Shopping

If you enjoy people watching then a day spent window shopping might be for you. First, you get the chance to observe all of the people around you. Second, you get to see all of the random different things for sale. Of course, this only works if you’re the type of person who can pass up buying things. I enjoy just looking – at everything from flea markets to fancy stores. So this works for me. I like to pick a certain neighborhood each month to browse. Does this option work for you?

9. Volunteer

Research shows that when you help others, you feel better yourself. Therefore, volunteering is as good for you as for the people you’re helping. Find a cause that you care about. Offer to get involved and help. This is a terrific way to spend a summer without spending any money.

10. Staycation

Hang in there with me for a moment. Some people are quick to say that the last thing they want to do this summer is stay home. I get it; COVID-19 made people feel really cooped up. However, there were a lot of good times that came out of those days stuck inside with just your family. Did you make pillow forts? Cook dinner together? Perhaps you went on long evening walks? Maybe you played a lot of board games and made a lot of puzzles. Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Take a week off together and stay home, doing just the things you actually like about being home alone together. You just might find these are the best free things to do this summer 2021 after all.

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Your Way to Living Like a Retiree Now

April 9, 2021 By Kathryn Vercillo Leave a Comment

Many people dream of retiring early. It’s a great dream. However, whether or not you’re on that path, retirement might feel like it’s a far way away. Why wait until then to start living like a retiree? You can enjoy many of the pleasures of retirement life right now. Here’s how.

What Does “Living Like a Retiree” Mean To You?

Before you can start living like a retiree, you need to figure out what that looks like for you. After all, retirement is different for everyone. Maybe you want to live frugally and simply, grow your own food, and read books each afternoon. Or perhaps you want to travel around the world. If you don’t have a vision for what living like a retiree looks like then how can you start implementing that into your life? So, ask yourself: if I could retire right now, what are the things I would most want to do?

Enjoy Some Retirement Activities On Your Vacations

If you’re still in the stage of life where you’re hard at work each day, then perhaps vacations are the only chance you have to start living like a retiree. That’s okay; make the most of them. Use the information you gleaned from the exercise above to start adding those things into your vacation life. For example, if retirement life for you means leisurely hours at home, then skip the big family vacations in favor of staycations now and then.

Incorporate Living Like a Retiree Into Daily Life

You might be surprised to find that there are a lot of things you expect to do in retirement that you actually do have time for now. For example, if gardening and reading are appealing to you, then prioritize those things in your regular life. Don’t wait until later. Maybe you can’t travel around the world right now, but you could spend weekends taking day trips to local museums and historical sites. Or you could take a cooking class from a culture that you love. Brainstorm all of the little ways that your ideal retirement life could show up in your daily life right now.

Take Control of Your Time

Although everyone’s ideas of retirement may differ, there’s one goal that a lot of people have in common: freedom of time. You don’t want to wake up to an alarm anymore. You’re eager to be able to do what you want when you want to. If this is the big dream for you, then it’s worth it to start figuring out how to incorporate more freedom-of-time into your life. Examples of this include:

Quitting your “day job” to start your own business; you will be VERY busy but you’ll get to set your own schedule
Working with your boss on creating a more flexible schedule, particularly in regards to how often you need to be inside the office
Reducing your hours to part-time and living more frugally so that you can enjoy more time of your own

Get creative with finding ways to take control of your time so that you can feel, at least some of the time, like you’re already living like a retiree.

Take Up a Hobby

One of the main differences between living like a retiree and living before retirement is that you tend to think about achieving something specific with all of you pre-retirement activities. For example, you don’t just have a hobby. Instead, you have a side hustle. There are great things about aiming to be extra-successful with everything that you do, especially when you are young and working your way towards a retirement goal. However, you can incorporate the feeling of living like a retiree right now by choosing one or two activities that you do solely for the joy of them. Pick a sport, craft, or area of interest to delve into with no other aim than just purely enjoying it in the moment.

Practice Mindfulness

Speaking of being in the moment, it’s worth it to incorporate mindfulness practice into your life. Obviously, not all retirees meditate. However, the gist is that when you’re older, you do have a different sense of what’s important in life. You know that you’re not granted the future. Therefore, you are more likely to appreciate what is happening right in the moment. That’s a key to a rich life at any age. Learning mindfulness habits now can give you attention to some of the sweetest aspects of life, whether or not you’re close to actual retirement.

Additional Tips for Living Like a Retiree Now

Here are some other ways to start living like a retiree now:

Take a sabbatical. Use the time off to live as though you have retired.
Volunteer doing something meaningful. Giving back is often a key feature of a good retirement.
Connect with people, including people from the past you need to make amends with. Tying up those loose ends makes life better.
And while you’re at it, make some new friends. Many people find new social groups in retirement. Meeting a new group now can enliven your life in a fresh way.
Always emphasize time over money. If you can afford to take the time to do something, it’s often worth more than the money you might have earned in that same span of time.
Do something that is on your bucket list. Stop waiting for retirement to live out your dreams. Live them today.

Finally, work on what your identity is when it’s not attached to your job. So many people identify who they are as the same thing as what they do for a living. Once you retire, that won’t be the case. If you can get a sense sooner than that about who you are outside of your job, you’ll get the true authentic joy of living like a retiree now.

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15 Staycation Ideas That Won’t Break the Bank

July 6, 2018 By Amanda Blankenship Leave a Comment

Budgeting for vacation can be difficult. The average vacation costs $1,145 per person or $4,850 for a family of four. Prices per person can increase depending on the time of year and location as well. You don’t have to spend boatloads of money to have a nice vacation though. Enter: The Staycation.

Staycations became popular during the financial crisis between 2007 and 2010 and proved to be a great way to take a break without blowing your budget. Below are 15 staycation ideas if you’re considering taking a vacation at home this year.

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15 Budget Staycation Ideas

1. Go on a tasting tour of your city.

Some cities may have guided tours but it may be more fun if you make your own. Consider all of the places you’ve wanted to try in your city but haven’t and create a map of where you plan to go. If you want to keep it super cheap, invite a friend, order appetizers, and split the bill.

2. Take a walk or a bike ride through your town.

Once again, there are some cities that have walking (or biking) tours. However, you probably already know all of the good places to take a nice walk or ride through town. Spend as much time as possible enjoying the outdoors during your staycation. The fresh air is good for you and it’s free.

3. Check out local breweries.

Microbreweries and wineries have become extremely popular. Most – if not all – large metropolitan areas have a native beer or wine (or both). Many of these establishments also hold daily tours, give away free tastes, and have fairly reasonable prices. See if there is a brewery tour near you.

4. Binge watch TV or movies.

In 2013, the term “binge-watching” rose in popularity when Netflix began releasing batches of TV episodes. A staycation is a perfect time to catch up on all those shows and movies you’ve been meaning to watch or even the book series you’ve been meaning to start reading.

5. Turn your bathroom into an aromatherapy spa.

You don’t need much to transform your bathroom at home into a spa. Just grab a few bath bombs, bath salts, or bubble bath from the store, cucumbers for your eyes, and a nice robe. Spend some time soaking in the tub before retiring to bed for a nice nap.

6. Do yoga.

Whether you want to head to a quick yoga class or you do it in your living room, a staycation is a great time to practice yoga. Many people find the stretches and breathing to be relaxing.

7. Host a get-together.

Since you’ll be at home, you can plan a get-together with a few friends or family. Check out Pinterest for cheap and easy recipes as well as budget-friendly activities.

8. Take a class.

Plan to take a class during your time off. An art class or pottery class might be fun. You can also consider fitness classes or dancing classes if you prefer something more active.

9. Visit a local museum or park.

Does your city or town have a museum or amusement park nearby you can visit? These are great staycation destinations. For the most part, admission for locals to these establishments is relatively cheap and you’ll have a day full of fun.

10. Go on a picnic.

Another great staycation idea is planning an elaborate picnic. Instead of the usual PB&J (with a side of ants), plan to have fresh fruit, cheese, and possibly some wine. Treat yourself! After all, it’s your vacation.

Staycation Ideas for the Family

11. Let a different family member choose the activity for the day.

For many families, deciding what you’ll do with your vacation time can be difficult. Not everyone in the family has the same interested. If you’re having a staycation, consider letting a different member of the family choose what you’ll do each day.

12. Hold a board game tournament.

Throw a small board game tournament. Even you don’t have many board games at home already, you can find them fairly cheap in secondhand stores. Some of the classics, like Candyland and Connect Four, can be found relatively cheap as well. You can also see about borrowing games from friends and family.

13. Organize a babysitting trade-off with another family.

Parents may be looking for some time alone during their staycation, especially if you have younger kids. If there is another family you trust, consider organizing a babysitting trade-off with them. Agree that you’ll watch their kids gratis if they will babysit your children for a night (free) during your staycation.

14. Camp out in the backyard.

Camping out with the family can be fun but the gear, food, and travel can quickly add up. Try setting up camp in the backyard, starting a bonfire, and telling stories. You can sleep out in a tent in the back or if you’d prefer, you can put out the fire and head to your own bed at the end of the night.

15. Have a water game day.

This is the perfect summertime staycation activity for the family. You can purchase water balloons and water guns fairly cheap. If you’re up to it, you can also set up your very own DIY water slide. Once you get everything set up, you can have a water gun fight and slip-n-slide style fun without spending water park prices.

Depending on where you live, you may have more activities available during your vacation. These are just 15 of the many great staycation ideas out there.

Readers, do you have a staycation idea that should be added to the list? Drop us your ideas in the comment section below!

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Labor Day Travel Deals 2015

September 2, 2015 By Will Lipovsky Leave a Comment

The long weekend that heralds the end of summer is your last chance to sneak in a summer vacation. But as with most last-minute adventures, the cost can pile up if you aren’t careful. Consider these smart strategies before picking a destination.

Labor Day Travel Deals

There is no shortage of specials on weekend getaways for this Labor Day. Surf the discount travel sites for an affordable package. It’s sort of like the clearance section on pool supplies. By the end of summer, travel agents are looking to squeeze the last dollar from the market. They do that by dropping prices to increase demand. It’s going on right now.

Social media has become a treasure trove for last minute vacation deals this year. Facebook and Twitter are good places to look for last minute announcements. If you have an open mind about where you might want to go, you’ll definitely find an affordable and fun vacation deal. Be spontaneous.

If flying, try to work out a Saturday to Tuesday trip instead of Friday to Monday. That will give you more savings on air travel and hotel accommodations. If you’re driving to your destination, take the time to compare routes that might land you in some pleasant way stops and get more from your experience. Use apps like Gas Buddy to find the most affordable pit stops and bring snacks to save on food costs.

Staycations

Chances are, you have several great sights and activities within just a few hours’ drive from home. Take advantage of these affordable opportunities and book a last minute vacation. Check new apps like Pocket Ranger to find parks in your area to explore. Goby is a great app for finding local events.

You might even have some fun waiting right at home. Families who missed a chance to book a camping site at a campground can set up in the back yard to enjoy the camping experience with a lot more convenience. The kids will still have fun roasting weenies and marshmallows and parents will have everything they need just steps away in the house.

Your destination is less important than the fun you have with your loved ones. So don’t worry so much about the venue. Focus on the fun and enjoy the trip!

10 Reasons a Staycation Can Be Better Than a Vacation

March 21, 2013 By Danielle Warchol 7 Comments

In the past couple of years, the bad economy has forced many people to take a “staycation” instead of a vacation. A staycation means staying in your local area instead of traveling domestically or internationally. Of course, that doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to have fun! A staycation can involve hanging around your house or taking day trips to explore your city or state. While many may view a staycation as inferior to a vacation, that doesn’t have to be the case. Here are 10 reasons that staycations can be better than vacations:

Easy Planning

One of the benefits of taking a staycation over a vacation is that it’s pretty easy to plan. If you have a week off of work you don’t need to worry about rushing to pack your suitcase and arriving on time for your flight. You don’t need to worry about booking each vacation day full of activities. You already know where you’re sleeping and what’s around you, so planning should be a piece of cake.

Little to No Travel Costs

Another benefit of taking a staycation is that you eliminate travel costs that usually go along with vacations. You don’t have to worry about paying outrageous airline or hotel prices. When people travel for their vacation the most expensive part tends to be the airplane ticket or the hotel room.

No Time Lost Traveling

Additionally, a staycation means that you don’t have to worry about booking an extra day to travel to your destination. There’s nothing worse than planning a one or two-week vacation only to realize you lose one or maybe two days because or airline flight times. By taking a staycation the only time you lose is driving or public transportation time if you decide to take a day trip somewhere.

No Travel Stress

Traveling can be a lot of fun, but it can also be stressful. You need to make sure you check in and out of the hotel at the correct times, that you don’t miss your flight or mess up your itinerary, and that you don’t leave anything behind. You also want to make sure that you make the most of your trip and see everything there is to see at whatever location you choose. A staycation shouldn’t stress you out at all since the most you’ll have to worry about is how to keep yourself entertained.

Inexpensive

One of the best reasons to take a staycation is because it can be very inexpensive. Many people have opted for staycation due to the rising cost of vacations or because they’re on a limited financial budget. Staycations can be pretty cheap especially if you choose to spend your vacation at home watching movies, catching up your reading, or going to movies or dinners out on the town. Even if you go to a big event such as a sports game, a theatre show, or an amusement park you’re still saving money. Had you done those same events on your travel vacation, you would have been saying the same price but you would have also been paying for airfare and hotel accommodations as well.

Explore Your Town, City, or State

Have you always wanted to go to a certain museum or take a certain tour of your city but have never found the time? Maybe you’ve always wanted to explore other parts of your state but couldn’t rationalize taking a day off to go on an impromptu road trip. A staycation would be the perfect time to explore your town, city, or state. Even if you’ve lived in the same city for years, there are probably places you’ve never even visited. A great place to start is your local visitors center where you may find interesting things to do which you never even knew about.

Catch Up on Activities

Is there a book you’ve been meaning to read for years? Maybe you’ve put off painting your dining room because you haven’t had time. Or perhaps you’ve always wanted to start a garden but had no free days to start the project. A staycation can be the perfect time to catch up on any hobbies, activities, or projects you’ve been meaning to do.

Relaxing

If you’re constantly stressed out by work, family obligation, financial problems, or other issues, then a staycation could be exactly what you need to relax. Sometimes there’s nothing better than relaxing to give you a fresh start and vacations are too often about seeing sights and cramming too many things into one day or one trip.

Comfort of Your Own Home

Of course, another great reason to take a staycation is because you can relax and enjoy your vacation from the comfort of your own home. You won’t need to deal with sleeping on a lackluster hotel bedroom or trying to find a decent place to eat. Sometimes there’s no better place than your own home when you want to just sit back and relax.

Set Your Own Pace

Taking a staycation also means that you’re not bound by a strict schedule. If you’re taking a vacation to a location you’ve never been before, you might have a strict sightseeing or entertainment itinerary. Many cruises or group tours don’t allow time for you to do what you want and you’re rushed along from location to location. A staycation lets you set your own pace. So if you want to catch a movie in the morning and spend the day lounging around the house, you’re more than welcome to do so.

(Photo courtesy of Nostepinne)

Why You Should Visit Your Local Visitor Center

August 6, 2012 By Jennifer Derrick 3 Comments

We had some guests in town a couple of weeks ago. When it came time to deciding what to do for entertainment, they wanted to see the tourist attractions. Well, where I live isn’t a big tourist town. Or so I thought. In looking around, though, I discovered that we have a lot of museums and activities that I wasn’t even aware of, most of them free or very low cost. Heck, I learned that we have a fairly prominent Civil War battlefield about thirty miles down the road that I didn’t even realize was there. (It also made me realize that I must live under a very large rock because I’ve lived in this general area all of my life. Once the forced school field trips stopped, though, I never really kept up with the museum and history scene.)

Our first stop was to the local visitor’s center/Chamber of Commerce. There we were able to get brochures on all kinds of activities from free museums to low cost minor league sports and fossil hunting expeditions. I was amazed by the amount of things to do in my area. There were activities for kids and adults. The helpful people at the visitor’s center even told us about a few places that they didn’t have brochures for, but which were fun nonetheless. We spent the week checking out historic houses, parks, museums, mom and pop stores, and doing activities like panning for gemstones and running metal detectors over that Civil War battlefield (unfortunately we were a few weeks late for the re-enactments, but that’s on my agenda for next year). We even found some great local hole-in-the-wall restaurants that I’d never heard of or tried. The food was good, plentiful, and cheap.

Even now that my guests are gone, I still have a pile of brochures on the coffee table of things that I’d like to do. There’s enough interesting stuff to do around here to keep us busy for quite a while. There’s a zip line tour through one of the state parks that I really want to try. I never would have known about these things if I hadn’t been forced to check it all out by guests who wanted to “do something”.

The moral of this story is that you don’t have to take an expensive vacation to find fun things to do or to try new things. You can probably find all of that in your own area. Even if you’ve lived in an area all of your life, unless you’ve made it a point to discover all there is to do, you’ve probably missed quite a few things. Most of us are guilty of getting into our daily ruts and not taking the time to see the good things that are right in front of us. We say, “Oh, those places are for the tourists,” if we think about them at all. But what better than to be a tourist in your own town?

The next time you’re bored, head down to the visitor’s center and peruse the brochures. Ask the people who work there what they recommend. They’ll probably have even more ideas. You can have some fun and be happy that you didn’t blow money on an expensive vacation. And the money you do spend will stay in your local economy, helping to keep your neighbors and friends employed.

(Photo courtesy of EricRi)