I Went on a Staycation With My Family — Here's What It's Really Like

Updated on 8/28/2017 at 8:00 AM

Earlier this year, when I was in the beginning stages of planning a family vacation, I had this sinking feeling: this is not going to be fun.

I hadn't even settled on a destination yet, but I was already not looking forward to the time off. I don't want to point fingers, but it was my toddler who was to blame.

For my husband and me, the idea of traveling with our young daughter wasn't a thrilling concept. We know plenty of parents who venture the world with their kids strapped to their chests, and more power to them. We also know of families who bring nannies and rent homes and orchestrate a host of other miraculous feats to make it all work seamlessly, but most of those are wildly out of our budget. Our options were mildly bleak: we could go to a place we'd been dying to visit, spend all our disposable income on luggage fees, and stay in a cramped inn, or we could go to a rented cabin somewhere within driving distance that we didn't really care to visit in the first place.

"Should we just not take a vacation this year?" we asked each other.

That felt too depressing, especially considering we hadn't taken a proper one since our little travel companion was born. That's when I remembered a friend of mine who, in her 20s, found herself overloaded with vacation days yet close to broke. Instead of forgoing the time off, she gave herself a staycation to remember.

If it was good enough for her, it certainly was more than acceptable for our young family. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized just how clever an idea it was, given our situation of feeding schedules, naptimes, and semistrict bedtime routines (not to mention a dog we'd no longer have to ask a neighbor to pet-sit). Sure, it might not sound especially adventurous, but when my husband and I weighed the stresses involved in planning a family-friendly getaway vs. those in just staying put, our new plan seemed perfect.

Turns out, it was. But to make sure we made the most of it, we set up some key ground rules. Read on for tips on how to make the most of a staycation and for seven reasons it's just as good an alternative to a vacation . . . if not better.

The Ground Rules

What you wouldn't do on a vacation, don't do on a staycation.

Outside of an extremely strict Airbnb home-share scenario, you are very likely not going to have to run the dishwasher or mop the floors on vacation. Do your best to limit such housework on a staycation.

And, sure, you might think that all that extra time at home means you can catch up on chores — repainting the playroom, fixing a broken window lock, or organizing your closet — and errands, but don't. Even just one trip to the hardware store can mentally remove you from vacation mode, and it can be a snowball effect that leads to an entire day devoted to housekeeping.

No cooking.

One of the key ways to keep from doing housework is to limit the use of your house. Sure, with kids, it's nice to be able to serve some meals at home, but keep away from the stove as much as possible. Before your staycation begins, stock up on prepared food items at the grocery store and plan to order in delivery or takeout on nights you know you'll be home for dinner.

Plan at least two activities for each day.

Just because you're working around nap schedules doesn't mean you can't leave home. Make sure you are getting out of the house at least twice each day, even if one is just for a picnic in the local park.

For us, we tried to organize one easy activity in the morning — breakfast in a cool neighborhood — and another, longer excursion, like a train ride to the conservatory or a museum visit, in the late afternoon. Some days, she'd sleep in her stroller or in her car seat, so we'd stay out the entire day, but on others we stayed closer to home.

Take a day trip if you can.

By definition, staycations involve staying put, but our reasoning was, as long as we all ended up at home at the end of each night, where we went during the day was entirely up to us.

Once during our time off, we ventured outside state lines and took a day trip to a city we'd long wanted to visit that was a two-hour drive away. It was one of the week's highlights because it offered some of the thrills that come with a vacation — exploring a new area, being out of one's comfort zone — without the anxiety.

Now that the logistics are squared away, here's why a staycation can be just as fun as your last family vacation . . .

You're Way Less Stressed

Just the idea of getting on a plane with a toddler sends chills down my spine. Not having to worry about all the things that could — and would — go wrong at 30,000 feet was a huge load off. Same goes for not having to spend days packing for every possible weather contingency, medical crisis, or change in the itinerary.

It Takes Zero Planning

With our previous vacations, my husband and I had excel spreadsheets, printed itineraries, and emails upon emails of reservation confirmations. Sure, we could have put the same organization into our staycation, but instead we simply made a general list of the things we wanted to do and roughly organized them into days.

It's as Comfortable as You Can Get

One of the biggest drawbacks of a vacation with little kids is the accommodations. Sure, you might be able to upgrade to a suite instead of a small hotel room, but even if you go the home-share route, it's never the same as home sweet home. Having the place pre-baby-proofed with high chairs and stroller systems at the ready is a huge bonus you won't get elsewhere.

Most importantly, though, kids sleeping in their own beds means routines aren't disrupted, and let's face it: there's something to be said for waking up in your own bed, with the pillows and mattress at just the level of firmness to which your back has grown accustomed to.

You Can Finally Do the Things You’d Ordinarily Never Do

Ever since we moved to our city, my husband and I — the food fans that we are — have been compiling a list of restaurants we’ve wanted to try. The only problem was, most of them are impossible to go to on nights or weekends. Having five straight weekdays in town but not chained to our desks meant that we could finally eat — albeit lunch — at some of the most popular dining spots around. The same went for children’s museums that, come Saturday afternoon, felt more like circus disasters and hipster neighborhoods that we could never navigate with a stroller on any given Sunday.

You’ve Got Access to Trusted Babysitters

One of the things we dreaded about planning a vacation was our toddler’s 8 p.m. bedtime. We envisioned ourselves either hiding out in our hotel room’s bathroom watching movies on our iPad through headphones or being “those parents” who risked going downstairs to the tourist-only bar with a barely functioning baby monitor.

You can certainly find child care on the road — in fact, many resorts offer it up front to families. Nevertheless, the idea of handing over your kid to a complete stranger in a city you aren’t familiar with can be as nerve-racking as it is grossly overpriced. When you stay local, you can put your regular babysitter to good use so that you can have a completely relaxing adults-only night out. We enlisted friends and family who lived nearby to watch our daughter so that my husband and I could see a play one night and go to a cooking class another.

You Save Money

Sure, it’s fun to jet off somewhere exotic, but the credit card bills at the end of such a journey can often dismantle all the joy you had during it. Because we weren’t blowing our budget on airfare and hotel fees, we could enjoy our week off without any financial anxiety. In fact, by having so much saved up, we didn’t think twice about ordering an extra appetizer at lunch or buying a silly souvenir our daughter was eyeing even though we knew it was a waste of money.

You're More Willing to Be Flexible

Without fail, we had mediocre weather during our staycation. The day before we planned to walk a lakeside trail and have a picnic on the beach, it rained nonstop. Still, we stuck to our plan and showed up at the lake the following morning to find intense fog and wet sand. Our instinct was to just power through — even if we were cold and our kid was miserable — until we realized that this wasn’t our only chance to have this experience.

Not only could we swap this day’s plan with another later in the week, but if we couldn’t make it happen this “trip,” it’s not like we’d never be back here again. Knowing that at the end of the vacation you aren’t permanently leaving missed opportunities behind makes you much more apt to change plans when they just aren’t panning out.