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Vacations are important in our hectic lives as they are good platforms for forging family bonds, relieving stress, rejuvenating which in turn increases our productivity level and maintaining our mental health and sanity. If you are constrained by time or money, think of taking a vacation locally. Instead of going on a vacation, you can consider going on a staycation.  Usually taking a long weekend away from home helps us to charge our energies and return to work feeling rejuvenated. Consider the following staycation ideas:  

Staycation Idea #1:

Play “Hometown Tourist:”

You may be surprised at how much fun it is to be a tourist in your own town. Check out the websites on your hometown and plan a fun time as though you were new to your city or area. Try to avoid chain restaurants and anything you normally do, and try unique things that you’ve been meaning to try, or perhaps that you’d never heard of before. There are themed restaurants you can go to or try dining at the highest restaurant in the city and admire the stunning sunset. Visit the tourist spots by the tour bus or take a ferry down the river. Explore heritage sites and join group day or night tours. You would have never thought how fun it is to play tourist in your hometown at least once in your life.   

Staycation Idea #2:

Be A Hotel Guest:

It can be surprisingly relaxing to stay in a nearby hotel. I have the habit of doing this once in a while. I usually look for good hotel deals on the internet that comes with breakfast. It is fun to stay in a hotel and be treated like royalty. You get small luxuries like having access to Cable TV, sleeping in a comfortable king-sized bed, soaking in the bathtub, swimming in the hotel pool and using the gym facilities. Also you get to enjoy buffet breakfast and eat to your heart’s content. The first thing I would do when I check into a hotel is to check out the scenery outside the window and check out the facilities offered in the hotel. Then I will jump onto the bed, my hand reaching out for the remote control of the television.

Staycation Idea #3:

Visit a Day Spa:

If you can’t afford the time or money that would cost to go on a traditional vacation, you can spend a fraction of the money and a mere few hours at a day spa near your hotel. Check out the internet to see which day spas offer promotions during the period of your staycation before hand. For a real treat, spend an entire afternoon there and get a facial done as well as a nice body scrub, a massage followed by a hydrobath in goat’s milk. Look for a day programme package that costs cheaper than individual treatments. You’ll feel like you had a great vacation, but it will have cost you much less, which may reduce even more stress!

Staycation Idea #4:

Stay In Your Pajamas:

This is applicable to both men and women who want to distress on a budget. The idea is to stay in your pajamas all day, relaxing and doing only what you feel like. Want to surf the ‘net for hours, then watch “The Twilight Zone” on the Sci Fi channel? Want to do a crossword puzzle from the newspaper, then munch on chips? Watch three Star Wars movies in a row or a whole season of the “X-Files”? You get the idea. The pajamas are only to set the tone; the pajama day involves a whole attitude, a worldview of relaxation and proud laziness that lasts for an entire day. Sometimes that’s just what you need.  

Staycation Idea #5:

Indulge in a dinner buffet:

Try having a dinner buffet that costs so much less than paying for a three course ala carte meal. Skip lunch to save your tummy for the buffet spread and to cut down on food cost. You would never have thought how fun it is to try out so many different entrees, dips, side dishes, main meals and desserts. Indeed it is one good way to pamper yourself and to cut down international travel cost. Eat to your heart’s content and then work out in the hotel gym the next day.

If you are on a budget, staycation is a superb method for relieving stress regularly. You have to do some research work before you start on your staycation experience. 

Online booking has many advantages. The era of the World Wide Web allows you to check hundreds of hotels with only a few clicks and in fraction of time than before from the comforts of your home. Here are some plus points of online booking:

1)       An overview of all available hotels in any part of the world can be sourced out without any phone call at any time.

2)    Instant answers to the availability of rooms are provided.

3)    Professional, instant automatic e-mail confirmation is made available.

4)     It is time-saving to book online as information can be derived quickly.

5)    Reviews of hotels from former guests and information such as the rate of the    

       room and quality of service offered are available online.

6)    Some hotels offer special rates only via online booking.

7)    A detailed hotel description can be gathered from the hotel’s website.

9)   You can save much by selecting the services of online hotel booking service providers and by circumventing the tour agencies. You can definitely save on airline flights, car services, and even entertainment. You will get considerable discounts if you allow them to select all services you need. It is sure that you can save a considerable amount and have extra funds to enjoy on your trip.   

10)    There is no administrative cost for hotels to provide this service. Most of the hotels offer  online booking services to remain competitive in today’s travel market.

Also you should check if any big events are held during your stay. Should you find a particular hotel too expensive, have a look at a hotel not situated directly in the city centre, but connected to the public transportation. This allows you to save some money.

From my experience, I would like to advice that you should be on a look out for early bird deals when you book the hotel and hotels charge more on the weekend especially on Friday and Saturday. So, if you can keep your travel dates flexible, you can save by avoiding a weekend stay. 

The internet contains a gamut of information at your convenience. Make the most of it by planning for a great, affordable holiday.  

The decision to purchase travel insurance or not lies with the assumption that either nothing bad can happen during your travels, or whether should something bad happen you can adequately resolve these unforeseen events.

None of us want to think that something bad will happen. We assume incorrectly that fire, flood, earthquake and terrorism will happen to others. We assume we won’t have a heart attack or stroke, we won’t be ill. All these are wrong assumptions because we cannot predict the future and cannot tell what is going to happen.

Should you purchase travel insurance as a frugal traveller? Well, let’s look at a few things that could, and do happen, to overseas and even domestic travellers. Then, you decide if you should purchase travel insurance.

The question, “should you purchase travel insurance” is perhaps answered by asking yourself why you purchased homeowners insurance, or medical insurance or life insurance. You purchased them so that your consistent small payments would assure you of having someone else provide help in case of a catastrophic event for which you are unprepared. Purchasing travel insurance, just like purchasing any other insurance, is not just about receiving the funds to recover. It’s also about having the professional assistance for you and your family to recover.

You’re from Texas. You’ve never been to the ocean. You travel to Florida and book a hotel room a week but you are then ordered to evacuate due to an expected hurricane. But you have non-refundable airline tickets, and your hotel and rental car are already paid for. How do you replace the airline tickets and get reimbursed for your stay?

You’re on an island in the Caribbean, ready for your cruise back home. You find out that the cruise ship company has gone bankrupt and there will be no return cruise. What do you do? How do you get your money back? Most importantly, how do you get back home?  

You’re ready to take your family on a much-needed vacation to Hawaii. Your son has an attack of appendicitis and must have immediate surgery. But your airline tickets are non-refundable. How do you get your money back?

You landed in Melbourne and are ready to retrieve your luggage at the baggage carousel. However after waiting for 45 minutes, you still can’t find your luggage. Could someone have taken yours by mistake? You did not place an identity tag on your luggage or an address in your hurry to catch the flight. What should you do? You are stranded at the airport with no luggage. There is no way you can replace all the contents in your luggage during your stay. Do you have to spend on clothes for nothing using your credit card just to replace them? 

The above scenarios will give you an idea on whether you should buy travel insurance. While you hope that your trip will be plain sailing, you cannot tell the future or control circumstances. After all, it takes just a little out of your pocket to travel with your mind at ease and to cover expenses that are way beyond your savings if such unfortunate events would occur.  We pay a little in order to save more in unforseen circumstances.

Travel safe and don’t end up being sorry.