HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — A staycation is when you take a vacation relatively close to your home. You can go somewhere new for a day, overnight, a week, or as long as you want!
But the point of a staycation is that you are staying in your general area. You don’t need a passport, an expensive flight, or a visa. Yet, you are still venturing out to a new place that you haven’t really been to. "I would recommend, if you're going for a staycation, do disconnect, put away the work computer, turn off that access to the work emails or work messaging service and really, truly make it a vacation even if you're staying at home," Sally French, Travel Expert with NerdWallet shares. " You know what was really great personally for me about the COVID pandemic was the opportunity to explore my new city. I just walked down streets that I had never walked down before. You might actually check out those tourist attractions in your areas, the ones that you say, I never go there because that's for the tourists."
One of the biggest differences between a staycation and a vacation is the price tag. Although it’s possible to take a cheap vacation, they’re usually known for being expensive. The average travel budget is about $223 per person (per day). That’s a lot of dough to drop for some time away. And if you’re a family of five, go ahead and tack on even more money to your total.
But here’s the good news: You don’t have to spend that much money:
How to Budget for Your Staycation
1. Make a budget.
If you know you can only spend $200 on a staycation for your family, that’s okay! Just know what you can spend and stick to it. Doing a zero-based budget is the best way to make sure your staycation is a happy one.
2. Have a plan.
Make a list of some of the things you want to do. You can even number things by priority and what’s most important to your family. Does it require car travel? How about lodging? Make sure to put that at the top of your staycation to-do list.
If you're booking a hotel...do it late...sort of:
"One thing that NerdWallet does say for sure is that actually booking hotels last minute does tend to be cheaper," French shares. "In fact, NerdWallet analyzed hundreds of room rates around the country and found that room rates averaged cheaper at 73% of the time when booked two weeks out versus four months out, and how much cheaper rooms averaged? About 13% cheaper when booked two weeks out versus four months out. So, what NerdWallet actually recommends you do is if you know you're going on a trip, and you know there's a hotel you want to stay at and you are comfortable paying that price, make a reservation now, assuming that you don't need to pay until check in and then keep monitoring those rates."
Renting a car, you may save more away from the airport:
"High car rental prices were one of the biggest stories of pandemic era travel. They hit record highs in July 2021, and luckily, car rental prices are down from those July 2021 record highs, but they are still high" French shares. "Much like hotels, rental cars are also typically cheaper when booked last minute. In fact, we found that the average rental car price for a car is booked three months in advance was 13% more than car rentals booked just a week in advance. Another thing that NerdWallet recommends you consider when booking a rental car as is going for that downtown location. What NerdWallet found is that airport rental cars tend to be 26% more expensive on average than the same exact company in the downtown location."
3. Check the prices.
You should always check out the prices before you set your plan in stone and adjust where you need to based on your budget. You can keep things balanced by tossing in at least one splurge and rounding out the rest of your list with free or super cheap activities. That way, you feel like you’re doing something you would do on vacation (but it still fits in your budget).
A staycation is supposed to be budget friendly, so you need to make a budget for what you want to spend. Unexpected costs add up quickly, and who wants to be stressing over money on staycation?