I have family visiting next week for a few glorious days in York and Scarborough. Since I’m taking time off work and planning to undertake some very touristy pursuits with them, I’m labelling it a Staycation and my natural planning reflex has kicked into action.
In some ways, planning a Staycation is more difficult than planning a holiday. You have the excitement of going to somewhere new and unknown on a holiday, all you can really plan is your wardrobe and a few excursions because a lot of it is about the discovery. With a Staycation you have to try to see your familiar surroundings with fresh eyes. To see what the holidaymakers see, and make sure that it really is a mini-break and that you don’t end up doing something that you would be otherwise doing, anyway. I mean, obviously, when you’re staying at home, there’s going to be some common activities, but it’s important, especially with family visiting from much farther afield, to ‘be a tourist’.
Of course, I don’t want to be that cousin/niece who turns up with the timeboxed list of things we will do, thus taking all the fun out everyone else’s trip, but having a list of potential attractions, eateries, coffee shops and so on, seeing where the mood takes you, well that’s always a good thing. If the mood means we spend most of our afternoon having long lingering discussions in coffee shops, or it’s an afternoon of perusing castles and rivers, well either way it’s fine since, whilst any break brings excitement and a sense of adventure, it’s really the time spent with special people that really matters.
