9 Staycation Ideas For When You Can’t Leave Home
Remember vacations? Remember a time when people were able to leave their homes after a hard semester at school or a difficult season at work and just travel to wherever they wanted? Well, all that is gone now and replaced by the difficult reality that people can’t leave their homes because of the current global pandemic, COVID-19. We have a solution to this dilemma: staycation ideas that will keep you just as entertained as a vacation.
Because it is still unsafe to travel and socialize with large groups of people, staycations are the way to go! Whether it’s having your own private concert or learning about a new place through a documentary, there are many ways to still enjoy your time while staying home. Here are nine staycation ideas that won’t make you feel so trapped inside.
1. Backyard Camping
The first one of our staycation ideas is classic: camping. One of the cornerstones of childhood and one of the great ways to enjoy the outdoors. Now that we can’t necessarily take trips to nearby forests to go camping, here’s the next best thing: backyard camping!
Simply treat your backyard as the campsite by pitching a tent, roasting some marshmallows, and singing some songs. You can even grill some delicious steaks, make some hot dogs or hamburgers, and have yourself delicious camping delicacies and then finish your meals with smores.
For a brief moment, forget about technology and try to make your backyard as outdoorsy as possible! You’ll be set to have an extraordinary time without even leaving your house.
2. At-Home Concert
Music-lovers are definitely sad that concerts have been canceled (and probably will continue to be at least through the summer). We totally get you, and we’re feeling sad too. Luckily, you can recreate the experience of live concerts at home!
Simply head over to Amazon Prime Music, find your favorite type of music, and you can have yourself a free at-home concert. You’ll need a great surround sound system to feel like you are at a concert, so don’t be afraid to crank up the volume. To add to the experience, make yourself some nachos, grab your favorite beer, and you’ll be set. Honestly, an at-home concert might be one of our staycation ideas that’s better than the real thing, because at home you don’t have to deal with the crowds, sticky floors, and long lines at the bar!
To take things to the next level, you can look up a recorded concert on Amazon Prime. Maybe you’re a fan of Queen and want to rock out to the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, or you’ve always wanted to go to a Beyoncé concert, or you’d prefer to go with the country vibe and experience Keith Urban’s world tour.
Add a cool feature and project these videos outside to have yourself an outdoor concert! All you need is a projector and a screen (or even a white bedsheet). Now you have yourself an outside concert ready to entertain yourself, and who knows, maybe your neighbors will join you in singing along…from the comfort of their homes, of course.
3. Reading
Our next staycation idea is simple: reading! Who doesn’t love a good book? I know I do! Now is the perfect time to catch up on your reading. Bookstores like Barnes and Noble have been doing a great job with adjusting to COVID-19 and making sure to have access to curbside pickup and or online ordering. While you’re stuck at home, you can easily grab a good book and transport yourself to other worlds or back in time by reading some great stories.
Reading might not sound as wild as an outdoor concert, but it is one of the best ways to use your imagination and transport yourself to other places in history or maybe even other worlds. Whether it’s the fantasy novels of George R.R. Martin or the science fiction novels of Arthur C. Clarke, reading is one of the best ideas for your staycation to be utterly imaginative and totally out of this world!
4. Stream-cation
Streaming services are some of the most reliable options that we’ve been able to count on to keep us entertained since we’ve been in quarantine. Thanks to services like Amazon Prime, we’ve been able to discover new shows and rediscover old favorites during this difficult time. Prime carries with it a lot of wonderful streaming possibilities, including travel documentaries, comedy specials, and theater shows!
Prime has curated a great variety of travel documentaries for people to enjoy. Some of these documentaries might be too hard to watch, especially during these difficult times, because they’ll remind you of the summer vacation you wish you could take. But, luckily we have access to places like Athens, Greece from the comfort of our own homes.
You can also take a front-row seat at a performance like one of Iliza Shlesinger’s comedy shows. There are so many theater shows, comedy specials, and other recordings of live events that you can watch and enjoy as one of your staycation ideas.
5. Play Games
Just because you are self-isolating during the pandemic, doesn’t mean that you can’t have fun! This is the perfect time to play some games: board games, video games, whatever you like, and these are ideal staycation ideas to take your mind off things.
Grab a game like Cards Against Humanity and immerse yourself. If you live with roommates or family, this is easy. If not, simply call a virtual party, and you are good to go!
If you don’t want to dust off the old board games or card games, how about some video games? Break out the Nintendo Switch and dive into the latest release of Animal Crossing and prepare to live a life that is as peaceful and easygoing as anything you’ve experienced before. With videogames, you’ll be able to fully inhabit other characters and escape from reality in a way that will make you feel better about the real world.
You can take the videogame staycation idea even further by playing VR games, and now it will truly feel like you are not even a part of this world…but you’re escaping to an amazing, virtual one. There are plenty of other video games that you can play, and the good thing is that you can play online if you want to challenge other people.
6. Yoga Retreat
We love yoga here at Miss Millennia. It is one of the best activities to do while in quarantine, as it benefits your mind, body, and soul.
You might wish you could go on the summer yoga retreat you’ve always wished for, but right now, everything is canceled. Yoga Download is one of the best services for you to dive headfirst into a full-on yoga retreat at home! You can subscribe to Yoga Download for as cheap as $10 a month. Or, you can participate in free live stream classes if that’s more your thing.
You’ll be able to journey to a spiritual place where you will re-energize your body and soul in powerful new ways. Yoga Download also has a wide variety of different classes organized by focus area, body parts you want to target, what your personal goals are, and more. Your staycation yoga retreat will be like you’re learning with your trainer and going on an incredibly transformative journey of body and soul.
7. Virtual Tours
One of the joys of traveling is visiting museums, national parks, architectural landmarks, and simply seeing the city as a whole by experiencing everything from their street art to important buildings and places. Sadly, that is not possible right now. However, certain institutions have created virtual tours for people to experience their museums and look at historically important treasures, so you bet that’s going to be on our list of staycation ideas.
The Smithsonian Museum of Natural History is one of these museums that is proudly offering virtual tours. Not only can you see some of their permanent exhibits, but also old ones as well. Imagine looking at high definition photographs of ancient mammoth skeletons and being able to turn around and see multiple angles as you sit in awe at home. Even The Louvre in Paris is also offering virtual tours while we all try to get through this pandemic.
Museums aren’t the only ones offering virtual tours. Google Culture is offering highly detailed photographs and 3D tours of world landmarks like the Roman Colosseum. How amazing would it be to put on a VR headset and be transported to a destination like the Acropolis or Sydney Opera House? Answer: Pretty freaking amazing.
8. Audiobooks
If you don’t feel like picking up a physical paperback book and just want to listen to a book …don’t worry, we have the solution. Sign up for Audible! Audible has the world’s largest library of audiobooks and is one of the coolest ideas for your staycation.
One of the incredible things about Audible is that they have the latest releases plus timeless classics that you should definitely experience. If you’re an Amazon Prime member, you can even get more out of this service. Whether you want to dive into a travel book, memoir, or fantasy novel, your choice will allow you to feel like you’re not stuck at home.
9. Virtual Amusement Park
Sure, nothing will beat the tremendous feeling of preparing yourself to go up the roller coaster and hearing the gears move as you climb upwards before the first big drop. It’s incredibly suspenseful and yet one of the terrifying aspects of roller coasters—the anticipation for the big drop. But there is an alternative since all major theme parks are currently closed!
Thank goodness for first-person POV roller coaster videos! Let’s say that you want to ride Space Mountain from Walt Disney World, well now you can! Simply head over to YouTube, and you’ll be able to find a plethora of videos that show different roller coasters from the first-person point of view. Again, we recommend you use a VR headset to get the full experience.
You’ll feel like you are there, as it even includes park sounds in the background. To complete the experience, pop some popcorn or make some pineapple whip to enjoy.
We hope these awesome staycation ideas for when you can’t leave home ease the sadness of not having the summer vacation you wanted. The most important suggestion we can make is to follow the CDC Guidelines, no matter what you decide to do! Remember that there’s plenty of stuff to do and keep yourself entertained while all this is happening. Just because you can’t go outside, doesn’t mean you can’t find other alternatives to have fun!
For more suggestions on what to do while staying safe at home, read these articles:
21 Fun Things To Do At Home When You’re Bored
7 At-Home Workouts You Can Do Right Now
