Looking for easy staycation ideas that are inexpensive but provide priceless fun and memories? The following staycation inspiration includes creative ways to have a ball while staying close to home.
Staycation Ideas for Couples
A staycation for a couple can be like a second honeymoon. Spending uninterrupted time together is a great way to reconnect and reestablish the love bonds.
1. Learn the Cuban Style of Salsa Dancing
Use an online tutorial to learn the Cuban style of Salsa dancing. Be sure you record the process so you can see your progress and so you can enjoy how you improve or laugh at your missteps. Explore a few Cuban recipes as you delve into the history of this style of Salsa dancing and the musicians who created it.
2. Participate in Virtual Tours
There are various online tours you can participate in. You can cast virtual tours onto your smart TV, watch on your tablet or cellphone. Online tours are a great way to enjoy other places without having to leave your home!
3. Explore Your Inner Being Staycation With Labyrinths
Spend your staycation learning about labyrinths. Explore the history, and how a labyrinth can help you achieve inner knowledge. A labyrinth is an excellent exercise in meditation, prayer or thoughtfulness. You can make the design intricate or simple one. You can even purchase canvas ones. This is a great staycation of an ancient tool used for centuries by those desiring to connect with their higher selves. You can recreate a simple labyrinth with tape. Set your creation up inside or outside your home and practice it daily. Keep a journal of your progress and how walking the labyrinth affects your spiritual nature. This labyrinth design can be created within 5 to 6 minutes.
4. Studying Native Plants by Potting Flowers and Plants
You can spend your staycation learning about the native plants in your region. This is the perfect time to beautify your seasonal flowers to planters and pots. Once you’ve finished potting everything, arrange the plants around your deck or patio, working in groups of threes, fives or other odd number for the best design look. Consider:
- Potting your state’s tree for transplant later
- Growing new house plants native to your region
- Selecting flowers for your zone and adding them to your landscaping
5. Organize and Back-Up Trip Photo Collections
This staycation idea focuses on organizing your previous trip and vacation image collections and created cloud backups. You can print your favorite photos and create various photo albums to display on your coffee table and/or fill in open bookcase spaces. Once you have it organized, cast onto your TV or view together on your tablet or phone. Group into categories like:
- Beach vacations
- States or countries
- Architectural wonders
- Carnivals and amusement parks
- The great outdoors
6. Learn About Feng Shui and Try a Bedroom Remake
Feng shui can improve your life, so plan your staycation around learning more about it. After all, while you’re staying home, you should be getting more rest. To ensure you are taking advantage of everything for a good night’s sleep, apply the basic feng shui principles for bedroom designs. There are also feng shui tips for love and harmony in bedroom designs. You can also make a few changes in the bedroom to boost your career and income.
Staycation Ideas for Families
A family staycation can be fun. Whether you’re staying home due to a coronavirus pandemic, SARS outbreak or simply trying to save money on your annual vacation, your family can have a good time being together.
7. Hawaiian Polynesian Luau
You can turn your backyard and/or patio into a stage for a luau party. You just need a few things. You can use any drums you have on hand or you can create some by using plastic buckets turned upside down or other containers.
- Dress in your most festive wear, such as Hawaiian print shirts, skirts or dresses.
- Create leis using silk flowers held together with bread ties, rubber bands or pieces of yarn/string.
- You can always order inexpensive party decorations and props.
- Light a few tiki torches for ambience and enjoy a limbo game.
- Your dinner menu can include pulled pork, roasted vegetables, fresh fruit, and a salad with ginger-lime dressing.
- A perfect dessert is a pineapple upside cake pineapple cake.
8. Explore Different Cultural Holidays Around the World
Spend your staycation exploring the many cultural holidays from around the world. Hold a competition by decorating for one or more of the holidays and be sure to include traditional cuisine in your celebration. Holidays may range from Cinco de Mayo, Greek New Year’s, or Eid. Kids can be challenged to decorate their bicycles in a decorated bicycle competition using the holiday theme and colors. Provide your kids with lots of arts and crafts materials so they can decorate their bicycles. Use real or artificial flowers, streamers, ribbons, stuffed animals, and other items to create unique bicycles worthy of a backyard parade and award ceremony!
9. Plan a Home Carnival
Put on a carnival for your family inside your home or in the backyard. Set up things just like you’d find at a carnival. For example:
- Make funnel cakes, corn dogs, homemade ice cream, and cotton candy.
- Have the family pets show off their talent! Trained rabbits, cats, dogs, and birds are all perfect participants.
- Teach kids a few fun magic tricks or have someone palm read in another room.
Don’t forget to include a variety of games. Set up cans in a pyramid and try to knock them over and have a dart board with balloons to pop. Try making a fishing game, too! String a sheet between two doors, add a finishing rod with a clothespin on the fishing line instead of a hook and pin treats to the fisherman’s line. Let the kids cut out and decorate fish. Glue a small magnet onto the fish and a large magnet attached to the fishing line for a fun fishing sport!
10. Sports Highlights
You can have sports staycation instead of heading out to the ballpark. Start with your own game(s) in the backyard with football, baseball, whiffle ball, or basketball in the driveway. You may prefer lawn games, such as badminton, croquet, cornhole, and darts. Film each event! After everyone has showered, met up with lots of cooling down drinks and food, replay the videos of your day to share the memories and laughter over the bloopers made during the game. Finish up by watching a broadcast of your favorite sports.
11. Go on a Hike or Create a Hiking Trail
You can use string, rope, or yarn to mark a backyard hiking trail by wrapping the string around a tree trunk to create a pathway to take a short or long hike through your backyard. The size of your yard and the type of landscaping will determine if you can create a marked trail or not. A wooded lot means you can use string or rope to create a guided path through the woods. A yard with a lawn isn’t conducive to an exciting path so you may decide to head out to local hiking trails in parks.
12. Cultural Craft Time Staycation
You can get all the crafts done you’ve been dying to tackle all year while learning about people and places you’d like to visit. Create a plan of attack. Organize your supplies and plan out various projects for your family to enjoy. Set up a craft station that doesn’t need to be broken down each day. This way family members can work on their crafts whenever they want. For seasonal projects, make sure you have a dedicated bin or tub so once completed the crafts can be stored. Make sure you include a few that your kids can complete and display in their rooms! Consider:
- Native American beading projects
- Chinese New Year dragon craft ideas
- Mari Gras crafts for all ages
13. Rock Art or Mosaic Monuments
Painting rocks or creating a representative mosaic with various monuments or museums is a fun project for a family participating in a staycation. Use weather resistant paints so your creations can endure being placed around a flower bed, along a path or walkway. Let each family member choose an art theme. Create or purchase stepping stone molds, such as a plastic square or round box lid. Mix Quickcrete or other fast-drying concrete, and place various mosaic pieces in the wet concrete to create beautiful stepping stones. A few places to consider include:
- A famous French monument like the Arc de Triomphe
- The Taj Mahal in Deli
- New York’s Empire State Building
Don’t forget to let each family member sign their works of art. Make the last day of your staycation special with a celebration as the stepping stones and other rock art are placed in your yard. End with a family feast of everyone’s favorite dishes that represent the location of the monument or museum they created.
14. Movie Marathon or Film Festival
You can set up a movie marathon or film festival depending on your taste. Make this a special event by choosing a theme. Each family member can make an appropriate costume according to your theme, like Bollywood movies, or if you go with the film festival theme, your theme can be Cannes Film Festival with everyone dressing up as stars of the film(s).
- Take photos of each family member to print later to create a billboard.
- Set up a concession stand with popcorn, drinks and candy concessions.
- Choose a room for your theater such as a living room, or if you have a media room or home theater.
- Turn off the lights and enjoy the show(s)!
15. Recreate Famous Art for a Finale Art Show
Have each person create at least one work of art during your staycation. Some may create one each day or work on the same one every day. Consider basing the work on the famous ones found at a specific museum, like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Guggenheim Museum or the Art Institute of Chicago. Let each person choose whatever medium they wish to recreate the famous piece(s). You can play up the drama by not allowing each other to see these creations until the end of your staycation. On the last day, everyone brings out their works of art. Display the art in a makeshift gallery. Improvise pedestal for sculptures, paper mache or pottery with a cake pedestal or cup cake pedestals. Use lighting to spotlight art when appropriate. Paintings can be displayed on walls or easels. Create ribbon awards with construction paper, bows and ribbons. Hold your awards ceremony and let everyone dress up for the big reveals.
16. Coloring Marathon Art Gallery
Set up a coloring marathon and display finished pieces like you’d find in an art gallery. If you don’t have enough coloring pages, simply print them from a wide variety of printable coloring pages. Set a time limit for the entries to be completed. Display them and then give out awards for best colors used, best coloring in lines, best in show, etc. Have others in the family write description cards for each, just like you would find in a true gallery. Try to be as funny and ironic as possible.
17. Cultural Manicures With Decorative Fingernails
Let the females of the household have a manicure holiday complete with decorative fingernail decals and colorful fingernail polish. Ask that each design have a cultural expression and explain it to everyone in the house once it’s complete. Plan out each day and choose the designs ahead of time. Set a specific time each day to indulge in trying a new design.
18. Trending Hair Around the World
This staycation is all about the hair. Select a few online tutorials to teach yourself how to create new hair styles based on hair trends from around the world. Spend time each day tackling a new look. For example, you and other family members can learn how to create a French braid. You can practice on each other. Take lots of photos and videos of your masterpieces. At the end of your staycation, let everyone show off their new look with a special evening that includes great food and reviewing the photos/videos of everyone’s creations.
19. Vacation Research Challenge
For those who enjoy learning and researching a topic, a research challenge is a wonderful staycation ideas. Designate a daily vacation destination so the entire family can research it and at the end of the day summarize what each person learned. You can create a timeframe for the research and even make it a competition. At the end of each daily challenge, have everyone summarize what they discovered about the vacation spot and present it over a meal that is related to the topic.
20. Broadway Play Production
Let your children help you write a Broadway-style play with a part for each family member. Next you need to design your costumes. You’ll want to have a rehearsal or two before the big night. Record your play production so your family can view and enjoy it over and over again.
21. Dance Recital
A dance recital can be a great staycation for the entire family. Let each person chose the music and choreography. You may decide to a family dance routine is the best choice. Make short videos and take photos of your rehearsals. At the end of your staycation, put on the recital, just make sure you video record it. You can then create a montage of the staycation with the recital as the grand finale!
22. Magic Show Production
Learn a few magic tricks and wrap up your staycation with a grand magic show. You can use household items for your props. Dress the part of the magician, including a cape. Ask each family member to get involved by helping you write your script, create the stage, and film the final production. As always, make sure you have lots of staycation photos and videos for keepsakes.
23. Story Writing Competition by Country
You can create a story writing competition. Challenge family members to write a short story. Assign each person a different state or country for their setting. They will need to research daily life and culture in order to come up with their story. Set a word count and other rules for the competition. Have each family member read their entry at the end of your staycation. Use a blind voting process to choose Best Short Story about Dogs, Best Short Story about Fairies, etc.
24. Las Vegas Card Game Tournament
There are many types of card games that lend themselves to a card game tournament. Choose your game, such as progressive rummy, poker, hearts, crazy eights, and various age appropriate card games. Set up fun Las Vegas-style tables, add some festive disco ball lighting, and hang photos of hotels on the Strip to make this a kid-friendly Vegas tournament.
25. Landscape Photo Competition
You can hold a photo competition. Limit each family member to one photo per day of your staycation to enter in the competition. Give everyone a timeframe for taking the photos, selecting and printing. Have everyone take photos of the landscapes around their area. Display the photos and allow anonymous voting for the different categories you create, such as Best in Show, Best Use of Light, etc.
26. Pet Show
Spruce up your pets and hold a pet show. Set each day with tasks, such as coming up with a theme, selecting pet clothing you have on hand (optional). You can create an easy obstacle course to guide your pets through. You may choose to show your pet the same way as professional show dogs. Take videos of each one and then review as a family to judge which pet stole the show!
27. Escape With a Family Book Club and Book Reviews
For a family of bookworms, a staycation spent reading and then reviewing books makes a perfect getaway. Choose books that are age appropriate and not too long so everyone can read them. Focus on books that take them to a new location or offer insight into different culture’s day-to-day life. Have a special luncheon or evening meal to discuss the book(s) over dessert. You can plan as many books and book discussions as you wish. Finish each day by reading a book aloud, allowing each family member to take a turn.
28. Country Themed Daily Dinners
Split up the cooking by dividing the family into teams (one child with one adult or young child with teen). Assign each day of the week a different country for dinner. The teams need to come up with a good recipe for that country. For example, one day could feature common Bolivian foods, another Indian recipes, and a third Japanese snacks.
29. Creative Holiday Cupcake Decorating
If a bake-off isn’t your cup of tea, then let everyone help bake cupcakes that each person gets to decorate at least one each day. Designate each day a different holiday and have the person do their best to create an accurate representation of an iconic image for that holiday. Consider frosting lights for Diwali or bunny feet for Easter.
30. Progressive Global Charades
A game of charades is always a fun activity. You can play as teams or individuals. You can make up the words, movie titles, or other terms. You can also use online sources for game topic/subject ideas. Select a theme for each day, such as international movies, a specific holiday, or famous people from around the world.
31. Temporary Cultural Tattoos
Create a tattoo parlor experience for the kids with temporary tattoos. There are different styles of this type of press-on tattoos or decal style tattoos. Look at various cultural tattoos and explore their meanings and why someone would get one. At the end of your staycation, let each family member tell which tattoo(s) was their favorite.
32. Family Fitness Boot Camp
You can hold your own fitness camp instead of vising one in a separate location. This can be conducted inside and outside in the backyard, depending on weather and where you live. Design a physical routine for your family that allows each person to advance in their repetitions.
33. Make Your Own Hollywood Movie
You’ll either find a script online or write your own. Divide out the parts, hold a dress rehearsal before filming. Designate one family member to film the movie. Play your movie on the TV, don’t forget the popcorn!
34. Share Your Holiday Hobby With Family Members
If you have a hobby you do during the holidays that can be shared with family members, a staycation is an ideal time to teach them so they are all set for the next one! Prepare a how-to that is easy to comprehend and follow. Make sure you have all the necessary supplies and above all, make it fun!
35. Puppet Show
You can put on a puppet show with a few simple props. Use a console table with a blanket or sheet draped over it. Stuffed animals and other toys can be transformed into puppets for a limitless choice of puppet shows. You can even find some online scripts if you wish to infuse a variety of themes and plots. Spend each day preparing for the grand puppet show. You can create cloth or construction finger puppets to combine a craft activity throughout your staycation culminating with a show finale.
36. Fashion Show Week
Put on your own fashion show if you can’t make it to one of the famous fashion weeks to see the runway trends. Go all out with music, lighting and even a runaway. You don’t need to build a runway. Strings of mini lights on the floor can mark the runway. Choose outfits that are stylish, don your own creations and be sure someone takes lots of photos!
37. Laser Tag Tournament
Laser tag can be a fun indoor or outdoor sport. Wear dark clothing so you can hide in the darkened room(s) or in the yard. Depending on the number of people playing, you can play in teams or may find playing solo works best. Set a timer for each round. At the end of the tournament, hold a final game to celebrate and just for fun!
38. Around the World Board Game Tournament
Board games are fun ways to spend parts of your vacation. Utilize geography board games to get away without leaving your home! Choose the game for your first round. Make sure you allot enough time to complete each one and set up a bracket so everyone knows where they stand.
39. Everyone Gets an Award
Spend your staycation, coming up with specific award ideas suited for each family member. Let every family member participate. Think of various skills and talents each person possesses. Some of the awards could be Best Soup Maker, Best Dressed, Best Creative Problem-Solver, Best Card Player or categories pertinent to your family. You may decide to make the awards humorous or sarcastic titles, such as Best Excuse Maker, Best Chore Avoider, Best Dog Walker, and others. Create ribbon and/or trophy awards and hold an Awards Dinner with a special meal at the end of the week. You can create this event with as much pomp and circumstance as you please.
40. Musical Instruments Cultural Concert
If your family is talented and play various musical instruments, you can practice for a concert in your backyard to serenade your neighbors. You can dress up and live stream your concert online so others can enjoy your talents. Create a cutltural theme by having each person pick a popular song from a different country and everyone learn the music. Or, focus on one country’s music, like Scotland or Kenya, and everyone selects a different song to represent that country’s culture and holidays.
Staycation Ideas for Singles
Singles enjoying a staycation can find lots of fun things to do at home. Pampering yourself is often at the top of everyone’s staycation list!
41. Spa Staycation
You may designate a spa staycation or if you prefer pampering week. This is a time when you enjoy all the spa amenities, give yourself a pedicure. Take a long bath with bath salts and aromatherapy. Light some candles, pour a glass of wine and listen to soothing music. This is your time to enjoy a luxurious restive week.
42. Make Candles for Various Celebrations
Do you have a favorite scent but haven’t found the perfect scented candle? You can use essential oils to make unique and aromatic candles for your home. Add a few botanicals such as flowers for a truly special creation. Make different colors and get very creative in your candle making. Create candles using specific holidays and other celebrations.
43. Personal Style Do Over
If you’ve been wanting to try a do over, a staycation is the ideal time to engage. Choose the look you want to try, and go for it! Use online tutorials for new makeup techniques, and ways to style your hair. Try as many do overs during your staycation until you find the new look you love!
44. Yoga Festival
Whether you know how to practice yoga or are new to it, you can designate your staycation as a Yoga Festival. While it’s nice to use a yoga equipment, mat and wear yoga style loose clothing, it isn’t necessary. If you want to go traditional, then you can order all this online and have it delivered to your front door. If you opt to keep it simple, easy and inexpensive, then wear a pair of sweatpants or loose-fitting pajama bottoms and loose-fitting top. You may prefer form-fitting athletic wear. That are numerous free how-to tutorials, depending on your level of skill from beginner to advanced that you can stream.
45. Spruce Up a Room or Two with a Stencil Border
Recreate your bedroom, dining room or living room with a simple stencil border. Choose an accent color or a darker value of the color of the walls. Get creative and add stenciling to an armoire or china cabinet.
46. Create a YouTube Tutorial
If you’re an expert in a particular field, hobby, career, or skill you can share your talent with a YouTube tutorial. You may also decide to livestream specific tutorials to have live interaction with viewers.
47. Time of Meditation and Thoughtful Practice
Everyone needs a little down time. Carve out a time each day to have quiet time. This can be a time for meditation and thoughtful practice. It’s never too early to start learning the art of meditation and relaxation. Turn off all devices. If it’s the right time of year to enjoy fresh air and sunshine, meditate on your deck, porch or patio. If you don’t have a private outdoor area, close the door to your bedroom and open a window. Play soft meditative music or simply listen to nature.
48. Rearrange the Rooms in Your House
Plan a new look for your home without spending a lot of money. You can rearrange the furniture or move furniture from one room into another. Go beyond the furniture and exchange the accessories. Don’t be afraid to change out the current accessories, lamps and wall art in a bedroom or living room. You can arrange decorative objects to create a more dramatic and inviting room. Move through your home as though you’re on a shopping trip and select specific items you think would look better in another part of the house.
49. Make Shoe Box Care Packages
Create an assembly line to organize care packages, such as Operation Shoebox for those serving in the military or Samaritan’s Purse Christmas gifts for kids. Some websites allow you to purchase the box and items that go in it. Spend time each day working on different types of care packages. At the end of the week, collect the packages and mail or delivery to the drop off point.
50. Paint Wall Mural
Choose a wall in a dining room or bedroom to create a mural. This can be painted or created with decals. This is a fun way to express your creativity. You may decide to create something that represents your family, such as a motif, family crest or a favorite hobby.
51. Neighborhood Car Parade
If you and your neighbors are going with staycations, organize a car parade. Everyone will decorate their cars, vans or trucks like a parade float, complete with lights and various decorations. Designate the start time and a lineup area. Have someone record the parade that can be put online following the parade for everyone to enjoy.
52. Create Wrapping Paper
If you have a few rolls of craft paper, take advantage of your staycation time by creating some fun wrapping paper designs for use later in the year. If you have crafting stencils, sort through them for the ones you wish to use. Paint stamps are another resource for creating wrapping paper. Choose a theme for each day’s creations.
Staycation Ideas for Adults
Adults who decide to indulge in a staycation can explore some unique and entertaining ideas. Add a few new ideas to make your staycation memorable.
53. Learn Disco Dances
Use online tutorials to learn a few disco dance moves. At the end of your staycation, it’s time to disco! Use a disco ball or make one using a large foam ball, mirror tiles and a glue gun. Hang the ball from the ceiling so it will reflect light. Opt to go all out with a disco era hairdo, create a fun 1970s costume and download a disco era playlist. Be sure to create a refreshment table decorated with a tablecloth, glitter confetti and other decorations.
54. Make City-Specific Cocktail Drinks
You can increase your bartending skills by learning to make new cocktail drinks. Each night try out a new cocktail recipe based on a city you’d like to visit. There are many easy recipes that can help you up your bartending game and impress your friends, such as:
- Singapore Sling, made with cointreau
- The Manhattan, a whiskey drink
- Moscow Mule, traditionally made with ginger beer
55. Karaoke Challenge
You can have a karaoke challenge with or without a karaoke machine. You can find karaoke videos that feature the music and scrolling lyrics to play on your laptop, tablet, cellphone or cast to your TV. Record each night’s challenge. At the end of your staycation let family members reveal on their favorite song and let each one sing it for a fun wrap-up.
56. Yard Art Competition
Get your neighborhood involved for a unique yard art competition. Spend the week creating your art and then displaying in your yard. You can spotlight your art so neighbors can cruise through the streets. Instead of just an art show, set up online registration and voting for the best in show, complete with photos that each neighbor posts of their creations.
57. Name That Tune Tournament
An old time favorite musical game, Name that Tune, is something you can play using your favorite playlist. You’ll want to play just the first few seconds of the tune, around six to ten seconds of each song. You can prerecord a series of songs, 25-30 based on a musical theme, such as country music, jazz, 60s hits, etc. At the end of each song segment, everyone tries to guess the song. The one with the most correct answers wins!
58. Learn a Song and Perform
Singers can learn a new song over the course of their staycation. Get the entire family involved and choose a song everyone will enjoy singing. Finish up with a performance that you record and post online for everyone to enjoy.
59. Hold an Online Party
Just because you are at home doesn’t mean you can’t party with loved ones far away. Set up a virtual party with each home decorated, party food prepared and share this time with each other. You’ll be amazed how much fun you can have!
Backyard Staycation Ideas
If you have a backyard, then you just doubled and in some cases tripled the kind of staycation fun you can have. There are many outdoor events you can enjoy in the privacy of your backyard.
60. Beach Volleyball Court in Backyard
You can create a beach volleyball court in your backyard by having sand delivered. If you don’t want to spend money on sand, then set up the volleyball net on the grass. Each day hold a game with the final playoff held on the last day of your staycation.
61. Cloud Watching Week Challenge
As long as your weather is great, this can be a great family activity. Each day, place a quilt or blanket in an open area on the ground in your backyard. You want to choose a spot where you can lie on your back and see the sky and clouds. As the clouds roll into view, let everyone tell what type of animal, food, vehicle, or other figure the cloud resembles. Be sure to have snacks since cloud watching can create bit appetites!
62. Backyard Camping
You can set up tents in your backyard and have a camping staycation. This gives you the best of both worlds. You’ll still have the conveniences of your home while enjoying sleeping outdoors in a secure environment. A firepit can serve as your campfire, or if you live in a rural area, you can create your own campfire by using rocks to contain it.
63. Backyard Picnic Themes
A backyard picnic is a fun staycation entertainment. Choose a cultural cuisine theme for each day. Let family members research the culture and cuisines and together come up with picnic friendly recipes the whole family can create. Pack a picnic in the house using a basket. Spread a quilt or blanket on the lawn and enjoy your feast, you’ve earned it!
64. Nightly Backyard Bonfire
Wherever you live, you need to double-check fire burning regulations for your area before building any kind of fire and always have a water hose within reach. Keep your fire small enough to contain it. It’s even better if you have a firepit. Have plenty of firewood to keep your bonfire going. Roast hotdogs over your fire and top off with roasted marshmallow or s’mores. If your family is talented, play instruments and sing your favorite songs.
65. Family Olympics
You can hold a family Olympics. Choose the sports you want to include. Depending on the size of your backyard, you can create an arena for the competition. If you and your children have special skills, they can show them off. You can have a footrace, a relay race, a track jump, etc. If you live on a farm or ranch, you may enjoy a horse race, calf roping, barrel racing, or even bronco riding.
66. Birdwatching Marathon
It helps to have a pair of binoculars, but it isn’t necessary to see what birds are hanging around your home. If you have a bird book you can use it, but you can also use your phone, tablet or laptop to browse website dedicated to identify birds. You may even find some bird calls to help you recognize those birds you’ve identified. Make it a game or contest to see who can find the most bird species. Be sure to keep score. You may want to print off the birds you find or let your children draw and color them. Create a family birdwatching journal and leave it out so each family member can make entries whenever they spot a new species.
67. Start a Vegetable Garden
You can start a vegetable garden either in-ground, raised beds or using planters. Choose the types of vegetables your family loves and plant the seeds. Involve the entire family in the water and upkeep. Research various recipes for each vegetable so you and your family can fully enjoy them when harvest time rolls around. You may even try canning a few for winter storage.
68. Week of Water Fun and Games
If you have a swimming pool, you can hold your own water Olympics. Choose the type of strokes to include in your competition. You can include diving, freestyle and relay races as part of your Olympics. If you don’t have a pool, use a sprinkler to create a fun game of running through the spray and don’t forget water guns for a true standoff!
69. Obstacle Course Competition
You can whip those troops into shape and burn off some of that pent-up energy with a fun obstacle course. Be sure you make the obstacle safe and appropriate for your children’s ages. For example, pool noodles can be arched and secured to the ground to create a tunnel effect for kids to crawl through, use flour to mark a curved path with a window box or two turned upside down as a hurdle for your kids to jump over, etc. Use a stopwatch to keep each child’s time to determine the winner of each round. At the end of the week, recognize the Most Improved, Most Agile, etc.
70. Name that Bug
Each day, you can take inventory of the kinds of insects around your home. You can use an online entomology guide to help your family identify the different bugs crawling around outside your home. Keep either a digital journal or print out bug images and information and let the children create a printed journal. Put the journal in an easy place for everyone to reach and continue to add to it long after your staycation is over.
71. Identifying Plants and Flowers
Instead of bugs, you may prefer to create a plant journal to identify plants around your house. If you don’t have a yard, you can surf garden articles to learn about plants that grow in your region. Families can use printouts of flowers and plants that can be colored and displayed.
72. Build a Treehouse Project
A treehouse can be as simple or as elaborate a design as you want. Plan out the design, make a list of materials needed and if you don’t have everything, simply order online for home delivery. Decorate your treehouse and make it a family-friendly zone.
73. Scavenger Hunt
There are all kinds of themes you can use to create a fun daily scavenger hunt inside the house as well as in the backyard. Include a few zany items that are quirky and fun. You can stage the backyard prior to the scavenger hunt to make it easier to find items for the little scavenger hunters. If your staycation is during a holiday like Easter, hiding Easter eggs can advance to small bags of Easter candy to mini-sized stuffed bunnies or chicks.
74. Hidden or Buried Treasure Map
Who says a buried treasure has to be in a yard? You can hide a bag or chest of treasure in a clothes hamper, dryer, freezer, or other unconventional place inside your home. If you prefer your treasure hunters to be outside in their own backyard, then you can hide it in a flowerpot, trash can, flower bed, or even in the ground. Start day one with a game of clues that lead your treasure seekers to one piece of the map. The next day the clues lead to a second piece of the map and so on. Once the map is put together, they can quickly find the treasure, or can they? You can have additional clues or even maps at the X marks the spot. Just don’t drag out the reward too long. So, what’s the treasure? Make it worthwhile, include candy, a gift certificate or a few vouchers for a movie rental.
75. Nightly Stargazing
Weather permitting, and if you live where there is little to no light pollution, you can enjoy nightly stargazing. You can use a telescope or simply a constellation guide so you can point out the stars overhead. Create a journal to log in your nightly sightings.
Exploring 75 Easy Staycation Ideas That Are Fun Yet Cheap to Create
There are many staycation ideas that don’t cost a lot of money. You can make your time staying home a fun and memorable one when you put a little effort into planning activities.
