As usual, my family and I are enjoying a summer stay-cation. We never really are able to plan a big summer vacation (and with everyone’s activities, it is much like attempting to thread the eye of a needle with a camel). I feel a little guilty not having a big family thing going on, but as kids get older, it just ends up being far too hard to pull together.
The stay-cations we typically organize are day trips or short weekend trips to either Toronto or Montreal. Still, even these weekends are starting to become expensive (even without hotel expenses). Gasoline prices ensure all trips are at least $100 (Toronto doubles that), not including the expense and cost of running the car (i.e., wear and tear, insurance, etc.). Gas prices have made the stay-cation an expensive concept (unless you are doing something in town).
If you want to do something (aside from sitting around Grandma’s house or possibly watching Grandma’s TV) this is where another big expense can be incurred. This year we are trying out LaRonde and are buying tickets from Costco (Costco has discounted tickets for many of the great tourist sites in Ontario, like LaRonde, Canada’s Wonderland, Mont Cascades, and other places), but at the end of it the price for a day was about $175 (for a day!), and this is not including parking, and food as well (but we did save $50 on the list price with the Costco discounts).
I think the next time I look at those Disney resorts or one of those all-inclusive resorts, I need to keep these spending in mind.
This puts me in mind of when we went to a timeshare condo presentation, the sales guy Ron Don Bob Ron Don (I think that was his name) (we were there with Michael James and his wife) told us that a timeshare would pay for itself over time and that if we didn’t buy a timeshare (which we didn’t) we should take all the receipts from our vacations over 20 years put them in a shoe box and then look back on these expenses and see how much it all cost. Â Yes, I never did that, but it’s an interesting sales pitch.
I thought a staycation was spending your vaction time around your home city, while staying in your own home. Not a 2-4 hour drive to spend the weekend out of town. To me that is a vacation, not a far away one, but still a vacation.
I think you can spend a lot of money either way. Just because you stay home doesn’t mean you aren’t going to spend money. It all depends on what activities you want to do.
We have traveled a lot and saved a lot of money by staying in hostels, eating at grocery stores, and walking.
You’re just underestimating the cost of travel. Staycations are way cheaper