Holi-STAY – The Rise of Staycations!

Exploring the concept of a “vacation” beyond the traveling on a boat/plane to a land beyond your comfort zone and discovering those lands and what it has to offer in a relaxing mode. Perhaps to discover something you might not need to travel so far away, sometimes the “unknown” is behind our backyard.

Summer holidays can be parents’ nightmare because you if you’re anything like me, you’ll start thinking of ways to keep your kids busy with summer camps, travel plans, budgeting and the likes. It becomes more of a second job to search and book for a holiday, so much so that you are exhausted by the time you’ve finished planning and before you’ve even traveled.

But summer holidays aren’t the only days that you can plan vacation or getaway ideas. In fact, with the multiple holidays or extended weekends linked to holidays, people have started looking at holidays in a manner that doesn’t require master planning. In this part of the world where we are blessed with Islamic holidays and National holidays, weekends can get extended to 3 days or weekend to weekend holidays.

Daycations, staycations and quick getaways have become so popular today than ever before. By definition a staycation is a holiday spent in one’s home country rather than abroad, or one spent at home and involving day trips to local attractions. Daycations are similar but they are limited to a few hours and one tends to come back to their home before the night is over.

Day & staycations are becoming so popular as life gets busier. The reason behind that is because they break your daily routine and they give you the chance to experience your town or the neighboring one in a different view. As there are so many places to see and experience, you might not be able to fit it all in, so it’s easier to enjoy them in short bursts of holidays rather than longer ones.

The concept of staycations became popular (although they’ve always existed) during the 2008-2009 recession and could be seen amongst Americans and Britons who ditched their travel plans to make way for holidaying in their home countries to cut on spending. We’re lucky to live in a city like Dubai that encompasses a multitude of personalities, cultures, and nationalities. So exploring it should be a core aspect of our life even if it’s just a store down the corner.

Last summer, U by Emaar launched a survey which captured UAE resident’s aspirations and insights to staycations and I found the findings very similar to my own interests and needs.

For those planning a holiday, breaking up a long holiday seems to be much more effective, especially if you can move around familiar lands doing unfamiliar activities. I didn’t understand or value it until I had children, and how much I needed a break or even to just break out of routine. Though in my case, it helps working for the tourism authority where discovering the city is part of my day to day workflow.

Another plus point is resident discounts – it’s funny how we never ask for it. Ask your local pharmacy for a discount, and you would be surprised how quickly you get one being a resident of Dubai which complements the value for money.

So why opt for day and staycations? To be completely honest, as much as we say we “know” our city – and for me that city is Dubai – it’s the exponential growth of Dubai has given the word ‘discover’ a complete new meaning, and I love understanding what makes Dubai tick and what makes up its soul. Which is the exact same thing one should do when traveling anywhere else in the world. Discovering something new, be it culture, food, adventure and so on.