Stuck At Home? Have A Staycation!

*Repost because something broke on my website and I had to rollback to before this was published.

As most countries face a lockdown because of COVID-19 (Coronavirus) the urge to travel is only made greater as the view remains the same. However with a little imagination, you can trick your brain into thinking you’ve gone somewhere else.

The easiest way of course is to read a book set in another country. There’s books set in South America, Africa, Australia, Europe, America and remote Pacific Islands, so no matter where you want to go, there will be a book already published that will take you there.

If you have something specific in mind, make a post on reddit. The Suggest Me a Book forum is excellent for finding your next favourite book. Alternatively, buy my book, Compass – a novella about what’s important in life or The 69 Encounters of Alice Kant – a novella about a global odyssey of debauchery and exploration.

Eating your way around the world is another easy way to trick your mind. Whilst some supplies are limited at the moment, there’s plenty of places still doing delivery. Go to Mexico, Italy, Lebanon, Vietnam or Japan via your tastebuds.

To add to the authenticity, speak in an accent, wear a sarong, play music from another country, there’s dozens of easy ways you can trick your brain into thinking you’re elsewhere.

If you’re not yet on total lockdown and can still make it out of the house, take a micro-trip which is just as good as being overseas.

If you have flatmates, create your own country. Give each room a name of a region, create an itinerary, decorate or theme each room. Create rules about what’s allowed and what’s not. Remove all furniture and stick photos up of your favourite destination, whatever it takes to convince you that you’ve left your city, and gone somewhere different.

When I was teaching in New Zealand, everyday we had to theme the classroom, based on what we were teaching which was easy if the unit was about a destination, like Tahiti or Samoa. Throw some frangipani flowers around, put on a grass skirt and slap on some coconut oil – boom you’re in Tahiti now.

Most tourist offices, tour companies and cruise lines will post you a brochure via their website if you ask. Order a set of brochures for your next destination. You can get excited about receiving mail, plus then you can lay the travel brochures out around the room and plan your next trip.

If you can’t wait for mail, they all produce digital versions too. Think of virtually any city in America, and you can be certain there will be a tourism brochure produced for it.

Kansas City Tourism brochure anyone? Or perhaps you’d prefer a North Carolina Civil War Trails Map?

If you could buy an island, and turn it into your own country, what would it look like? Would you prefer warm and tropical, or cool and quiet? Have you bought an island? Please get in touch.

If you want to be more productive than just dreaming about travel, then here’s a bunch of free online courses that WILL lead to paid jobs and the best part is, once you’re free to travel again, these jobs can be done anywhere with a laptop and internet connection. It’s the start of your new #digitalnomad life.

The best part of a staycation of course is that anyone can do it, there’s no passport required, and it costs absolutely nothing!

Send me a postcard from your staycation and I’ll read it out on my next podcast episode of Jade Talks Travel.

Till then, happy travels of the mind,

Thanks for reading!
Happy travels
cheers,
Jade Jackson – Listen to my podcast Jade Talks Travel
Travel Writer | Podcaster | Photographer