Say Yes to the Staycation

COVID-19 has been called the great equalizer. It has no societal, racial, economic or cultural bias. That has made it both awful and unifying. Businesses of all sizes and financial brackets whether long established or relatively new have struggled and have had to find ways to survive through the pandemic. The tourism sector in particular has been hit hard across the globe, but the idea of staycations has taken off. This is not a new concept, though. What's different now is that unifying situation that the pandemic has caused. For the past year and a half, we've all been in a different version of the same boat, and I'm pretty sure I can speak for almost everyone when I say that people are longing for a getaway. Enter the staycation.

Before moving to the tropical island of Curaçao, my husband and I lived near Vancouver in beautiful British Columbia, Canada. It was and still is one of the most expensive places in the world to live. For years, we survived paycheque to paycheque without any savings left for luxuries such as vacations. Many of our friends (in higher tax brackets) routinely flew to Hawaii or Mexico on holiday, but we didn't have the means to do so. However, we realized that people paid thousands of dollars to holiday where we lived. We decided to open our eyes to the beauty that surrounded us, so we did day trips to places such as Deep Cove for some epic kayaking and Osoyoos for wine tasting. Some of our best holiday memories come from those one, two and three-day staycations. We didn't have photos of tropical holidays in far away places, but we did have photos of crystal clear B.C. waters with the Rocky Mountains as a backdrop. We had videos of windy mountain passes with lakes glistening in the Okanagan evening sun. We had bottles of local B.C. wine from the many wineries that we'd visited. We weren't lacking in that holiday feel.

Now, we actually live in a tropical paradise here on the island of Curaçao. Though it might sound hypocritical, we have also felt the need for that holiday feel after a couple pretty strict lockdowns. Anyone living on the island or any other tourist paradise will agree that home is home no matter how tropical it is, and you still need a getaway — or at least the feel of one. That's where the local deals that the island's hotels, restaurants and even stores have been promoting come in. Deals for residents are all over social media. It's the ultimate win-win promotion, too. Local businesses get some revenue, and residents get to experience the treat of staying at a hotel, visiting the spa, eating out at fancy restaurants and buying items that are otherwise financially out of reach.

My husband Jon and I recently experienced such a treat. I saw a sponsored Instagram post from LionsDive Beach Resort advertising a deal for locals. For 99 ANG, you got beach access and a beach bed, a bottle of water, a 30-minute massage from the spa and an à la carte lunch item from their beachside restaurant, Hemingway. That comes to around 66 Canadian dollars (approximately US$55). Naturally, I jumped on that deal and booked us our massages for a nice, lazy, late Sunday morning start time.

The spa is located right on the beach with the Caribbean Sea directly in front and the palm-dotted sand stretched out to the left and right of it. It is only a two-table cabana which made it feel even more special and perfect for what amounted to an anniversary treat for us. After the massages, we got our cold water and beach beds and lounged under the swaying partial shade of a palm tree eventually making our way into the water to cool off. Hunger pangs were easily taken care of with the built-in lunch part of the deal. I already knew that I wanted the goat cheese salad as I'd had it before, and it's amazing. Jon had a burger on ciabatta with fries. We took our time. We'd been pampered at the spa, and at the restaurant, we were treated incredibly well despite it being a cracking deal. It was absolutely worth it, and we probably never would have done it had COVID-19 not forced the staycation deal trend. Now we have another island experience to look back on, and LionsDive Beach Resort and Hemingway Beach Bar & Restaurant will be highly recommended by us to our friends and family as travel starts up again.

The staycation is a fantastic idea, and I recommend everyone to support local hotels and restaurants, camp grounds and inns. They need locals until tourists return, and hopefully even then, the staycation deals for locals will remain. It's a great way to appreciate your home whether it's on an island, in a city or at a camp ground in the country.