I guess it depends on where you live and how you'd define "staycation" (and I think that word is ugly too). I suppose if you define it as literally staying at home, yeah, that'd suck. However, I live in the North Shore of MA, and within 2 hours drive, I have 200 miles of coastline, mountains, lakes, a major city with all it has to offer, tons of historical, cultural and natural sites, quaint cities and towns, amusement parks, casinos and who knows what else is out there. I usually avoid traveling outside New England in the summertime, simply because this region rocks - when it is warm.

Of course its a totally different picture in the winter, but even then there is stuff to do. Personally, I'll be missing our usual vactation to someplace warm, but at least there is skiing.

Even though the main stream media is all giddy about coining a term that sounds like a variation of rickets ("I'm sorry, your child has "staycation'") staying at home during time off was already being done by many families, not because of lack of money, but because of lack of time.

Back in the 90's, when our kids were little, we spent our weekends and school breaks visiting relatives or catching up on big house projects. If we did go somewhere more than a 100 miles from home for more than 3 days, it took a spreadsheet to coordinate the school breaks with available vacation time. Even for single people, the amount of vacation time shrank to almost nothing.

The time crunch must have been somewhat noticeable because I remember how "weekend getaways" and "mini-vacations" were the buzz-words of the morning shows.

I really didn't mind that, but this staycation crap just sucks. I don't need somebody chirping to me how great it is have no money and not be able to afford Europe. Believe me, I got over it long before they even picked up on it. And do I really need somebody who CAN afford Europe telling me what to do in my own home and hometown?

This is the sort of thing a future historian will put on the cover of its-whatever books are then. The word simply a pure distillation of the utter whispyness of what we accept to be our culture and the #*@! we settle for as our existence.

If this were the only piece of surviving text from this time nothing would be lost :)

I'm going to Spain. I have spent six months planning my trip. Medieval cities and great galleries, mountains and ocean. Camp sites and pensions. And really, spending very little.

North Americans need to wake up to a lifestyle that doesn't reflect media representations. And stop being so pathetic.

I get 4 weeks 'vacation'. I have taken exactly 4 'vacations' since 1980. Will probably use this years 'vacation' since they will make me take it, to go work somewhere else for a month. Or I could just wait to find out my job has been sent to India.

I live in Seattle and I just wanted to take a week off from everything on the first week of August: my job, parental responsibilities (my daughter was off visiting my sister in Texas), potentially intricate trip planning, etc. -- I just wanted to do exactly what I wanted to do, and that included daily swims at the lovely saltwater pool on Puget Sound, bike-riding in Lincoln Park, having friends over for breakfast on my lovely porch in the perfect 78 degree weather, going dancing with lovely creatures on the weekend, writing and organizing music on my Pro Tools set-up, petting my happy cat Mr. Tippy, etc.....should I go on?

My "staycation" was, in essence, a consolidation of the things that make me happy about where I live and who I am, but that I often never get the bandwidth to enjoy. It was absolutely GREAT and the only downside was it was over too soon.

I believe it was old Lao Tzu who said something to the effect of "without going out of my door I can know the ways of heaven", and after my excellent "staycation" (just a fun whimsical word, not a freaking apology, you starved-for-superficialities-to dissect poor dear) I think I may have savored the flavor he suggested.

Billy Frolick, I don't know where you live or what's so bad about it, but I wish you luck with it the other 50 weeks of the year.

I've been taking a so-called staycation annually since at least 1998, and probably before. A week or so at home, sleeping late (or staying up late) and the ability to live outside of the normal 8-5 grind is pretty darned refreshing. I guess I was a trendsetter when I started staying home for a week at a time all those years ago.

You planned and saved for a trip?!!! Gosh, golly, you should be on the morning shows. I'm sure no one else knows about cheap fares and lodging in Europe, and little bit of planning and penny pinching. Have you heard about that inter-tube thingie? I betcha that would help too.

You're quite right. We are pathetic compared to your original thought patterns.

Do we have a buzzword for that enforced "vacation" that starts immediately following a mass firing by your former employer and ends when you find the next, often lower-paying new job? You know, that tedious, never wracking interval when you spend most of your time performing non-productive activities, such as worrying about whether you'll ever find a decent job again? When you wouldn't even consider spending what little money you've managed to save up since the previous job loss on some frivilous trip to Las Vegas? We could call it the staycation from hell, but that admittedly lacks originality.

And I mean legendary. Word.

Truly sorry for sounding arrogant; pathetic was not the appropriate word to use. I suppose I'm a bit tired of being inundated with articles lately on how to 'make do'. I've spent my adult life 'making do' on rice and beans, shopping second-hand stores and not taking fancy vacations....but I have managed to do a lot of travelling, on the cheap mind you. In my own way, I meant to be encouraging. I understand that the economic slump has hit a lot of people hard, and I am sorry for that.

( Gordon, thanks for your concern. I'll be cautious. And as I am travelling and staying with Spanish friends, perhaps I'll be protected....)