1. Saving Money and Time
Travel is expensive and time consuming.
However, with local weekend trips, you may only spend money for fuel, food, and activities. No plane or hotel costs wrecking havoc on your beloved wallet! It’s perfect.
Furthermore, bigger vacations take time. You may need to take off two weeks from your job to fly across the globe,. Instead local getaways might only cost you a single afternoon, which is perfect for those busy times we all experience at some point in our lives!
Saving time and money are definite benefits to taking local trips.
2. You Can Do A “Last Minute” Trip
This reason ties into the whole concept of saving your precious time. Unless you’re quite privileged, you have responsibilities and obligations, such as jobs, children, and errands, in your life that requires you spending your time. And yes, money is a factor. So when you travel to other parts of your home country or overseas, you need to plan well in advance to get the best prices for plane tickets. Sure, you can capture some “last minute” deals, but most of our jobs can’t offer us such flexibility. I know as a teacher I will never ever enjoy those wonderful discounts that comes with booking a cheap ticket in mid-January. Alas.
However, with a local getaway, you can hop in the car and leave the very same day you decide to take a trip. This spontaneity is wonderfully healthy. We all know the popular quote about routine being lethal. Well. It’s so true. Nip routine in the bud.
A change of scenery, even if it’s close to your house or apartment, can work wonders for your mental health. When I drove to my apartment from the shore, I felt completely and totally rejuvenated, and ready to take on the week.
3. You Develop An Appreciation for Home.
I learn so many awesome things when I drive around the Coast . I slowly come to realize my home state is not only a place filled with highways, sky-high property taxes, lousy drivers, and other assorted headaches. We have the ocean. We have quaint little towns. We have amaaaazing restaurants.
My point is that we tend to ignore our home and see it as a place where we sleep, eat, work, do chores, etc. We never view home and vacation through the same lenses, so developing this newfound appreciation takes some mental shifting.
When you take a local getaway, try to learn something new about your immediate area. You may be surprised at what you discover.
4. You Can Give Back to Your Local Community.
Sustainable travel is important at a social and environmental level. You don’t want to damage the places that you’re so keen on visiting. And a big part of traveling responsibly is ensuring your money goes to the locals rather than huge corporations. You want your cash to “stay close to the ground” and truly benefit individuals who already work hard to provide a living for themselves and their families.
When you travel locally, you can better support family-owned shops and restaurants, as well as take other steps to ensure your money benefits your local community.
And honestly, you can even make friends with business owners more easily when you keep travel local. I love being a “regular” at some of the shore establishments! The familiarity and friendliness, which comes with a smile and a “Hi, Rachel! How are you?”, always makes me feel special. I know I mentioned the importance of a smile in my solo travel posts. Utilize that smile on your local getaways too! You never know what relationships may come from such a simple action!
5. Local Getaways Will Make You Patient.
By taking a local trip, you can see how you would react if you got lost or missed a dinner reservation, and at the same time, not suffer from too many consequences. You will have a chance to build your confidence in a “familiar” area – which is worth its weight in gold! This patience will take you far in life.
So here we ask, all of our brothers and sisters of the Hibiscus Coast, we take this challenge upon ourselves to abandon the labels, the sub-categories humans have been divided into, to embrace the diversity that our beautiful Hibiscus Coast comprises of and create a force-field so strong of inspired local loyalists deliberately creating a united and thriving future.