Home break hotels

With young holidayers checking into luxury resorts in their city, staycations are fast becoming a popular trend

Because they are a part of the academic cycle of Indian lives, vacations invariably become a topic of discussion in May and June. While parents plan their leaves to coordinate with their children's summer holidays, young professionals browse through their leave balance to plan a break to match that internalised  holiday  clock. Planning a holiday, though with its own perks, comes with its own set of logistics headaches. And vacations become only more tricky to plan when there are no long week-ends in sight. Sidestepping these hurdles is now easy with  staycations , a trend fast picking up among holidaymakers across ages and income groups. The idea is to take a vacation in the same city that you live in, from anywhere between a day and three days. 

"It makes you see the city you live in with new eyes," says Nisha Thukral (name changed), a 24-year-old jewellery designer, who took a day-long staycation in Mumbai with her boyfriend two months ago. Staycations as a concept began in the West during recessions when bankers who used to take exotic vacations could no longer afford them. So, they stayed put in their cities but signed up for recreational activities close to home. In India, the idea has found takers over the last two to three years, helped in no small measure by a push from the hospitality industry.

Thukral cut short her six-day work week by a few hours to accommodate the break. "We went to places in the city that we would normally not visit." This included tourist spots like the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Museum, Jehangir Art Gallery and David Sassoon Library. During her stay at the five-star hotel in Powai, Thukral and her boyfriend were able to enjoy meals at the establishment's restaurant and pick from services like the gym and a spa treatment.

Kanchi Chawla, a Gurgaon-based human resources professional, says she took a staycation close by with her husband and one-month-old son since it was difficult to travel long distances with the baby. "We checked into the Claridges at Surajkund for the weekend for mostly a spa holiday," she says. She maintains that while a conventional holiday is, of course, high on the priority list, a staycation sometimes is a short-cut to experiencing luxury. Claridges, just around 20 km from home, fulfilled that wish. "My husband and I would normally not opt for a five-star hotel on a vacation. But for such a short duration, we decided to splurge," says Chawla.

In contrast, Saumya Shrivastava, social interactions lead at travel portal ixigo, says that her staycation at New Delhi's Le Meridien was within budget. She paid Rs 8,500 per night for three nights in December last year, which she split with her two friends. "Travelling to and exploring new places and planning a holiday itself is absolutely wonderful, but taking a break and doing nothing is also completely worth it," she adds.

A Delhi-based musician who does not want to be named says that budget is an important aspect of any holiday, even if its within a few kilometres from your home. "Budget is always a factor - but we budget something like this into our life because we know the tremendous effect it has on us as a shared, restful experience together," she says.

Shruti Sunderraman, a travel blogger and journalist, echoes Shrivastava's views. Staycations do not compare with an out of station holiday but they come with a distinct set of advantages. "They do not need hours of planning. There isn't a lot of gruelling travel and you don't have to wait a lot for a break," she says. For those looking to have fun locally in Mumbai, options are said to be fast multiplying. Among other events, Sunderraman has attended bonfire nights, music nights, heritage and nature walks, food trails and cycling tours. Apart from lazy luxurious holidays, there are also more economical alternatives where travellers can opt for farm stays on the city's outskirts.