Nowadays, it’s hard to pick up a travel magazine or visit a website without learning about the 100 exotic locales you must visit, the 50 foods you have to eat and the 500 cruises you need to take before kicking the proverbial bucket. These faux dream lists fill folks with inadequacy and fear; the implication is that you simply haven't lived until you've leapt from a plane. We say, carpe diem at your own pace. Just ask Dave Freeman, author of "100 Things to Do Before You Die," who'd completed fewer than half of his recommended activities when he died unexpectedly at just 47. What once-in-a-lifetime activity did him in? He fell down and hit his head. At home.
When did a gaggle of guys going on a road trip become the mancation? Why must a simple bachelorette party be a girlcation? Ingenious travel planners are going ga-ga for re-branding, devising fake trends and arbitrary distinctions for run-of-the-mill trips. Seeing the theater or the opera? That’s a culturecation. Like to quilt or scrapbook? You should go on a craftcation. Staying home is the staycation. What’s next, going to visit your family for Christmas is an oblication?
Baby-craving couples should ditch the prophylactics for—ideally—their last family-free vacation at the KaNeCa Fertility Institute on Hawaii’s Kaua’i island, where they’ll be treated to massages, a luau and—wink-wink—private rooms. The procreation package at the Westin Grand Bahama Island provides wannabe daddies with supposedly libido-boosting sea moss drinks, while Jackson Hole, Wyoming’s Teton Mountain Lodge hopes a dogsled ride to hot springs will stir up the passions. Is doing this at home really so difficult?
It’s difficult for some to fathom, but back in the pre-cellphone Stone Age, our itinerant ancestors once traveled without computer-chip-embedded luggage that can just about sprout legs and stroll home. Nowadays, folks are so attached to their gadgets and gee-gaws that they’re toting satellite-equipped BlackBerries while backpacking around Europe, uploading camera-phone pictures to Flickr while bicycling across New Zealand and checking their email as they hike the Appalachian Trail. More of the world is at our fingertips than ever—and we’re too busy checking email to notice.
Vacations were invented to give us a break from our jobs. Yet, for some reason, stepping into someone else's muddy, uncomfortable shoes—while on vacation—is gaining in popularity. At Hallowell, Maine’s Maple Hill Farm Inn, guests pay to handle farmerly duties such as collecting eggs and bringing in hay bales. Tourists visiting one of the U.K.’s Diggerland “amusement” parks can operate a backhoe and other construction equipment. And when you get tired of actually gambling at the casino and drinking at the bar, take a Casino Education Vacation at Florida’s Bartenderdealer.com school. Ready to ante up your vacation days?
Checking into a hotel used to be so simple: smoking or non-smoking. Now, more guests are surrounded by signature scents and customized aromas. Want your room to smell like Hershey’s chocolate bars? It can, for a price. Scent makers are licking their chops and muscling in on the $5.1 billion home-fragrance market. The mid-range Hyatt Place hotel lobbies are now perfumed with an exclusive scent, as are lobbies at Swisshotel and Westin. Even more odiferous, Australia’s Air Aroma scent-delivery system is now able to pump in signature odors at hotels around the world. For marketers, that’s the sweet smell of success.
Conception needn’t signal the end of traveling. Expecting parents—married or otherwise, there’s no shame—can revel in their baby-makes-three moment by taking a babymoon to any number of exotic locations. The rustic Buffalo River Lodge in Yellville, Ark., has getaway packages for parents-to-be, as does the Sheraton Suites in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. Luxury options also abound, of course. The Westin in Los Cabos will pamper mommy with a prenatal massage, pedicure and chocolate-covered strawberries. Instead of champagne, the resort thoughtfully serves sparkling cider.
Since all-you-can-eat buffets are no longer lure enough, cruise operators have upped the ante—and cost—by adding “star” wattage. Last year saw the launch of the Mayercraft Carrier, in which well-heeled John Mayer fans sunned themselves, sipped fruity drinks and mingled with their favorite musician. But the stars aren’t relegated to soft-rock idols of dubious talent. Graying boomers who’ve lost the zest for adventure can board the Simple Man Cruise. The sailing concert includes performances by over-the-hill strummers .38 Special, the Marshall Tucker Band and the longhaired remnants of Lynyrd Skynyrd.