You may find yourself wishing that you could take a vacation this summer but knowing that there’s just no way that you can afford it. Even with the help of your stimulus check, you just can’t cover the high cost of travel right now. While this can certainly be disappointing, it doesn’t have to completely ruin your summer. There are ways to make it feel like you’re on a summer vacation even when you’re really still at home.

For example, you can opt to transform your bedroom into the type of room that you would stay in if you were at a hotel. Purchase some tropical bedding and stick a stack of summer reading books on your bedstand to make it feel a little bit like you’re staying on an island. Or get polka dot bedding and hang some modern art to pretend as though you’ve taken a vacation to a cool art hotel in Europe. Interested in a ranch? Get some horse bedding and daydream a little.

Supplement the change at home with little day trips and activities that take you away from your normal routine. For example, spend a weekend at the library learning about all of the beaches in a particular area. Or make a list of the art museums and galleries in your city and create a plan to visit each of them once this summer. Find a local stable and volunteer to clean out the stalls in exchange for some horseback riding lessons. As long as you’re willing to get creative, you can have a summer vacation right in your own backyard.

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