With summer just around the corner, I’m already daydreaming about taking days off work to enjoy the warm weather and long evenings where the sun doesn’t set until late. Last year, we enjoyed a week down in Naples, Florida, as well as some time down in Ocean City, Maryland. However, this year we are working to save up a bit so we will be sticking with Ocean City for *free* visits to the shared family house.
I love having little adventures to look forward to though, so I was brainstorming some staycation ideas. I’d like to have a few little day trips that we can enjoy scattered around – all the fun, but none of the dog sitting payments needed!
Here’s what I came up with so far. Be prepared, it’s literally a brain dump of all the ideas floating around in my mind:
Black Barn Alpacas – We did family yoga with alpacas in June 2025 and had so much fun! I was thinking we could make a return visit and include family — my sisters and brother have 6 kids under 6 between them, which makes for some fun chaos. Maybe do an alpaca visit and bring a picnic for a longer experience?
Hershey Park – We haven’t visited Hershey Park for a few years and typically when we would go, we’d stay overnight. However, it’s less than 2 hours away so it could totally be done as a day trip. I’m thinking I’d want to go more in the spring/early summer part of the year though to keep the crowds down. Hmm… will need to look into this soon.
Cunningham Falls State Park – Cunningham Falls is in the Catoctin Mountains near Thurmont, Maryland and has forested hiking trails and scenic waterfalls. According to the website, they also have canoeing, kayaking, tubing and swimming. I honestly don’t know if we’ve ever been there before, but it’s only about an hour away so it might be worth doing a day trip.
National Harbor – We’ve visited the National Harbor around Christmas, but we’ve never gone during the summer before. It might be fun to plan a day where we can rent a kayak for a bit, eat something delicious, and ride the Capital Wheel for some beautiful views. There is also a free summer concert series that could be fun.
Museum Day in DC – While I absolutely hate the drive into DC, it would be cool to take off on a weekday to head to the National Mall and hit up a few museums. Maybe the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and the National Museum of American History. We can wander around to our hearts content and then go have an amazing meal somewhere. And yes, delicious food comes up a lot in my brain…
Berkeley Springs State Park – While I was clicking around for day trip/staycation/activity ideas, I was reminded that there are mineral springs at Berkeley Springs. We visited Berkeley Springs years ago for their Apple Butter Festival (so good!), but we’ve never experienced the natural warm mineral springs that are famed for their healing properties.
An idea for a summer day trip is that we leave the teen and dogs at home and go out for a romantic day date! We can book the private Roman Bath at the park in advance, but play the rest of the day by ear. Maybe enjoy the scenic drive, wander the downtown shops with coffee in hand, go for a dip in the private Roman Bath (or perhaps book massages…) and then enjoy a delicious lunch or dinner before heading back home.
Other Stuff –I’d also like to throw in a couple little fairs/festivals where they do fireworks on a Friday night. While that’s not really a full day staycation idea, it is certainly something I want to add to my summer fun list. Oooh and I also need to add in some fruit picking days – we always like to go pick our own strawberries and peaches once they are ready!
Ok, that’s it for now. But I’d love to know if you have any fun staycation ideas I should add to my list for the summer! It can be Maryland/Virginia/West Virginia/Pennsylvania specific, or something you love to do where you live that I should research for my area.