Day Fifteen: The Staycation

The Langham Hotel in Auckland.  The decor is glorious!

This is the first item in my current Thirty Chic Days that requires money, but I think it’s worth including.

When we started our business almost ten years ago, my husband and I realised our occasional weekends away would have to stop since we were running a six and now seven days a week business.

At the time I mentioned to him there were boutique and also fancy hotels in our city that we could stay at on a Saturday night and ‘go away for the weekend’ but still be able to open our shop.  ‘I’ll never pay to stay in a hotel when I’ve paying for a home just down the road’ was the response I got so I forgot all about it.

I don’t know what changed his mind (promise I didn’t nag), but we’ve done this many times now.  Maybe 2-3 times a year we’ll stay at our favourite Langham Hotel and indulge in five-star luxury for 24 hours.

We pack our nicest clothes to dress up for drinks and dinner, and I always take a few books and magazines so we can relax in our room.  There is even a roof-top pool where we can pretend we are movie stars sunbathing in big sunglasses, right in the centre of the city.

Yes, it’s expensive-ish per night, but we always book special offers where you are offered a discount and extras such as valet parking, a bottle of bubbles, breakfast etc.  And it probably costs us a similar amount to driving to another town and staying in a lesser place.

I arrive home refreshed, and actually I’m always really excited to come home too.  There’s nothing like ‘going away’ but there’s nothing like arriving home again.

Do you stay at places in your own town or is it the craziest idea you’ve ever heard?