What Are Your Favorite Close-To-Home Trips?

There's a 95 percent chance Senior Editor Christine Sarkis is thinking about travel right now. Follow her on Instagram @postcartography and Twitter @ChristineSarkis.

Christine Sarkis is an SATW-award-winning journalist and executive editor at SmarterTravel. Her stories have also appeared on USA Today, Conde Nast Traveler, Huffington Post, and Business Insider. Her advice has been featured in dozens of print and online publications including The New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, and People magazine. She has also shared travel tips on television and radio shows including Good Morning America, Marketplace, and Here & Now. Her work has been published in the anthologies Spain from a Backpack and The Best Women's Travel Writing 2008. She is currently working on a travel memoir.

The Handy Item I Always Pack: The Trtl Pillow. It's easy to pack and comfortable, and makes it so I can actually sleep on flights.

Ultimate Bucket List Experience: Seeing the Aurora Borealis from the comfort of somewhere warm, like a glass igloo or hot spring.

Travel Motto: Curiosity is an amazing compass.

Aisle, Window, or Middle Seat: Aisle all the way.

Email Christine Sarkis at editor@smartertravel.com.

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What are your favorite closer-to-home destinations? This comment by reader Altroner on the Ten Good Things About Recession Travel article got me thinking about the joys of driving-distance destinations:

“I’m not sure if it qualifies as optimism, but the current state of travel (and you neglect to mention it – and it truly is a golden lining) is that staying at or near home never looked so good.”

Very true. Recently, I organized a fun and affordable weekend trip with family and friends to the San Mateo Coast, a great getaway spot for folks living in the San Francisco Bay Area or elsewhere in Northern California. For about $25 per person, we spent the night in one of the hostel cottages in the shadow of the Pigeon Point Lighthouse. After watching seals and exploring tidepooling nearby, we cooked a big dinner followed by one of Duarte’s Tavern’s famous ollalieberry pies and a delicious apple pie from relative newcomer Pie Ranch. The next morning we got up early and took a naturalist-led hike to see the gigantic elephant seals that come to the beaches of Ano Nuevo State Reserve every winter.

So now I ask you: What closer-to-home destinations have you made a trip of lately? This is a great chance not only to reminisce but to share inspiration (and money saving tips, if you’ve got ’em) with other readers in search of their next getaway.

Share your experiences in the comments section below. Thanks for participating!

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