Celebrating a Long Weekend on the Cheap
How to Find Free and Fun Events in Your Area for your Staycation
Long weekends have a way of creeping up. If you’re not one of the lucky few who have booked a cottage in advance or have a little pied-a-terre in a different city, it’s time to consider the staycation.
"Staycation": A Vacation in Your Hometown
Sometimes a change really is as good as a holiday. Try looking at your hometown through a tourists’ eyes: Check out venues and historical sites that you wouldn’t normally explore in your day-to-day routine.
Having a staycation doesn’t necessarily mean renting a bed and breakfast, but it can mean having a good time on the cheap. Here are some ways to locate your free event listings.
Finding Free Events in Your Immediate Neighbourhood
If you think that checking out the library will only yield you author’s talks and children’s reading sessions, think again. Aside from bulletin boards, there are several ways the library connects to events in the city.
Most have a newsletter or access to magazines that will feature a wide range of events: Many even supply free tickets or passes to museums, such at The Toronto Public Library’s Museum Pass.
Using Online Resources to Find Free Events
Many event organizers use the Internet as a way to advertise and promote their venue. Some smaller, grassroot organizations also use it in the form of community websites, or local papers.
Check the event listings (often found in last pages) of your local community paper, but keep in mind that many publications now are also available online. Checking for a wide list of events online may have the advantage of speed: by gathering a selection of resources on hand, you may be able to make a decision among your family that much faster.
If you don’t go in, you can’t find out: Here are a list of some websites that feature free or affordable events. Everyone has their own preference as to what they look for in a website: For some, it’s a clean page that’s free of graphics, and others prefer photos and maps.
Here is a short list of sites and a quick rating of their features.
- Craigslist.org – this site is renowned for its popularity; there are listings for almost every city in North America as well as around the world. Its bare-bones design focuses on content and usability more than its visually appealing tourist sites counterparts, but don’t confuse its stark design as being barren of deals: You can type the word, “event” in and it will list events in your city. Another option is to use it to check for garage sales.
- Red Flag Deals – This is site has more eye catching graphics, and has a more user-friendly feel for people over the age of fifty: larger fonts, easier to manoever menu bar clearly states where Freebies and Entertainment are. However, this site is more commercial, and often asks for email addresses or other personal information from some of its vendors offering “free” samples.• Toronto.com and Montreal.com: Visually appealing and offer many tourist attractions, and often features photographs from previous events. However, each event is described between 24 to 30 words, so details are limited. While there is a menu bar labelled “Similar Events” they are either out-dated and often completed unrelated to the topic you’ve selected.
In all, there is no shame in typing in keys words “Free events” and the name of your city into your favourite search engine. By using your own ingenuity, your staycation can be as adventurous or relaxing as you like. Staying local helps reduce your carbon footprint by not using as much gas, but it doesn’t mean you have to loose out on discovery!
Staycations: explore new venues in your hometown
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