Stay home

A week off with nowhere to be. Your own bed, your own shower, your own pillow. A sofa, a blanket and a pile of things you have been meaning to read, watch and cook.

Mornings are a long lie-in and a coffee in a mug you love. Breakfast is slow and eaten at the table for once. You might go for a walk in a park you have not visited, or try the café at the end of the street. Afternoons are for a film, a nap, a book, a bath. Evenings are a takeaway or a dish you have wanted to try for months, and an early night in the best bed in the world. You do nothing well, and you come back to work rested.

You plan the comforts, not the travel. Fresh sheets on the first day, a fridge full of good food, a list of films and books, and maybe a candle or two you have been saving.

You do pack, in a sense. A pile of the things you love goes beside the sofa: blanket, slippers, a jigsaw, a craft project, a stack of books. You might book one nice thing: a massage, a dinner out, a trip to a museum or a gig in your own city. But the plan is always one you can cancel, and you will cancel it if the sofa is calling. You turn off work notifications and tell people you are away, which in a sense you are.

Someone who is happy to be quiet. You love time off with a partner, a housemate or a family who will share the sofa, take turns cooking and not make you go on an outing you did not ask for.

You are also brilliant at time off alone. A few days of no conversation, no plans and no alarm is genuinely restful for you. The person who will not work is the one who sees a free week as a waste unless you go somewhere. You want people who understand that a holiday is about how you feel, not where you are, and who will happily spend a whole afternoon doing a jigsaw with you in pyjamas.

Anything with a 4am airport alarm, a long queue at security and a bag weighed to the gram. A packed itinerary with something every hour. A holiday that needs another holiday to recover.

You would also struggle with a group trip where you have to share a room and be social for a week. A festival with a tent and no sleep would be your idea of a nightmare. A cottage might be fine, but you would wonder why you could not just have the fire at home. You need comfort, rest and control over your time to feel properly relaxed. Travelling for its own sake is not your idea of a break.

Treat home like a holiday rental. Clean before the week starts, put fresh flowers out and stock the fridge with food you would buy on holiday. It makes the time feel special.

Plan one adventure in your own area: a museum, a walk, a restaurant you have never tried. Explore like a tourist. Keep chores off the list for at least half the days. Turn off notifications and tell people you are away. Then try one small trip in the year, even just a night somewhere close. You might like it, and you will love coming home all the more. Staying home is a skill, and you have mastered it.