Give the gift of experience this holiday season

gift of getaway from Distinctive Inns of New EnglandDecember is a gift-giving month.  No matter how you celebrate the holidays, this is the month of giving.  For many, the joy of giving exceeds that of receiving.  It does for us at Distinctive Inns of New England (DINE), where innkeepers give 110-percent of themselves every day! Yet, gift buying can be stressful.  The biggest conundrum of the year is what to get that person who has everything?  As we grow older, we need less stuff.  The trend is toward giving experiences, not more stuff.  What to give that person who has everything but the chance to relax?  Give the gift of getaway to one of the 12 Distinctive Inns of New England.  Who wouldn’t want a romantic escape to a distinctive New England inn?  We think this will be the most prized gift of the season.

According to WellnessMama.com, we’re drowning in too much stuff.  Wellness Mama says the LA Times reports that the average American home has over 300,000 items in it and there are over 50,000 storage facilities nationwide (and this is the fastest growing real estate segment!). That means that at least one in ten people has to have a storage unit to store excess stuff.

To put this in perspective, Wellness Mama speculates that our grandparents had an average of nine outfits, including dress clothes and work clothes. Fast forward to today and the “average person” has approximately 30 outfits, plus a lot of extra clothes that don’t qualify as an “outfit.” Consider what happens with toys and you’ll be even more shocked.  Wellness Mama says that the average child in the developed world owns more than 200 toys but only plays with 12 of them on average per day. And what’s even more amazing is that only 3-percent of the world’s children live in the US, but they own more than 40-percent of the world’s toys.

Ask any working adult and they’ll agree that what they want for Christmas is just the chance to relax and revive.  With all the demands of working, home ownership and raising children, there’s little time left for Mom or Dad.  Single?  Take out the child part and you still have the demands of work, friends and for some…aging parents.  These folks don’t want something  to hang in the closet this holiday season. They want the chance to get away, to unwind, and the chance to discover new places.  They want unique experiences that the Distinctive Inns of New England can deliver.

christmas-presents-coupleEach of the 12 DINE inns offers gift certificates that can be ordered and delivered in time for the holidays.  Imagine the look on the face of the one person who needs a New England inn getaway the most when they open their gift and realize soon they’ll be enjoying the best night sleep they’ve had in months.  That will be the best moment of the holidays – for the person giving the gift and the person receiving it.

And remember, with each DINE stay comes a bonus of $50 in DINE dollars at the end of the stay, good toward the next stay at a new DINE inn.  That means that your gift of getaway comes with a bonus of $50 for the next DINE getaway.

Contact the DINE inn where you’d like to send that special person.  Visit each of the Distinctive Inns of New England by clicking below on links that will take you to each of their websites:

In Maine:  Captain Jefferds Inn in Kennebunkport & Camden Maine Stay Inn in Camden

In New Hampshire:  Manor on Golden Pond in Holderness & Chesterfield Inn in West Chesterfield

In Massachusetts:  Harbor Light Inn in Marblehead, Gateways Inn & Restaurant in Lenox, Deerfield Inn in Historic Deerfield and Captain’s House Inn in Chatham on Cape Cod.

In Vermont:  Rabbit Hill Inn in Lower Waterford & Grafton Inn in Grafton

In Rhode Island: Cliffside Inn in Newport

In Connecticut: Inn at Harbor Hill Marina in Niantic.