There's something truly restorative about a change in routine. A microcation is a short, low-effort break, anything from a day trip to a night or two away, that fits around a normal week. No dirty dishes, no unmade beds, no "just one more thing" before you sit down. Just a book you've been meaning to read, your favourite magazine, or the Sunday papers, a warm pool deck, and a generous buffet breakfast or delicious lazy lunch that someone else has cooked, plated and cleared away. That's the joy of a microcation.

What makes it a microcation isn't how far you go or how long you stay, it's that you actually chose to take time out from the same old slog. No spreadsheets, no meetings, no eating at your desk again, and also no need to burn up your annual leave or max out your credit card, just a proper break, right-sized to whatever time and budget you've actually got this week.

Microcations also count when it comes to taking care of your mental health – July is Mental Health Awareness month after all. "Breaks can improve our moods, overall well-being and performance capacity," says Charlotte Fritz, PhD, an associate professor in industrial and organisational psychology at Portland State University in Oregon. "Taking regular breaks helps us to be more resilient when stressors arise, and they function as an intervention to help us deal with the daily grind."

Think big, start small

Microcation ideas that got us excited include:

• Take a day trip to a nearby town you haven't visited before, the Cape Winelands, the Midlands, the Garden Route.
• Get into nature and walk among the trees and gardens in a park or botanical gardens.
• Take a scenic drive that ends with a great meal somewhere new.
• Book a guided tour of a neighbourhood or historic site in your town.

The secret is to give yourself permission to go and check it out. The common denominator is usually taking a break from screens of any kind and enjoying an outing or adventure that requires you to be present – more IRL, less URL.

With 53 hotels across South Africa, and one each in Windhoek, Gaborone and Maputo, there's a good chance a City Lodge Hotels property – Courtyard Hotel, City Lodge Hotel, Town Lodge, and Road Lodge – is already closer than you think, the perfect base for a weekend getaway. It's no coincidence our tagline is "Life is hard. Check into easy."

Let us look after you

Letting go of the reins is the part that actually does the work. You arrive, you unpack (or don't bother), and the next morning you head down to that famous buffet breakfast, prepared by somebody else who got up early so you don't have to. The coffee shows up without you making it. The pool deck doesn't care what's on your to do list.

It sounds small, but being looked after, even for a night, tends to matter more than people expect. Sometimes the reset isn't about seeing somewhere new at all, it's just about letting someone else do the waiting on you for a change.

Bite-sized breaks

Whether you call it a microcation or a staycation or a weekender, it doesn't ask much of you, and that's the point. It's practical and cost effective, the getaway fits your budget instead of the other way round, and by design it's short enough to actually fit into your life.

A few places to start:

• City Sightseeing South Africa’s red bus offering hop-on, hop-off tours of Johannesburg and Cape Town
• Durban Ricksha Bus tours
• Johannesburg Heritage Foundation walking and bus tours (also check out The Heritage Portal)
• Tripadvisor’s City Tours in South Africa

Lindiwe Sangweni-Siddo (pictured above), Chief Operating Officer at City Lodge Hotels, says, “We hear from guests all the time that it wasn't the destination that reset them, it was simply being looked after by our friendly, welcoming staff. That's the real value of a microcation, and it's exactly what we try to deliver, one meal, one cocktail, and one pool deck at a time.

“With so many of our hotels recently refurbished, guests are even better equipped to relax and take it easy in style – from our impeccable Courtyard Hotel Gqeberha in Summerstrand, with easy access to the beach promenade, sea, sun and surf, to tropical City Lodge Hotel Umhlanga Ridge, where you can almost hear the waves lapping at the doorstep and enjoy the newly opened Umoya Restaurant.

“For those spur-of-the-moment ‘let’s get away for the weekend’ decisions, Road Lodge Durban offers the perfect beachfront escape, making it easy to enjoy Durban’s sunshine, sea breeze and vibrant promenade without extensive planning or stretching the budget.

“In Cape Town, City Lodge Hotel Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, Town Lodge Bellville and Road Lodge N1 City showcase the best of our refurbishments – all perfect weekend-stay hotels made for a microcation.”

She adds, “Whether you’re planning ahead or simply answering the call of a last-minute getaway, there’s a City Lodge Hotels destination ready to help you check into easy.”

Ready for a reset that fits into your weekend? Book your microcation at a City Lodge Hotels property near you and check into easy.