If the decision to have a summer "staycation" could spark a household mutiny, consider a shorter and closer- to-home getaway:

• In the heart of Georgia wine country, Dahlonega's Mountain Laurel Creek Inn and Spa offers suite stays from $145 a night for two. The inn features the Oasis Spa, with an optional package (for guests and day visitors), for $195. It includes an hour-long full-body massage, a foot scrub and massage and an hour-long wine facial with a wine mask and a vino-therapy scrub hand treatment.

Through the end of July, the package includes a complimentary glass of red wine from one of the local vineyards. Several wine makers are within a 5- to 15-minute drive. Frogtown offers a three-course Sunday brunch with wine pairings and homemade desserts for $35 per person. The village of Dahlonega is the gateway to the Appalachians and the Blue Ridge Mountains and home to the Chattahoochee National Forest. www.mountainlaurelcreek.com , www.frogtownwine.com , www.dahlonega.org .

• Two neighboring properties — the Riverlodge Bed and Breakfast and Tuckaseigee Valley Cabins, are near Highlands, N.C. Both offer on-site geocaching with, according to Geocaching.com , 1,147 public caches hidden within a 30-mile radius of the cabins and the lodge. This family-friendly outdoor sport lets participants use hand-help global positioning systems to seek a hidden cache, treasure hunt-style. What's the reward? Mostly geocachers will find a bucket that typically holds a logbook with notes from the last folks who passed this way. But some leave something behind such as a photo, a CD, a map or book, a game or other trinket. About the only rule to follow is to leave something in the cache if you remove an item.

The elegant Adirondacks-style Riverlodge offers a room for two with views of a waterfall, pines and a glimpse of the river from $125 a night. Three new Tuckaseigee Valley cabins are between Sylva and Cashiers, each on an acre of land. During 2008, get one to two nights free with stays of six to seven nights. Both properties are at the Tuckaseigee River, convenient for trout fishing, hikable mountain trails and other waterways for kayaking, rafting and tubing, and the Nantahala River for white-water fun. Visitors seeking a geocache adventure are given GPS coordinates. www.riverlodge-bb.com , www.tuckcabins.com .