The weekend is not too short. Your planning is too long.

People say they do not have time to travel, then spend four evenings comparing places they will not book. The planning is the trip. It gives you the feeling of leaving without the inconvenience of actually going. Two nights changes a week. You leave on Friday evening, you are somewhere else by dark, you get one full unhurried day, and you come back Sunday afternoon with enough time to be a person before Monday. Nothing about that requires leave, a big budget, or a plan. What it does require is deciding fast. Pick a distance you can drive without hating it. Pick one thing you want to feel. Book a bed. That is the whole method, and it is why every getaway we publish tells you the real drive time and the honest cost instead of a mood board. The trip you keep researching is not waiting for more information. It is waiting for you to stop researching.