To not bother booking a staycation this year

I wouldn't disagree with you at all there!!

@SirAlfredSpatchcock sounds like you need a vacation to me. Stay- or otherwise. Aloha!

You don't need other people to go abroad, your DC have you and they are not babies so should be easier and able to help. I have grown more adventurous with our holidays since my DC were younger and now we devise a holiday together and talk about what each of us wants to do wherever we are going. I book flights first when they become available, but you do have to be fairly flexible because they do change and then I book accommodation. I know you don't get package holiday protection, but have so far managed to change things if needed.

It's completely different, though, stating that something most certainly isn't your choice for a holiday as opposed to stating that it isn't actually a holiday.

It would be my worst nightmare to live in London (or any huge city), but I don't refuse to accept that 10million or so people DO make their home there very happily and successfully. I'm sure that most of them would hate to live in my comparatively sleepy little market town, but that doesn't mean that where I live isn't actually a 'proper' home for those people who do live here.

So if people who live in Vermont stay in a luxury hotel in Hawaii for two weeks, they haven't actually been able to have a holiday (poor things), but just a modest, insignificant little staycation?

Words matter. When privileged people (including those for whom affordable holiday insurance is obtainable, as it isn't just the cost of the flights and accommodation) insist on referring disdainfully to a holiday in your own country as a 'staycation', this is the exact snobbish, sneery equivalent of refusing to accept that somebody with a 12yo Fiesta actually has a car or that people who can't afford (or even just resent paying) Waitrose or M&S prices are still feeding their family just as properly as you are with their weekly shop from Lidl.

By all means have your preferred choice of holiday for yourself, and feel free to be deeply disappointed if that isn't achievable for whatever reason; but there's no need whatsoever to belittle other people's different choices or what their limited budgets might stretch to by misusing a twee little word to put them in their place and assure them that their choices aren't valid.

I wonder where pedants holiday

That's an interpretation, not a definition. Lots of people use the word appreciatively of what their home country has to offer, with disdain for holidays abroad. (Or was that just my grandma)

Totally agree. Staycation being used to describe holidays in your own country is irritating as heck

I've looked into renting a holiday cottage all over the uk and Ireland and it's more expensive than a holiday abroad...

It isn't pedantry to argue against a word that suggests holidays don't count unless you go abroad.

I would argue staycation can mean both staying at home, as in your actual house, or staying at home, as in your home country. It's pedantry to pick a side here!

Also YANBU

We very rarely go away (livestock farmers so can't) so all our 'holidays' are at home. I think it's better to be honest especially with kids as you can spread the activities/days out across the summer break & can plan around the weather more easily.
The kids appreciate it more than the enforced fun on a week away.
The amount of stress & planning that would go into spending a rainy week in a cottage somewhere just doesn't seem worth it.

We're doing similar. We did Wales and Isle of White last year with a mix of weather, this year lots if days out, we will go stay with my parents in a big city and do a few days out then too but no actual 'holiday' . The weathers rubbish!

A 'holiday' is simply a break away from daily life, whether it be the UK or abroad. A staycation is when you decide to stay at home, eat your favourite foods, visit new places around your hometown, get up when you want, go to bed when you want, but you're in a 'holiday mindset'.

I think each to your own. We've had a staycation at home before and it was great. We haven't been abroad since Covid and have chosen to holiday within the UK. We've been lucky with the weather, so hoping this year will be the same as we're going to the Lakes in August. Fingers crossed.

Everyone is different. Some people are only happy going on holiday all the time, some are happier chilling at home. It would be a boring world if we all did the same thing. I hope you enjoy whatever you decide to do anyways 🙂

Likewise
we won’t bother with a U.K. holiday this year

But when the "evolution" is unhelpful and erodes a useful distinction, then the "evolution" is criticised and does not take hold

Most useful:
Staycation
UK holiday
Holiday abroad (possibly subdivided into long and short haul)

Not useful:
Staycation
Holiday
(as no distinction between staying at home, nor holidaying in UK v abroad)

ChatGTP will catch up idc

There are many examples of language "evolution" that have fallen by the wayside because they are worse than what the supposedly built on

Staycation

“A staycation is a vacation where you stay at or near your home instead of traveling to a distant destination. It typically involves engaging in leisure activities that you might normally do while traveling, such as visiting local attractions, dining out, exploring nature, or enjoying home-based relaxation and entertainment. The goal is to enjoy a break from routine without the expense and effort of long-distance travel.” (Chat GPT)

It is widely used as meaning staying in the Uk somewhere near home, and not going abroad. Language evolves.

It really made all the difference. Suddenly, it was a H O L I D A Y!!

Have a great time, I did!

Ah ok. Friends of mine all talk about a staycation meaning staying in UK

For some reason, increasingly since Covid ime, the media has pushed the suggestion that a staycation is holidays in the U.K. (or your own country.)

It used to always just been taking your annual leave but staying at home. Using your own home as your base but having a series of day trips, like you might when on holiday.

Before this a holiday in the U.K. was simply called a holiday.

I don't like the newer definition as it minimises U.K. holidays, as if they aren't real holidays.

Yeah forget the rain gear- just stay home and save money. Treat yourself with a few days trips or meals out /takeaways or if you don’t find it stressful buy a bunch of ingredients and have fun cooking/baking.

I went to Wales in November and it was almost constant rain. I enjoyed it because it was my first time in Wales and I was with a new partner staying in a nice hotel and we ate out a lot at nice places, and did get to see some lovely places when the sun came out at intervals, but ordinarily a rainy holiday is not my kinda thing - especially as I could’ve went somewhere in Europe for the same price.

Stay home and either use the money to do day trips/restaurants, or save the money and try to go abroad next year instead?

You don't book a staycation. You stay at home and have days out and nice meals for a week.

Would you be better booking a caravan park? One with a pool at least.

That way you can at least swim when the weather is rubbish. They often have indoor activities too.

Or book a premier inn in a city for a couple of nights rather than a full week. Then at least you have more indoor choice.

I don't really get air b and b. It is just a house that isn't your own and so is always less convenient. Perhaps in a fantastic location but lots of them are on random residential streets. That and I don't agree with them.

I'm not going anywhere this year either but have taken 2 weeks off and I had some money saved for a holiday. I will use this money to eat out, go to museums, do some shopping, try a few different exercise classes, meet up with friends for afternoon drinks, go to the beach, take boat trips to islands I haven't been to yet (live in Stockholm) and just basically pretend that I'm rich for a couple of weeks and don't have to watch what I spend money on. I'm actually really looking forward to it, but we also get a lot less rain than the UK so I don't envision the weather to be a big obstacle.