Summer holidays in the UK - thoughts?

[Hosebush]

Currently on holiday in Cornwall. It's beautiful but it's cold today. It's been chilly for our last three summer holidays here. It was amazingly hot the first time.

What are people's thoughts on summer holidays in the UK. Do you do them? Do you wait and see what the weather will be like before booking? If not, how do you make it work?

Depends on what you want from a holiday. All the stuff I enjoy doing I can do in pretty much any weather.

I refuse to do them for this very reason. Went to Portugal for last week instead. Every single day it was 27-30 degrees and clear blue skies. A proper summer holiday. Cornwall is beautiful but if I'm 'chilly' I'm not on holiday.

It's not just the weather for me, which is desperate.

Going abroad you get a different (and let's be honest often better; unless you pay handsomely in the UK) food and drink. Although I have weekends away in the UK, I don't feel like I've been on holiday if I see a Tesco express and a wetherspoons on a high street.

Parts of the UK are beautiful in the right conditions, but in the grey and damp of the last 2 years most places look bleak.

We have had a “Uk cottage week” every summer for several years now. Been to Northumberland (twice), various places in Wales, Whitby, Somerset, Norfolk, Devon etc

only once was the weather pretty rubbish. Norfolk this year was properly hot.

however we normally also go abroad. We book months in advance come prepared for everything and generally it’s been fine. I was grumpy last year though spending well over £1k for a not particularly nice cottage and the weather was mostly grey. We booked it late though. You have to book early to get the good cottages.

i get the reason people head to the med however these days the chances of getting temps of 40 degrees+ is high which sounds awful tbh (to us anyway)

What kinds of things do you do, @Needmorelego ?

Same here.

If it wasn't so expensive to holiday in the UK I think I'd be more up for taking a risk with the weather but when you look at what you can get abroad for less, abroad always wins with us.

This. I absolutely hate going round shops on a U.K. holiday.
Quite like it abroad though! I love tuning out of everything U.K. for a while. No tv etc too.
Weve just been to Spain and the kids love looking at all the stuff in the shops there.

@Hosebush well as an example earlier in the summer I went on a day trip to Stratford Upon Avon.
We (me and 16 year old daughter) went to the antique/secondhand book shops. We had lunch at a Spoons (we know what we like so prefer to stick to that). We went in the theatre to go to the gift shop and also the shop connected to Shakespeare's Birthplace (daughter wanted some Shakespeare related goodies).
It was a lovely day but was actually one of the hotter days of the summer. We ended up going to sit at the bus stop 40 minutes before our bus because we were getting too hot to walk around any more.
If we had been there for longer than a day we could have seen a play or two at the theatre. Visited the Birthplace museum and other historical buildings in town (like the church). Unless it was actually pouring with torrential rain we could do the open top bus or a boat trip on the river of the ghost walk.

I love a UK holiday but, to do what we enjoy, makes it very expensive. We usually manage a week or two, but top our sunshine up with an AI or a cruise for a couple of weeks as our main (but cheaper) holiday.

I dont do summer holidays in the UK cos I live in a "tourist area" within the UK where at least a million people from all over the world come visit yearly - probably more, And we have nowt but rain ( this year has been a washout - totally ) but Id not be away from here cos the beauty, peace, and friendliness detracts from the weather

IF we are craving a bit of heat and sun, a 3/4 day break away is more then enough

Done 2 Uk holidays this summer (wales and Cornwall) and I know it's spoilt but I don't consider I've had a proper holiday.

Not just the weather which has been mixed but to see something a bit different. Both places are beautiful but they're crowded and don't feel special.

I want to go somewhere warm in October half term. Not UK!!

We had a couple of holidays in Cornwall and one in the Cotswolds where the weather was excellent.

For the last three years it’s been rubbish. Torrential rain and a crap place in Cornwall. Steady rain in Devon and freezing cold and rain in Devon.

I’d rather be at home.

That sounds nice and interesting. We have done lots of days out to places in the UK.

But would you have been able to stay there for a week?

We recently had a week in Northumberland and I absolutely loved it. It was dry and sometimes warm enough to go in the sea. Obviously it wasn't scorchio but we did so much every day. The kids didn't care that is wasn't roasting on the beach and just spent most their time digging holes.
I went on a hen do to Ibiza recently so maybe I feel like I got my vitamin D hit then.

@Hosebush yes I would have been happy there for a week. I could have gone to nearby other towns and attractions (Warwick Castle is near).

I just realised my earlier post should have said "OR the ghost walk" - not some kind of haunted boat trip 😂

Last time we went to Cornwall for two weeks (in August) it rained for 13 days and the most fun I had was the municipal pool with a four year old. Yes, South of France was too hot this summer but (for the same price as a small property near a beach in Cornwall) we lounged by the unshared pool, did some day trips and enjoyed being somewhere culturally different. (Also took us longer to drive to Cornwall than to fly to France). A long weekend in the UK doing cultural stuff etc if fab but I don’t properly switch off from work unless we go for at least 10 days. Pre DC it was possible by touring in the UK but now, no thank you!

We were there for a week at the start of August. Sod's law meant that we only had 1 day of sun and 1 day that wasn't raining/drizzling while home/London enjoyed 28 degree weather.

I had one morning on the beach which was nice and got a bit of a tan.

We were in a great location and did a bunch of day trips.

But we paid £800~ for a caravan "chalet" which was mouldy and mildewey and was giving me breathing issues towards the end.

We did plenty of trips to Asda/Tesco's for food, towels, drinks etc and the I didn't feel like I'd had a holiday.

I really wanted to go abroad but by the time we sorted out the baby's passport anything abroad with 2 bedrooms was extortionate.

I do enjoy a long weekend in the UK but no it doesn't feel like a holiday usually.

We did 4 days in Cornwall this year, was surprised that the weather down there was cooler than normally wet Bolton had been for the previous 4 weeks.
Last year we stayed in ormskirk for four nights, the weather was beautiful during the day and windy at night but that was more because of the style of building we rented.
On both occasions we did two different beach days, one day a trek through the beautiful woods to a waterfall in Cornwall and similar place in ormskirk and the eden project on the rainy day in Cornwall.
We can't really wait to book last minute because there's alot of us so need enough rooms and per free because of allergies.
We book it and hope for the best.
Altogether this Summer, unlike previous summers, we've had a total of 6 wet days here in Bolton. The other days it's been either sunny and hot or cloudy but warm so the kids have had a jam packed low cost outdoorsy 5 weeks so far.

Nah, if I want to bathe in the rain, I can sit in London for free.

Only do them if going away as a group and want to stay together in one place - in this case we will stay somewhere that is reasonably nice with enough space to accommodate the whole group and entertainment within the property/group of properties so we are not affected by poor weather. This still usually costs similar price to week abroad but is worth it for the company.

Otherwise absolutely not. First thing is cost - UK is so much more expensive for accommodation alone then the cost of eating out, attractions, activities etc. Unpredictable weather is the other major deciding factor - paying a small fortune to spend a few nights on the West Coast, spending many hours travelling for it to piss down with rain the whole time..then be crammed into the same type of farms/soft plays as we get back home but with infinitely more people. Absolutely not.

Even if we do strike lucky with the weather, the beach experience just doesn’t compare to a hotel abroad with beachfront location, plenty of sun loungers, food and drink brought to you, ease of walking back to room if need anything etc. A similar experience in UK is infinitely more expensive.

The history and culture in UK is fantastic and we do short breaks over half terms but for me, it’s not a holiday where I switch off and relax completely

UK, can’t afford abroad at the moment, and have heat intolerance so not hankering after a sizzle on a beach or anything over about 22 degrees really. Haven’t encountered much rain but when it has rained we’ve treated it as a bit of a joke, it’s only rain, we don’t shrink or shrivel up. Really, think the weather is a bit irrelevant to us, we always have a good time and a laugh. No kids though! Have stayed in some lovely cottages over past few years, good deals as go in spring and autumn not summer.

Yes I holiday in the uk. And I like visiting Cornwall.

The weather can be very localised there and you can go a short distance and it is completely different.

However the general summer in the Uk this year has not been as good.

Often there will be a chilly wind on the beaches in Cornwall. Hence windbreakers and tents everywhere. Even when I went there as a child (before beach tents were popular), we always used a couple of windbreakers.

As another poster said it depends what you want out of a holiday. Do you go for the beaches or do you go to do a variety of things including the beach.

I love them, but I'm a walker so I'm not there to sunbathe (that said, I don't sunbathe abroad either)