to think Staycation means holidaying at home, not in your home country?

[IveSeenThings]

I am seeing articles everywhere for the last few weeks - what to pack for a staycation , what to wear for a staycation, where to go for a staycation etc etc.
Staycation is a jokey euphemism for staying at home during your time off, surely? A bit like saying I'm going to Costa Back Garden, or Shaynoo etc
When did it become meaning having a holiday in Britain? (If you live in Britain!)
That's just called going on holiday... isn't it?

YABU- staycation means a holiday in the country you live in
YANBU- staycation DEFINITELY means staying at home not going somewhere

Yanbu.
It"s staying at home and having local days out.

It should mean staying at home but is being used more to mean any holiday in your own country. As it's a pretty new word anyway I'm not surprised it is still evolving.

Same with babymoon. Some will use it to mean soon-to-be parents having a relaxing holiday and enjoying their last childfree one for some time. When we had a week in Cyprus when I was 24 weeks with DC1 a few people called it a babymoon. But others use it to mean parents and newborn hankering down for a few days at home without streams of visitors and taking some time to be a new family together.

I propose that for the avoidance of doubt we double down on the latter and insist on that being called a staycation babymoon

@FishOnPillows

As an aside - I first remember hearing it after the 2008 crash, and thought it was an effort to help tourist attractions by encouraging nearby people to visit them, since people couldn’t afford to actually go away. Day trips are significantly cheaper then a holiday as there’s no accommodation or long-distance travel costs.

It doesn’t make much sense to mean “in the same country” from that point of view, as you’d still have the accommodation, meals out, and possibly long distance travel costs. It’s often no cheaper than going abroad.

Agree with this

Oooh I don't know.

I'm in Maine - if I go to Florida that's not a staycation.

If I camp 50 miles north of here for a week, that's not really a staycation either. Or is it?

I thought a staycation by definition means you have to sleep in your own home.

When I first heard it, in the US, at least a decade ago, it meant staying in your own home, maybe doing the sorts of things tourists do when they come to your area. Most Americans of the sort that take vacations only go to other parts of the US, so the word staycation indicated staying home to those people who used to spend money going on actual vacations. The rest of us just called it 'what we do every summer'.

that the UK holiday marketers would reapply it to not going to Ibiza, but just off to Bournemouth instead, doesn't surprise me at all though.

@PotholeParadise ah ok I’m being dense!

That being said, I don’t agree that a staycation means you stay in your house. I think it means you stay in your own country and explore it!

The more I think about this pesky word (I am firmly of the view that it means staying in your home) didn’t we in the uk start to use this word differently about brexit. Wasn’t it last year when there was all the uncertainty about passports and travel and all of the brexit dramas that the word started to be used by the travel industry to promote holidays (Away from your home) in the U.K. ? Then this year that U.K. usage has become even more entrenched ??
I am a resistance fighter on this issue.
As for ‘baby moon staycation’ or even just the word ‘baby moon’, if I ever utter them will someone please just put me out of my misery ?
Heron - holidaying at home.

Just read ‘holistay’ and ‘daycation’ on Wikipedia. My eyes, my eyes !

We had a great trip to Ourgate during lockdown 😂

It clearly means staying in your home, whether you go on day trips or just do fun things on your own property.

If used otherwise, it's a horrible, classist, patronising way of putting down people who prefer to stay in their own country or have to choose somewhere there owing to finances/medical needs/no passport etc.

As PPs have said, using it as a brushed-aside way to mention having an extra holiday on top of your 'main' one in Florida ("Yeah, we've already had our holiday, but we might be able to grab a week in Dorset") or denying that you're having a holiday at all this year because you can't get time off work or similar, when you are going to Pembrokeshire for the week (assuming you don't already live there) is a very snobbish insult to those who look forward to and enjoy their week in Norfolk every year.

It's nonsensical - like when people refer to 'drinking' as meaning alcohol. I get that it's used as a subtle colloquialism understood to refer to that, but some people really hammer it home in sneering at people for 'not having a drink' when they've consumed just as many beverages that evening as those choosing alcohol. Nobody except a complete idiot would ask a vegan why 'they're not eating this evening', just because they haven't had a steak.

As for the dictionary definitions, they tend to be descriptive rather than prescriptive. Before long, they'll include 'could of' as a 'variant' of 'could have' rather than 'a common incorrect misunderstanding'.

For the first time in forever, I haven't read the full thread, but I vehemently disagree that the original meaning was "holiday in your own country" and that's it's changed recently. It's definitely the other way around and originally meant days out but sleeping in your own house.

It's a massive insult to suggest that any UK holiday is NOT a holiday.

It's a massive insult to suggest that any UK holiday is NOT a holiday.
Agreed. Every holiday I had, as a child and into my 20s, was in this country.

A staycation is spending your holiday in your own home.

But, as with a lot of words, they get misused and over time people forget their actual meaning.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

As for the dictionary definitions, they tend to be descriptive rather than prescriptive. Before long, they'll include 'could of' as a 'variant' of 'could have' rather than 'a common incorrect misunderstanding'.

And alot. Ive fought that for years.

Staycation is staying at home and "holidaying" by using local services and again, I remember it coming into usage in the previous financial crash.

Holidaying in your home country is domestic tourism.
Holidaying in another country is international tourism.

Tourism is staying away from home for the purposes of leisure. Leisure is the critical element of the word. Away from home also critical. Staying, slightly ambiguous according to different definitions.

A staycation is a holiday from your home, day trips out, visiting local tourist attractions that you never got around to seeing. It also involves things like having fish and chips, going to a pub for lunch etc.Going somewhere else is a holiday even if it's only to Bolton.

Agree OP - a staycation is a holiday at home to me but I've seen it used in the other way many times recently.

Journalists just can't resist a snappy turn of phrase. They should call it a "UK vacay" instead.

(Journalists - you're welcome )

We used to live in Toronto. Our two weeks skiing in the Rockies, and our trips to Newfoundland and Cape Breton were definitely holidays.

Staycation means going out for day trips but actually sleeping in your own house each night - so just having the time off work.

If you go away in your own country then it’s a holiday.

Surely 🤷‍♀️

Wrt 'staycation' YANBU
Wrt 'Shaynoo'...YABVU (and I sincerely hope you're joking!)

I saw the Australian government call it ‘wander out yonder’ 😂

Previously to me it meant staying in your own home. Now with COVID I think it’s opened up to mean your home country.

Definitely means holidaying in your own country.