Page 7 | AIBU to think that a staycation involves actually staying at home?

cheeseismydownfall · 2021-02-05T12:28:58+00:00

I have always thought that a staycation is when you take leave from work and stay at home, in your house, taking day trips and generally trying to create a holiday vibe by doing the sort of things that you might normally only do on holiday. Recently though I have seen it used to mean any holiday in the UK. Surely this is just a regular holiday?!

Nanny0gg · 06/02/2021 16:48

It's a word that's been (incorrectly) hijacked by the media

SuperbGorgonzola · 06/02/2021 16:58

@PurpleDaisies

For some people, 5 days in a caravan by the sea is a holiday, and I think it's really rude to play it down when it's one of the highlights of their year. That is their holiday.

Who is downplaying that? Staycation isn’t an insult.

A staycation definitely does suggest 'not quite' a holiday. In the same way that a snack means less than a meal.

If you pack up and leave your home for more than a day or two, that is a holiday whether you leave the country or not. Describing a week away in Cornwall or Brighton as a staycation implies that you don't think it meets the criteria for "holiday".

Having time off work and enjoying your local area, sights and attractions without sleeping away from home is a staycation.

bookmarket · 06/02/2021 17:27

@CryingHelps

Staycation is a play on words of staying and vacation. So, it's obvious you would be going away but in the UK or where you live. A day trip isn't a holiday or vacation.

It's not one day trip. Its when someone has annual leave from work and spend money and live as though they are on holiday except they've stayed in their own home.

zizza · 06/02/2021 17:32

We've talked about this at home too. IMHO the original meaning was definitely taking time off work but staying in your own house and maybe going for days out. We rarely holiday abroad though so a holiday in the UK, is just a holiday . Why is it different if you get on a plane or cross the sea?

BackforGood · 06/02/2021 17:38

What Bookmarket and zizza said.

LaurieSchafferIsAllBitterNow · 06/02/2021 17:40

I am with Dara O'Briain ...if you are not sleeping in your own bed, it's NOT a staycation

Iknowwhatudidlastsummer · 06/02/2021 18:01

but you don't sleep in your bed if you stay with friends, or if you go away for the weekend. I don't call that a holiday either.

If I fly to another country for a long weekend, I call that a small holiday. It's barely a break if I stay in the UK.

BenoneBeauty · 06/02/2021 18:06

YANBU Op - it seems like it's changed over the last year but really if you go away, whether UK or abroad then you're going on holiday (aka vacation) so definitely not a staycation. Drives me crazy hearing it used to mean having a holiday when that's not a staycation at all

Iknowwhatudidlastsummer · 06/02/2021 18:06

I am not sure why people need to feel offended by everything.

If you live near the beach or near a ski resort, you go there every weekend and it's not a beach holiday or a ski holiday. It doesn't take anything from people who do go on a skiing holiday, or a beach holiday
🤷

I go on "days out" most weekends. It doesn't feel like a holiday to stay in the UK, and even less when staying at home. So it's not.

After at least a year of lockdown, I am not sure that many people will ever consider a "stay at home" a vacation or holiday in any shape or form

SinisterBumFacedCat · 06/02/2021 18:09

A long weekend (or one night even) is a break. I’ve always found these breaks feel a lot longer (in a good way) if you do lots in them. Staying with friends doesn’t really feel like a holiday compared to staying at an air bnb because you are a guest and have to behave yourself!

Judging by some standards on here, I haven’t had a holiday in years, but in reality I have had some bloody wonderful holidays all over the country, some of which took 4 hours plus to get there and I would not call them a staycation. A staycation is staying in my house.

User7458 · 06/02/2021 18:10

Someone in the media or the government got confused with what a UK holiday was called and somehow the name stuck. I thought that a staycation meant staying in you own house and going out on day trips

BenoneBeauty · 06/02/2021 18:11

@User7458

Someone in the media or the government got confused with what a UK holiday was called and somehow the name stuck. I thought that a staycation meant staying in you own house and going out on day trips

I think you're right, that's probably where the annoyance all started!

MiddlesexGirl · 06/02/2021 18:12

Yanbu and for good measure Wikipedia is very clear that you are correct en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staycation

I blame the tourist industry.

Iknowwhatudidlastsummer · 06/02/2021 18:16

I am still ensure why it actually matters if some people don't feel they take a holiday if they stay in their home country, whilst others do.

LApprentiSorcier · 06/02/2021 18:22

but you don't sleep in your bed if you stay with friends, or if you go away for the weekend. I don't call that a holiday either.

Staying with friends is usually a 'visit' rather than a holiday because you are going with the purpose of spending time with them - unless you consciously combine the two - e.g. friends live somewhere you'd want to go on holiday to but you stay with them rather than in a hotel.

People tend to say 'a weekend break' if they go away just for a weekend, even if it's outside their own country - e.g. a weekend in Paris. I think the travel industry calls it a 'short break' if it's less than a week. I wouldn't quibble with anyone calling a weekend or three day trip a 'holiday' though.

hammeringinmyhead · 06/02/2021 19:39

Of course Secret Escapes are calling it a "Staycation". They're trying to appeal to those people who would normally go to the Seychelles or Goa or Santorini that Cornwall is a quaint little option to keep them going in the meantime and of course not to be confused with a "proper" holiday. It's awful marketing speak and very transparent.

RickiTarr · 06/02/2021 21:05

I am not sure why people need to feel offended by everything.

Irritation is not the same as offence.

BenoneBeauty · 06/02/2021 21:27

I agree @RickiTarr, I'm not offended at all but it does irritate me a lot!

LolaSmiles · 06/02/2021 22:11

Of course Secret Escapes are calling it a "Staycation". They're trying to appeal to those people who would normally go to the Seychelles or Goa or Santorini that Cornwall is a quaint little option to keep them going in the meantime and of course not to be confused with a "proper" holiday. It's awful marketing speak and very transparent
100% this.

When I first heard it, it was used to talk about staying home but doing lots of the holiday type activities.

It's actually quite sad that some people need a new word to talk about taking a holiday in their own country when the word 'holiday' already exists.

Zogstart · 06/02/2021 22:30

Staycation was a relatively new word to start with that has evolved to mean a U.K. break. It’s not like it was a word that was known for centuries beforehand. I’m pretty sure it was invented during the credit crunch when we were all too poor to go anywhere!
Other than during lockdown I don’t know anyone that would take time off work and do the traditional staycation. It’s much more common to book an air bnb or something therefore you must know that when someone says they’re going on a staycation, chances are they’re staying away from their home.

Fortyfifty · 06/02/2021 23:37

@Zogstart

Staycation was a relatively new word to start with that has evolved to mean a U.K. break. It’s not like it was a word that was known for centuries beforehand. I’m pretty sure it was invented during the credit crunch when we were all too poor to go anywhere! Other than during lockdown I don’t know anyone that would take time off work and do the traditional staycation. It’s much more common to book an air bnb or something therefore you must know that when someone says they’re going on a staycation, chances are they’re staying away from their home.

I don't think I know anyone who actually uses the word in everyday speech. It's more a media terminology. But there's never been a need to have a word for people who holiday in the UK because that's a bloody common thing for people to do, c either as their main summer break or as an additional break during a half term, for example. So very common, van's so commonly known as a holiday. Staycation, used to mean staying in your own home and doing holiday activities was only every used by the media or a bit tongue in cheek.

I think people are irked by the new definition, because its obviously some way of branding a UK trip for those that have never before spent time holidaying in the UK but are now forced to by Covid - branded as a one-off, needs-must quirky, ironic thing to do. Its so transparent and to those who actually choose to have a UK holiday, outside of a pandemic, it is most patronising.