To cancel our short break as the weather forecast is shite

[Buggeringweather]

DH and I have booked 3 nights in Plymouth next week. Typically the weather forecast is crap and I’m now wondering whether to save £300 and stay at home and have a few days out instead.

Plymouth is a 3 hour drive, is there much to do if raining? We’ll probably end up sitting in a pub all afternoon and quite honestly if we wanted to do that we could in our local capital.

WWYD? Go or not to go.

I would still go, but take appropriate clothing. We had a week in Wiltshire at the beginning of July. The forecast was for rain every day. In the end it was warm and we had a couple of showers on a couple of days. The weather was much nicer than the forecast.

If you are staying somewhere with walls and a roof, crack on. If you are 'tenting' (which is a terms I'm adopting from now on as camping is too ambiguous) then don't.

@Bawdrip

Tenting? Don't you mean camping? Is that we're people are calling it now?

I think Jeremy Clarkson calls it that. I'm sure I heard him say it in the days of the original Top Gear when they would pitch up at a camp site and proceed to set their caravan on fire after smashing it up.

They chatted to the other campers and asked them what they liked about tenting and what they did, which seemed to be mostly drinking interspersed with emptying the chemical toilet. So that's going back some years now.

It suggests 'I'm not totally on board with this and am giving it a go but would much rather be staying somewhere with a proper bed and a normal toilet'.

Just you or DC too? It often doesn’t rain here nearly as much as is forecast. Also we have a lot of variation due to varied (beautiful) countryside - fog on the moor, can be raining while the coast is sunny or if the sea mist comes in the high ground can be clear. If it was me, I’d come down.

If pubs are your thing we have plenty. Coastal pubs, country pubs, waterfront. The Hoe is lovely, the city centre to be avoided. Shopping for anything but basics doesn’t exist.

Book the following:

• a trip to The Box (it’s wonderful)
• the Aquarium
• a boat trip round the Sound or a Tamar cruise (the boats are big and under cover)

If you’ve got active kids, book bouldering and swimming at the Life Centre.

Book lunches and dinners at Royal William Yard.

Avoid the rest of Plymouth whether it’s rainy or sunny. It’s shite either way.

Head into Cornwall, Dartmoor or the South Hams for lovely walks and pubs come rain or shine.

@MrsSkylerWhite

Plymouth isn’t great in sunshine, tbh (though being equally honest, I’m Cornish ). Cancel and go to Cornwall instead.

Agree! luckily it's easy to escape into the rest of Cornwall or Devon

This is why I am reluctant to book anything for a short break in advance - the weather is so unreliable.

Luckily at home we're only an hour or so's drive from the Lake District/Yorkshire Dales/Pennines so we head there at the last minute if the weather is nice.

DP and I have a long weekend pencilled in to go away in August. I am going to wait until the day before and try and book somewhere where the weather looks OK. If we can't get any accommodation that late in the day we'll just wild camp.

I don't want to spend hundreds of pounds to go somewhere rainy.

To clarify:

camping going somewhere wild on your own or with family, setting up a camp with a campfire (as restrictions allow), cooking and playing games and then going to bed, waking up to a splendid view and frolicking in a stream or something...

tenting putting up a tent next to lots of other tents. Spending the evening watching lots of small children screaming and hopped up on sugar whilst being entertained by staff members in shiny clothing. Trying to find tent in dark. Waking up to a view of....tents.

Neither is necessarily worse or better. I just have a preference. Enjoy Plymouth OP!

@Bawdrip

Tenting? Don't you mean camping? Is that we're people are calling it now?

I was in a Very Serious play once where we had to sing a song called "Tenting tonight". I could see my best friend and my boyfriend in the audience helpless with laughter.

@StCharlotte PLEASE reveal the lyrics of "tenting tonight"?

It may help with my ordeal.

[quote Yesitsbess]@StCharlotte PLEASE reveal the lyrics of "tenting tonight"?

It may help with my ordeal.[/quote]
Enjoy!

(We sang it really s l o w l y which just made it even funnier.)

I'm going to hum that loudly during the entire process of erection. Thankyou.

Stuck in traffic at the moment though so that's still all to look forward to! In the rain! Option on thunderstorm! With a tent I've never put up before! Wheeeeee!

I'd take Plymouth any day of the week.

I would go. Holidays in UK are different to abroad with reliable weather, but even reading a book in th hotel bar is more relaxing (and more likely to happen) than doing it at home.

However, the terrible forecast will probably mean showers at this time of year anyway. The forecast was awful here today and yes, I got soaked at parkrun this morning, but it's still warm and has been dry most of the morning. Nothing that needs to interupt plans, you just have to accept that you'll need a light coat.

I'd go, just a change of scenery is lovely esp after the last 18 months

When are you coming? The forecast isn't actually that bad at the moment. Just the odd shower but plenty of sun.

'Camping' can cover anything from using the sort of motorhome that movies stars have when on location, including built in jacuzzi and 60" TV, through to a lightweight glorified bivvy bag with a trowel as your main sanitation device. I rather like 'tenting' as a sub-group word for sleeping under canvas. No-one has a problem with 'caravanning' as the descriptive word for Jeremy Clarkson's least favourite activity!

@Yesitsbess

I'm going to hum that loudly during the entire process of erection. Thankyou.

Stuck in traffic at the moment though so that's still all to look forward to! In the rain! Option on thunderstorm! With a tent I've never put up before! Wheeeeee!

I'd take Plymouth any day of the week.

Old mumsnet...I read that as the other sort of erection

Even camping I would go if not too far. Just be prepared to give it up as a bad job and come home after one night/mid afternoon if it’s all miserable

We are meant to be coming Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We have until tonight to cancel FOC.

We are thinking maybe going north as the weather seems a bit more settled, Worcester, Stratford etc

Might be a good plan to go further north.

For once the weather this summer has been better than the south and the traffic probably won't be as bad.

When you said Plymouth was 3 hours away, was that normally or in 'half the country being on holiday in the south west' situation?

@MinesAPintOfTea I did it for that very reason. The tent is up. Next to lots of other tents. We have forgotten towels.

Weather forecasts are often wrong, I'm currently in Wales and all week they've been forecasting rain for last night and today, we haven't had a drop.
It's much cooler than in the week and high cloud but warm enough.

I'm camping next week in a rainy forecast

Apologies to Plymouth but we’ve rescheduled to Stratford upon Avon instead. The forecast was a little better and more to see.

Forecast isn't necessarily accurate though For our country break in June it said rain,rain and more rain all week. Rained once, otherwise lovely. If we'd cancelled due to forecast we'd have lost out big time. Just have backup plans and take the range of clothes.