To feel so sorry for anyone on a British holiday right now

[itsaugust]

It’s been raining for about a week where I live. I’ve just woken up to yet more heavy rain this morning. It must be utterly miserable for anyone holidaying in the UK right now. You have my sympathies! Hope you’re managing to have a decent time despite the grim weather.

@REP22

I'll take our grotty weather over the California wildfires though.

Yes by comparison with many beach resorts in Italy, Greece and Turkey this year it seems churlish to complain about a slightly soggy UK holiday.

@SecretKeeper1 it's 18C and overcast here in N. Lincs. Apart from a weeks heatwave before the kids broke up the weather has been awful generally. A little bit of sun here and there but no consistency. And not hot enough for the kids to use paddling pool or splash pad at the park which is usually a highlight of summer.

Yup.

Feeling a bit less crap that we had to cancel our week at the coast.

Such a shitty summer.

Just looked and after today when it’s got some showers and a thunder storm, it’s looking dry here until next Saturday. I’m in Somerset. South Devon is the same where my children are staying with grandparents. I’m on leave at the end of the month so a few sunny days will be appreciated but I’m glad we haven’t planned a summer holiday that relies on good weather.

[quote placemats]@Dongdingdong

I'm in London and the sun is out. Yes there has been rain, but it hasn't by any stretch of the imagination, been a total washout this last week.[/quote]
When you see how badly some parts of London have been flooded, I think these londoners are more likely to remember the torrential rains than a couple of hours of sunshine.

Why do you assume the whole of Britain has the same weather you see out your window?

What an odd way to think

I think it's foolish to plan a holiday which relies on good weather in this country

The idea of camping aside, I don’t think many people on this thread are failing to plan ahead or pack the right things for all weathers. Plenty of us just find that incessant greyness and rain makes the experience miserable, and not really what we consider to be a ‘holiday’.

Oh puppymonkey, so much hate for a light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek and very well known saying😀

Surely just short hand for - it might be a bit rubbish but wrap up and try to make the best of it.

I'd cancel camping for persistent rain but have had many rainy caravan and cottage holidays.

Actually, that's a good point.

I put the paddling pool out a week in June (maybe? early July), it has been used 3 times and been back in the garage ever since.

It must be the first year it hasn't been used.

I suppose there are more people holidaying in the uk and missing their foreign sunshine this year, for obvious reasons.

I live in a tourist area and have been shocked at the rocketing prices for everything. I have sympathy with an industry trying to recoup losses but it does feel a bit like fleecing a captive audience, and I wonder whether the experience will just guarantee a redoubling of foreign holidays next year.

I live in a coastal resort. I feel sorry for holidaymakers this year apart from the weather. Accommodation owners are cancelling previous bookings with false Covid related excuses and readvertising at hugely inflated prices (and getting them). Restaurants pubs and bars are not opening due to staff shortages (various). Take out ices and coffees are one third more expensive, restaurants are selling leftovers rehashed as something else on the specials board (think left over roast and leftover roasted potatoes now called Lancashire hotpot). Businesses have suffered massive losses due to Covid but if overseas holidays get going again this seaside town will die. Lose lose all round.

We're UK camping regulars (although not had a major trip so far this year). We have a large tent which helps a lot, plus all the gear and clothing. For more than a few day we go to larger sites with laundry facilities and being able to stick stuff in a tumble dryer makes a massive difference.
But more than one day of torrential rain or constant wetting is hard going and gets pretty miserable.
A wet packing makes a lot more work on packing the car and getting the tent in good condition to put away.

We've depiberately swerved Cornwall this year as it's busy anyway. With unreliable weather and pre-booking, we didn't want to risk spending our time clock watching on the A30. Flexibility is important in coping with dodgy weather. The Covid measures have made it harder to adapt around the weather.

Holidays in the UK are expensive. By the time you start booking a comfortable, weather-proof cottage you are in the financial league of affording a reliable resort in the Mediteranean.

I love the UK, but with the weather having been ropey since 2 hours after the children finished school, the general turbulence of people having to change their habits, it's not the easiest year for a UK holiday. (Hopes everyone will be pissed off and it'll be a bumper international year next year...)

Scotland here and although weather app said rain for the entire week from Saturday we have actually had dry/sunny days. Sun is shining this morning!

Yes there has been rain, but it hasn't by any stretch of the imagination, been a total washout this last week.

@placemats eh? It's rained heavily every single day in London for the past week. Sun finally out now.

On a cheery note it's pretty bright in the South Lakes today!

It was scorching the whole time my kids were finishing school and to be fair the first couple of weeks of the school hols were nice too.

Last two weeks have been pretty dreich though!

@Dentistlakes

Hopefully people will be able to go back to their usual holidays next year. Then those of us who actually want to holiday in the UK will be able to do so without having to pay over inflated prices. We were lucky to have already booked, but we have friends who have had to pay ridiculous money for a poky flat in Cornwall. I appreciate people are trying to make their money back from last year but some of the prices are taking the piss.

I don't have much sympathy for people who paid silly money for holidays in the UK though either. They don't have to pay it.

It was obvious by the end of January that holidays abroad were going to be difficult this summer, which is why we booked before somewhere unfashionable at a reasonable price in the UK then.

We weren't going to pay thousands for a holiday which wasn't something we really wanted to do, just for the sake of having a holiday. Thats insanity.

We've got somewhere away for a week. Its not the most exciting place and its only an hour from us but I know we will really enjoy (a few pubs DH has been itching to go to for ages for example). We visited a friend and stayed with her for a few days and dropped in on another on the way back a couple of weeks back.

It'll be enough to relax and will be fun.

Amazing mind blowing holidays are for another year when there's more certainity.

The whole thing this year is people having unrealistic expectations and not being willing to adjust expectations.

@fourminutestosavetheworld

Oh puppymonkey, so much hate for a light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek and very well known saying😀

Surely just short hand for - it might be a bit rubbish but wrap up and try to make the best of it.

I'd cancel camping for persistent rain but have had many rainy caravan and cottage holidays.

The trouble is that it's a saying that was parroted out all autumn and winter when about the only thing to was to go out and kick autumn leaves stomp through soggy leaf sludge Surprisingly, it's not been followed up with the usual puddle suit suggestion to solve all parenting issues

(I wouldn't mind an oversized toddlers puddlesuit for wrapping up on shit days!)

I agree that two days of bad weather on holiday is a bit annoying, but a whole week… very frustrating. And particularly as a cottage is not the cheap and (often not very) cheerful option it once was.

I think some cottage owners are going to be stuffed going forward as this year will (hopefully!) be an outlier and it will be difficult to get full capacity unless you are in a really good position/location.

I live in a tourist area and have been shocked at the rocketing prices for everything.

I feel for the locals too, not only everything is packed but the prices are ridiculous, what a summer for them too.

Also

Every single year people say 'This summer has been worse than last year'.

I don't believe this. I just think people forget what the weather was like last year or the year before.

Its just a standard British Summer.

I don't have much sympathy for people who paid silly money for holidays in the UK though either. They don't have to pay it.

of course they don't have to pay it.

But some people didn't dare make the most of last summer and autumn and didn't go abroad - some thinking they were doing a good thing by avoiding spreading the risk of virus with travelling

so that's 1 year without a holiday

then it's this year... We bang on about mental health, but after lockdown especially, it's claustrophobic to be stuck home. The choice was silly money or no holiday at all, I sympathise.

It's not WW3, bit silly to make life more miserable than needs to be.
I NEED my holidays personally. We had to delay and change plans, but we are going abroad for a couple of weeks, can't wait.

I've been here since last Tuesday.

It slightly drizzled on Thursday. Rained Friday and Saturday but not enough to stop me doing some gardening for my daughter - I'm in Zone 2 and she has a garden! Yesterday a glorious afternoon but a deluge just outside Harrods - awful wet through within seconds.

Packed tube trains is not helping. Southbank on Thursday was heaving with people. The queue for the London Eye was enormous.

If anyone is in need of a holiday abroad Easy-jet are selling well priced holidays atm.

A family of four can go for a week to Zante on Saturday. Two studio rooms with terraces and a pool. Includes flights and transfers. A grand.
It might not be the height of luxury but it’s not a tent in a rainy field.

Greece with a pool

The trick to happiness is being able to make the best of things while knowing they are not just what you'd like.

So not manic positivism - but more of an "ok it's raining but hey we don't have to work we are all together and we can eat nice food" sort of outlook.

I think this is the state of mind required for uk holidays 🤣 thankfully I have it as my mother drummed it into me on many a dreich Scottish whit week - in damp cottages under grey skies in howling gales.

Every single year people say 'This summer has been worse than last year'.

very true.

But last year the bits of my garden not covered by the watering system were fried when we came back,

this year it has never been greener and I am not watering.
It is wet here.