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AIBU?

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Original poster

A staycation is NOT a holiday in the UK, FFS!

300 replies

FunTimes2020 · 17/08/2021 22:18

I know I am NOT being unreasonable Halo

OP posts:
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5
LanaDelBoy · 17/08/2021 23:19

It's the media that have forced this change in use, trying to promote domestic tourism with a different name.

As Rufus's image shows upthread it always used to mean staying at home - i.e. NOT 'vacating' your home.

A staycation is NOT a holiday in the UK, FFS!
HappilyHadesBound · 17/08/2021 23:21

@AvonCallingBarksdale

The “stay” refers to staying in your own country, no? I don’t get it. If you go away in the UK, it’s great, but it’s the same weather, food, language, culture. There’s no change. If you go abroad it’s just different. That, for me, is more a holiday 🤷‍♀️ It’s just semantics really though.
The only people that think it's semantics seem to be those who DO have foreign holidays. That's because it isn't important to you. You're still getting your holidays- those who holiday in the UK are all being told that's not good enough anymore.
MyDcAreMarvel · 17/08/2021 23:22

A staycation is staying at home doing day trips, clue us in the name. A week away in Cornwall etc is a holiday!

Mooda · 17/08/2021 23:22

Yanbu.

To use 'staycation' as a term for a UK holiday is massively snobby - implies that a holiday in the UK is somehow not a real holiday. A 'staycation' is when you have time off work and do day trips etc from your own home. A holiday in the UK is a 'holiday'. Or a vacation if you must. I'm on that hill with you OP!

bruffin · 17/08/2021 23:25

The “stay” refers to staying in your own country, no?

No it means stay in your own home, i never heard it mean stay in your own country until this year.

NailsNeedDoing · 17/08/2021 23:25

A staycation to me means staying in your home country to have a holiday. It’s a type of holiday, not a lesser holiday. I don’t see why people think the word staycation somehow belittles UK holidays, it can still mean a whole range of wonderful things, it just means you’re staying in your own country for your holiday. Staying at home is not a holiday.

I suppose with a country as vast as America, a Texan would have a staycation if he stayed in Texas.

Hydrate · 17/08/2021 23:27

@IVflytrap

A staycation is staying at home, but doing holiday type activities in your local area.

A holiday in the UK is a holiday.

Yes.
Queenoftheashes · 17/08/2021 23:27

Staying at home IS a holiday! You have a week off work and chill in your house. You return to work rested the following week. It is a break; a holiday. It is not a trip.

Lockdownbear · 17/08/2021 23:30

@ImAddictedToMyPhone

What is a staycation then?
To me a staycation is time off at home, but not going anywhere or doing the tourist stuff in your own area. Old Scottish expression Hame 'ill dae me!
FlyingScott · 17/08/2021 23:33

Seriously, if you’re still confused, watch the Russell Kane video Grin

putthebinsout · 17/08/2021 23:35

I saw a Russell Kane video about this today... very funny

DewDew83 · 17/08/2021 23:35

Yeah this is a real pet peeve of mine too. YANBU, OP.

putthebinsout · 17/08/2021 23:35

Couple of crossed posts there re Russell - sorry!

Eatenpig · 17/08/2021 23:36

@ImAddictedToMyPhone

What is a staycation then?
When you stay at home & do day trips from home whilst off work. You have a vacation whilst staying at home ag night
Cherryana · 17/08/2021 23:41

YANBU although I would argue that a staycation is not even a holiday. Full stop.
I am on staycation - staying at home and going on day trips. Yesterday wearing a winter coat. Today, pairing up socks for half an hour. Where is the ‘cation in all of this?!!!!

ErrolTheDragon · 17/08/2021 23:42

Language does evolve, but sometimes it degenerates.
Calling a holiday in the U.K. a 'staycation' is the latter.

then most people have a staycation every weekend and every time they take a sickie, do we really need a word for "staying home"?

Don't be daft. It's only a 'staycation' if you've taken some of your vacation days off for it. And afaik "most people" don't ever "take a sickie" ... that's just being a lazy pisstaker, wherever you do it.Hmm

ErrolTheDragon · 17/08/2021 23:44

@Cherryana

YANBU although I would argue that a staycation is not even a holiday. Full stop. I am on staycation - staying at home and going on day trips. Yesterday wearing a winter coat. Today, pairing up socks for half an hour. Where is the ‘cation in all of this?!!!!
Well, apart from using vacation days, maybe it's only a 'cation if it leaves you positively charged?Grin
LemonSwan · 17/08/2021 23:45

YANBU

Rockhopper81 · 17/08/2021 23:46

Staycation - 'stay at home vacation', that's where it came from.

I do not live in Cornwall, it is not my home - therefore, if I go to Cornwall, pack a bag/suitcase, stay in a B&B (at cost to me), and visit tourist attractions there, I'm on holiday (or, to keep the language similar, I'm on vacation) - I have travelled away from my home and incurred the expenses associated with travelling away from my home address.

I do live in the Midlands. If out of, say, 7 days annual leave, I plan days out at local attractions/tourist 'things', eat out several times, do the whole 'be a tourist where you live' thing - as I am not planning a holiday (vacation) this year, so no accommodation costs above my usual rent/mortgage - I am having a 'stay at home vacation', a staycation. I am spending my annual leave doing enjoyable things in my local area, that I might not ordinarily do (for whatever reason), but with no accommodation costs to me.

I admit to being a pedant, and I'm actually pretty open to language changing and developing generally, but syntactically it doesn't make sense for a 'stay at home vacation' to take place anywhere other than your home property, surely? And given the past 18 months, we are all well aware what 'home' means...

Domestic tourism is the term for holidaying in your own country...as opposed to international tourism...that just makes sense...

AlwaysLatte · 17/08/2021 23:46

It's either - in your home country or in your home, literally.

JesusIsAnyNameFree · 17/08/2021 23:46

@Cherryana

YANBU although I would argue that a staycation is not even a holiday. Full stop. I am on staycation - staying at home and going on day trips. Yesterday wearing a winter coat. Today, pairing up socks for half an hour. Where is the ‘cation in all of this?!!!!
I mean, I often go on holiday to cold, snowy places and would hate roasting like a chicken on a beach!

Pairing up socks is entertainment. YABU.

MirandaBlu · 17/08/2021 23:50

"Staycation" was originally a US-American English term meaning taking "vacation" time off from work but not going away (overnight or longer). In the US “vacation” is used the way “annual leave” is in the UK and doesn’t necessarily mean a holiday.

The USA has no federal laws that guarantee time off for workers, so apart from some state-level workers' protections, it's up to individual companies to make their own rules. Until the mid-00s, many office workers in the US, who were guaranteed x number of vacation days (distinct from “sick/medical days” and “personal days”) a year by their companies, would not take the days off but instead would let them accrue year after year. If they quit or were fired, the company would have months of back salary owed, payable immediately.

When mass layoffs became common in the '00s, due to both financial crisis and corporate mass mergers and acquisitions, it became a bigger problem because a company would lay off an entire division of people and each one could be owed massive back vacation pay. To avoid this, companies started imposing rules saying that people had to take their “vacation days” during the year in which they accrued. This also came on the heels of things like the Barants situation, where someone was able to commit fraud because he was the only person trained to do a job and was never out of the office. Saying people had to take their vacation meant companies could make sure that didn’t happen, and that there were no “indispensable” employees who couldn’t be suddenly laid off. (Of course, they usually said the requirements about taking vacation as earned were for “mental health” and “work-life balance” reasons).

Anyway, large numbers of US employees were impacted and suddenly started being very careful to take ALL their allocated days, on the “use it or lose it” principle. They didn’t come into the office or do any work, but many who’d not had an interest in travelling before naturally didn't start travelling during their “vacation” time. Hence, "staycation".

It also didn’t necessarily mean anything about doing vacation/holiday-like leisure activities while you were out of the office. I had one colleague who took her vacation a week at a time and stayed home to do home improvement projects - she enjoyed it as much as anyone else would enjoy their foreign or domestic holiday away (and yes, she did show everyone the pictures!)

isthisareverse · 17/08/2021 23:51

It's only a 'staycation' if you've taken some of your vacation days off for it.

so you are just trying to justify your days off.

Stay in your home country, it's a staycation.
Go abroad, it's a holiday. (or a business trip, or whatever the reason why you are travelling).

Do you feel like you've wasted your annual leave if you call it '`staycation"?

herculesoffline · 17/08/2021 23:54

@Saidtoomuch

I'll die on this hill. Our holidays in the UK are proper holidays, stuff what Google says. A staycation for me would mean staying at home. A lovely hotel or cottage in the UK is a proper holiday, just without the sun hassle at the airport.
Why can't it be a staycation and a proper holiday? I really don't see those referring to staycations as holidays in your own country as being worse, or not proper holidays. Its only those that argue about its use that seem to presume this? A bit "chip on your shoulder" etc.

I'd refer to going to Brighton (for example) as a staycation, but it's still a holiday. It's just a type of holiday, in the way that I (and others) use the term. Perhaps it's a regional thing - I'm Home Counties.