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

[FunTimes2020]

I know I am NOT being unreasonable

@ThePersonFromPorlock

When I was growing up, we called staying at home for the holidays a trip to Argate.

Yes! Us too!

@EveryFlightBeginsWithAFall

I've never heard anyone irl call going away in their own country a staycation. It's a holiday

Oh sadly I've heard lots of people saying it...I always put them right or course 🙄

@funtimes2020 but language evolves doesn't it?

Slut used to mean an untidy person.
Gay used to mean happy.
Beef used to just mean the meat but now its slang for having a problem with someone.
Staycation now means having a holiday in your own country rather than going abroad 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

I think whether it feels like a holiday depends on how different it feels from day to day life.

So for me the isle of white felt like a holiday but Bournemouth didn't (I live in Brighton, it was pretty similar).

We're going on a road trip round England this year - I can't wait (London, Thomas Land, Liverpool then back home).

I agree it’s annoying how words get misused. But someone else calling my holiday in Devon a staycation, or me calling it a holiday, doesn’t make any difference to the fact that I’m on it, and it’s bloody brilliant!

A Staycation is when you remain at home and do the occasional day trip gavel

I thought it meant you spent your holiday at your own address and went for days out. I don't think it means not going abroad.

As so many people have pointed out, if you’re going away from home, you’re on holiday. It’s a really weird form of snobbery as I live fairly near Eurostar so in non-Covid times can be in Belgium or Paris very quickly, which would apparently be classed as a holiday as abroad. I know people who used to go for day trips as travel times make that possible. On the other hand we were supposed to be going to the Hebrides last year (it got cancelled) and that is supposed to count as a staycation even though involves huge drive and a ferry? MAKES NO SENSE.

I listen to Steve wright and every day he’s banging on about hearing from people on their “staycations” when he means people on holiday in the uk. It grinds my gears every time!

Not this again! This comes up at least once a month 😣

Looking at dictionaries it can be either a holiday at home or a holiday in your home country, depending on the dictionary. Do there you have it no one is right or wrong!

I don’t use it for holidaying in the U.K. either but I’m not going to tell people they’re wrong or get my knickers in a knot about people using it, especially when the Oxford dictionary says you can.

The fact that people get so angry about this is just crazy.

Also according you YouGov 72% of Brits use staycation for holidaying in the U.K. so looks like you’re the angry minority 🤣

I am coming to join you on the hill! A UK holiday is a holiday.

I heard Paul Merton on the radio yesterday banging on about how great it was to holiday in the UK, as though he had just invented it. It was a revelation to him. Things like 'you don't have to queue at the airport' and 'you don't have to change your money'. No shit, sherlock.

If there's a Tesco round the corner, it's a staycation, even if I have to take a ferry.

If there's an Aldi but I am in Germany, it's a holiday 😂
(or a Tesco in Malaysia )

Same country = staycation.

@Twofurrycatsagain

I think we should get rid of the word staycation. For a start it's holiday not vacation. (Light hearted, I know language evolves). That said I think it means staying at home and doing day trips.

My dd would point out that her student vacations were when she had to vacate her college room; they weren't holiday as she had to work for most of them, revising or internship. She had some holiday and days off at home within her vacation.

Anyway, I think 'staycation' has probably degenerated into uselessness more rapidly than many twee neologisms if people now misuse it to mean 'ordinary holiday' rather than 'foreign holiday'.

Ken Bruce had a vent about it the other day. Staycation is NOT a U.K./ home country holiday.

It’s just easier to say and catchy so it’s caught on this year.

I agree OP.
I don't get annoyed from an 'evolving language' perspective, but definitely do when I'm expected to feel sympathy for people who are 'only' having a staycation this year. (This meaning a two week holiday to Cornwall or something).

OK - although it has annoyed me, I do accept that meanings evolve and this one is probably a losing battle.

But it would be nice to have a word for taking holiday while staying in your own home - any suggestions? Holihome? Homecation? (those are awful so hopefully someone can do better).

What about people who don't work

They can still have a staycation at home. Kids aren't at school, you can spend the week going on outings locally, have easy treats for meals, etc.

@Candleabra

I agree OP. I don't get annoyed from an 'evolving language' perspective, but definitely do when I'm expected to feel sympathy for people who are 'only' having a staycation this year. (This meaning a two week holiday to Cornwall or something).

that's not new either.

For some reason, when you ask people if they have plan for the summer, they tend to add a "just" for the stays planned in this country. Nothing to do with the pandemic, and foreigners tend to do it for their home country as well (as in, I am "just" going to "Scotland/ Cornwall/Wales, /foreign home country ).

A staycation is a holiday in your own country.

A day out is when you do a holiday type activity but spend nights at home.

Actual people don't call it staycation though or do they,? I thought it was just from advertising or fashion items on this morning ! I mean if any normal person says we are having a staycation need to have a word with themselves!

Same country = staycation

So, you live in, say, Perth, Australia, and you decide on a holiday on the Gold coast, 27,000 miles away. That's a staycation?

Whether a stay cation is at home or elsewhere in the UK if I'm not at work it's a holiday :)

It has been adapted and adopted to mean staying in your own country rather than flying or sailing or cruising around another one.

I think a better term for a holiday where you stay in your own country would be a holistay - what are your thoughts on that??

@CampervanQueen

This is a hill I am prepared to die on.

UK-based holiday is NOT a staycation/holistay.

Where has this idea that if it's not abroad it's not a holiday come from?

I agree too.

Most of my holidays would be staycations by this new definition, but they are not. They are simply holidays. It's like a holiday in the UK isn't a real holiday or lesser somehow. Really annoys me.