To ask when is it travelling and when is it a holiday?

[Cheeseandlobster]

I love my holidays. I live for them. When I go away I immerse myself in the culture, eat local foods etc. Then I have to come home until the next one which is always somewhere different. I also love city breaks

I have met lots of people who say they love travelling but admit they usually sit round a pool. Which is great. Holidays are about doing whatever you love. But surely these are also holidays.

So aside from those who back pack and travel from country to country, what exactly is the difference? I feel people often think there is more kudos in saying they love travelling when actually it's holidays they love.

I would say travelling is going somewhere for a prolonged period, longer than a standard holiday of two weeks, and moving around whilst there. However I wouldn’t use the word travelling as it sounds wanky.

I’d say travelling is more about exploring - getting to know an area, trying new food, experiences etc. Learning about a culture, the language, the history of somewhere. Being more immersed.

Going on an all inclusive or staying in a hotel in a touristy area for example I’d say is a holiday.

I know lots of people who go on ‘holidays’ regularly but I wouldn’t say are ‘well travelled’.

I'd use travelling for a multi-site trip, usually longer, although have done city hopping/ interrailing through Europe in a fortnight.

If it's a single site package holiday, I'd call it a holiday.
I also use holiday for more than a few days in the UK.

It's a holiday when all my plans work out and travelling when they don't. 😅

That's sort of joking and sort of not. e.g. I have had a couple of holidays this year. One my flight out was super late, looked like we were going to miss the last bus into the city, then travelled across the country to where I was staying, was ill during the holiday, had to change my flight back, find out how to get to a different airport, sort coach tickets that couldn't be bought online in a language I didn't speak. That felt like travelling. Another, everything was fine, planned trains and connections worked. That felt like a holiday for most of it, until I was on my own, trying to catch an inter-country train which just didn't turn up for 90 minutes, at which point it felt like travelling.

So travelling is more about the length of the trip and being more independent with transport etc as well as getting involved with the culture? That makes sense

I think travelling to me involves seeing the place. Part of the adventure is the journey too. I loved travelling pre kids, flew to Nice, meandered across Italy finished up on a Greek Island, my mate who flew out and met me there had a holiday 😁

Would agree it needs to be for a prolonged period of time to be traveling. If you’re using your two weeks annual leave it’s a holiday, whether you’re sitting round a pool at a resort in Spain, hiking in Wyoming, or sightseeing in Rome.

I also wouldn’t say it’s anything to do with resort versus ‘getting immersed.’ Realistically most people I know who insist they get ‘immersed in the culture’ on their week long holiday are just having a different type of tourist experience.

I've seen this discussion for decades, and ultimately it's pointless. It almost always comes from a point of travel snobbery. "I'm a traveler, you're a tourist".

It doesn't matter what you call your trip/break/escape from real life. People travel to get to their holiday destination, whatever at is and whatever they do there.

My trips would come under your definition of travel. I love to backpack to long haul places that are different from home, and I do so independently and enjoy the adventure. But that doesn't make me any more worthy, or require a different name for my activity, than someone who gets their break from the day to day grind by going somewhere hot and sunny for a fortnight to regroup.

Ugh

People travel to get to their holiday destination, wherever it is

I thought travelling was multiple places because the point is to be moving around, so going place to place.
If you have gone to one destination and then returned home, you have gone on a holiday to that place.
So you could go travelling in south america, or you could go on holiday to Argentina.

I take travelling to mean for work and holiday to mean for pleasure, for most people.

Totally agree with @saraclara it's just snobbery. People who are going travelling simply think it makes them sound more interesting than people going on holiday.

I say that I enjoy travelling. To me this includes traditional style holidays, trips with work and I have been backpacking. Different types of trips but all travelling. 🤷🏻‍♀️ To me it's more about expressing that you like going to lots of different new places.

Yes this makes sense too

Is it 'travelling' when we go to Somerset, or South Wales? After all, we travel to get there, spend time looking around the area (rather than sitting round a pool), and immerse ourselves in the local culture; sometimes we even stay in two different locations 😂 Nope, I'm guessing that's a holiday and not a staycation

Travelling to me is like "backpacking" in the sense you travel to more than one country and go for a prolonged period. Like you do in your early twenties.

Going to one place for a couple of weeks is a holiday, regardless of how much culture you enjoy or how much of a philistine you are 😉

What about if you go from place to place within a country?
DH and I have flown to a country, picked up a pre-arranged hire car, then just driven and found a place for the night - then just driven and started looking at about 6 pm for the hotel / B&B or the foreign equivalent for the next night, and so on, for the two weeks. Obviously exploring and sightseeing each day.
Is that a 'travelling holiday'?
Or what about when we hired a camper van and drove all over NZ for 8 weeks? was that travelling or an extended holiday?

How important to the definition is having a backpack and using public transport?

İf you are 'travelling' it means you are special and not at all like those plebs who are 'on holiday', obviously. For many it seems to be another pretentious word that they think makes them superior (like using 'source' instead of 'buy' etc.

I've seen this discussion for decades, and ultimately it's pointless. It almost always comes from a point of travel snobbery. "I'm a traveler, you're a tourist".

I agree with this; it's been a "hot topic" on travel websites for as long as they've existed. Travelling is moving from place to place, so any of the types of "trips" listed here are travel. If the travel is voluntary and mainly for leisure purposes, it's typically called tourism, a holiday, a vacation, etc. If it's for another main purpose - business, family obligation, health/medical, study, a nomadic lifestyle, etc. - it's probably not.

This. There will be plenty of people who go to interesting sounding places like Thailand or Goa and do little more than lie on a beach, but they'll claim to have had a more worthy 'travelling' experience than people who been to Spain on holiday even if the latter went trekking in the mountains, visited museums, galleries, monuments, ruins etc, spoke Spanish and only ate local food.

I would say exploring different places and getting out and about is travelling and lying on your arse all day eating pizza and drinking Estrella is a holiday. Someone at work says they love “travelling” and have been to Mexico, Cuba, Caribbean Etc but they don’t go outside of their complex on any of them. I really don’t see the point to be honest. If you just want Sea, Sun and Sangria, why not just go to Majorca.

It sounds to me like travelling is a holiday for people who like to think they're a bit superior and care about the kudos they think their holiday gives them when they get home.

The only difference is a smug sense of superiority

I'm a traveller, she's a tourist! It's comparable with She's a hoarder, I'm a prepper.