Page 5 | To think a UK holiday is still a proper holiday?

Driedpotatochip · 2022-10-30T10:43:46+00:00

I’m going to Argentina next week and a friend commented that it’s been ages since I had a proper holiday post covid. I’ve managed to do long weekends away and a week away twice in the UK and also went to Spain for a long weekend from 2020 to now. True I haven’t been to a destination that’s really far away since 2019 but I feel like i still had proper holidays. Aibu or does what I did not count as a holiday?

Theluggage15 · 30/10/2022 12:28

Of course a holiday in your own country is a proper holiday. A staycation is staying at home and having day trips. People had holidays before foreign travel became widespread ffs.

AllThingsServeTheBeam · 30/10/2022 12:28

rainbowandglitter · 30/10/2022 11:42

A holiday to me is a holiday abroad. We've had time away in the UK but I didn't say we were going on holiday.

So if someone said to you when you got back from your UK holiday "did you have a nice holiday?" Would you correct them?

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 30/10/2022 12:28

I am sitting in a caravan in the uk. It is grey and damp out and I am drinking filter coffee and cuddling the dog. I am very much on holiday. I feel totally relaxed. I often don’t feel like this at home as I always feel like I should be doing something. After lunch we are off for a beach walk. Hopefully there will be hardly any people. Bliss.

Actually, maybe the likes of you and I should keep quiet and continue to insist to the holiday snobs that what you describe above is simply horrific and not in any way a proper holiday at all.

Remember what it was like during the heights of Covid, where all the 'proper holidayers' were left with no option but the UK 'scrag ends' that many of us appreciate and enjoy so much year in, year out - and the prices rocketed and everywhere booked up instantly?

Croque · 30/10/2022 12:28

There seems to be a default definition of a holiday (which spans many income groups) which basically involves a fortnight (always a fortnight) at an AI resort in a hot country at a hotel with sun lounger wars around a big pool. It would be my idea of hell. I would choose a staycation, any staycation over that, any day. I am willing to be enlightened if I have missed something regarding this experience. I can just about understand child free people doing it for a good tan (even though I would be bored out of my mind on day one) but with kids thrown into the mix (either being a nuisance or dumped in daycare similar to daycare used back home)??

Arayes · 30/10/2022 12:29

AllThingsServeTheBeam · 30/10/2022 12:26

You can go to somewhere different, and remain in the UK. It's still a proper holiday.

Show quote history

Do you not understand the notion of subjectivity? To YOU, it can be a proper holiday. To ME, it is not.
There is nowhere in the UK that is different enough to me to be different.

People seem very defensive about this....do you think those of us who don't want a UK holiday are judging you somehow because you do? Because I'm not, and I'm sure most are not. Why else can't you accept that people can see it differently?

EmpressoftheMundane · 30/10/2022 12:31

A break in the UK is a proper holiday.

AnApparitionQuipped · 30/10/2022 12:31

Arayes · 30/10/2022 12:29

Do you not understand the notion of subjectivity? To YOU, it can be a proper holiday. To ME, it is not.
There is nowhere in the UK that is different enough to me to be different.

People seem very defensive about this....do you think those of us who don't want a UK holiday are judging you somehow because you do? Because I'm not, and I'm sure most are not. Why else can't you accept that people can see it differently?

Show quote history

If you go back to the OP, it's not about what type of holiday you prefer - of course that is subjective - it's about (some) overseas holiday folk not acknowledging that a UK holiday is valid as a holiday for others.

AllThingsServeTheBeam · 30/10/2022 12:33

Kolarbri · 30/10/2022 12:06

I understand staycation to be holidaying in the country that you live in. Most people I know use it to mean that!

Nah. Staycation is stopping at home and doing day trips etc.

SquigglePigs · 30/10/2022 12:34

I absolutely agree with you. I'm nearly 40 and have only been abroad 7-8 times. We primarily holidayed in the UK as a child, with one holiday in France. I went abroad a few times in my early 20's with a friend then my DH and I have had a couple of trips abroad including our honeymoon. But we have had many lovely holidays.

We're only planning to holiday abroad once every 3-5 years whilst DD is growing up. The UK has so many wonderful places to visit that it isn't necessary to go abroad to have a great holiday. It's also environmentally unsound to fly so much anyway.

Mrsjayy · 30/10/2022 12:34

Arayes · 30/10/2022 12:29

Do you not understand the notion of subjectivity? To YOU, it can be a proper holiday. To ME, it is not.
There is nowhere in the UK that is different enough to me to be different.

People seem very defensive about this....do you think those of us who don't want a UK holiday are judging you somehow because you do? Because I'm not, and I'm sure most are not. Why else can't you accept that people can see it differently?

Show quote history

That isn't what the Op is on about its not about preference.

TheChosenTwo · 30/10/2022 12:34

I’ve had some amazing breaks in the U.K., more so in these last 2 years than ever before. I don’t know why I don’t consider them to be a proper ‘holiday’, I think it’s because in my head, holidays are hot!
Dh and I are off on ‘holiday’ in a couple of weeks, first time out of the country since Covid. I can’t wait and feel like the heat combined with not working and no house hold chores will be more like a holiday.

Georgyporky · 30/10/2022 12:35

It makes me angry when I read about people "who can afford to go abroad".
After paying rip-off prices in the UK for meals & hotels , we will always prefer to go abroad - it's cheaper .

We spent more on holidays in 2021 in UK than we have ever done - including very far-flung destinations - and accommodation was of a lower standard than the equivalent *rating abroad.

Longerthanfiveweeks · 30/10/2022 12:36

Haven’t holidayed abroad by choice for a decade. Once I started holiday it in Uk I realised how much I enjoyed it and just stopped going abroad.

green82 · 30/10/2022 12:38

My DH got frustrated at me when I kept saying this year was our first proper holiday since Covid, we went to the Isle of Wight in that time but to me it wasn't a holiday? It was fun, expensive, but I don't know there's something about getting on a plane, going through security, stockpiling foreign treats I've never heard of in a supermarket that makes it a "proper" holiday for me. I guess I'd call something in the UK a break as opposed to a holiday, too much familiarity for me to feel like an adventure abroad which to me a holiday makes.

AllThingsServeTheBeam · 30/10/2022 12:40

Arayes · 30/10/2022 12:29

Do you not understand the notion of subjectivity? To YOU, it can be a proper holiday. To ME, it is not.
There is nowhere in the UK that is different enough to me to be different.

People seem very defensive about this....do you think those of us who don't want a UK holiday are judging you somehow because you do? Because I'm not, and I'm sure most are not. Why else can't you accept that people can see it differently?

Show quote history

No not at all. It's the fact you're using the words not a 'proper' holiday. It is. Regardless of whether you think so or not. I am assuming you'll never actually holiday in the UK? So what's the problem?

PurpleFlower1983 · 30/10/2022 12:42

I don’t feel like I’ve been on holiday unless I leave the UK but it’s just personal opinion. Still like a break in the UK too.

OrangePumpkinLobelia · 30/10/2022 12:43

Georgyporky · 30/10/2022 12:35

It makes me angry when I read about people "who can afford to go abroad".
After paying rip-off prices in the UK for meals & hotels , we will always prefer to go abroad - it's cheaper .

We spent more on holidays in 2021 in UK than we have ever done - including very far-flung destinations - and accommodation was of a lower standard than the equivalent *rating abroad.

Tnis is very very true. We were looking at an AI abroad this summer and for 2 adults 2 Dcs we could do a week including flights for £1700. I could not find anything comparable in the classic sort of UK seaside destinations.

Arayes · 30/10/2022 12:45

AllThingsServeTheBeam · 30/10/2022 12:40

No not at all. It's the fact you're using the words not a 'proper' holiday. It is. Regardless of whether you think so or not. I am assuming you'll never actually holiday in the UK? So what's the problem?

Show quote history

Sigh. Not sure what you are not understanding.
I, like most people, have a notion of what, for me, is a "proper" holiday. It involves travel and different places and different languages and different food and different weather.
I have visted many places in the UK, and enjoyed some of them. But I would not call them holidays. If you would, that is great and lovely. You have a different defintion to me of proper holiday. That's cool.

Now if you could just understand that there is no universal objective definition of "proper holiday" and that it is an entirely subjective concept, you migh start to get somewhere....

AllThingsServeTheBeam · 30/10/2022 12:47

Arayes · 30/10/2022 12:45

Sigh. Not sure what you are not understanding.
I, like most people, have a notion of what, for me, is a "proper" holiday. It involves travel and different places and different languages and different food and different weather.
I have visted many places in the UK, and enjoyed some of them. But I would not call them holidays. If you would, that is great and lovely. You have a different defintion to me of proper holiday. That's cool.

Now if you could just understand that there is no universal objective definition of "proper holiday" and that it is an entirely subjective concept, you migh start to get somewhere....

Show quote history

So, as I asked a pp, if you got back from your UK holiday and some asked you how your holiday was would you correct them and say 'oh no, I've not been on holiday'?

Abraxan · 30/10/2022 12:47

Rightly or wrongly I don't call a long weekend a holiday. It's 'just' a long weekend break.

A week in the UK is a proper holiday. I never went across as a child but had a holiday ever year. They were proper holidays.

However, personally I do tend to think of an abroad holiday as a bigger holiday, than if I'm staying in the UK. We went away for 2 weeks in Cornwall in summer 2021 but it didn't really feel like a proper holiday as such - possibly as it was busy, very expensive for what it was and with very variable weather. But that's my own mind set.

Needmorelego · 30/10/2022 12:48

@Arayes you say nowhere in UK is "different enough to be different".
So you really think a council estate in a city where the only eating out place is a chip shop and the only shop a Londis is the same as a village in the Cotswolds with a country pub a meal out and a farm shop with freshly picked veg and just layed eggs.
Yes.... exactly the same 🙄

whumpthereitis · 30/10/2022 12:48

For me a holiday is going abroad. I realize it’s different for others however.

Have been camping once. I called that a punishment. Each to their own

Ted27 · 30/10/2022 12:49

My not proper holiday views

To think a UK holiday is still a proper holiday?

AnApparitionQuipped · 30/10/2022 12:50

Ted27 · 30/10/2022 12:49

My not proper holiday views

I love taking photographs of holiday views too - yours are lovely.

Arayes · 30/10/2022 12:51

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.