Staycation Holiday Benefits: Why UK Holidays Are Very Appealing

Overseas holidays can be a tiring experience - more stress than relaxation. That’s hardly surprising as, while changes to your environment can be refreshing, coping with the myriad of tiny adjustments we have to make to our lifestyles to travel further afield is endless.

Here are twelve staycation holiday benefits: compelling reasons why self-catering holidays in the UK offer a more relaxing alternative to gite and villa holidays on the continent.

1. If things go badly wrong – you don’t have to rely upon the British Consulate to come to your assistance or struggle with translation when informing a property owner that they need to call a plumber straight away and that whatever happened wasn’t your fault.

The Old Apple Store on the North Devon Coast near Ilfracombe

2. Suntan preservation: Have you noticed how quickly that hard-won suntan fades almost overnight? This is something to do with arriving home completely shattered after-hours, tucked into an economy seat and standing in line in Arrivals. Indeed, arriving at work on your first day back looking tired, worn and paler than planned will earn you scant sympathy from your colleagues. So why not go somewhere where the better part of the day you travel home can be spent on holiday activities? After that, it’s just an undemanding drive, and you can still be home in time for The One Show.

3. Pre-Booking: It’s so much easier to pre-book tables at restaurants and tickets for shows before you leave home when holidaying in the UK holiday.

4. Lost property: If you’re like me, leaving something behind is commonplace. Securing the recovery of lost property from a UK holiday cottage owner is much easier and less expensive than from abroad.

5. Technology: Appliance instructions (and operating panels) are all in English. Think about that the next time you try to manually reset your Turkish or Hungarian air conditioning system or make sure you’ve selected the woollen wash.

6. Groceries: Have you ever tried pre-ordering supermarket groceries for your villa holiday in Sharm El Sheikh? Knowing that Sainsbury’s or one of the other supermarkets will be following you up the drive of your holiday cottage with your groceries is very comforting.

7. 4-Seasons Reasons: People holiday all year round in the UK. Therefore, it’s common for shops, restaurants, bars, tearooms, and even attractions to remain open out of season.

8. Short breaks are more viable. You spend far more time on holiday rather than travelling to and from it. I recall a particular ‘weekend’ in Paris. With departure times and delays, we arrived at our accommodation long after bedtime. We had one day in the city and then an early night, so we could be ready to leave at six on a Sunday morning for the flight home. Three days’ away’ led to about twelve hours of holidaying. Never again! Reason 2 also applied.

9. Card Payments: You don’t run up a substantial interest-charging debt on your credit card account. Well, you could, but paying by Debit card is much cheaper in the UK.

10. Travel insurance fees won’t knock a large hole in your holiday budget.

Rural views at Isacc’s Byre, A gorgeously warm, cosy and pet-friendly Pennine holiday cottage in Cumbria

11. It’s Pet-Friendlier: Taking the dog is easy

12. Highway Codes: In the UK, it is straightforward and perfectly acceptable to drive on the left on holiday!

Bonus Benefit: Climate-Friendly: Here’s a bonus money and climate-saving reason to stay in the UK rather than fly abroad: If you are concerned about your journey's impact on global warming and plan to offset your travel carbon contribution, consider these savings.

·      Bristol to Barcelona by short-haul flight: £18.64 (per person).

·      Bristol to Bude in Cornwall: £2.68 (one car)

That’ll cover the cost of many ice creams you can lick in Cornwall!

Data from the Travel cost calculator at https://onboard.earth/)