“I’m A Culture Writer & I’m Convinced A Staycation Is Better Than A Trip Abroad”
If summer means one thing, it’s the annual scramble: Skyscanner clogging up your browser, half-remembered GCSE maths for exchange rates, and hours lost down an Airbnb wormhole chasing that one dream villa with the infinity pool. And look, I get the appeal, in fact, I’m freshly back from a week soaking up the Italian sun myself. But here’s my hot take: a British staycation doesn’t just rival a trip abroad, it might just top it.
No jet lag, no lost luggage, no 4am airport alarms
The most logistical reason I’ll always defend the staycation is the sheer amount of travel faff it cuts out. Abroad means the 4am alarm to catch the cheaper, earlier flight you insisted on booking three months ago to save £20. It means the mad dash through security with your liquids in a slightly-too-small bag. And, perhaps worst of all, it means that horrible moment of praying your suitcase actually makes the connection.
Then you land, jet-lagged and squinting, and lose half a day just recalibrating to a new time zone before the holiday’s even started. A staycation cuts all of that out. Realistically, the furthest you’re travelling is a train platform or a few hours up the motorway.
The most logistical reason I’ll always defend the staycation is the sheer amount of travel faff it cuts out. Realistically, the furthest you’re going is a train platform or a few hours up the motorway.
Amelia, Culture & Lifestyle Writer/Creator
The scope to be spontaneous
This is the one people underestimate most. A trip abroad requires meticulous planning – coordinating annual leave with flight times, all while booking far enough in advance to dodge the price hikes. What a staycation affords is a welcome level of spontaneity instead.
A trip abroad requires meticulous planning, while what a staycation affords is a welcome level of spontaneity instead.
Weather looking good on Thursday? Book a cottage on Tuesday, and you’re there by Friday morning. And because you’re not burning five days of leave just getting there and back, you can actually stretch your annual holiday allowance further across the year, rather than blowing it all in one August hit.
A wallet-friendly alternative
The other huge perk is that a staycation is often considerably more wallet-friendly. Let’s face it, a “cheap” flight rarely stays cheap once you’ve added checked baggage, airport transfers, travel insurance, and the inevitable currency conversion fee that quietly nibbles away at your spending money.
Then there’s the psychological trap of being abroad, which I famously fall for every time, as ‘when in Rome’ quickly becomes an all too familiar phrase. Everything feels like it needs to be an experience, so you say yes to the pricier dinner, the extra excursion, the souvenir you’ll regret by October.
A staycation doesn’t come with that same pressure. It’s not that a staycation is always cheaper, with a week in a swanky Cotswolds cottage rivalling a package holiday to Spain, but it’s far easier to control the spend when you’re not locked into flights, transfers, and a currency you don’t fully understand the value of.
The UK has so much to offer
Beyond all the logistical pulls, the UK genuinely just has so much to offer, and we’re just criminally bad at noticing it. We’ll happily save up for two weeks in Santorini but have never actually been to the Lake District, which tells you everything about our warped sense of what counts as a “proper” holiday. From Cornwall’s beaches, which I’d argue rival the Mediterranean, to the cobbled streets of Bath and Edinburgh, you don’t need a four-hour flight to get everything a European holiday offers, and more.
From Cornwall’s beaches, which I’d argue rival the Mediterranean, to the cobbled streets of Bath and Edinburgh, you don’t need a four-hour flight to get everything a European holiday offers, and more.
Whether you’re after a bougie spa hotel, a campsite near the Devon coastline, or lacing up your hiking boots in the Lake District, the UK is brimming with destinations worthy of a spot on your summer bucket list. We’ve just been conditioned to think “abroad” is a synonym for “beautiful” – when really, we’ve never bothered looking properly in our own back garden.
The destinations on my staycation bucket list
Calcot Manor & Spa, The Cotswolds
Top of my list, and where you’ll find me come August, is Calcot Manor and Spa’s treehouses.
Tucked into their 220-acre rewilded Cotswold estate near Tetbury, these aren’t the rickety, plank-and-rope treehouses of childhood. Think two bedrooms, a private sauna on your own deck, and a woodburner for when the Gloucestershire weather inevitably turns.
Add unlimited access to the spa, pool and fireside tub, and you’ve got a stay that arguably beats a boutique European retreat, minus the flight, the transfer, and the jet lag.
Where: Gloucestershire, Tetbury GL8 8YJ
Website: www.calcot.com
Edinburgh
Next up: Edinburgh during the Fringe is truly hard to beat. There’s genuinely nowhere else in the UK that matches the sheer, albeit slightly unhinged, energy of the city every August.
The month-long festival sees the Royal Mile turn into one huge, chaotic parade of flyering comedians, actors and street performers. When you need a break from the madness, the city itself also does a lot of heavy lifting. Between Edinburgh Castle looming over everything, Arthur’s Seat for a hike, and the Old Town’s cobbled closes and wynds that feel just as atmospheric as some of Europe’s most Instagrammed cities.
There’s genuinely nowhere else in the UK that matches the sheer, albeit slightly unhinged, energy of the city every August.
Bath
Now perhaps I am slightly biased with this one, having grown up near the city, but I’d make a serious case for Bath being the most picturesque city in the UK, well-worthy of a staycation visit.
Between the Roman Baths sitting right in the city centre, the sweeping Royal Crescent, and more Bridgerton filming locations than you can shake a stick at, the city is brimming with things to do.
Add in some very good tea rooms, a properly walkable centre, and the fact that it’s under two hours from London by train, and you’ve got a weekend that feels like a mini European city break without the passport queue.
Hyll Hotel, The Cotswolds
Another one I’ve got my eye on is Hyll, a 14th-century Manor House hotel tucked into the Cotswold countryside near Chipping Campden.
Think a well-stocked bar, deep, unbothered sleep, and 26 rooms, no two the same, some tucked into the original Manor House and others looking straight out over the hills. The menus shift with the seasons and lean on local, seasonal produce, so dinner feels less like a hotel restaurant and more like someone’s very good dinner party.
It’s the kind of place built for people who spend most of life switched on and available, and that’s precisely the fantasy it’s selling: a weekend where every decision has already been made for you, and the only real task is curling up with a book and staying put.
Where: The Cotswolds, Charingworth, Chipping Campden GL55 6NS
Website: www.hyllhotel.com
The Scarlet, Cornwall
And then there’s Scarlet. Perched on the clifftops above Mawgan Porth in Cornwall, it combines the joys of a beach staycation with a heavy dose of luxury.
It’s adults-only, eco-minded, and every room looks straight out at the sea, so you spend most of your stay just staring at the Atlantic like it’s the most interesting thing you’ve ever seen. The spa is the whole reason to book: think clifftop hot tubs, a reed-filtered natural pool, and the sound of waves crashing below while you make full use of the spa facilities.
The food’s brilliant too. Think seasonal dishes that change weekly, rather than a menu that never moves. It’s the closest thing the UK has to a Mediterranean clifftop escape, and making my return is at the top of my staycation bucket list.
Where: The Scarlet Hotel, Tredragon Rd, Mawgan Porth, Newquay TR8 4DQ
Website: www.scarlethotel.com
