The British staycation was born of necessity: the 2008 financial crisis emptied the holiday budgets of millions of families, the pound collapsed against the euro (€1.02 in December 2008, the weakest exchange rate in the history of the single currency), and the British seaside, the fish and chips, the bucket and spade, and the rain, was rediscovered by a generation that had grown up believing that a holiday meant a flight. The staycation was supposed to be a temporary phenomenon, a few summers of belt-tightening, and the package holiday to Spain would return. It did not. The British holiday at home, the cottage in the Cotswolds, the camping in Cornwall, the city break in Edinburgh, has become a permanent feature of the travel landscape, and the reasons are not economic but emotional: the discovery that the UK, explored properly, is one of the most beautiful, varied, and rewarding holiday destinations in the world. Here is why the British staycation is here to stay.

Why the UK Staycation Endures

• The landscape, surprisingly beautiful, unexpectedly empty: Britain is a small country (93,628 km², smaller than Italy, Germany, or France) and a crowded one (279 people per km², one of the highest population densities in Europe). And yet: the landscape is surprisingly empty. The Cairngorms (the largest national park in the UK, 4,528 km² of mountains, forests, and lochs, and the population is fewer than 20,000, the density of the Scottish Highlands, vast and sparsely populated), the Northumberland coast (the empty beaches, the castles, Bamburgh, Dunstanburgh, Alnwick, and the sense of a landscape that has not been discovered by the crowds), and the wild parts of Wales (the Cambrian Mountains, the “Green Desert of Wales,” the empty hills, the red kites, and the silence that is the most beautiful sound in the country). The essential discovery of the staycation era: the UK is not crowded, the hot spots (the Lake District in August, Cornwall in July) are crowded, and the rest of the country, the Shropshire Hills, the Galloway Forest, and the Pembrokeshire coast in September, is quiet, beautiful, and waiting. More UK →
• The accommodation revolution, the cottage, the cabin, and the treehouse: The British holiday rental market has been transformed in the last decade: the cottage (the stone, the fireplace, and the Aga, the classic British holiday rental. The National Trust cottages, the lighthouse keeper’s cottages, the farmhouses, and the most beautiful and unusual rentals in the UK. From ~£400/week), the cabin (the shepherd’s hut, the log cabin, and the tiny house, the movement that has made the small, the simple, and the beautiful the most desirable of the British holiday rentals. Canopy & Stars, the curated selection, the treehouses, the cabins, and the most beautiful places to sleep in the UK. From ~£100/night), and the glamping (the yurt, the safari tent, and the geo-dome, the camping that is comfortable, warm, and dry. The essential glamping sites: the Yurt Retreat in Somerset, the Wild Luxury sites in Norfolk and Suffolk, and the Kudhva in Cornwall, the architectural cabins on the Cornish coast, the Scandinavian design, and the most beautiful glamping in Britain)
• The food, better than you remember: The British food revolution, the gastropubs, the farmers’ markets, and the local produce, has transformed the food of the staycation. The pub lunch (the seasonal menu, the local ales, and the view of the village green, the essential British holiday experience. The Michelin-starred gastropub, the Hand and Flowers in Marlow, Tom Kerridge’s two-star pub, the most famous gastropub in the UK, is the exception; the rule is the village pub with the good beer, the fresh fish, and the sense that the food is better than it needs to be), the seaside seafood (the crab of Cromer, the oysters of Whitstable, the lobster of the Northumberland coast, and the fish that was landed this morning), and the farmers’ market (the cheese, the bread, and the sausage, the taste of the region, the face of the farmer, and the sense of a food culture that has grown up around the staycation and is now better than the food of European package resorts)