The rise in staycations and why they beat taking a flight

For a long time staying in the UK for your holiday felt like settling for less. A fortnight in Crete was the standard, a Tuscan villa the upgrade, and the British weekend was the consolation prize for the year you couldn't quite afford to go abroad.

But that's changed, and it isn't about the weather (which is an unpredictable as ever) or the airports or the cost of fuel, though all of those probably have a part to play. It's about a deeper shift in what people are actually looking for from a holiday.

Increasingly, we want less. The same luxury, but less travel, less time spent moving from one place to another. Less paperwork, less of the slightly wired feeling of being eight time zones from home. More of the actual being-on-holiday bit, and less of the getting to and from holiday bit.

Here's why we think UK staycations are going to keep winning.

The hidden cost of the airport

The thing the airport costs you isn't about the money. It's the time.

Two hours getting to the airport. Two hours at it. Three or four hours flying. Another hour or two on the other side. By the time you arrive at your hotel, you've lost most of a day to logistics, you're probably dehydrated and definitely low on energy.

But a cabin in the Cotswolds, a shepherd hut in Norfolk, a cottage in Cornwall: the journey takes a couple of hours and, with snacks, a playlist and comfy chair, it feels like part of the holiday. You arrive with energy left and the first night counts.

What the UK does well now

Twenty years ago the British holiday meant a B&B with a draughty bathroom. That isn't the offer anymore.

The independent UK hospitality scene has become extraordinary. Shepherd huts with wood burners, off grid cabins, boutique stays where every detail has been considered, sauna and cold plunge spaces in the middle of a field or enveloped by trees. Endless cute cafes and restaurants in the kind of small town spots that could match anywhere in Europe, and the Great British pub that really isn’t properly replicated anywhere but here.

The country that used to be a fallback option has become a destination. A cottage in the Lake District, a hut on the Norfolk coast, a cabin in Devon. For a lot of what people are now looking for (quiet, slowness, weather, the smell of wood smoke, a real bath) they are the better holidays.

About the environment

It's also true that flying is, by a wide margin, the most carbon intensive thing most of us do. A return short haul flight from London emits more CO2 than most people's monthly footprint from everything else combined. A long haul flight exceeds a year of everything else.

Most people don't want to think about this on holiday, and there’s so many things to consider in modern life, but this is one the widest spread benefits of the slow re-emergence of UK travel. Holidaying closer to home is the largest single change we can make without giving up much of anything we actually want.

What staycations give you that flights can't

A few things, in no particular order:

• The dog can come. A huge thing for some.

• No language to negotiate. The holiday where you don't have to translate every menu is more restful by default.

• The weather is the weather. A bit of rain is part of the experience instead of a ruined fortnight.

• You can drive home if something goes wrong. This ease can be a huge plus for some.

• The food is yours. No three day stomach adjustment to unfamiliar water and cuisine.

• The wildness is intact. People underestimate the UK's countryside until they stop comparing it to elsewhere. The South West Coast Path, the moors of Yorkshire or the woods of the Wye Valley: the UK is home to world class landscapes.

What changes in the next ten years

Short haul holidays won’t disappear, as sometimes nothing compares to stepping on new soil, but they’ll continue to shrink. The two week European villa stays and week long city breaks are getting rarer. Whats growing is the frequent short stay: six or seven 2 to 4 night UK trips a year, instead of one big international one.

This is good news for everyone in UK hospitality. The market isn't getting smaller. It's getting more frequent, more discerning and more interested in what makes a stay specific and unique.

For the brands and operators we work with at Stamped, this is the long tailwind underneath everything else. The audience and the appetite is here.

The real reason we love them

Underneath the practical arguments, there's a feeling staycations have that long haul holidays don't. You haven't run away to escape your life. You've usually gotten closer to nature, and leaned more deeply into the country you already live in.

There's something restorative about the sense that the rest you need is around you, not 2,000 miles away. The recognition that the British weekend, done properly, is really good for you.

Cheaper, slower, kinder to the planet, easier to repeat. A quiet revolution.

Stamped is a UK marketing team working with nature-led brands, short term rentals and hospitality businesses across the country. If you run a UK stay and want to be part of this growing audience, we'd love to chat.

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