When I use the word “debate” in this post’s title which is about to explain the difference between a vacation and a staycation I’m using it incorrectly. There is no debate. There is my explanation and there are people who don’t accept that fact and who are wrong.
An argument was put forward to me on Twitter that a holiday in your own country was a staycation. This is wrong. A holiday of any description is a vacation. The word comes from Latin roots and it means to leave empty. When you leave your home empty you have vacated it and are on vacation. This clearly means for a period of time and that’s taken to be at least overnight where the purpose of the vacation is to relax and enjoy some other place. A business trip with a hotel stay is not a vacation. Going down the road to the shops is not a vacation. Don’t be silly and try to come up with ridiculous whataboutery that doesn’t pass the common sense test.
A vacation might be short and it might be long, it might be near and it might be far away, and we don’t always call it a vacation when other terms are in common usage such as “weekend breaks” or “long weekend” or “city getaway” or “break in the country”, but it’s the same thing. If you can call it one of those things or, if you’re British, if you can use the word “holiday” in there somewhere – a beach holiday or a country park holiday or a caravan holiday, for instance – then it’s a vacation. Your home is empty; you are not there; you are somewhere else for pleasure.
A staycation is where you travel to enjoy some pleasurable activity but ultimately the place where you’re staying is at home. It’s to encourage the feeling of going somewhere nice and supporting the tourist industry but you’ve got to make your own breakfast in your own home the next day. You are not leaving your house vacant while you stay somewhere else. A day at the beach is a staycation for someone who has to travel to that location but then returns home. A day-trip to see some castles might be a history staycation. A drive up to London for a day in the city checking out some tourist hot-spots is synonymous with a staycation even if we’d never call it that.
In 1983 a film was released about a family that travelled for days, staying in motels, doing some sightseeing, and doing it all in their own country. It was not called…
Again, not a debate. There is nothing to argue with here. Mark is right. Mark is always right.
Thank you for listening.