Surely holidaying in your own country is admitting defeat? It’s a sign that you’re not adventurous enough to venture beyond your comfort zone. Or does it signal that you’re an avant-garde traveller who’s prepared to spend time exploring places most people overlook?

London correspondent for Forbes Travel Guide, Jo Caird, says there is plenty to be gained from staying on home turf, while Oliver Smith, senior features writer at Lonely Planet Traveller Magazine, thinks staycations don’t count as a holiday

Home bird, Jo Caird

“It’s hard not to sound apologetic when the answer to the question, ‘Off anywhere nice?’ isn’t Thailand or Tokyo, but Whitby or Winchester. We’re so used to ticking exotic locations off our bucket lists, it’s tempting to regard holidays closer to home as lesser experiences. Yet what staycations lack in perceived glamour they more than make up for in convenience.

Why stress out with international plug adaptors and foreign currency when there’s so much to do in your own backyard? If you’re a foodie, for example, you can eschew restaurant roulette by opting for eateries reviewed by critics or bloggers you trust. And ordering is easier when deciphering the menu doesn’t mean reaching for Google Translate. 

In fact, all interactions are less complicated when you understand the language and local customs. From asking for directions to chatting someone up, you’re already a pro.

And just because a holiday is easy, doesn’t mean it can’t be exciting and fulfilling. A staycation is a chance to get to know cities, landscapes and heritage sites you never get round to visiting, despite them being on your doorstep.

A staycation offers the ideal excuse to take time out from the business of everyday life and appreciate the things you read about in guidebooks. It’s all about attitude. Treat a local jaunt with the same mindset as you would an exotic foreign trip and you’ll find it just as eye-opening. As that consummate traveller Dorothy once put it, ‘There’s no place like home’.”

Jet-setter, Oliver Smith

“About once a month throughout my childhood, my dad would spring to his feet and, in a eureka moment say, ‘Hey – why don’t we go camping this weekend?’

Soon we’d be following tractor tailbacks on B-roads to an East Anglian county. We would walk along the beach in a freezing gale, or build a sandcastle, only for someone’s dog to trample through the moat. Nights were spent in a leaky tent that practised its own form of water torture.

England is a beautiful country. But whenever I’m holidaying abroad the entire experience seems heightened in comparison. Humdrum things take on an exotic magic; ordering a cappuccino in limited schoolboy French gives you a sense of subtle pride. Even motorway service stations are temples of intrigue: a treasure trove of chocolate bars with excellent names (Fart in Poland, Plopp in Sweden).

Holidaying abroad represents a cleaner break from everyday life, too. There’s a satisfaction in knowing that (at least) 20 miles of English Channel separate you from accumulating work emails and pestering phone calls.

The further you venture from your front door, the more richly rewarding travel becomes. For example: the game of Russian roulette every time your order from an indecipherable restaurant menu, or the adventure of retrieving a martyred UK debit card from a foreign bank machine.

Whether you’re a Brit travelling abroad or an adventurer coming to explore British shores, embrace the fact that you’re not having a staycation and enjoy an adventure instead. Even if this means waking up buried under tent poles, with your airbed floating atop a few inches of rainwater.”

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This article has been tagged Opinion, Travel Tips