Why a Staycation is the best idea...

I've always been someone who enjoys the excitement of a holiday abroad. The packing of your summer clothes, the chaos of booking hotels, travel and transfers. The buzz that you feel when you’re waiting in the airport. But I have to say I seem to be quite unlucky for attracting holiday drama…. There was something exciting about the thought of a Train Journey from the UK to Italy. Breakfast in London, lunch in Paris and dinner in Milan is how it was advertised. This trip, however, was possibly one of the most dramatic family holidays that ever happened. Before we even embarked on our journey my mum nearly broke her hip! It was a stormy August day with torrential rain, as my mum was running in from the car she slipped on our porch and landed straight on her newly operated hip, black and blue from head to toe. Not the best start to the holiday. We then nearly lost my sister on the French metro as she unknowingly stepped onto the wrong tube which closed its doors and made a swift move away from the platform, where the vision of my father, mother and myself running after it and waving it down occurred. Normally I would be up for leaving her on the tube but she was much smaller back then.

Once we had made it across Paris from the Gare De Norde station to the Gare De Lyon we loaded ourselves onto the next train to Milan. As we settled down into our seats, the excitement started to build up knowing that in just 9 hours we would have travelled across France through Switzerland and into Italy, at last our holiday could begin. Now, all we had to do was sit back and relax. The excitement was short lived. Our train was frisked and searched, a suitcase was stolen, a woman needed ‘medical assistance’ so the train came to an emergency stop delaying us for 3 hours. This, however, seemed to be a rouse for a bag to be stolen as when an ambulance was called she refused to get off the train and then there was a sudden appearance of very attractive Swiss guards that embarked on the train. My Dad looks like Phil Mitchell from Eastenders, which often draws unwanted attention especially in this case, where he became a suspect in the suitcase theft. Eventually, we arrived in Milan for dinner, though because we were delayed by about 3 hours everywhere in Milan for dinner had closed. The glamorous ‘dinner in Milan’ consisted of a packet of ready salted crisps at the bar of our hotel and tequila shots to drown our holiday sorrows.

The next day was our final train journey to Naples where we would catch a Taxi to beautiful Amalfi Coast in Italy. Once we arrived in Naples and hopped into our taxi we felt a sigh of relief, what could go wrong now? Why oh why did we jinx our holiday. Believe it or not, the next encounter we had was a fire in the mountains which obstructed our entry into the town where we were staying. And that wasn’t even everything. On the way, back home our train never arrived in Naples, the guards shovelled us onto the bus where we had to endure a bumpy, hot ride to the nearest station. Then when we arrived in Paris there was no hotel room… We were exhausted, cold from the air-conditioned train and very very ‘hangry’. And the award for the most eventful holiday travels was definitely awarded to my family.

Maybe a staycation would be better for future holidays?

The beauty of a staycation is there are so many beautiful hotspots in the UK that we take for granted every day. We often feel that holidaying in the UK just isn’t glamorous. But I have to say some of the most memorable holidays and possibly the most loved holidays have been in the UK. For starters there is minimal stress, there’s no need for a passport, most of the items you would need are already in your holiday home, so no need to pay for a suitcase and the best part is you don’t lose out on exchanging money or have extortionate credit card charges for using your card abroad in those emergency moments where you didn’t quite budget enough. One of the best staycations I had was in Wales, we had everything on our doorstep. We were tucked away at the bottom of a valley. There was a lake with water sports activities, forest walks, the most breath-taking views, and the best food you could possibly imagine, which meant no couple disputes on where the other person wanted to eat. It was the most relaxing holiday I’ve ever been on. A Staycation is a perfect way to have frequent trips away with minimal stress. It is your opportunity to bring more members of the family together, escape busy city life and your hectic commute to work. In a drop of a hat, you could disappear for the weekend. That is the beauty of a staycation. It is one of the reasons a Static Caravan has become a popular purchase in recent years. Don’t get me wrong, warmer weather is sometimes desperately needed when you live in the UK, but equally more frequent trips away to escape reality would please me more. If you’ve had enough of the stress of going abroad, the long queues at border control which are only likely to get worse. Consider a lifelong staycation in the comfort of a new, modern Static Caravan