Comment: Staycation, staycation, staycation as Brits holiday at home

Oh, we do like to be beside the seaside - particularly during a pandemic.

Newspapers have repeatedly informed us that Devon and Cornwall are full, with pictures of packed beaches and crowded coastal campsites as proof.

According to Expedia, 74 per cent of British travellers want to explore the UK more this summer – though for many it will be because they don’t want to risk a quarantine stint when they return from abroad rather than a fondness for eating fish and chips behind a windbreak.

There’s nothing like the threat of two weeks under house arrest and/or an enforced return home to make the likes of Spain a lot less appealing.

Expedia’s list of the most popular UK destinations for Brits during July was topped by London, followed by Devon, the Lake District and Cumbria, North Cornwall and North Wales.

No sign of Scarborough, our chosen holiday hotspot for this summer.

Admittedly, t’east coast wasn’t our first choice destination, and we trawled through some deeply depressing Dorset, Devon and Kent options before we settled on the Yorkshire seaside.

Because as lovely as a week in a caravan on the south coast sounds, I’d rather not pay well in excess of £1,000 for that particular privilege, and that was the kind of inflated price I was finding for what by late July was all that was left.

As with most things property-related, the north offers better VFM, and we found a smart, spacious house to rent for the same price as a tired, tiny cabin in Kent.

Apparently Expedia has seen a 50 per cent increase in interest in its Yorkshire coast destinations, proving we’ve not been the only ones looking north.

After an earlier foreign holiday was cancelled due to COVID, and a flight operator took three months to cough up our cash, we wanted some certainty.

You know where you stand with staycations - with the obvious exception of the weather.