What are holidays like for British people?

In the UK, summer comes and goes, and furthermore, it sometimes doesn’t come at all! The weather in the UK cannot be counted on at all because it is so unstable and because of this, there is a saying in the UK that says: “the four seasons in one day”. This basically means that rain, wind, sun and cloudy skies can all appear in the space of a few hours on the same day. Summer can last a week or 5 weeks, no one ever knows, so as you can imagine, the safest bet is to go to Spain, the south of France or Florida. These three holiday destinations are very popular with British people, above all because of the stable weather and nice beaches.

Culturally speaking, British people usually take their holidays throughout the year, having two weeks off in summer, one week or two weeks off at Christmas and another week around Easter time. Imagine if British people worked from September to July, like many Spanish people do, and it rained all through August!

Summer holidays for British people usually mean three things: hotel, beach and sea. For many people, this is exactly what their holidays consist of. There is hardly any interest in seeing any local cultural delights, just a complete rest from the rat race back home. Getting a tan is important since in the UK it is not possible, therefore, British people like to go back home with “a nice colour” as some people say. It does not matter if that colour is a crab-like red or a coffee-like brown, there must be a change from the pale white or as my mother says, “the light grey”.

Many of my Spanish friends ask me about this regarding the red colour that many British people have when their holidays finish. This is due to the near obsession of “getting a tan”, as most British people say, before they go back home. As well as that, there are some people who actually think that using a high factor sun cream can spoil their chances of getting a good tan before they go home, and as you have already seen above, that is quite simply out of the question. Getting a good suntan is very important to many British people.


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16 thoughts on “What are holidays like for British people?

    • Je je María Luisa, para que se te vaya pegando el acento te ayudarán mucho los podcasts.. que ya están en camino. Saludos.

  1. Voy viendo vuestros posts, y algunos más interesantes que otros, pero en general me gustan mucho. Aparte de expresiones, idioms y demás (q son con los que más aprendo) tb me parecen muy interesantes estos sobre cultura/costumbres británicas. Gracias.

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