Study Reveals The Nation's Favourite UK Staycation Hotspots

19th July 2018

For this week's blog, we thought we'd go all scientific and share a study showing the UK's favourite staycation hotspots! Did Newquay make it somewhere on that list?! Well if science says that Newquay is one of the nation's top holiday locations... We're not going to disagree! Keep reading to find out where Newquay fits in, and to find out more about the study. 

Study Reveals The Nation's Favourite UK Staycation Hotspots with Weather Predictions

According to the latest statistics, staycations are on the rise. Last year 47 million domestic holidays were taken in Britain, up five per cent compared to the same period in 2016, and this figure is expected to increase further in 2018.

With that in mind, caravan insurance specialist Safeguard has carried out a first of its kind social media study to reveal the nation’s favourite UK staycation hotspots.

Safeguard analysed more than 60,000 of the Great British public’s Instagram posts and combined this insight with official Met Office weather data to highlight the UK’s most popular staycation locations and their associated weather climes.

The study also reveals which destinations are predicted to be the hottest, driest, coldest and wettest to help British staycationers be prepared for their trip this summer, whatever the weather.

Top 10 Most Instragrammed Locations

The Top 10 UK Staycation Hotspots		Average Daily Temperature °C
1	Lake District	10.4
2	Peak District	10.1
3	New Forest	10.4
4	Newquay	11.8
5	Glastonbury	11.4
6	Snowdonia	9.3
7	Northumberland	9.3
8	Weymouth	11.6
9	Brighton	10.6
10	Dartmoor	11.9

The nation’s top 50 staycation hotspots are available to view here: https://www.safeguarduk.co.uk/uk-caravan-hotspots/most-instagrammed-sites/

Top 10 Hottest and Coldest Instagrammed Locations 

If you’re planning on holidaying in Brixham, be sure to pack the sun cream as this is the hottest staycation hotspot with an average daily temperature of 16.9°C. However, if you’re off to Fort William, you’ll need to pack your thermals as temperatures reach a daily average of just 2.2°C.

The Top 10 Hottest UK Staycation Hotspots		Average Daily Temperature °C
1	Brixham, Devon	16.9
2	Paignton, Devon	16.1
3	Dartmouth, Devon	14.9
4	Torquay, Devon	14.9
5	Swanage, Dorset	14.1

To view the full top 10 hottest staycation hotspots head to: https://www.safeguarduk.co.uk/uk-caravan-hotspots/

The Top 5 Coldest UK Staycation Hotspots	Average Daily Temperature °C
Fort William, Highlands	2.2
Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire	4.7
Cairngorms, Highlands	5.8
Windermere, Cumbria	7.0
Penzance, Cornwall	7.1

To view the full top 10 coldest staycation hotspots head to: https://www.safeguarduk.co.uk/uk-caravan-hotspots/

Top 5 Wettest and Driest Instragrammed Locations 

Warmer temperatures often go hand in hand with humidity and rainfall and, although Dartmouth is one of the warmest places to visit, it is also the UK’s wettest staycation hotspot, with average daily rainfall of 2.88mm. However, if you are planning a staycation to Skegness, you can leave the pac-a-mac at home as the average daily rainfall is just 0.20mm.

The Top 5 Wettest UK Staycation Hotspots	Average Daily Rainfall mm
Dartmouth, Devon	2.88
Southend, Essex	2.63
Windsor, Berkshire	2.44
Bedford, Bedforshire	2.39
Selsey, Chichester	2.35

To view the full top 10 wettest staycation hotspots head to: https://www.safeguarduk.co.uk/uk-caravan-hotspots/

The Top 5 Driest UK Staycation Hotspots	Average Daily Rainfall mm
Skegness, Lincolnshire	0.20
Richmond, London	0.21
Bridlington, Yorkshire	0.21
Prestatyn, Wales	0.25
Ilfracombe, Devon	0.26

To view the full top 10 direst staycation hotspots head to: https://www.safeguarduk.co.uk/uk-caravan-hotspots/

View the Safeguard infographic staycation weather maps here: https://www.safeguarduk.co.uk/uk-caravan-hotspots/ and the top 50 staycation hotspots here: https://www.safeguarduk.co.uk/uk-caravan-hotspots/most-instagrammed-sites/

The Methodology

Extraction of over 60,000 Instagram posts around ‘staycation’ theme via Crimson Hexagon to provide results representative of UK population which were filtered to maximise the quantity of legitimate posts, to highlight the most instagrammed staycation locations from the Great British public.

Bespoke social listening data was combined with UK weather data over last 5 years from the Met Office https://www.metoffice.gov.uk to identify weather trends which was aggregated into an overall, average figure for a variety of weather metrics to include: temperature, precipitation, wind speed and visibility.

For more information, please visit: https://www.safeguarduk.co.uk/

Well, there you have it! Newquay came in 4th for the UK's most Instagrammed locations, alongside the Lake District, the Peak District and New Forest! We'll take that.