For some, the festive period is a time to stay home, get the family together, cook up a Christmas feast and keep things traditional. But for those who’d prefer to spend the holiday not asleep in front of The Great Escape in a turkey-induced coma, the season offers a chance to go abroad and experience Christmas a different way.
But which destinations make the best yuletide breaks for us Brits? And how do we like our weather? We’ll answer these questions, along with a stockings’ worth of others over the course of our study below-ho-ho.
How we went about our study
To unwrap their thoughts and feeling about going abroad during the festive period, we surveyed a sample of the British public, asking them questions that ranged from destination information and weather preferences to understanding what percentage of Brits want to spend Christmas in the UK rather than going abroad – as well as a lot more. Here’s what we found.
Brits Abroad: Christmas & NYE Preferences
The lure of the festive period still has plenty of sway it seems. A massive 76.7% of Brits said that they’d prefer to stay in the UK rather than go abroad for Christmas. New Year’s Eve fared slightly better in comparison, with 62.1% saying they’d prefer to stay home.
The promise of winter sun proved to be too strong to resist for 45% of our participants, sharing the top spot with ‘trying something different at Christmas’ as the joint number one reason for Crimbo abroad. A lot of the other most popular reasons were pretty similar too, with ‘getting away’ (41%), ‘de-stressing’ (37%) and ‘for a change of scenery’ (36%).
As for reasons to stay put, the number one spot was due to our participants wanting to see their family at Christmas – 64%, in fact. Elsewhere, 52% said they’d choose Christmas at home over going abroad simply because it’s ‘tradition’, while 49% admitted that they just enjoyed the UK during the festive season too much.
Remaining in the UK doesn’t mean having to stay at home. Nevertheless, Christmas-at-home still won out as the preferred location, with 66.3% of the vote. 17.2% said they’d prefer a UK-based staycation meanwhile, showing that for Brits staying put, the majority of us are very much homebodies.
Christmas & New Year 2023: How are People Spending It?
As for this year’s celebrations, 7 in 10 of our participants said they’ll be staying at home. 15.9% said they’ve made plans with family and friends, while just 5.8% have booked a getaway abroad.
New Year’s Eve was less popular than Christmas for going abroad; a whopping 94.7% said they would not be travelling to a different country to ring in 2024! A small contingent of 5.3%, however, would nevertheless still be leaving the UK for the celebrations.
How Far Would Brits Travel to be with Loved Ones at Christmas?
Clearly, us Brits love spending Christmas with those we love. But how far would they be willing to travel to be in their company? The heart-warming news is that 29.3% said they’d go to the ends of the Earth for them, while just over a quarter revealed they’d travel anywhere within the UK to see their loved ones. Over 1 in 10 said they’d travel to be with their loved ones, but only if it was within the same region.
Things get slightly more Grinch-like the further down the results you go, with 6.2% saying they wouldn’t travel to see friends or family at all! Humbug!
The Ideal Christmas Abroad: According to Brits
Everyone has their own requirements for the perfect Christmas, and our participants are no different. What’s more surprising is that, even if they went abroad for Christmas, 45.5% of them would still prefer cold weather – a fairly close split when it comes to 54.5% who’d prefer hot temperatures.
As for the type of trip, 36.6% wanted a beach holiday (we like their style), while 27% preferred a city break for their Christmas abroad. 10.1%, meanwhile, said they’d book a Christmas cruise to celebrate on.
A huge part of the festive season is, of course, the delicious food we feast on. And it seems that the classics are still too tasty to resist; 51.7% of our participants would still prefer a traditional Christmas dinner while they were abroad!
As for where they’d head off to, New York was the more popularly searched-for Christmas destination, with an average monthly search volume of 680, while Tenerife was the second most popular place in terms of monthly search volume (350). And of course, you can’t get any more festive than Lapland, so it’s no surprise that it’s the third most search-for destination by volume (310).
The rest of the Canary Islands proved a hit as well – two other destinations in the region made it into our top ten: Lanzarote (130) and Gran Canaria (120).
Brits’ Abroad Experiences & More
So what can we learn about our participants’ previous experiences?
More than 3 in 10 Brits have been abroad for Christmas. We’re happy to report that of these, the vast majority (88.4%) said they would do it again.
While the majority of participants (68.3%) said they haven’t been abroad during Christmas, 61.3% of these said that’d consider it – so there’s still very much hope for a festive holiday.
More surprising is the fact that almost 7 in 10 have never experienced a Christmas market abroad, although most of them would consider or like to give them a go.
As for New Year’s Eve abroad, almost 3 in 10 said they have spent it abroad, and 87.2% of them would, in fact, do it again!
Do Christmas Abroad Opinions Change by Region or Generation?
It seems that geography has no bearing on Christmas abroad. Overall, people across all UK regions would prefer to remain in the UK over the festive period, though there’s generally a trend that more Brits would prefer to go abroad for New Year’s compared to Christmas.
It’s the East of England that had the highest percentage of people wanting to stay home for both Christmas and New Year’s Ever, with 89.5% and 76.3% respectively.
Northern Ireland were the keenest to get away (46.2%) for Christmas, followed by the North East at 43.5%. Northern Ireland was also the region wanting a NYE getaway too.
When it came to preferences across the generation, this category also had little influence too; the majority of people across generations would still prefer to be in the UK for Christmas. That said, older generations, like Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation, are more optimistic about the idea compared to younger generations.
As for New Year’s Eve, Gen Z are more open to the idea of spending it abroad (51.2%), followed by Millennials (46.8%). In fact, it’s the younger generations who seem to prefer the idea of NYE abroad, especially compared to Christmas.
So there you have it, that’s what us Brits would prefer to do when it comes to holidaying at Christmas. Wherever you are and whatever you do, we hope you have a fantastic festive season, and if you are looking to sail away, be sure to check out our amazing cruise deals to all kinds of incredible destinations around the world here.