The go-slow Easter getaway did not bode well for those planning an overseas summer holiday at one of the traditional European hotspots. Around 20,000 coach passengers hoping to leave Dover for France over the first weekend of the school holidays faced delays of twelve hours or more due to enhanced post-Brexit passport checks. And then there were the cars, gridlocked in queues stretching back for miles, with tetchy parents and disgruntled children wondering if they would ever see French soil. The channel-crossing situation doesn’t look like improving any time soon, and it works both ways. Many schools in France have stopped making trips to the UK because of increased bureaucracy since Britain left the EU, with visitors now needing a passport when previously a national ID card was sufficient. UK travellers, though, face additional summer stress factors.

There’s the ongoing problems with issue of new passports, the fear of budget airlines failing, flight cancellations, increased package holiday prices, and, of course, the ever-growing cost-of-living crisis. There’s no doubt that a holiday abroad can not only top up the tan but also provide much needed rest. But if travelling abroad is a budget buster, then what’s the alternative? Well, the Sun newspaper recently ran an article on British resorts that look like they’re abroad: holiday hotspots like Barafundle Bay in Pembrokeshire, Summerleaze Beach in Cornwall, and the Isle of Mull in the Inner Hebrides. Ministers, too, frequently suggest UK staycations – but countering that advice is the fact that, according to Environmental Agency statistics, sewage was dumped no less than 141,777 times across 137 constituencies on the coasts of England and Wales last year. Not exactly a ringing endorsement for taking the plunge or even dipping a toe in the water.