To be shocked at the cost of holidays?

So we go on two holidays a year. We book everything separately and do bed and breakfast at most, no resorts or all inclusives.

I agree with this
We have been abroad every year sometimes twice a year plus UK holidays too, but our house is semi detached , quite basic and we drive brand new but basic model cars.
We don’t “keep up with the jones “ in that we only have one bath room in our house whilst others strive for the new build with three bathrooms , also we do not drive range rovers or Audi etc.
Our house manages fine with what we have and we have a car each
We know families that have the “ new build “ dream and a fancy 4x 4 but have to share the car so can’t do their own thing :/ hobbies and also are so tied to a huge mortgage that they have no life .
Holidays are great experiences and are things we remember as youngsters so we try to provide these for our kids .
So similar holiday spending to @simpledeer but we do like wine lol 😂

Eurocamps are a great option. We are going to a Eurocamp in May half term and for flights and 8 days we’ve paid around £2.2k. In comparison package holidays were all coming out £3k plus for one week self catering in generally basic accommodation.

Another thing to look at is flying from Scotland. They have different school holidays to us so if you fly towards the end of the summer holidays or in the May half term it can be ££££ cheaper. We’ve flew before and found same holiday half the price than if flying from UK airport on same day.

Finally, consider non typical holiday destinations. You can often find good deals outside the typical Greece, Spain, Turkey, canaries in the summer.

It's the 3rd child, as holidays are priced on a family of 4.

and May half term is cheaper than August.

@EdithBond I do think it helps on this kind of holiday if you are all on the same page- I would be ok with your kind of holiday - my H definitely wouldn’t - he wants the very nice accommodation and eating out most nights and would rather go less but ‘reasonably ‘ high end-

God, definitely don't go to Tunisia in August unless you want to roast. May half term would be much better.

We can usually do it for about £2k with 2 pre teens- we're going to a Spanish Eurocamp in May half term and taking the train there and back- this is about £1700 in total and we'll be self catering. Last year was a bit more expensive but it was 12 days in a pricer location. I research, book and organise it all myself though (I'm really well travelled and love the planning bit).

Also try unexpected locations- we had a great week in Marseille for example. You don't need to go to a resort.

Love holidays I use religiously there prices are great

Depends where else you spend your money.
I have old car, second hand furniture, don’t really buy much in way of clothes, beauty treatments, takeaways or haircuts. Always (if asked) request luxury items of beauty care and other stuff as gifts (becuase I do love them but would not pay for them otherwise) I choose Vinted for DC clothes trends (actually they aren’t very fashion conscious and that helps). I prefer to spend money on days out and holidays. Always look for deals or second hand options before paying full price for brand new and before I buy treats, search for deals e.g cheap cinema tickets, rail card discounts for days out, last minute theatre tickets etc etc
Recommend for an affordable August Holiday, start by looking for cheap flights at any European destination and then find the accommodation. Might have to take the undesirable flight times to get a good deal (very early morning or very late at night).
We booked a eurocamp in Italy (Lakes for 10 nights under 2K, in August. Needed to add flights (but they were under 1K and would have been under 500£ if we had early departures). Also have booked an airbnb house in uk in may half term 600£for a week, last year Scotland in august £800 for beautiful large farm house with fields and fire pit etc (they go back to school mid august in Scot so cheaper to book).
it can take some searching whether uk or abroad to fly, find cheap flights first, then find accommodation nearby. Don’t go package in August. If you do, Egypt package deals are often cheapest because it’s too hot for locals to holiday at this time! But fine if you stay at a water park resort).

some good tips on here thank you all

We cant afford it either. We both work, earn under 40k each but holidays abroad in school holidays are just too expensive for us sadly

Spend vouchers on LeShuttle at Tesco.com

I’ve done those 9.50 holidays uk though, just had to pay on top bedding and wristbands. So ended up about 100 ish for family of four for a week. Probs doubled now

When our kids were small we used to use the Sun 9.50 offers to go abroad to Eurocamp for the first week of the school holidays ( family of 5)

We look on skyscanner to find the cheapest tickets for whatever time we can manage, then go from there. We live in Scotland so have never found it to be cheaper to drive over to Europe but depends on where you’re starting. Then we look for self catering - euro camps, airbnb, etc. And plan on eating a lot of picnics and other cheap meals. I’d look at the times you might be off when other countries aren’t - feb or October break are sometimes good options.

Couldn't see anyone mentioned previously but Bulgaria worth a look - a relative had a lovely holiday there the other year and it was much cheaper to get to and spending money went further. Some holiday sites are showing prices for up to September 2026 now. Worth checking all inclusive/self catering for 10 nights rather than 14 etc and swapping dates.

But as others have mentioned check whether you can book air bnb/vrbo etc and flights separately if that's cheaper. Don't necessarily discount long haul either if the flight price is good (and bargains do crop up occasionally) and you can get a villa cheaply although wrangling 3 children on a long haul flight probably best avoided!

We always travel with First Choice, we book the holiday and literally throw pennies at it regularly for months. It is top priority my child gets to travel and see different countries.

There are other campsites in France other than Eurocamp. What I do is look for cheap flights first, and then look nearby on Google maps for campsites. Most have mobile homes,.pools, on site shops etc. it's a very different experience than camping in the UK. Prices for next year won't be released yet though.

How do you get shuttle vouchers.
We have the club card but hardly ever seem to get anything.
Am I missing something

( we don’t spend much there as we are really Lidl Aldi shoppers but there’s always a few things we need )

Honestly 1.2k pp on a package holiday in August isn't that expensive... but as others have said we couldn't afford this or justify paying for it.
We've done family holidays in Europe for around 2.5k all in. (Last year Eurocamp just outside Paris for £700.- in August) Then you need to budget for other things like food, ferry and day trips. The beauty of campsites is that they have a pool and lots of space for DC ... so you don't have to go out every day.
We've also done things in the UK on a tight budget... 2 years ago we had 4 nights in a caravan in Norfolk with direct beach access last week in August: £500.- last minute booking. We were extremely lucky with the weather! (Caravan was 3 adults, 1 teen & 2 dogs)
I think you really need to look around and see what is available and where you are willing to compromise.

We always booked Eurosites camping in northern spain. Looking now, it seems a lot of the camping companies have gone apart from Eurosites. Used Tesco vouchers for the channel tunnel crossing. I've never paid for a Shuttle crossing yet, thanks to Tesco.

Don’t book packages
Don't book hotels

Book flights separately with sky scanner or booking.com.etc Check the prices then see if they are cheaper to book directly.
Then use the same type of websites to book accommodation. Villas etc Hotels tend to be more expensive. Again after you’ve found something see if it’s cheaper to book direct.

We always do this and with three kids we’ve been able to go abroad and travel around different places whilst there. Staying as long as we like in each.
Occasionally we’ll stay in a Hotel ….like my username which is my favourite …for a few days then off to a treehouse ( super cheap hippy style ) for a few more.

ps. You can hold places on booking.com then keep looking and sometimes they’ll lower their prices. So book it again on the lower price and delete the more expensive booking.
Ive saved a lot of money doing this ££££

I work in a school and im considering trading in 13 weeks holidays for cheap holidays. I’m on the fence. The holiday prices in school holidays are ridiculous.

Look at Bulgaria not Spain, I think you'll find the process are better and you will spend less cos its cheaper.

Also look for all inclusive deals then you take a small amount of spends and all is good. Personally I cruise for that reason - it might be worth looking for a cruise from UK in the school hols you might be surprised at the cost.

The ferry to Rotterdam is an overnight one so you'd get on in the evening and arrive in the morning so not really much time lost.

Center parcs in Holland is usually pretty reasonable and you also have Landal which have a lot of parks and mostly cheaper than center parcs.

I am shocked and horrified by the cost of practically everything these days