What is your summer holiday budget versus household income?

Household income £105k, since having kids we’ve camped, caravan parks in the UK and Eurocamp in France. I can’t justify £5k for a week in the sun. We have significant savings for a rainy day and could pay it with little immediate impact, but it’s poor value for money to me.

Like you, I’d rather spend it on my house or save for a rainy day. Or for their future.

When my kids are older, I intend to take them on a few memorable holidays abroad. But whilst they’re little, it’ll be wasted. They won’t remember it or care if they’re abroad vs 2hrs away.

No problems beautiful! I think I missed my calling as a travel agent haha 😜

my mantra is why pay more when you don’t have to

happy travels- hope you snag some killer bargains

Income about 75-80k. Holiday budget 5k though we have to go out of season to do it on that and we self cater though that's our preference.
We can't afford to spend more than that, life is expensive.

I’m in awe of this and it’s given me much food for thought as to how to get more bang for our buck, thank you!

kanfuzed myself there ephesus korumar was the hotel

We've found going during Easter or May hols much better value and not overbearingly hot, then summer camping or caravan park and a city break.

In May a week in Lanzarote cost less than 3 grand for 2 adults and 2 kids AI and it was the perfect temperature. Xx

Looking at flights and hotels separately might help - although most kids here finish school next week, I would have thought there’s savings to be made by booking ahead of time. Have you already booked?

Our household income is around 200k, although a lot of that goes on tax as it’s weighted one way. Our flights for 2 adults and one child were a little over 1100, hotels around 1500, I’ve paid for stuff like airport parking and insurance and we’ll easily spend another £900 when we are there as only includes breakfast and there’s activities we’ll want to do.

I have priced some resort holidays and it’s really not much different although DH much prefers DIY hols.

Lovely. I’d love a big family but I’m afraid time got away from me.

have you tried last min deals though might be able to cut down cost? If you want of course.

as I’m a dreamer I’ve imagine planned a few hols as if were a family of 6, managed to get a few 4/5* ones for £3.5k (‘missing 2/3 days of school)

£66K household income. £20K on holidays. No mortgage, very small house, very low bills. Its a lifestyle choice for us, it wouldn't work for most people.

This year my lovely we’ll likely only get away 3 times for definite. we may get 4 if we pool resources with my mother and do a week in Cornwall or at a haven (as I said before I really want to go lol)

in 2023 I spent £4500 it went as follows

Disneyland Paris. 4 days in hotel Cheyenne, hotel and park tickets £730 inc ferry. Then 2 days in hotel b and b either side when we went into Paris that was about £250. The Disney deal was with magic breaks and I’ve never seen anything that cheap again.

5 * AI turkey. I believe it was £2600 for a week, didn’t spend a penny out there aside from 2 pool noodles (I booked 6 weeks out I think maybe closer but I watched the prices on tui and jet2 like a hawk and pounced when the price was low)

London think we stayed in a holiday inn, about £100 a night stayed 3. Breakfast included.

then we did Butlins in half term and that was £500 at one of the hotels (our hols miss matched with the rest of the uk then so cheaper)

then last year we spent £6500. £6000 was 2 weeks in a value resort in wdw and then the other £500 was centre parcs and another half term out of kilter

this year
we did London similar £100 a night a bit far out but on the DLR so love that. We did a kids show that was on and then the museums so very little expense. No school missed

we did a 5* AI in may half term but got a bit unlucky weather wise and it rained 2 days, we were told it was very unseasonable so all in all likely a safe bet for the future. That cost me £2.5k again last min, watched the prices for weeks in advance and stuck whilst the iron was hot or so to speak. We booked with jet2 and were flexible with the airport, we stayed at the ephesia korumar hotel. Kids loved it. but I saw comparable if not cheaper prices for canaries. Starting to see the deals now for July after school. I will admit though I’ll have mine miss up to 3 days of school, preferably no more than 2. They missed 2 for this hols

then summer hols we’re doing Disneyland Paris again, just shy of £1700 at the Newport bay and just amending free ferry to have another 2 days at villages natures. Booked with Walt Disney travel company. No school missed

generally I typically watch prices for a good while, maybe a year in advance so I can get a good base line of cost. Last minute if you don’t mind where you go (ie don’t mind too much the destination or have a particular hotel in mind) can save you thousands so for us when we want a holiday in the sun with a c 4 hrs max flight. Perfect for us.

disney generally speaking I don’t like a middle man, they charge through the nose so I tend to go direct or with an independent travel agent who has full price transparency.

Holidays with kids and family are just the best. I don't think the amount that you spend vs your household income is important. What's important is that you feel you will enjoy it relative to the cost. If I had to spend £10k on a 2 week AI I would not look forward to it but would feel £10k on an adventure holiday to Bali staying in hostels would be well worth it. The same goes if you have £500 to spend although admittedly less choice. So perhaps it's about the fact that the holidays you are looking at don't spark any joy for you. Can you look at other options?

I'll spend £4000 this year, not including food and spending money.
Its about 10% of our income and covers:

Mortgage on our holiday hut in the woods
Sun holiday deal- 4 days out of season in a seaside caravan
Travel to the Netherlands to visit family
One week in Tenerife (cheap flights and 3 star hotel)

Household income is around 80k and we just spent about 4k on a week in Greece, which included villa hire, flights, for the three of us, car hire and spending money. We could have done it for a bit less if we'd eaten out less and done a few less trips but we'd managed to save some extra spending money this year.

We also did a Eurostar trip to europe over New Year but that was less than 1 k as I used my Tesco vouchers to pay for the train and we self catered.

Then we try and have a cheap short break in the UK, normally in a caravan.

I think 5k is about right. We love going away though so Im happy to cut back on other teats to be able to go away more.

Hope you enjoy your holiday OP, I never regret spending money on going away.

Yes 4 kids :)

We did 12 days driving in Scandinavia last summer - spent around £5k all in for three of us. We spent £7k on skiing at New Year for four of us. We’re budgeting £12-14k for a holiday in the Far East next summer. Our joint gross income is £150k. We’re mortgage free, and I’ll delay buying new carpets etc rather than not travel.

Don't want to put our combined income on, we have average incomes, we use around 3 percent of our before tax income on our yearly holidays, slightly more, maybe 4 percent, if a big holiday/ special occasion. Edited to add before tax.

Would you mind sharing the breakdown between the 4 holidays/breaks? Sounds like you’ve managed amazing value on each of them to get all that for under £5k, I’d like to recreate this for us!

I mean there are a miriad of ways to donate to charity and support improvements in society and peoples’ lives; there’s no point in sweeping statements saying it’s useless because whilst some ways maybe ineffective, others aren’t and of course you can make a difference and do your research before you support XYZ and by what means. I feel there are more important areas of society - closer to home- that can benefit from our support than going on holiday to support struggling tourism industries. But as I said - people can spend how they like of course. I am just shocked at the amounts here; I didn’t realise holidays were so important to people to be honest!

Driving through France and Spain this summer for a couple of weeks. Adding together villa, hotels and ferries/ train I reckon it’s about £9-10k and then will be food etc on top. Sometimes spend more, sometimes less. We don’t really have a budget as such. 2 adults and 2 teenagers. Usually try and have a couple of other holidays a year.

2 x self-employed in rubbish pay prestige jobs (arts/publishing).

4 nights self-catering in Scotland is costing us a grand, we will probably bookend with a night or two in Edinburgh.

We need to go to USA to visit friends later in the year and I'm seeing packages for £5k for 3 of us which I thought was pretty reasonable. Probably the impending global apocalypse.

A week in Italy cost us £7k for 3 adults and one child last year. Easyjet flights, nice hotel but nothing mindblowing.

It's just dead expensive now. Gone are the pre-Brexit pre-kids days where DH and I could get some luxury spa break in Tuscany on Voyage Prive or Secret Escapes for £600 each.

See, to me this sounds utterly joyless. Different strokes, as they say.

Imagine if you all didn’t go on hols for a year and donated these huge sums to charity, what a difference that would make for some people.

Err it would make a huge difference to some people, but not in the way you're imagining. 2020 impacted the economies of many tourism-based countries, lots of jobs were lost, and this affected some of the poorest people. 'Donating to charity' is not always the best way to help.

It’s not that much imo given your income but if you don’t feel comfortable spending that then don’t. Some people prioritise holidays, some fine wine, others spend on nice things for the house. As long as you don’t go into debt for a holiday or any of the above mentioned things, then I don’t see the issue.
Since you and DH disagree you should compromise and only do a big holiday every other year.

We do give to charity yes. There are lots of things that we spend money on that I think are more essential than holidays and also give a return. 40% of our monthly income is ‘spare’ and this is split between different investments, charity donations and home improvements which I suppose is also an investment. Maybe when I feel these other things are ‘enough’ I will feel able to spend like some on these sorts of holidays. I just cannot imagine being comfortable or having a holiday as such a priority that I’d spend 8/10k+ on only a week or two!

We try to vary by year - we're doing something cheaper this year for around £3k and will do a bigger hol next year for £10k. We earn around £130k between us, for a family of 4.

£2200 for 2 week summer holiday to France including ferry/Airbnb costs. We'll self-cater while we're there and maybe go out a few times to cafes etc.

2 adults, 2 children.
Household income: £190000.