How do people afford good holidays

That seems like a horrendous amount.
We travel to USA a lot and always DIY.
Flights - look at indirect, odd number of days and outside school hols.
Hotels - husband travels for business so we often stay on points. Or look at vrbo.
California and Hawaii is 2 holidays, pick one.
We haven’t done Hawaii yet but were looking at Hawaii cruises eg from Vancouver. At certain times of year were decent prices.

I afford it because im single and childless.

Booking flights separately and airbnbs might work out better. Have a look at various options like a return to Hawaii from California.
You can do it cheaper but you have to spend time researching options.

How on earth do people do this?

What people do you know @Penguinbiscuitsarenowtiny who do Hawaii AND California?

Trust me, if you break it down a bit, you'll see that doing both is the cost issue. Just because they're geographically in the same quadrant so to speak, doesn't make it 'cheaper'

YABU

Do more research. Chatgp is useless.

I usually book my own hols, no agency. Flights booked direct with airline - look at different dates/airports etc as fares can vary substantially. Reseach destinations-look at areas/hotels/board type etc. you can get pretty good deals if you look hard enough and are flexible

Not been personally but I know a couple who went to hawaii, said it was very commercial, touristy and underwhelming.

Umm... no, did California recently for £7k.

How do they afford it? Who knows?! This question gets asked daily on here. Some people earn more. Some people earn less but save well. Some people get inheritance they tell no one about. Some people have parents who pay for family holidays. Some people whack it on a credit card. For some people 15k is fuck all. For others it’s life changing.

No, holidays didn’t used to be anywhere near as expensive. A nice hotel in Portugal for 2 adults, 2 kids under 6 in the school holidays is £6750. It’s a nice hotel but not exceptional.

Holidays are just extortionate.

a Californian colleague mentioned to me that going to Hawaii from there had got a lot more expensive in the last few years.

but YABU to expect a trip to an island on the other side of the world to not cost a lot.

I am sure there are lots of hacks and websites where you can find cheap flights, accommodation, transfers etc, and bring the cost down this way, OP, however I completely agree with your sentiment.

For those saying "earn more money" - we are a household that earns 6 figures a year between us, however with mortgage, childcare, student loan, pension and a plethora of other costs (and getting taxed out of the wazoo), we are only able to save about £1500 per year for holidays, which doesn't get you very far with 2 adults and 2 kids.

Ditch Hawaii and you’ll get it down to a much more manageable fee. We did that with 2 dc travelling around we chose a couple of nice hotels (particularly in Vegas) some cheap motel kinda places where we were only going to be a night en route. I looked at adding Hawaii both times we did the trip and it became unmanageable

I find it baffling that so many people seem to be able to tbh!

I earn well and I can’t afford it.

But then not every one is a single parent or lives in London so that would explain it.

If you ask ChatShit that's exactly what it will give you

Have well paid jobs.

Because they have more money. Not everyone is struggling

Why are you asking chat gpt. Ask Trailfinders. I’m sure you can do it less than that. It’s like anything, price difference will be huge depending on flights, dates, hotel quality, board etc. get what you want priced up before panicking