to ask how much you spend on a summer holiday abroad?

Between £5-£7k for the two of us for a two week holiday. But now we are having a baby that luxury will be gone! I expect it will be a £2k all inclusive in Europe going forward!

@HorrorFan81 sure, you can message me and I will try my best to answer all your questions.

Mind you I always look at flight prices before anything else as that’s what makes my itinerary. At best I pick a general region I want to visit, otherwise I try to stay completely open. So unless you are dead set on a specific place at a very specific time (like high peak season) you can get really really good deals.

( flight from Thailand to London was under £150pp for example on that trip).

@StepUpSlowly would love to know more about your georigia etc trip, such a good price for all that!

I have always loved traveling and grew up with no money so always enjoyed finding bargains and now I am older and have more money still look for the cheapest way to travel, I usually do multi-destination trips as a result and like to benefit from long layover and spend a ridiculous amount of my free time looking for the cheapest/best routes to make a trip work.

I agree Europe can easily cost the same as a trip further afield so it doesn’t always make sense to holiday in Europe if your idea is to save or if you have a budget that could a allow for a similar trip elsewhere.

to give you an idea of prices I will try to give you the price of what I paid for recent trips abroad.

September (2024): Italy + Dubai + Kenya (Safari) + Tanzania/ Zanzibar - 3 weeks, 2 adults ( 5.5k all included).

October 2024: Marakesh - 4 days- 2 adults (1k max all included)

Christmas week 2024 Lapland: 5 adults + 1 child, (5k all included, we did book 1 year in advance for the accommodation to get the best deal).

September 2025 (Greece) 8 days - Athens + Corfu (under 2k for 2 adults)

October 2025 (almost 3 weeks) : Georgia + Dubai + Philippines + Thailand (2 adults + 1 child, 5k)

and next trip planned is in August for a Cruise to the Carribean/Central American from the US for 2 weeks + a few days in Canada, and everything has already been paid and booked and it’s coming at a price of under 4k for now, for 3 adults but I assume there will be an extra 1k spent in food and transportation outside the boat.

I am sure i could spend the same amount going to one destination in Europe in AI, but I favor self catering and less time in a place but more places to see so if there’s is one I like I can always come back and make it a longer trip.

or, as you can see with places like Dubai, plenty of places come up several times over the years due to its location between destinations so it’s also good to visit different parts of the same place(s) on different trips.

I am not sure it’s harder to find great flight deals because I actually think they are a lot cheaper than a few years back in some cases I just feel like food and accommodations is what’s extortionate, activities can also add up ££££ depending on the location. So it’s only on some trips for specific things that I like to book activities I couldn’t or wouldn’t feel safe doing without a tour guide.

This year we are broke due to house renovations but still desperately need a break so we've managed to book an all inclusive to tunisia for 4 of us for £1300 for a week. But im taking them out of school for 4 days. Although you don't get fined unless its the full 5 days.

Easyjet are pretty good tbh and I do usually take them out of school for 1 or 2 days.

Depends if you want 5 star or not.

You can get a bog standard 4 star to majorca all inclusive for all of you, going in may half term and with them missing 1 day of school for 3.4k with the easyjet sale code.

https://www.easyjet.com/en/holidays/spain/majorca/calas-de-mallorca/alua-calas-de-mallorca-resort?ibf=true&to=01-06-2026&from=25-05-2026&dst=ALL&sAccId=&geog=ALL&flex=0&org=LGW,LTN,STN,SOU&aa=1&rooms=2_3:6|10|2&outId=E98dc15dd40559101c44a2f44d7687449&inId=E029d8c4f26d95e69a6bb38411ef7d2a8&accId=ESMJ0102&packId=2155725944/2/3066/7&boardType=AI&offerRooms=1_2:10|2/DB02,1_1:6/DB02&transfer=JUMB55321KSS&dtransfer=JUMB55321KSS&isExt=0&lateRoomCheckout=0&theme=beach

last August we spent just under £5k for 2 adults and 3 kids (6, 3 and baby) going to Tenerife. Including accommodation, flights, food and days out. We stayed in a 2 bed aparthotel which included breakfast. We only cooked once and ate out the rest of the time. Flights were reallly expensive as we booked last minute and we could have saved a lot more by cooking in the apartment.

this year we’re looking to go to Croatia, half board and flights and accomodation is coming to around £4.5k.

That's been paid off for years. Running costs not particularly high.

Look at the 'Parque cristobal' resorts in the canary islands. They are all mini villas with all inclusive facilities, we have one booked for 7 nights for 3k during school holidays - 2 adults 2 children. It's a 1 bedroom villa, with a seperate lounge with a sofa bed which we will use as a bedroom for our girls. There are also 2 bedroom ones. Much nicer than a high rise hotel.

We're going to Bulgaria in August for 10 days. We are going self-catering, as we don't like being tied to hotels. We have the 1 child, who is 15, so only need the 1 hotel room. We are paying approximately £1,800 for accommodation and flights for the 10 days. We will obviously need to budget for meals out/supermarket runs/excursions.

We went to Zakyinthos for a week last year, again self-catering and paid approximately £1,400 for flights and accommodation in August.

Thanks, we're looking forward to it. I've now just cancelled one of the stops to cut down on travel (Monteverde). We'll split it between La Fortuna and Manuel Antonio (and a night at airport hotel in San Jose). Hope I don't regret cancelling Monteverde. It does seem that central America can be pricey, but it may be my last big holiday with teen son and we both love wildlife.

Was that for a week or 2 weeks?

Yes. Plus the cost of the holiday home surely?

Yes it’s expensive. Check jet2 you might be able to get a free child spot. Portugal is quite reasonable

How does the home cost to run ? Or what did it cost to buy ?

I've got a holiday hom in France about 15 minutes from the beach so it only really costs me Brittany Ferries cost, fuel to get to Plymouth and back, driving around in France, buying food and Eating out, activity costs etc. Over 2 weeks I spend about £1k. This includes all food shopping, eating out 3 times each week, and activities like Go Ape, kayaking etc.

We toyed with self catering cottages in Pembrokeshire and Cornwall and both were coming out at £2k before travelling, food, activities etc and obviously the weather is not at all guaranteed!

Unfortunately we went camping and despite the forecast being good, ended up with torrential rain and no sleep!

@GloriousGiftBag true. I spent an insane amount on norfolk and London!

We stayed at home last year but tbh a few days in London and seeing a show ended up being ridiculous!

Struggling to get my head around the prices too. Hence stayed in UK last year and nothing booked!

For me the advantage of AI isn't really the food, it's the activities and entertainment provided for kids. Some kids are content without this, mine thrive on constant sailing/climbing/biking/games so that makes the cost worth it for us. Ideally we're somewhere where we're out for dinner at least a few times in the week, and where the AI doesn't include drinks (so, not really AI I guess, but a resort)

That's why we take the kids out of school for cheaper prices. Even then we don't do a full weeks holiday every year. This year its just a 4 night city break. I dont have over £100 a week spare to put towards a holiday.

Previously I would have said that depending on the age of your other children AI is likely to be a waste of money. A 2 year old will eat and drink almost nothing and your other children, assuming they’re a few years apart, won’t be getting their money’s worth either. Of your £4500, £2700 of that is on children going AI.

However, the price of self catering, especially for two beds, is almost the same price as AI now in the height of summer so you’re prob not saving anything by doing it yourself.

I think prices are especially high this year. People are staying within Europe and I suspect world events have something to do with that. You might get a better deal long haul!

Yes we do Eurocamp, considerably cheaper and we love it. Used to be a real 'luxury' person before kids, but now can't imagine anything different. Love shopping and cooking nice ingredients, but you can eat out every night if you want to, still prob cheaper!

July/ August approx £5000 for 2 adults/2 children give or take for AI. Often look at may half term or October which is more like £3500 and carvan in the uk or eurocamp in the summer holidays. Eurocamps are good but can be add up worked out about £3k by the time we had done the travel, park, food etc however did get 10days for that