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

Divorced with two teens. I love travel and prioritise it over other savings/spending. The way I've done it since divorce is to put aside what I can afford every month and then make the holiday fit the budget

We usually go camping. Live in the SE so it's easy to access the tunnel and go to France. In the past I've used Clubcard vouchers to reduce the cost of the tunnel crossing. I have camping equipment already, which obviously makes it easier. We stayed in a lovely municipal campsite in France for 23 euros a night a couple of years ago. Use of the municipal pool (nextdoor) was included in the price if you were staying on the campsite. That arrangement is quite common in France/Germany (campsite with use of municipal pool) and some campsites have lodges/static caravans if you don't have camping equipment. So that might be worth investigating.

I just search "camping + piscine" in Google maps in an area I like the look of and see what comes up.

I usually have £2k saved to cover two weeks of camping plus activities. It sometimes costs more due to road tolls and petrol if we go further from Calais.

My oldest doesn't want to go away for a full two weeks this year, so we're doing 10 days further afield and flying. Even priced at 3 adults (because teens), I've paid under £600 for return flights and am looking at Airbnb for most of the accommodation. Haven't booked that yet, but it would be possible to average around £125/night based on DD and me sharing and DS in a separate room. As we're not using the tunnel this year, I've cashed in my Clubcard vouchers towards a couple of nights in a hotel, too, so we can visit two locations.

Flights + Airbnb in a coastal city (if you're after sea/beaches) might be cheaper than a package holiday if you don't mind self-catering.

We like to self cater but get most meals out. We're mostly vegetarian which seems to make food out cheaper? Our Greek holiday was 3500 last year and it did imo feel better than AI.

2 adults 1 DC 10 nights Greece in August -

1000 flights
400 car
1100 nice accommodation, comfy apartment with pool
1000 budget for food, sunlounger and drinks. On this we had a bakery breakfast, a light lunch (a halloumi gyros each or a few dishes in a beach restaurant) and we ate lots at dinner. We had the odd cocktail and DC had an ice cream every day.

Is this a stealth boast thread?

We spent £3k last year on an AI in Europe in school hols but we have two kids, one of my reasons for not having 3 was that we wouldn’t be able to afford holidays anymore as rooms are usually max of 4 people.
This year I’ve been looking and it’s around the 3.5k mark upwards for something decent but I am quite fussy. I’ve managed to find a 6 night AI at Easter for £2.8k

As in 12k in total for last year, and then the same cost for this year in total.

We have 5 holidays booked this year.

One to Portugal in Feb which is costing us £3500 all inclusive for 7 nights.

Second holiday is long haul to Malaysia during Easter for 17 days and is costing £10,000 just for flights and stay. Food and sightseeing etc. will be extra. Only breakfast is included in the price. So will probably cost another £2000.

Third holiday to Greece in May. Costing around £3500 but not all inclusive so maybe another £1500 for food, miscellaneous.

Fourth holiday is again long haul to India over the summer. Costing around £6000.

Fifth holiday is Dubai in December, costing £5000.

12k each 🤯?!

Last year and this year - 12k for each, driving from Kent to Algarve with an Airbnb stay one night either side of two week villa stay, and flights for my son and father-in-law to join us. Cost includes fuel, LeShuttle and spending money.

We can’t fly as our daughter is disabled and won’t tolerate it.

How long was that for?

I budget 20k a year for travel as I prefer that to pretty much anything else in life. £4.5k is pretty good for 2 weeks in the summer holidays :)

That sounds really cheap for US flights and accommodation for 6 people for 2 weeks?

I prefer a villa holiday as my kids can be fussy eaters and I cant stand watching people pick over buffet food im about to eat.
We usually can get a week in term time for £1500 inc flights and a villa with a pool, although this year we are spending £5500 on 2 weeks in florida (4 kids so it's always going to cost a lot!)

It’s always been expensive relatively. We used to drive to France with my kids

In the summer holidays last year we paid £11k for all inclusive with 3 kids 2 adults for an all inclusive in Greece. 2 bedrooms. October half term is cheaper in my experience

We do eurocamp type holidays too. Two adults then our teen DC (14,16,18, so classed as adults for the majority)

Last holiday was 4n in the Netherlands, 1n in France, 2n/3d in Disney then another 5n in France. Flights, accomodation, Disney holiday and car rental cost £4100 total. Then spends.

The post I quoted.
The part where the poster says if you are going to spend less than £1.5k per person per week, you might as well stay home. 🙄

IMO the days of really cheap flights is over, with add-ons for the smallest 10kg bag x number of people racking up costs hugely. Skyscanner is great if you are prepared to put in the time to do a deep search with lots of flexibility for date and destination. Charters don’t feature on it obviously; it’s just the public carriers.

Having cut it every which way, we are flying Ryanair to Italy and booking an Airbnb, with flights coming in at close on £1,400 for five pax, and accommodation £1,200, no car hire, and using public transport. We will eat in half the time. Budget is £4,800 to include day trips and water park.

There is a lot to be said for the AI or package bundle if you’ve younger kids or can’t face the uncertainty of figuring out food and getting around.

It is definitely cheaper if you drive - eurotunnel crossings can be cheaper than ferries, if you camp or Airbnb and self cater.

We have done holidays like this for £2-3k for 5 of us but it is very different to the amount of relaxation you could have at an AI place. We have never done those as having 3 dc makes it really tricky to find rooms.

I agree about long hail sometimes being similar in price to Europe. We were in Trailfinders recently and their Italy trip was costed out similarly to some of their Asia and Canada stuff pp.

In 2024 we booked a month before we flew and it was £2500 for a week in Rhodes AI at a 4 star hotel for 4 of us. We did take kids out of school though, it was July. Last year we did 2 weeks in Orlando in October half term, flights and hotel were £4700 and we spent £4K on park tickets for Disney etc and spent about $5k spending.

if you can do a last minute deal there are still bargains to be had and if you don’t mind a few days off school.

Oh I'm so jealous. We did a similar trip in 2024 and it was amazing. I will warn you though, excursions are expensive and food isn't cheap. It's probably the most expensive Central American country and I'm assuming your 3 locations are the touristy ones (La Fortuna, Monteverde and Manuel Antonio or Tortuguero?).

We spent £12k for two of us at WDW and Universal Florida last year (3 weeks). We’ve just come back from New York, that was about £3k for two of us for 4 nights. We’re going to Austria and Slovakia in the summer for a fortnight with DSS and have budgeted around £5k. HTH.

I'm going to Costa Rica (3 locations) for 10 nights with my teenage son in May. Also two nights in Boston and one in New York. It's costing approx £1600 each for flights, accommodation with breakfast and internal travel. We'll be more on excursions. Food shouldn't be too expensive as we fill up on breakfast, stay near supermarkets and eat where the locals do. I got the cheapest flights with long stopovers, but with that we're going to have 2 nights in Boston and one in New York. Suits us well but those are expensive places.

We took our children to our favourite place in Majorca for many years and £2000 was our max spend. A really lovely apartment in Cala Ferrera.
Did the same two years ago with our grandchild and didn’t get any change from £4000 !
I have got home just before Christmas from trip to Australia for 3 weeks seeing my son paying for flights and accommodation and I spent about £5000 !
European destinations are ridiculous price wise TBH .

We tend to go for 10 nights to a 5 star hotel on the Med or Canaries and like to stay on a B&B basis. It is me, DH and one teenage DS. We usually go with Jet2 and spend around £3500-£4000 on accommodation, flights and private transfers in resort. Then we just pay for dinners out and ice-creams, etc, in situ. Last year we did a.Jet2 Indulgent Escape which was wonderful.

Ridiculous isn’t it. You used to be able to get something fancy for £5k. But now it’s really ….basic, canteen style. sickly sweet cocktail, run for a sunbed for £4.5k at a push I’d say.