Holidays are just not worth the money

"pity" Wow. Tone deaf, especially in this cost of living crisis. @igotitbadforyou

Yeah, same for us. We did want kids but it didn’t happen, I nevertheless find holidaying just the two of us quite wonderful, a real luxury.

I beg to differ having just spent nearly £3k (just for me) for a week with my adult daughter. The memories are priceless.

A good tip is if you can afford it, get it booked at least a year in advance every year and pay it off slowly.

The accommodation is usually only around 50% of the cost. The airline and tour operator take the rest.

The accommodation is not actually that much of a rip off compared to what you get and their operations costs.

Alot of holiday makers look at the photos of the hotel and think wow that’s expensive for £2-3k but a lot of that cost is spent getting there and back!

Holidays are important to us. They make many precious memories for old age. We have some wonderful experiences to look back on.

Love a holiday but we don’t have kids and go to adults only places outside of school holidays so maybe that’s why.

But they should get some things, and a bit of a say in how the family spends its time.

If holidays mean a lot to them, listen to them.

Stay in your budget of course but listen to their priorities to an extent and factor that in.

It’s not uncommon for us to spend over £10,000 on our holidays, I do sometimes think of the other things we could do with that money, but when I look back to my childhood some of the first things that prop up are our holidays.

As an adult reflecting on our family so far it’s the holidays I often jump to first, of course they don’t need to be expensive, but we’ve had some incredible experiences, I reflect on what my children have been able to experience and am very grateful and proud.

The children are grateful for them, they look forward to them, and it gives me a pretty good tool to motivate them when we’re discussing future aspirations, the lifestyle they want and the work they need to put in to achieve it.

£500 a day is a lot! We go AI then hire a car to explore for a few days. Then the costs are set in stone

I find holidays extremely worth it. It’s one of my top priorities spending wise.

If your kids really want to go, I would say prioritise it, because you get to spend real quality time with them. “Making memories” is an awful expression but it’s underlying meaning is important - your kids will remember quality time spend doing something new and interesting with their parents forever.

Just remember your health may not be great one day, I have mid stage Parkinson’s, at 64 can’t work.
For years never afforded much having worked in retail and care, just cat and I.
Went to brother’s in Spain for about 5 days including travel l loved the heat ( Parkinson’s means my temp is variable now.
Missed a few years as family parties in France and Italy, expensive plane tickets, we share ‘hotel’ costs shared accommodation.
Not much , I enjoy the whole change tho

Children need to be reminded that they can't always get what they want. It's a good lesson. It's about compromise.

The upsides are new places, new experiences. And that is fun. The draw.
The downsides are the journey to get there often via an airport, or travel in the UK. Queuing at some point. For hours. Which is not fun.

Hotels do charge a fortune because they can. They have so many people chasing a limited number of rooms/villas etc so can charge what they want.

Airports I think need to wake up a bit. Dreadful most of them. Herded around like cattle. Get there earlier and earlier - all to get you to spend money. Nothing to do with the flight time. They have become so bad, charge for this that and the other people are proactively avoiding them.

I think sadly too, poor service standards in places do not help. People expect a week or two of bliss. Which might be unrealistic. Other people can cause problems, less than good accommodation too.

The price though, I agree can be limiting.
I think too that the whole booking a holiday I think can be really stressful these days. Years ago you could pick up a load of brochures, go through them, turn to the back page, look at the cost of the flight, rooms etc and work out your price. And go and book it with the travel agent. It is not the same online.
Now you have a load of reviews, book yourself, try to work out the best price etc. Navigate a really unhelpful website. Holiday websites for me are the worst.

They have made it as unpleasant and difficult as possible to book. And yes, some people give up. And don’t bother. Or don’t bother to book as much.

But having said all this, cling onto the hoped for new experience, keep to a budget and do go !

This. My kids first holiday abroad was when they were adults and paid for by themselves . We always had holidays at holiday parks. They loved it and have great memories.

I think you need to just book it and let it go if you can afford it. 3k is not expensive if you can afford it for 5 people.

Please share where you have found return flights with checked bag for five people for £200 return.

But no one is making you go anywhere hot, or involving pools or the beach! Go to a cool city and spend the entire time in museums, looking around historical sites, eating beautiful food and taking day trips to other interesting places? To say you don’t like holidays because of heat, pools and beaches is like saying you don’t like eating out because of carrots. Just order something that doesn’t involve carrots.

OP, you want to go abroad with four other members of your family for a week, it was always going to cost at least a four figure sum in total. Why not stay in the UK instead for a break?