Help please lovely MNetters - 5 live are interested to know your thoughts on family holidaying in the UK?

We go away several times a year in the UK - Isle of Wight, Dorset, Cornwall. They are all cheap and cheerful self-catering: £9.50 Sun hols (ie in a caravan), sharing cottages with friends in winter, or house-sitting.

Summer holidays are usually in a mobile home, having driven to France. I haven't booked this years trip yet, but I expect to pick up a late deal by being flexible on dates/parcs. The basic holiday cost is probably about the same, the supermarket bill slightly higher than in previous years.

My main concern is feeling like the 'poor family' of Europe. DH & I are happy to self-cater but it's nice to be able to sit on a cafe terrace and treat everyone. If it costs 25 quid for 3 ice lollies and a couple of coffees that's going to leave a bad taste in the mouth when you know the French/Dutch/German family at the next table aren't feeling it in their wallet.

Much as cornwall and North Wales are beautiful id much much rather go abroad.

The weather here is generally crap

Everywhere is over crowded & Overpriced

You are either destined to fast/bad food hell or make to feel like a leper for daring to take your children somewhere you can get a nice meal (and made to leave by 9pm) whereas children are largely welcomed in restaurants abroad.

We were swimming outdoors in October this year in a very lovely pool in Cornwall. I've swum in the sea at all times of the year.

We have never taken the DCs abroad on holiday (they are 5 and 7) - usually we have a week's "holiday" in Wales at the inlaws and another week somewhere in the UK. But, having spent about £1600 for a week in Centreparcs last year, where it rained torrentially EVERY DAY we will definitely be going abroad this year!!!

We holiday in Uk for one holiday a year,usually Cornwall.
Last year went t o France in August but weather not great,so are off to Lanzarote in Feb,then Cornwall in August,for 2 weeks which was not cheap!
Don't t hink UK cheap for holidays,but when the sun shimes nowhere is more beautiful.
I second Fimbo in that if weather is poor,there is always something to do.
We are National Trust members and always have days out at nearby NT prroperties whilst away.

We normally have our holidays in the UK - not because we couldn't afford to go abroad but because we prefer it. Last summer we were very lucky and had two holidays, one in Scotland and one in France. Yes, the weather in France was A LOT better (!) but the drive was horrendous and I felt environmentally guilty about it. There is such a lot to do and see in the UK that I can't see us running out of options yet. We normally book a selfcatering cottage, because I don't want children in the same room as me - and that cuts out most of the 'bargain' foreign holidays anyway (though we did have a fabulous week in Malta about three years ago with two interconnecting rooms in a lovely hotel). I don't like 'sitting on a beach' holidays - not when it is too hot anyway, and the children are just as happy in cagoules and wellies on a british beach! Plus in somewhere like great yarmouth you can then go and play pirate crazy golf, and then take a boat on the broads, and then visit a small zoo, and then a castle and then a national trust place...much more my cup of tea. We've just booked a barn conversion holiday cottage in Suffolk for August this year, for £525 for the week.

Swimming outdoors! Who says you can't in UK? I've swum all over the UK. Including on a beautiful beach on the Isle of Lewis. OK I lost the feeling in most of my body for an hour or so but I lived

Huh! Wimps.

Apart from the lack of sunshine I think the UK is great for family holidays (however I'm a bit foreign so it is still a novelty for me/plenty to see after ten years here). A change of environment (self catering cottage)is the main thing and anything else is a bonus!

We mainly go abroad. Why?

• Because we want to experience somewhere different
• We want good weather

The UK is not that cheap to holiday in at all. Infact it is bloody expensive in most places, £5 for a kids meal that is fried and rubbish. Lets face it our service is rubbish on the whole.

We have some beautiful places to go to here in the UK, but not for longer than a weekend.

For the last three years, we've had one holiday a year abroad - in France - and two or three more in the UK, mainly camping. I assumed that was for financial reasons, but now we can actually afford to go abroad "properly" as dd1 calls it I find I'm still booking places in the UK! We go to Wales at least once a year - it has so many beautiful places to explore. We're going to Northumberland and probably Pembrokeshire this year, and if we do go abroad it may just be for a short break.

I don't think the UK is expensive compared to Europe.

I have friends who holidayed in France last year and quite frankly the prices that they were paying for a mediocre meal made my hair curl!

Before having ds we only ever had weekends in the UK, our main holidays were always spent abroad. Now we are a family it is much easier and cheaper to holiday in the UK. Last year we went to Cornwall in June for 2 weeks, the weather was bliss and ds had the time of his life. Young children just want a beach to run around on they really don't care whether it is Bognor Regis or Barbados! I couldn't be doing with all the hassle of flying now, its boring.

This year we are planning on Scotland, I am expecting rain but that is half the fun of a UK holiday, running into a cafe for a hot steamy drink, walking on the beach in your wellies. I love it!

The UK doesn't have to be expensive either our accommodation for two weeks in the school summer holidays is only costing just over £500 for all of us, you would not be able to find anything cheaper in mainland Europe.

you will be v. welcome in scotland mmelindt.

we will be taking our chance with camping in the nw of scotland this year. exchange rate is too crap to afford europe sadly. i agree swimming outside is lovely but i think i can live without it.

We live on the continent so there has never been a better time for holidaying in the UK for us.

This year we will be over in Scotland to celebrate my brother's wedding and will be going on a shopping spree.

I know a few people who are thinking of going to Scotland this year as it is such great value for us in Euroland.

We always holiday in the UK. I can't face the thought of airports with 3 DC. ANyway none of us have valid passports atm and can't really afford to replace them atm.

Cornwall, West Wales, west coast of Scotland, IOW ...all lovely places. Weather doesn't really matter that much. And besides we do get good weather sometimes.

We live in a beautiful country. It amazes me that so many people fail to appreciate that and the only bit they see is the bit between the town where they live and the airport

We were planning on camping in France this year, same as last year but we found it expensive there last year so it will be evn worse now as the exchange rate is lower.
SO we will be heading for West Wales and keePing our fingers crossed that the sun will shine!

We regularly go to west coast of Wales which is very fab and beautiful with the most amazing beaches and a sort of weird microclimate which means it can be stunning weather when the rest of the UK is having gales. That said, we've had our fair share of drizzly walks, but the kids are fine in the rain as long as there's a flask of hot chocolate to bribe them with. There's lots to do, it's not too crowded and the beaches are vast with proper sand dunes.

We're so keen on Uk holiday we have recently bought a cottage in the Cotswolds for us to use and to rent out to make us a bit of cash. I'm banking on more people holidaying near home in the next few years to keep our place full!

I think holidays in the UK are expensive but for us as a family they are also more convenient. If anything goes wrong it's far easier to just get on a train and come home than to try faffing around with changing flights etc.

No-one in our family likes hot weather so for us the cooler weather here is a good thing.

I think that UK tourist attractions should be more family-friendly though. Children are seen as an inconvenience that have to be put up with so that the tourism industry can get money out of the parents.

Since had children we have uk holidays. TBH, there is so much to see, and its cheaper and hassle free,imo.
We did camping,we went cottage holidays, now have caravan.

Like Kitbit, we live in Spain and always visit my family in UK a couple of times a year.

To dilute the stress for DH of being with ILs non-stop we always take their camper-van off for a few days on our own. I love getting to know England and Wales better, and DH is amazed at the beautiful landscapes.

Before we would stubbornly self-cater except for one meal out, but at Christmas it was fantastic to be able to treat ourselves a bit more with the pound so weak. Long may it last .

But I do agree with what so many have said before - you have to choose your pub or restaurant wisely, otherwise you can easily end up with crappy microwaved from frozen mass-produced food for quite a lot of money. There are good value places to eat, but they are often hard to find amidst the proliference of pre-packaged sandwiches and 3 pound a coke type places.

I have taken my ds' to America and all over in Europe. The annoying thing is that the holidays they love are Butlins and Centre parcs. They rave about them.
I also liked Centre Parcs but it is so expensive I think. I also liked the fact there was lots of families, is middle class and I didn't feel like a blob in my size 16 swimming costume unlike in the Canaries.

Ruty, i know thsi is silly thing to type , suppose china is very long haul.
but it depends on the child. Ds1 has never been any trouble on a plane. florida, ibiza, balerics.
and i don't find airports stressful.
I wonder if I will say the same thing after this summers venture, if we do go abroad, with ds1 and ds2.
Maybe it was just easy before, becasue we only had one child.
Probably.
Answers own question

good luck with that flight DI! You're a stronger woman than I.

I really think holidaying in the UK is as expensive as going abroad. The weather is so unreliable that for children the ages of mine, 6,5,2 and 3 months there wouldn't be enough to do. I do love the UK and would like my children to see more of it but where and how could we stay anywhere?
With the credit crunch I have decided to spend the entire summer in China with my parents, my husband will join us for a week or two so I don't have to fly alone with the children twice!

Uk is poor relation.
We crave sun. If you get it in the Uk, which is rare, then that makes it just about bearable.
But the UK is still very very expensive for what you get.
2nd rate . Really poor.

If the euro was better. once you get the sunshine. then if you get a decent place, with decent service. It makes it totally acceptable and it 'seems' so much better than it actually is, if that makes sense.

excuse typing and language. am bf and typing.

Been thinking about this again since I posted last night.

Over the past few years we have done some holidays in the UK:
A four-day weekend in Centre Parcs when DS1 was 2. The chalet cost us about 700 quid (at the end of September) and I remember we couldn't even manage to do lunch for less than £25, not to mention the costs of dinner. Even when we ate in it still ended up costing us money (hadn't really s/c before so ended up having to buy lots of condiments etc - next time would bring with). I was pregnant at the time which meant that a) our booze bill was significantly lower than it would have been otherwise and b) there were lots of things I would like to have done (which would have cost money) that I was unable to do. I think our final tally for the 4-day weekend for 2 adults and 1 toddler was about £1000, which quite frankly is ridiculous. The following year we had a week in Portugal for about the same price.
Likewise a week in Cornwall in a three-bed house in June cost us about 1500 rental IIRC.

So the moral is, if I am spending money, I would prefer to spend it abroad where at least there's a bit of a cultural experience and the likelihood of good weather. If we cannot afford to go on holiday then we will spend time at home, or we are in the fortunate position of having relatives with a holiday home down south, so will go stay there.
As mentioned by other posters, with young children holidays are often just the same old, but with fewer of your conveniences.