Families of 5....

[craftymadam]

We are a family of 5, we have 1 DS and DTs.

I am so frustrated with finding holiday deals for families of 4 everywhere I look....hotel rooms that only sleep 4.... beautiful glamping places that only sleep 4... anyone else feel my pain?

I thought maybe other families of 5 could share some great locations they've holidayed at, and not been penalised for having a family that's larger than 'the normal 4' :-(

The dfds seaways ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam has 5 berth cabins! I was very excited when I realised that! Less useful if you’re not anywhere near the north east though.

Really? That's great to hear! I hate it when we have to separate in to different rooms etc as our DCs are still primary age.
We are typically in the south west though But it's good to know!

We also stopped in a caravan which had 5 beds
www.darwinescapes.co.uk/parks/keswick-reach-lodge-retreat/

And here

www.darwinescapes.co.uk/parks/seaview-holiday-home-park/

We booked them both through hoseasons.

Less useful for the south west though!

We love the lakes Pottering, my DH would spend every holiday there if I'd let him!

We are a family of 5 and hotels are almost impossible. We just rent apartments now. Soo much more relaxing as well to have seperate space in the evenings.

We stayed in a hotel room at the Newport Bay hotel in Disneyland Paris last year as a family of 5!

We do cottages or caravans when they were younger.

Family of 7 here! (But we were 5 once ).
Package and hotel holidays were always no go for us, so we rented apartments, caravans, did camping in "supertents" in France (when there were 6 of us) and once sneaked an extra child into a hotel room that we used for one night whilst travelling .

It's quite doable.

These are a couple of websites that I know do hotel rooms for larger families

Www.sleeps5.com
Www.sixsuitcasetravel.com

Five here too...awkward
We did Pierre et vacances in France or caravans
Had our own caravan in the uk and then country cottage when youngest was 8 for short breaks.
We went to Florida when youngest was 9 and squeezed into a family room...it was a wonder we didn’t kill one another

We stayed in a Disney hotel as a family of 5. In the uk we stopped staying in hotels when youngest was 3.

Camping, caravans, center Parcs all work.

I got rid of my husband. I highly recommend it as a solution to your problem!

Good to know there are a few options.
We’re looking at Euro Disney for next year & probably a villa holiday abroad.
We’ve managed some good holidays so far, mostly abroad, but I spend alot of time researching them...! We’ve used Airbnb, HomeAway etc and seem to get good deals. I’ve looked at the sleeps5 website before for a stay in London, but in the end it was much cheaper for us to stay in 2rooms at a travelodge. We always holiday in villas abroad and have a hire car as travelling in taxis is a nightmare too!

Haha! Bluetrampolines!!! I think I’d go insane if he wasn’t there to help though!!

Once you have more than 3 dc you really need to go off piste pun intended and book your own flights, apartments etc. It works out cheaper than a package holiday anyway.

We’ve never done a package holiday.
When we book hotels for weddings/city breaks etc we have 2 rooms and other than that, we hire something self catering (villa/apartment/cottage).
This is what people mean when they say having children is expensive! Initially they’re not, once you’ve got the basic equipment and nappies, but the costs as they get older and you want to do anything is obviously greater the larger your family.

it is annoying when you see a great deal and then when you put in there are 5 of you the cost pretty much doubles!!!

In london we found it was best to rent an apartment - also meant we could save on food costs by making breakfast ourselves/ making packed lunches/ having takeaways.

we do camping/mobile caravans where you can have 3 rooms.

surprisngly most of the themepark hotels (legoland/chessington/alton towers etc) are rooms for 5 people - a double bed and a seperate but attached are for kids with bunkbed and a pull out bed.

when they were little we would sneak the extra one into a hotel if we just wanted somewhere cheap to stop overnight. often one of us would go and check in with a couple of the kids and then the other one would come in a bit later with the other and go straight to the room!

We also invite FIL to some places with us when its somewhere he would also enjoy and our eldest son shares with him. (means FIL pays for his room and we only have to pay for ours!!)

We've glamped with 5 no problems - I always just ask if they can put an extra bed in and not had a problem yet - there is usually a charge but often it's been waived as our youngest is only 3.

Also - places that do the massive safari tents are good as they often have a double bed and then two sets of bunks - when we were away this summer I noticed most of the families in the safari tents had 3 or 4 children.

We've booked package holidays as well with interconnecting rooms - 3 children sharing and us in the other room.

We've been to Duinrell a few times as 5. We also have stayed in villas in mainly Spain as part of a bigger group and when the kids were smaller we stayed in 2 bed apartments in Ibiza.

Crafty My workload halved when i hot rid of my h. Totally agree about the pricing problem. I have the same issue with being a single mum and 3 kids. Family tickets dont really cater for us. Annoying.

My tip is to phone the hotel direct. A surprising number of hotel websites won't let you book for 5 but when you ask it's not a problem.

What are dts?

Twins, I think.

I've 3 DC and have often emailed or phoned a hotel, and it's never been a problem. They just add an extra (usually very small/ sleepover type) bed

Family of 4 here but we use places on 'les castles' website a lot in France. All the places we've stayed in have always fitted at least 6- usually one double bedroom and then a room with room for up to 4 kids.