Family holidays

[SweetPeaPods]

I was close to putting this in AIBU but probably more of a moan.
How to families afford to go abroad? DH and I both work full time. Both earn professional level salaries (read middle bracket) and we haven’t had a proper holiday since before we had the dc 6 years ago. Don’t get me wrong I know some great holidays can be had in the UK and the dc as yet have nothing to compare too. But I would love a week away in the sun, and we just can’t justify the price. Am I looking in the wrong places? DH insists he will not pay £5k for us to have a week in Spain but we are restricted to school holidays. Is it better savings throughout the year and booking years in advance?

...that was eaten indoors. Grr

5k is a lot for Spain. That is more than our two week USA holidays cost.

We keep the cost down by travelling to Spain by car, ferry or train.

We are staying all inclusive May half term this for four and it is costing us about £1600.

I save for these holidays all year round, any bit of overtime my DH gets goes into savings, plus I matched bet from home to make extra money.

I think on Thomas cook you can pay monthly with little or no deposit.

14 nights all inclusive in majorca in august

www.thomascook.com/packages/H0204111/?connectorCode=1&contentId=6781ef8ccb50242579719ade9fe890bda0e5c93d9bf69024&startDate=2019-08-20&endDate=2019-08-20&depAirport=MAN&duration=14&boardType=1&brand=AIR1&room=1APT01,2,3,6&seasonCode=S19&freeChildFlag=No&context=thomascook.com&selectedDate=2019-08-20&geoPath=Spain,%20Balearic%20Islands,%20Majorca,%20Cala%20D%27Or&roomPackageId=AIRHOL@1463958&tab=/search&productId=H0204111&bsrp=start%3D0%26end%3D9%26occupation%3D2%252C3%252C6%26context%3Dthomascook.com%26connectorCode%3D1%26routingInfo%3Dsolr%26boardType%3D1%26commercialDestination%3DSpain_-Any%26depAirport%3DMAN%26departureDate%3D20190814%252C20190820%26duration%3D14%26durationFacet%3D14%26excludeBrandZ%3Dtrue%26flexible%3Dtrue%26goingTo%3DSpain%252C%2520Any%26isFlexible%3Dtrue%26keepFilters%3Dtrue%26langLong%3Den-EN%26language%3Den%26origin%3DManchester%26resortCode%3Dspain-any%26sbDepAirport%3DMAN%26sort%3Dprice_asc%26sponsorshipService%3D3%26type%3DcommercialDestination%26value%3DSpain-_Any%26when%3D20190817%26widening%3Dtrue

2 weeks half board i alcudia

www.thomascook.com/search?resortCode=spain-any&goingTo=Spain,%20Any&depAirport=MAN&sbDepAirport=MAN&origin=Manchester&flexible=true&when=20190817&duration=14&occupation=2,3,6&sort=price_asc&keepFilters=true&departureDate=20190814,20190820&start=0&end=9&context=thomascook.com&connectorCode=1&routingInfo=solr&durationFacet=14&isFlexible&sponsorshipService=3&widening=true&language=en&langLong=en-EN&commercialDestination=Spain_-Any&type=commercialDestination&value=Spain-_Any&excludeBrandZ&boardType=3&resortCategory=Alcudia#pageTop

Self catering at Easter or October instead of all inclusive in August, is one answer. Engage brain and think and research non standard options.

People with two good saleries coming in who say they can't afford a holiday almost always mean they can't afford the very specific expensive type of holiday they have in mind, and are not being flexible or imaginative or doing much research.

Either that or they're repaying big debts or really overstretched with outgoings which might not all need to be so high - if you've prioritised buying the "forever" house over holidays that's fair but it's not that you can't afford a holiday, it's that you could have had a perfectly adequate smaller home and holidays, but made a different choice.

5k seems alot of money, we are a family of 4 and normally spend around £1500 on our yearly holiday. Which is for 1 week in spain

I'm going to Tenerife in the half term for £3k all inclusive with jet2
We rented a villa last year which was August peak for 1500 euro for 10 days plus flights and car hire - we shared a large villa so it was less between the 7 of us

Canaries last Feb half term was £1600 all inclusive albeit the food wasn't great

Doesn't need to coat 5k

I agree it doesn’t need to cost £5k but at the minute we can’t afford £2k either.
Blueskies I don’t want a specific expensive holiday, I would just like a relaxing holiday in the sun which the dc will also enjoy. We moved house last year, nothing fancy I guess we could have settled for a shack somewhere and gone abroad on holiday instead.

Slightly prone to hyperbole SweetPeaPods ? Can't have the first choice all inclusive in Spain? It'll have to be a borrowed caravan in Yorkshire! Maybe overstretched on the mortgage? The only alternative was a shack!

I completely agree with you op... I think even 2.5 k for a week is outrageous, yet ppl seem willing to pay it, when did this become the norm at this price?!?
I can’t take holidays outside of school holidays as nobody to cover the holidays.also school are soooo super strict it’s unreal.
I think we re being ripped off massively for holidays at home and abroad!

What are your dates and airports? For 2 adults and 1 child?

I've looked at Majorca and Spain for 2 adults and 2 kids in the first week of the summer holidays and there are several with jet2 at 1700. Fuerteventura coming in around 2200 all inclusive. That's nowhere near 5000.

I think it's a matter of priorities. My family holidays are a high priority for me so we see it as worth the money

Look, we’re all saying that you can go for a week abroad in the summer for say £1.5k if you are able to buy cheap flights. Self catering for us actually means eating out in different places. When we bought our house, we knew that we couldn’t afford to go on holiday for the next 2 yrs and we didn’t. I actually think it’s normal to be lacking funds after a house purchase. We literally just did day trips from our own home mainly. Roll on next year when you have less outgoings. I love our holidays but I still view them as luxuries which are the first thing to go.

It does sound like a case of "we have good jobs so we are entitled to everything we want immediately, it's not fair that we can't afford everything entailed in having two young children, and have a new home and an all inclusive peak season foreign holiday abroad of our choice all within the same short time period !"

Back in the real world nobody can have everything they want all at once, when everything includes children, houses and foreign holidays, unless their well off parents are financing some of it or they're in the top few percent of earners.

Everyone is prioritising what's important to them, or spacing things out, or compromising.

OP as an aside , I think Puerto Pollensa is much nicer than Alcudia ( just a few miles away )