How do people afford holidays abroad???

[mommathatwearspink]

There’s not many people I know that don’t have at least one holiday abroad every year. We have been looking for 2019/20 for 2 adults, 2 children... it’s the first year we would have to pay in full for both children as they are 2+. We’d also need to go in school holidays (unless we decided to take DD out during term time).
We earn around £50k a year between us, plus DP has potential to earn more but yet the price of holidays seemed unachievable. How on earth do people afford it?

We do 3 abroad holidays a year, one or 2 longhaul. We earn a good salary, save a lot by not going out for drinks/meals/having takeaways. We make sure we shop around for internet/energy to be on the most cost effective plan, we're lucky we get an annual performance bonus too that goes in the holiday pot.
I also shop around A LOT for the holidays to make sure we get a good price, you can save sometimes by booking hotel and flights direct rather than a package.
2 adults and 1 2yr old. When we get stuck with school hols i plan on taking advantage of Jet2/Tui free child places where i can, but that does mean being flexible on dates and locations

We drive to France and stay at our friend's house when she isn't there - she knows!

Or we stay here (Spain) and drive to another city, staying in an apartment that allows dogs. We especially like Girona and Valencia, heading for Navarra/Basque country this summer, Cantabria and Galicia are next on our list.

If we go abroad it is back to UK to visit family, so cheap flights and free accommodation. There is no way we could drop €2000 on a week's villa hire in Italy or anything, although we'd love to.

We cut our cloth and live our holidays. Tried our first camping trip last August - big success, will be doing it again. 7yo loved the independence of going off on his bike on the site and making new friends.

I find holidaying in the UK far too expensive.

It is the staycations that end up costing more than a week somewhere hot

Don't book directly through Eurocamp/canvas etc. It is more expensive. Find the campsite through eurocamp/mistercamp/canvas them contact them directly to book. Often the caravan stock is better too.

I swear there's a post on this every six months?

The answer is simple -

Some people earn more/have less outgoings/prioritise travel.

We don't have them very often.
Probably could cut back on a lot of stuff and go more, we're in Wales so going term time isn't really a problem.
Holidays abroad aren't a priority for us though. I like them but not enough to cut back on day to day luxuries. Given a couple of grand I'd rather buy something beautiful for my home than have a week by a crowded pool.
I love a weekend break, we have several a year. I hate hot weather and other people do a wet week in Tenby is more appealing than an all inclusive.

toast on bean
I think it's every 2 or 3 months!
Agree with your answer - it is that simple!!!

And add to that people having different expectations.

Some people will only stay in a naice villa in the posh end of Mallorca, or 5* a la carte all inclusive, so when they look at holidays they deduce that they are very very expensive, whereas others just want to get away in the sun and not having a massive budget will look for something more affordable so are happy to do Eurocamp or a large buffet style all inclusive resort.

Both have had 'a holiday abroad' but cost could be massively different.

Package holidays are noitoursly expensive, I could never afford too go and buy one.

Search around, own flights, drive....own accmd.

Yep Barbara or just pleasant apartments Etc self catering.

These threads are so dumb.

"how do people afford to do x

By earning more money than you do, by prioritizing other things, by having less other outgoings, or by booking cheaper versions of x, loads of ways. Fucks sake.

Put an alert on Skyscanner for flights; book Airbnbs.

We went away to somewhere warm in December and January (a week both times, just DH and me) , and will have a week’s skiing in the French Alps in March, with lift passes for all five of us. The cost of all three (before spending money) is £2,500.

In the summer we camp in France.

The weekends we spend in hotels in Britain tend to cost more!

Given a couple of grand I'd rather buy something beautiful for my home than have a week by a crowded pool

I don’t share my pool with anyone. For that money you can get a villa with your own pool instead of all stuffed into 1 hotel room and sharing a pool with 200 other people.

I don’t think it is all about how much you earn.
I know a few people who say they cannot afford foreign holidays who are on higher incomes but they spend their money on cigarettes, or a bottle of wine each night, going to the pub for a quick one each evening, clothes, shoes, cars etc it all adds up

Your income is almost double the average wage in the UK How so? They earn 50,000 between two, average wage is per person not per couple!

I agree it's about expectations.

Last year there was a poster bemoaning they couldn't afford a holiday in England. I said I stayed in a chalet on the Isle of Wight with the dcs in August for £400 (+ ferry + food - but you'd be eating at home anyway). Oh, no. They didn't mean that sort of holiday. They mean Devon or Cornwall . Most exasperating.

It’s a shock when your holiday costs are multiplied by 4 (or whatever) instead of 2.
If you haven’t travelled a lot a package holiday does seem safer than air bnb and separate flights.

The extra cost of the school holidays will also be a shock, so if you've gone in a short space of time from a couples or family with a baby holiday in term time to a school holiday holiday with a child or two that need to be paid for, your holiday has gone from costing a few hundred quid to several thousand pounds for what appears to be the same holiday.

Also add in over the last few years the increase in cost in places like Spain and Greece because of increased demand from those who used to go to Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey and the weakening of the pound and the price just increases.

I don’t share my pool with anyone. For that money you can get a villa with your own pool instead of all stuffed into 1 hotel room and sharing a pool with 200 other people.

To meet our requirements and for our family of 4 adults (DC1&2 are 18 and 15) 2 children we've never managed a villa holiday for under 4 grand including spending money even out of school holidays. We eat out at least twice a day often three times plus snacks, drinks out, taxis and excursions. We usually pay extra for a cleaner as well.

I'm not saying it's impossible but I'm not prepared to scrimp on anything either.
So yeah a couple of grand might get us a cheaper villa where I have to cook and clean, the older kids share a room or some other compromise or it would get us a hotel and the shared facilities that brings.
Either way I'd rather buy something for the house and have a couple of mini breaks.

We prioritize travel in our budget - always have done. DH an I make good money now, but even when we were flat broke we scrimped and saved so we could travel. One of our best holidays was a weekend in Paris when we stayed in a hostel, and were so broke we would buy a Diet Coke and split it between us

Now we make our money go further by having a points credit card and putting all our outgoings on it. We rack up enough to cover flights a couple of times a year, which saves us a lot.

tybara

We really only eat out once per day or if we are out for lunch it is usually chips and a soft drink. We don’t drink or eat meat which makes things significantly cheaper.

We tend to pay around £100 per night on a villa, we take the car and drive down £450 and spend about £100 per day on dinner or going out.

Usually with Airbnb we pay for a cleaner as well.

Usually only go for 10 days and spend 2 days each way driving.