How often do you take your children on holiday?

[Sowhataboutthat]

How often do you take your children in holiday? Including weekends?

5 days in Paris
4 days in Nice
We’re going to Norfolk next weekend for the weekend
We’ll go for a week to visit mil who lives in a seaside town
Then we’re off to the Dominican Republic for two weeks (was meant to be Sri Lanka)
We’ve always dragged dds everywhere with us since they were babies. Love sticking a pin in the map.

3 weeks I the summer, Greek islands last year, USA this year. A week in the U.K. at Easter and October half terms. Several weekends away visiting family on the coast.

Maybe twice a year? We take one beach holiday every summer (in the UK) to a family property that my dh's family has owned for generations, so we each get a free weekend/week there a year. Then we usually go away one other weekend a year somewhere. This isn't always the same though and it isn't always together. I took my older dc away abroad for 3 days this year and we probably won't have a family holiday anywhere else (except to the beach house above). Early next year though we'll probably go abroad to visit family (staying with them, not really a 'holiday' per se, though it is sunny where they live).

Once a year. We used to go abroad but can't afford it any more so go visit family in the U.K.

chewbacca but if you have (if I’ve understood you correctly) you have jointly 12 weeks annual leave, and are doing 5 weeks worth of family holidays (5 weeks each, so 10 weeks total) that only leave 2 weeks left for the remaining 8 weeks of school holidays. Which means your DC must be in holiday clubs for 6 weeks. Have I understood that correctly?

For me, quite aside of the expense of the holiday clubs, that’s your DC in childcare for a lot of the holidays. Possibly, as DD is an only child as so holiday clubs can be a bit stressful for her as she never knows if she’ll makes friends, for me that’s an awfully long time.

Or do you have family helping you out for those 6 weeks?

1 week in a caravan by the sea (UK). We are also trying out an air b n b for 4 nights in the summer holidays, about 2 hours away from where we live.

cass, DC are now teenaged.

We just about managed the primary years through a combination of family help, working from home, buying extra holiday and TOIL. All scheduled out at the start of the year. Not easy I have to admit. I appreciate my employer’s flexibility I have been lucky to benefit from.

We have one week away during summer, and try to manage a short break either Easter or October half term. Always UK. Always self-catering.

Center Parcs for us this year/next year. November and January for a week each time. We love it there.

Op one year we had one night away.
After that I re budgeted everything to start to accrue more holiday money in tiny increments.

This year was luxery! We did Easter and May but can't afford any thing else this year.

We scour yha esp when they do their 25% off. Premier Inn etc.

No luxury hotels or 'resorts', or package deals.

Camp sites, b and b s yha.... Etc etc.

For those saying UK more expensive. Mine and my husband passport has expired and the children don't have one. That's a big initial cost. We'd also have car parking for airport, and insurance (DH has some health issues which bump up the price). We've never spent more than £600 for a week self catering in a cottage or caravan even in school holidays. Then it's fuel, food shop and some activities on top of £600.

When our youngest is school age and our childcare lowers we may be able to afford to go abroad, but the children don't mind UK holidays. I don't think we could do it cheaper going abroad.

None as they are 19 & 17. Currently on a river cruise on the Danube and it is bliss with no DC!

I appreciate £600 to spend on a week's accommodation might seem a lot when compared to YHA and camping. However I still think its less than the four of us going abroad.

We usually do a Center Parcs weekend in January, visit family holiday home in February, 3 or so nights away at Easter in a youth hostel type place, family holiday home for the May bank hol, abroad in May half term and a big holiday in the summer. Sometimes something in October half term
and usually a couple of camping trips on summer weekends / during summer hols.

So quite a lot written down but most are fairly budget.

I never feel like it’s that much compared to my childhood when we would do 1-2 long haul hols a year plus a couple of other European trips.

This year which is normalish, we've been away for 3 nights Feb half term, 4 nights for Easter self catering accommodation. Camping for 3 nights May half term.

And booked 3 nights for summer in a house, and a 10 night break abroad.

I assume we will book something for Oct too.

We both work FT and enjoy getting away from home to focus on the children and spending time with them

Depends on plans for the year, bought a house, renovated said house, started a new business, GCSE year - around these years holidays have been lean but other times we have had maybe 2-3 foreign holidays and quite a few weekend breaks.

The DCs are teens now. We have one main holiday for 2 weeks each year: usually somewhere in Europe, but it has varied (Cornwall & Canada!).
We have also always had plenty of special days out or short trips away which have changed as they've grown. Day at London museums & sights now replaced by rock gigs. We've also been able to support specialist hobbies involving trips & gear.

We do recognise how fortunate our DCs are. We are highly qualified, so in well paid jobs, and DH makes good investment decisions.

We usually have 3 holidays abroad a year. A week at Easter, 2 weeks in the summer and a week at October half term.

Also do weekends away to grandparents, but don't count these as holidays.

We usually do a couple of the Sun cheapo holiday - going to The Netherlands in October through them and went to Wales at Easter - then a week or two away in our little touring caravan over summer, plus as many weekends/rallies in it as I can fit in/afford.

So much money spent on holidays and people still complain about not having any money to save .
We’ve taken the children abroad three times since 2014 and may or may not go abroad this summer . It’s usually every other year. We do go to my sisters house on the coast for a week every summer and I’ll take them for a couple of days every Easter . I don’t want them growing up wishing their lives away for the next week in the sun .

Well this thread is depressing. We’ve had 4 holidays in 16 years. 3 of those in the UK and one week abroad that we saved for 3 years to have. Perks of working for the NHS.

Holidays and going away for the weekend are totally different beasts for us.

Holidays- 2 or 3 a year. Usually France in the summer, a warm Christmas and maybe an Easter break.

Weekend away- several a year, DS competes at national level so we travel for sports competitions, specialist coaching etc. If he needs to be at warm up for 7.30am and the venue is 3.5 hours away, we certainly won’t be leaving that morning! I think the last time we went away for the weekend not linked to sport was last August bank holiday.

@TastingTheRainbow oh don't worry, I don't think this thread represents real life, you are hardly going to get people boasting they spend a long weekend in Skeggy

My two DCs are 22 and 20, we have gone abroad five times (6 for DD1 - only 9 months old) in their life for a family holiday. Three occurred prior to the recession. Both DCs went on abroad school trip (only France - so hardly those fancy one that are skiing, New York etc).

The other two, one was paid for by my parents, as my sister got married abroad (2014), and another one PIL paid for accomodation, as went for their 40th Wedding anniversary (2012)

Over the years we have managed a few UK camping holidays (Cornwall, Devon, weekend in London etc) esp when the girls were younger.

Still supporting the youngest through Uni so we are still strapped for cash (although have managed a couple of cheap European breaks since she left home) hopefully next summer we can at least do a cheap sun holiday.

I work for the NHS, DH earns ok but we don't have a lot of cash left after bills etc, so would rather at least get away in the UK once a year for a week than save up for three years for 10 days abroad.

Dc are 8 and 16. We normally go to Turkey in late May but couldn't this year as ds was doing his GCSE's.

He is going abroad with his dad next week to a Greek island.
Dp and dd have been on a "dad and daughter" weekend with another family for a weekend a few weeks ago and we're going to Turkey next month as a family.

Dd will also be going to Haven for a long weekend with grandparents soon which will be a little holiday us too as we will have neither dc for a whole weekend

We may manage another weekend in August somewhere like Haven or Butlins.

After booking our abroad holiday I was shocked at how much the price had gone up compared to the last time we went which was in 2017.

So much money spent on holidays and people still complain about not having any money to save .
Saving and holidays are not mutually exclusive.