Holiday for a family of 4 for £1000?

[Stiltons]

Would like to go abroad if possible- somewhere warm with things for the kids (2 and 9) to do. Current budget is £1000 (would need to cover travel and accommodation). Is this do-able? Any recommendations? DH likes the idea of Zante

That’s a poor quality photo sorry

Does it need to be in the summer? The Canaries would be warm in January/February. There might be some good AI deals to be had. I think school holidays might be out of budget.

Dowser that first link made me laugh!

I don't think you will manage abroad during school hols for that budget. In school hols you can Easily blow most of that on an Airbnb in the UK.

You can get tickets to malaga for summer in Jan/Feb for £35 each way per person if you buy at the right time. Some under 16 fares can be as low as £25. Hand luggage only but with Jet2 for example you can pack enough for a week if you're careful, buy toiletries there and go somewhere with a hairdryer. So that's £280. You can also buy one large suitcase in the hold for £25 each way. Set up alerts on Google and Skyscanner and monitor prices.

Malaga itself is nice enough but also has good public bus connections to other parts of Andalusia. Maybe budget £20 per person return depending on where you want to go. I wouldn't bother with transfers if you're going anywhere resort like as you can get there by bus. Kids obviously travel cheaper.

That leaves you with £600 which will get you a nice self catering two bedroom apartment no bother. Look on spain-holidays.com, airbnb and trip advisor. Can look on booking.com but more limited choice and generally poorer value. Costa tropical area is international up to and including nerja, very Spanish after that, both nice with kids as less of a drinking culture. Going from malaga the other way is more UK tourist oriented which means more partying types but easier to get hold of familiar food and communicate etc which is again handy when with kids. Either direction you'll get a nice two bedroom place on that budget, really. If you're near the beach you won't need a pool etc although a lot of apartment complexes will have a shared one anyway.

I wouldn't book the kind of hotel that would come within that budget.

I've just had a quick search on TUI and assuming you're looking at school holidays (I put in a midweek departure for the last week of July) you'll need a minimum of £2k for a package of flights and a basic self catering apartment in Greece.

Somewhere like Majorca would be just about doable in May on that budget self catering or b&b but not during school holidays. Have a look at a site like On the beach where they pull separate flights and hotels together for you.

After a quick search on spain-holidays here for example is a two bedroom place on the beachfront, aircon, WiFi, satellite, rooftop pool just over £500 for the first week in August, cleaning, towels and linen included.

www.spain-holiday.com/18908

Looking more closely at the listing it even has sunbeds you can take to the pool/beach. I think this would be a very nice holiday.

Look on Skyscanner for flights and search Everywhere then you'll see what's cheapest.

Five of us are going to Majorca self catering with hire car for just under £1000 next Easter. This year we were in the Algarve same week for £900. I book flights directly, usually EasyJet, then use Travel Republic and Love Holidays for accommodation and car hire.
Not sure it's possible in the summer hols unless you get flights the day they're released.

Here is one in nerja for the same week in August, not as high quality a finish in kitchen as the other apartment but it is nerja which is more trendy I guess and the beaches are prettier so is generally more expensive to stay in. Less easy to do day trips to Granada or Sierra Nevada though but in nerja itself there's plenty to do with the caves and that. £560 for the week, two bedroom house,aircon WiFi, UK Freeview telly, pool.

www.spain-holiday.com/9329

We went to Turkey in May this year for £1200 AI. Tbh the food wasn't great but for a cheap week in the sun I can suck up pizza and chips for a week! That was term time though, saw the same place advertised in school holidays and was double.

Choose your month and country.
Put them into skyscanner for cheap flights. Then go to booking.com and search for self catering accommodation. I always go abroad on your budget and this is the best way.

I agree with this but would say that prices are yet to fall further for next August. There are usually some good deals a couple of weeks into November and then more in January/February. There are definitely flights I've taken with budget airlines that I remember the times of and they aren't showing up yet on Skyscanner but they will soon. So search and do price alerts for now.

For example best I got so far was last year £35 + £25 + £25 tickets +£22 hold case each way to malaga in August. I bought in February having in previous years bought earlier admittedly only for £20-30 more for each ticket but with three tickets that adds up. So the previous time I paid more I set up an alert just to see how low it would go, saw it drop a couple of months after I'd bought and then last year I waited and paid less. Those flights run every day in summer and they're still showing at £130 each on Skyscanner more for return right now but the price will drop; it always does.

That's really useful info. I usually book about 2 or 3 months before going.

Thanks all! Especially those who have come up with specific examples for me. It would definitely have to be in school holidays but could be Easter rather than summer.

Finally I would say that a lot of people rule out Spain because they think brits abroad but actually it is a culturally rich country with castles, museums, amazing world heritage sites like the Alcazar, very good and cheap public transport that you can easily pre book from the UK, some very nice beaches across the entire range from fully developed to wild and remote, good snorkelling and scuba but because of the aforementioned brits abroad thing it's also cheap and easy to get to. We've been going there for years and never eaten a full English breakfast or had microwaved chips for dinner although of course if that's your thing you can do that too. It's very child friendly and because there isn't a drinking culture as such town and city centres are nice and buzzing at night, plenty of good music, all the little impromptu flamenco stuff you get in bars and on the streets even, big fiestas and parades, it's really very nice.

We went to Malmo in Sweden for £1k this summer. Flights were £300 from Stansted to Copenhagen and then Airbnb in Malmo was around £700 (but there were cheaper options).

I agree with Goodenough. Malaga is a great choice.

Sorry I mean Goodnight.

Once I took a train to Italy then Eurocamped in May half term. Similar cost. It was amazing!

I would recommend May HT. Take your car on the ferry to Holland and stay at Duinrell. There are always late deals on accommodation there since the rest of Europe don't tend to have May HT - not when they break up for the summer a few weeks later in June.

If you can get cheap flights, the same applies to all Euro style camping resorts with all the facilities at May HT. e.g Union Lido near Venice. One year, we booked a lastminute static with Gustocamp, a Dutch operator because we got better accommodation for cheaper than a UK operator.

Booking cheap flights is key. Accommodation and car hire is easier but cheap flights isn't.

@poetryinaction two to three months makes sense, you'll still get a decent deal. I am a bit obsessive about it and view it as a challenge so have devoted perhaps too much time to studying it but I got fucked off when the pound dipped against the Euro and our holidays went up in price accordingly so I became determined! We used to be able to do it so much cheaper ... lovely spacious high end two bedroom apartments for the equivalent of £300 when the pound was doing well. Ahh happy days. It's still cheaper than a week in bloody hoseasons though, or anything self catering in the UK.