Was this a lot to spend on a U.K. break?

[FizzyPink]

Never done a U.K. break before so had no idea how expensive it was going to be. We’d usually spend similar going abroad but feel we get a lot more for our money.

Just DP and I did 4 nights this week in a seaside town on the South coast. Nice hotel, brunch out each day plus dinner. No expensive activities, just crazy golf and a little steam train, most of the time was spent wandering around. We’re not massive drinkers so maximum two drinks per night each. I’ve just added up what we spent -

Hotel for 4 nights = £700
Spa treatments = £250
Everything else (food, drinks, parking, petrol, activities) = £800

I knew the hotel cost and spa treatments in advance obviously but I’m so shocked at how much we spent while there. We didn’t do anything particularly extravagant and ate in decent but not 5* restaurants.

It was a break so I accept it was always going to cost to have a nice time but is it always this expensive to have a U.K. break?

Yes which is why we don't holiday in the UK. As a family of six it is both cheaper and nicer for us to go to Portugal for a week than it is for us to do anything here.

Yes that's a huge amount to spend on 4 days in a hotel, it's expensive to holiday in the uk but that's excessive.

Yes, that's loads. The UK is very poor value for money anyway but I'm intrigued what you actually got for the £800.

£100 each a day on food??? That's crazy. Especially if it doesn't even include wine.

So breaking it down, £80 was on parking as the hotel didn’t have any and £35 on petrol. Then brunch each day was probably £40 plus £70-80 on dinner and then a couple of drinks on top.

We definitely didn’t feel like we were being extravagant at all, I’m shocked that it so easily came to so much money. We’ll definitely be sticking to trips abroad in future!

Four nights is 5 days
Assuming breakfast in hotel
Lunch out 10 to 20 each? Alternative is 3.99 sandwich meal deal from supermarket
Coffees and ice creams 6 each ?
Dinner out fish and chips on beach 7.99 each ..or prooer dinner witb wine 30 to 50 each
Entrance to attraction or boat ride or similar 10 to 30 each

So yeh could easily add up.
But you czn do it cheaper.
Pick up sandwich meal deal instead of gastropub lunch etc

Wow thats an incredible amount!

We often holiday in Uk but spend a lot less than that. I wouldn't mind an expensive uk holiday though!

You can easily spend that abroad tho if you eat out all meals

We had a week in Cornwall in August for 4, it cost us more than our recent cruise! £1800 cottage, £2000 food and drink, parking, petrol etc. Madness

£2000 on food and drink!? Goodness. We spend a fraction of that when we go to Cornwall. I wish I had your budgets!

So we didn’t have breakfast included in the hotel hence a big brunch every day. I fully appreciate we could have done it much cheaper but that’s just not a holiday in my eyes.

Abroad we’d usually book a 5* all inclusive resort so everything already paid for bar a couple of dinners outside the hotel. I guess I just thought “oh we’ll have a cheap UK break after we had 4 trips abroad cancelled but that’s obviously not the reality”!

You didn't have to spend that much though. 2 of you could have eaten for a shit tonne less.

I don't know why you're surprised. If you're in this country and used to prices in £, you know what the money is worth. What did you think would happen? If you went out to eat every meal for a week when you're at home, it would cost a fair chunk - why should that be any different on the other side of the country?

It seems a lot but whether you spend money in UK or abroad it is still holiday. Do you feel relaxed and refreshed? If you do then money well spent. You could have eaten dinner out and got supermarket lunches, sandwiches, cherry tomatoes, bag of apples, pepperoni sticks and bananas and had those for lunch.

About what we would spend. It all depends on your budget I suppose. What we class as normal on holiday, others would class as an extravagance.

Whilst it is a lot of money, I don’t think in reality I would have spent any less. When you take out your cost of petrol etc. the meal/extras was £685 for two people over four nights, that’s 8 brunches, at least 8 dinners and associated snacks/drinks and works out £85/adult per night. When you take into consideration brunch will be around £15/person minimum and spirits/cocktails will be £10-15/drink depending on where you are, I think that’s just the cost of doing this in the U.K. and not going to takeaway style places or fast casual family type restaurants (harvester, TGI Fridays etc.) where obviously it would be cheaper.

@Turnedouttoes did you have any meals between brunch and dinner? Just curious because I’m nosy about food. :) But that also could’ve contributed to costs if you got street snacks, etc. Also, where did you go in the UK?

@lurker101 I agree, your math adds up, especially if people don’t feel like picnicking with a meal deal, etc.

We spent £580 (cottage), £180 (food) and £250 (car rental) last week on four days in Kent for two of us.

It's the UK. It's expensive. And that's not including tickets to historical sites/ kayaking etc.

We ate at the cottage to keep costs down and still spent near a grand! It does feel a lot.

Easily done, just paid £750 for a week at mates rates s/c and I'm not cooking fully expect to pay another £750 if not more now we're here

Crickey. I know it's a holiday but rein it in a bit

Our last British holiday
7 nights Isle of Wight
Cottage £800
Ferry £148
Evening Meals out 4 people £130
Lunches £60. Packed lunch mostly
Food shop normal weekly shop cost £100
Day trips for four and parking £200
Total for 7 nights 2 adults 2 teens £1500 approx.

We always go self catering, we've recently had a week in a lovely cottage for the 4 of us in Devon for £750 which included a pool, hot tub and games room.

We didn't spend any more on food than we do at home and used about £80 on fuel and parking.

@JingsMahBucket not really. We got caught in a couple of downpours so stopped on two days for drinks/cake late afternoon which was probably £20 a time but the other days just had brunch around 12 and then dinner.

I will say they were substantial brunches though (DP for example will eat eggs on toast plus pancakes) which makes them quite expensive.

Of course we could have done it cheaper but we have plenty of money to afford it and eating a meal deal for lunch is not my idea of a holiday. I just wasn’t expecting it to be quite so much when I added it all together! We have a joint Starling card so it’s easy to see each purchase by day

is it always this expensive to have a U.K. break?

No.
4 of us have just been away for a week in Wales, (ie, 2x as many people, and twice as long in time, almost) and only spent just over £800.

However, like all these "How much" questions - it is a very long piece of string. Depends on your budget, your attitude to money, and your need to spend money to "be entertained".

It doesn't really surprise me that hotels & meals out can be expensive in the UK, because I live in the UK. For comparison, our week camping for 4 cost £300 for the pitch (expensive site, but lots available for free on site) and then we spent £150 on food and activities (mostly self catering but a couple of cheap takeaway meals, and most of the time spent on the beach or cycling, with a few ice creams thrown in)