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

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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?

The hotel was perhaps slightly pricey but presumably it was upmarket. It is possible to stay at premier inn for £35 a night.

I'm sorry but camping is NOT a holiday and you can't compare a hotel to a camp site

Well, it is a holiday for a lot of people, and OP did ask about "cost of a holiday in the UK", not just hotels.

However, I can't fathom why you would spend £175 a night to sleep in a hotel, which didn't include breakfast even, let alone dinner, nor parking.
If you prefer to eat out and try different places, then why wouldn't you book self catering in one form or another, for a lot less money? Surely the point of paying hotel prices, is that you don't have to lift a finger, or go out to find places to eat. If you are choosing to do that each day, then why pay that for a hotel ?

What hotel charged you £175 per night and didn’t include breakfast????

You do seem to have chosen an unusually expensive hotel given that you weren’t even getting breakfast there.

Well, it does sound expensive to me but my budget is considerably less so hard to compare.

But if you are eating out and in a hotel I am guessing it pushes the prices up.

Eg Last year holidayed in Uk in caravan park for a week. (Have not been on holiday this year).

Spent about 400 on caravan but shared the cost with family friends we went with.

Food about £100 mostly self catered but including one evening meal out and one lunch out and one tea out. And a few ice creams.

Activities about £60.

Mainly as we spent most days on the beach or used included activities at holiday park.

Travel was free as our friends took us and refused petrol money that I offered.

I wouldn't have spent that! Next time just make sure your hotel includes breakfast! That would save loads.
But if you had a good time and can afford it then why not?
We recently spent a week in an airbnb, 4 of us. 2 evening meals out, 2 takeaways and cooked the other 3 nights. Majority of lunches were picnics. Not really sure what we spent in total (not helpful I know) but I felt like if we'd done it much more cheaply then it wouldn't have been much of a break.

For just two of you, that's expensive yes. You can definitely do staycations for much cheaper, but it depends on what you're after and what you can afford.

We chose that hotel because of the lovely spa facilities and the proximity to everywhere we wanted to go. For Brighton I don’t actually think it was particularly expensive.

It was also originally £200 cheaper as we planned to go Monday to Friday but had to change our dates due to DP having a work commitment.

We also managed to get a premier inn breakfast for 2 adults and 3 kids for £8.95 all you can eat.

@Turnedouttoes I wonder if that was one of the few hotels left and so it was more expensive as well due to demand? It seems like everywhere booked up very quickly.

Tbh I’m more astonished at what people are prepared to pay to go camping. Surely all you get when you camp is the use of a small piece of muddy grass and some public toilet facilities and yet people are prepared to pay ££s for the privilege!

Brighton isnt cheap to be fair. So in that respect it was probably a good deal, cost wise for area.

As far as I know there is no, on street free parking in the city. If I visit I always go by train.

I think what you spent was reasonable and to be expected. You can do cheap and cheerful UK breaks (e.g camping, caravan/self catering), but you very much get what you pay for and you would need to reduce your expectations if you were to spend a lot less. My DH and I had our mini-moon in Edinburgh. The hotel was £800 for 3 nights, our meal at The Balmoral was £450 on one night alone and the entire break totalled around £3000. It was extravagent, we blew most of the wedding money we'd been given as gifts, but we had an absolute blast and remember the trip fondly. We've recently been to Keswick and spent £440 on 2 nights DBB in a nice (but not 5star) hotel and felt it was well worth it. Equally, we've spent £100 to camp for 5 nights with the kids and have had a wonderful time, but have been realistic as to the kind of break it would be. UK breaks are no cheaper than abroard and are much more expensive in many cases. X

We don't do expensive holidays.
Typically we choose a last minute deal, eat out perhaps once, or get a takeaway and take picnics for lunch, and spend most of the time on the beach where wall we pay is car park and ice creams. There's 5 of us-3 teens and me and dh.

This year we got a cheap Pontins: Not sure I'd recommend it but we paid approximately:

Accommodation: £200
Food: £175 (supermarket shop on the way, eating out twice, both times under the 50% scheme and one takeaway fish and chips)
Daily cost £15 most days (£5 car park, ice creams for all)
Petrol £40 (inc there and back)

Total: £430

We ate out twice this time and had a takeaway partially because the accommodation was so cheap so we felt we could justify it, and partially because of the 50% scheme.

The cost to me that stands out is the food, which is totally your choice. You can say you didn't eat anywhere expensive, but maybe you are including breakfast at the hotel, midmorning snack, lunch at a nice hotel place, and evening meal at a restaurant.

The year we stayed in a hotel we bought our own breakfast (croissants), stopped at a supermarket on the way to buy sandwiches etc for lunch, and then ate out, and between the 5 of us, for 5 nights we would have paid less than half what you paid.
But we'd have eaten takeaways on a couple of the nights, we ate out twice at the same place because they gave a us a discount card (and it was especially nice) and the other place we ate out was a nice pub.

So part of that is your choice, so you can't do that and say "holidays in UK are expensive". It's a bit like saying buying a car is expensive:
Person A says "yes, I paid £30k for mine because there's no point buying one second-hand"
Person B says: "Yes, I could only get a 5 year old car for my budget of £5k"
Person C says: "They're not expensive, it's important you get good quality because of the safety, it was £10k well spent"
Person D says: "No they're cheap, mine was £200".

They've all made choices on amount of money to spend depending on their budget and what they want.

That's a very expensive hotel. I've stayed in 4* hotels regularly in the U.K. and typically pay just over £100 including breakfast. Last week I paid £170 a night half board. You spent £200 a day on food and activities, must have been at very expensive places!

We got back from a week long holiday in Devon yesterday, DH and I and 2 DC 14 and 12. Our self catering lodge was £1050 for the week. I’ve just done some calculations and I think we’ve spent around £1000 whilst there on food, eating out, parking and activities. That’s not including petrol.

I can’t say I’m surprised we spent that. We didn’t go without or reign in our spending but also weren’t really pushing the boat out either. We are also used to AI resorts abroad. It makes a difference when you are shelling out for every single bottle of water, coffee, ice cream and gin & tonic consumed!

My rationale was that we are still saving a significant amount of money that we would have spent on our cancelled holiday abroad so no need to scrimp.

This country can be so expensive to holiday in, especially if you’re trying to have a nice ‘holiday’.

Yes, that's why holidays moved abroad!

ah brighton well that makes sense awful parking and the prices are like london it can get ridiculous

id alo recommend re booking for the eotho scheme loads are booked up already

That said I would never book all inclusive abroad, I hate eating in hotel restaurants more than once or twice in a week, I always book b&b so I'm used to eating out each night budget wise. Prices vary but the U.K. is no more or less than most European destinations capital cities excluded. Yes there's seriously pricey restaurants but there is overseas too.

Yes that is probably why pre Covid everyone jets off overseas. Not only (usually) guaranteed preferable weather but also adds an exotic element and change of scene. Many parts of the British Isles are beautiful but the sun is not always on tap and the costs is always more than abroad even pricing in transportation. The more activities you undertake within the UK the higher the costs. Conversely in most overseas destinations the more activities you enjoy the more relative cost savings. That is even accounting for our Brexshit bargain pound sterling! Simples.

Last year in Cornwall I spent £200 in 7 days on petrol, parking, food- EVERYTHING for myself and 2 teens.

I recently paid £1600 for one accommodation and £580 for another very close by (so all the children and partners could join us without feeling crowded).
Meals included a pub meal £320, a supermarket shop £180, a restaurant meal £430, a takeaway the children clubbed together for, fuel and dart crossing, a couple of lunches and teas/coffees.
We stayed three nights. I think it is all quite expensive at the moment as availability is reduced. We wanted it to be special rather than cramped or scrimping. Money well spent.

Four nights away recently in the uk. Family of four, accommodation (s/c) £200 - beautiful building, gorgeous garden. Lovely market town near the sea. No parking costs. Petrol about £30. Didn’t eat out due to coronavirus. Ate in/cooked lovely things and took food to the beach. Two trips to local shops, £33 then a £26 top up for meat for the barbecue. Probably an extra £30 on alcohol to be fair but took it with us from home. £3 on a bag of doughnuts at the beach and £4 on some drinks at a petrol station en route.

Not more than £300 (which was our budget).

I think OP knows that you can do a 4 night UK break cheaper than this if you want to or have to.
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