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?

Was it Brighton?

Posted too soon: now I see it WAS Brighton -- just as I thought!

£175 a night with no breakfast is utterly ludicrous!

Last month, we did 3 nights glamping for £800 just for the S/C pimped up safari tents with a hot tub. Normally, I would never choose this but it was fine for a socially distanced alternative to what should have been a fortnight's activity holiday in Slovenia.

Very little UK availability means that is it for us this summer. I made sure to book our Oct HT beachfront cottage (nearest UK coast) as soon as I got back which was a relatively reasonable £1200.

Looking to next summer, even looking at beach/lake front 2 bed "naice" apartments in Devon /Cornwal/Cumbria in peak season seem to be around the £1.5k - £2K pw mark! I normally spend around the £2K mark for a week in Europe which includes flights & car hire.

Eating out and activities will vary enormously according to budget so that would be hard to compare. We're a family of 4 with 2 teens and think we're doing well if the family meal out comes in for less than £80 even in an inexpensive pizza/pasta restaurant. Easy to do with 2 courses plus a drink each.

What's the point in this post? You clearly know you didn't get the cheapest hotel available so you've answered your own question there?

@stairway obv it's not a thread about camping but we camp a lot. Through choice. It's not cheap but a darn site cheaper than a good hotel (which would be my other choice). What I get for my money at the campsites I frequent is space, wildlife, big skies, and to spend my holiday at my pace. Not for everyone I realise. This year instead of camping in France we have taken multiple trips to our favourite sites in the UK. The weather has been ace too 😀

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.

This ^

I guess you have to compare like with like. I don't know about hotels as I don't stay in them but holiday cottages in the UK are so expensive compared to those in Europe, as housing costs in general are so much more.

We went to North Devon - stayed in an apartment in a castle overlooking the coast with swimming pool (sole use of for 2 hours a day), mini golf and crazy snooker, 50 acre gardens, 2 bedroom apartment with kitchen, large bathroom and living room £1075 for a week end of July.

Then activities for 4 of us - boat trip to Lundy to swim with seals, walk and pub on Lundy island, whole day £225 total
2.5 hour boat trip round coast £160 for 4 of us total
Gorging for 4 of us £135 total

Then 2 nights in cottage in Dartmoor with hot tub and llama feeding, cream tea £400
Alpaca walking across Dartmoor and cream tea for 2 £67

Food and petrol for 9 days £500ish with mainly takeaway dinners and self catering for breakfast and lunch.

So around £2567 for 9 days which is less than we spend abroad, mainly due to no flights and not eating out as much or AI.

This is why I love camping, it's invigorating and I hardly spend any money. I'd be distraught if i spent that on a 4 day break.

It's all relative. Can you afford it? Did you enjoy it? Yes to both and it wasn't expensive, no and it was.

The hotel sounds normal for anywhere half-decent. But I'd have ditched the spa treatments - I don't enjoy them and they're never terribly special. You don't really need two restaurant-y meals a day; you could have had a nice picnic, a cream tea that did instead of lunch, fish and chips. Join the National Trust/English Heritage and get free admission and parking for a year. You could have knocked off a few hundred pounds and still had much the same holiday.

And you've just said you can afford it, so what does it matter? And drip-fed that your husband eats what most people would consider two brunches.

It sounds extortionate to me but then I wouldn’t even consider paying £175 a night for a UK hotel.

When we take UK breaks the hotel is just a base to sleep in because we’re out all day and/or night doing whatever we’ve planned.

We generally ‘holiday’ 4-5 times a year in the UK for between 2 and 5 nights and mostly spend no more than £30 a night on a Premier Inn. Lots of day activities (visiting and sightseeing) are free and we have a decent evening meal but come in far under £200 spending most days - and that’s even if it’s all 5 of us that go!

So yes you can have lovely UK breaks for far less than you’ve spent op - but if you have the money to do it, so what? It’s all relative.

We are just back from a break in a luxury caravan in Devon. Booked pre Covid and it was English holidays (we are in Scotland) so I moaned a bit about the cost, about £850. It was worth it though as the caravan was gorgeous and just great to get a break from here!

My kids love the beach so we just tend to hang out there, we had one meal out and a cream tea (thanks Rishi!) and some drinks/ice creams etc. Meals otherwise were like we’d have at home or BBQs.

Was worth every penny to get away from this bloody house for a week! But no, holidaying in the U.K. ain’t cheap!

I think we'd spend the same on eating out as you did. It's expensive holidaying in the UK. Like you, we'd prefer to spend that on a holiday abroad where you can generally guarantee the weather.

I adore camping, and our version of camping is actually quite luxurious, so I don't think anyone is allowed to tell me it's not a holiday to me - although I'm a bit peeved this year at the number of people who are camping, so more than happy for people to think it's not for them. However, as others have said, I think the point is that if you book an expensive UK holiday, then it's going to cost a lot (especially this year) and that's fine, but shouldn't be surprising. That doesn't mean all UK holidays are expensive, and I don't think it is competitive miserliness (I'm happy to splash out on things that are worth it to me) to point out that holidaying in the UK can be done much more cheaply.

Yes, seems like quite a lot for 4 days. We're off for 7 days next week. £700 for 3 bed holiday cottage. We won't be going to anything that costs money (due to COVID, not worth being too close to people), so lots of wild swimming, walking, picnics, just playing in a nice big garden that isn't ours. It's self-catering, so will get a shop as usual but maybe cost slightly more than what we'd normally spend on food shopping for the week due to extra alcohol and treats.

I definitely spend a lot more on holidays abroad, but I think it's because they are different sorts of holidays. We eat out (not self-catering), costs of flights, parking, etc. and we tend to stay nicer places. Our UK holidays are always cottages or camping, nothing too crazy.

2 people: £40 for brunch + £20 for afternoon snack + £80 for evening meal... is a lot to spend. I find £20/head is typical restaurant evening meal price.