So, how do you manage a holiday during the school holidays without breaking the bank?

[Belleende]

So, putting Covid to one side. This year will be the first we try and get a holiday in during the school holidays. We don't have a car so don't have the option of going too far off the beaten track. Have been looking at caravans in Devon (have family there) and they are all about a grand for a week and that is before entertainment passes.

Anyone have any tips to make a seaside holiday more affordable?

We have found a few places during school holidays for around the £400/£450 mark, including a lodge with a hot tub in Wales (a few years back). We now have a campervan and tent so we don’t pay more than £100 for 3/4 days.

Cornwall and Devon are usually pretty expensive but sometimes you can get good offers on haven (Devon cliffs), we managed to book May bank holiday once for around £250 (long weekend) which included passes, when we go there they upgraded us to a bigger van for free so we had a extra bedroom.

We now camp on smaller sites as the dc’s are now teens and not bothered about entertainment. We also rarely go for a week, instead we have a few short (3 day) trips to different places, mainly camping or a few nights at travel lodge. We also do a lot of last minute deals.

Look carefully at sites - smaller less flashy sites are cheaper eg I paid £630 in school holidays including the entertainment passes 2 years ago for a 3 bed caravan in Paignton.

Park resorts and park holidays I've used but independent can be cheaper

Oh and check the price of a family room at premier inn - I've paid just £57 in summer in Exeter in the past

We live in the north of England so can get cheaper flights from Scottish airports at the end of August. Have also done sun holidays, but be careful as all the add one make it a lot more than £9.50, and sometimes more then just booking the caravan park directly. Weirdly the parks abroad, which often don't have additional charges, can work out cheaper with flights then driving to a uk park.

Or would you consider either summer or autumn half term? They are often a little cheaper, and sometimes different LA's have them a week apart, which is great if you're in the less usually week. And as PP have said, inset days at the start or end of a holiday sometimes fall right for flight schedules.

Do you actually need to be at the seaside? If you are not going to spend every hour of the day at the beach and want some activity things, is it better to stay away from the coast?

For example in Devon, Exeter?

Home exchange

We paid £60 for a sun caravan in Northumberland last august..was basic but the kids loved it!

Booking for Majorca next summer (2022) and it's looking about 2.5 grand all inclusive (but we will have no nursery fees to pay from next month so will be able to afford it! Can't wait!)

We took kids to Brittany in France for years. We used to go from Dover to Calais overnight, breakfast on ferry then drive down to Brittany and arrive around 2pm. You can still rent a 3 bedroom gite for around £500 per week. You could go via Eurotunnel on a train. Loads to do with kids, lovely beaches. We liked it so much we bought a property there.

Don’t buy the Sun @belleende

We bought camping equipment so we could have more than one holiday, as the dc grew bigger we changed it as needed.
We love Cornwall and have gone most years.
Some of the things we did that saved money:
Creally(I think it's called something else now), pay for one day and get a wristband that allows entry for a week. This was great for small dc and they allowed dogs on leads. We would buy these if we were expecting not great weather over a few days.
English heritage, again it was around £8 a month but allowed entry to a number of places. We went to a joust at one castle which was great on a rainy day, tintagel Castle was another good day if you don't mind walking. Again these accept dogs on leads.
Tesco club card vouchers paid for a day out at flambards.
We also used to go to the Eden project towards the end of our two week break, the ticket would allow reentry in a year, the following year we would go in the first week.
Lands End is also a good place to go, the farm is lovely, the walks and views are great although the museums were run down and not much changed from the 1980s when we last went.
If you get the right day both Lands end and flambards do a fireworks display.
We also took board games and had at least one rainy day in the tent playing games. The dc remember these fondly.
We took the car though which made it possible to get around, if you have to depend on busses I'm not sure how feasible this would be.

Bridlington has 2 great beaches and a harbour and swimmimg pool, boat ride etc. You can get there by train and pretty much any b&b is easily within walking distance of the beach. They also have caravan parks too, you walk straight down on to the beach. Fish and chips or sausages and chips are plentiful and cheap. They do kiddy meals for about £3 each and it includes a drink. Google caravan parks Bridlington. Do image search to sea fantastic large clean beaches.

Today 20:30 movingonup20

Oh and check the price of a family room at premier inn - I've paid just £57 in summer in Exeter in the past“

You were robbed 😁

We paid £34 per night at Docklands Travelodge for one of their swanky super rooms for a week a couple of years ago. Brand new, shiny, lovely staff, gteat breakfast, 8!minutes On DLR into central London. If you look at business districts, they’re usually incredibly cheap at weekends and school holidays. The London Pass is really good value too.

Your main problem is that you are going in August, to a popular location. Our tips and tricks;

• Make the most of teacher training days as you can then search for off-peak deals.
• Break it up. 3 nights at the beach, followed by a few days in town? That could be a lot more affordable and if you are not camping, it's easy to do.
• It's worth looking at owner sites for caravan rentals and compare them to the official price of the park. You can get some excellent deals, often on more popular resorts.

-Sun holidays is good, but again, do a quick check on the official website v the newspaper deal.

• Airbnb and cottage holidays are worth booking. If you have friends or family to share with, you can get amazing properties at the same or less £££ per night, compared to a holiday chalet.

Good luck.

All fab tips. Thanks all. You hear all the complaints about how expensive it is to go on holiday during the school holidays, but the reality really is something else. The price hikes are shocking. But now we are all experts at home schooling, perhaps term time holidays shouldn't be so verboten

We stay in a privately owned chalet, during summer hols it's £400 Saturday to Saturday. The caravan site directly opposite charges over 1k for the same holiday.
I found ours on www.gocoastal.co.uk