Summer holidays trip uk? Thats not £2.5m

[lillyorlana]

Probably a silly question but where is there to go in the uk in august for a few nights.

Butlins is £900!
Centreparcs more

Not really campers....

Where/what else is there? / other options?

Maybe I'm a cheapskate but this seems a-lot just to stay in the uk or is this the norm?

We are just on average folk salaries, not min wave not at the 40% tax bracket either

Just seen my post pop up and it looks like one of the top sponsored ones that people ignore as i put a £ sign in the title. Rookie move

Try Dorset. I didn't search too hard as I didn't know how many rooms/children you were trying to solve for, but plenty of places available.

Although I suspect if you want a full week, £900 probably isn't that daft anyway. But difficult to say without knowing how many children you're including in that price. We're paying £900 for a week in a two-bed cottage in July, but we've stayed at the same place for years and that's not an inflated price - UK holidays aren't that cheap unless you camp,!

I hate to break it to you, but that sounds average. UK holidays are not cheap. We've paid £1500 for a two bed cottage in Cornwall for the last week of August. That was 2 months ago and the cheapest option available. Yorkshire was cheaper and non-coastal regions. My friend looked at Butlins and felt it was 3 times the usual price. UK resorts have got a captive market this year abs understandably as businesses can charge accordingly.

£900 for Butlins is really cheap for term time.

Do an actual Staycation, as in stay at home and do day trips.
They don't need to cost much, or anything really.
Picnics in the woods/park/beach.
A local free museum if you have one.
A cooking day involving a trip to a different Supermarket from your usual to buy ingredients.
How many swings can we swing on in different parks?
Camping in the garden, if no tent and you can't borrow one, then camping in the living room, with your own bedding.
Eating out one day, which can be obviously whatever.

I brought Dd up with v, v limited money, and these were things I'd do with her.

I'm afraid that if you haven't booked yet, there are going to be very few options still remaining for August as most people are not travelling abroad as they usually would and what does remain will be very expensive. UK holiday cottages are always extremely expensive in the summer at the best of times - far more expensive than the equivalent property in France for example. Maybe Scotland later in August might have some options as Scottish schools go back earlier?

I would look at Booking.com and put in the whole of a county you are interested in as a lot is booked out now. If you want say a swimming pool on site tick that option. For a family room in summer holidays its likely to be £100-£200 a night at a fairly average family hotel with pool. If you don't need any facilities something like Premier Inn can be cheap.

Second the in home staycation. Vow to do as little as possible of housework, cooking, cleaning etc and do fun and/relaxing things only.

Plan some trips out, get easy food and takeaways, sit in the garden if you have one. Maybe get a paddling pool or new garden games for DC. Spend the money you're not spending on accommodation and travel on having a good time.

Alternatively, or as well, look for a couple of nights or so in a premier Inn and see a new part of the country. If you pick something less touristy and obvious, the accommodation cost might be reasonable, eg a city break in a part of the country you haven't visited before, but you'll still find things to do like country parks, petting zoos, museums etc.

There was a great thread a few months ago by someone who wanted to go to a non touristy place so it wasn't expensive and it showed that there were loads of unexpected places with interesting things to do.

We are doing a city break. £60 per night for family room inc breakfast. Premier inn

Friends are doing same in another city for same price.

Try wales

Here you go OP.

undesirable holiday locations

Might be some ideas here?

There's still plenty stuff on Hoseasons, static caravans and the odd cottage or lodge. Or there was a few days ago anyway!

I would second the suggestion to try Scotland late august when their schools have gone back. We got a cottage for £750 for a week which is the cheapest I have ever found for a UK self catering place.

Stayed in Cornwall a few years ago in a ropey flat furnished with 1970’s cast offs and it was £1750!!! And it pissed it down all week.

• Travelodge or Premier Inn
• YHA family room
• Go somewhere more inland if you prefer a cottage - I'm sure there will be places available - choose somewhere that has things to do e.g. near theme park

www.directholidayhomes.co.uk

Have a search on here, these are privately owned caravans/chalets etc. Majority of them are on big sites (haven & park Dean for e.g.) so you can pay for entertainment passes & use the facilities. Will take a while to search but most of them have their availability on.

SO.many more people have booked uk holidays so availability will be limited this late unfortunately. We booked a week in August in March & even then there wasn't much available.

I was also just going to suggest Scotland in late August. If you want a hotel experience, you could get a few nights in the Peebles Hydro from £150-200 per night for a family room with breakfast included.

They only seem to have full Monday to Friday availability from 30 August, but you might find a couple of midweek nights earlier in August.

40 mins outside Edinburgh, beaches a similar distance away, on site pool and spa, kids activities, local walks, mountain biking, Go Ape etc.

I think it's probably quite late to be booking now, but we're going away 3 times this summer. Paying about £70-90 per night for very night detached self-catering cottages, big usually 3-4 br with big garden near very nice things to see. We're going to Anglesey in August for 10 days, which I think is £900. It's a really lovely big cottage, near the sea, huge garden. But I booked it in February. I expect there isn't that sort of place available now. I think you just need to look everywhere and see what you can find.

We booked a very nice looking ( good reviews too ) self catering cottage in Yorkshire for £650 for a week....only one bedroom but I snapped it up !!!
It's 300 miles away from home ...but hey we will be on holiday !!!!!

There may be some late cancellations if any foreign countries go Green in August.
Otherwise as others have suggested booking.com whole country search or sometimes vrbo has decent cottages.

Ps we live in Dorset ...it's sooooooo expensive here ....usually do Cornwall and Devon but couldn't afford it this summer....plus not much choice left !!!!

I second caravan parks. Although I’ve just looked and the one we usually stay at in Norfolk is £615 for 3 days now.

That’s pretty normal for the summer. I’ve just booked a week in Yorkshire in September for that price.

Have you considered Youth hostels. You can get family rooms, and a lot are really nice now, not just for back packers. The Stratford upon Avon one is in a Georgian manor. I’ve just looked at their website and a private room for four people costs £49 per night for the room, or an en-suite room, £89.

I don't know about Butlins but we normally pay around £1000/week. for a 2-bed-cottage and that's in less known areas of the UK. I am quite fussy though but this year it was really hard finding anything cheaper and not being out of the Seventies.

Definitely look for out-of-the way areas, there is often still lots to do.

Friends found something for end of August, it looks like that's a better time.

We found Scotland cheaper than England last year, maybe because schools were already back.

I hate doing staycation with day trips, that is often not a lot cheaper and if you do lots of local things already at weekends or other holidays it's not really somehting new and exciting. It also means that I still do the housework and after my time off work I wonder what I wasted it on.

Love the scotland and premier inn ideas!

So true ive left it too late and maybe i do just need a bit of educating on uk trips and how much they cost.

I love the staycation idea too, so simple but never thought of it

Thank you all for your ideas :)

Depends where you want to go, I've often found peak district, yorkshire and Northumberland much cheaper than the south coast.

Also keep trying air bnb. I got a last minute air bnb for half term that wasnt extortionate and I only booked a week ahead (also more flexible that you can do less than a week at a time or weekday changeover which a lot of holiday let's wouldnt)