Would you rather stay home and splurge on day trips or go away on a tight budget

[Lovinglife45]

Contemplating a family break.
Cottages are around £1200 (s/c)
Europe city breaks are around £900 (r/o)
We could manage £700 for spends which is minimal for family of 4.

I am wondering if it makes more sense to stay home and go on day trips. This would allow us to comfortably afford entry tickets to attentions and nice lunches and snacks.

What would you do?

If it were just me I’d go away on a budget.
If it were me and the family I’d rather stay home and have nice day trips than be away having to watch the pennies and ordering cheaply from menus to make the money stretch.

I'd do the day trips. Much less hassle, more comfortable, you can spend more on eating out and fun and you won't have to sleep in a bed 1000s of other people have slept in 🤢. Just treat it like a holiday and don't do the housework.

@Petronus

I’m a bit confused about what you can afford? Could you comfortably manage £1200 sc and £700 spending money? If so, I would go away.

Yep.

But I’d go away, a cottage doesn’t need to be plus 700 spending money. Day trips from home are nice but not a holiday.

I’d stay at home and have lovely meals, go out places, go to the theatre etc. But depends on where you live.

I'd go somewhere cheaper eg Normandy has apartments for €840 in school holidays, though look into ferries, normally I've paid about £160 but not been since brexit/covid

Go away. You can get accommodation cheaper than that. Also change of scene is a great break. You don't have to spend much while you are away.

@Lovinglife45

I tend to need to go away in order to relax. If I am home, my mind will wander to work, cleaning, other household admin.

I may go away even if for four nights as opposed to a week.

This. I look around my home and see a To do list. North Yorkshire has lots of reasonably priced holiday homes which work out much cheaper than £1200. Buy your food in the local supermarket and keep costs down while away,

Try somewhere like Northamptonshire. Looks like the Cotswolds, half the price, avoid anything rented out by English Country Cottages or AWAZE group as they charge the owners so much its ends up being massively overpriced IMO

I'd stay at home and have lovely day trips and meals out which are a major treat for us.

I'd have the time away, as probably could not have done so last year. Even if not a full week.

If I were you, I'd go on a city break. There is always lots to do and may free things to see!
Also (not always cheaper) book a few things in advance like museums, guided tours or even a musical to spread the cost.

I would stay home and do trips but I would also put the effort into making sure the whole of the week was holiday.

We did this a couple of years ago where we made sure that we had holiday food, made sure that we didn't spend lots of time doing home administration. We saved some films so that evenings were also holiday.

I'd do day trips. I find going away stressful whilst they're little with all the travelling and packing so would much prefer a few day trips instead.

This is what we're doing this year.

I would do a compromise and do a long weekend and then a day or two out if that would be affordable?

That's what I'm doing with my children this year - £300 for a long weekend accommodation (albeit in the UK - but flights are so cheap atm you could probably go away for a tad more as there are 6 of us!) And then a few nice days out as we are near to so much.

Definitely go away
A total change of scene is more relaxing
We always took ours away in all the school holidays
Some years we had more money than other years but we have some great memories

I’d go away. We would do mostly self catering? £100 a day is a good budget for spending money unless your eating out every meal

I'd go for a cheap SC holiday. It's much more memorable for DC.

How big is your family? Why are the cottages so expensive? I can find height of season cottages in beautiful parts of the Lakes for 4 people for half that amount in high season.

If you are short of money, you can also look at Park Resorts static van holidays. Very reasonable and often in stunning areas where you can spend not much money because you just hang out on the beach or in the free swimming poool.

We are a family of four.

I did consider Haven and similar UK caravan breaks but the Trip Advisor reviews have put me off. Filthy bathrooms, stained carpets and bedding. I do not want to spend three hours cleaning on arrival.

Also I would not use their kitchen items - so would need to bring my own pots, pans etc. More baggage!

Unsure why cottages are so expensive. I am happy to cook breakfast but cooking lunch and dinner is not my kind of holiday at all.

We have to travel during school holidays so cannot escape the high costs.

I'm not sure that it's the case that cottages automatically equal high quality spotless luxury with caravans being tatty, dirty and cheap fixtures and fittings.

I've many a person complain about cottages being grubby and tired and conversely describe caravans being perfectly lovely.

In your circumstances OP how about a city break for 2/3 nights then a few days at home where you are 'on holiday' so don't clean or do other housework and eat out, visit local attractions, have takeaways or nice ready meals etc and make a point of relaxing.

For the city break, you could go somewhere in the UK and stay in a Premier Inn or serviced apartment or go abroad somewhere close like Barcelona or another Spanish city where there's a beach and guaranteed hot weather.

Go away on cheap budget (what we do every year!)

Enough decent days out to make up for not going away would end up costing up more for us i'm sure.

I find whole days out from home pretty stressful as there's still the drudgery to get done. On proper hols everyone chips in with a bit of catering and cleaning.

Unless you live near the coast or near A LOT of attractions that you like and don't usually go to obvs.

I'd go away every time. I hate wasting money on overpriced theme parks etc with terrible food. Tesco Clubcard vouchers and a packed lunch all the way!
Caravans in holiday parks are not cheap in the school holidays. Although smaller sites without all the facilities can be more affordable especially if you hire privately through an owner.
It's quite possibly to do self catering without doing much actual cooking, especially in the UK. Couple of BBQs, takeaways/fish and chips and a couple of good quality supermarket ready meals, decent meal in a restaurant and your done. Dare I say Wetherspoons is good for cheap family eating out...

You have given me some great ideas!

I’d go away with the £1900, book with a Love Holiday type website and ditch the cottage and the days out ideas.

I think you are being a bit unimaginative with possibilities. We haven't been abroad for a few years but over a year we always do a minimum of a family festival, a longer camping trip, a cheapy caravan or lodge holiday, a city hotel break. We tend to do a night or two somewhere in an expensive lodge/cottage and save the longer trips for camping. Staying at home and having days out isn't a holiday. I'd rather go somewhere cheap for a base, where there are lots of free or cheap places I want to visit. If we are somewhere really naff we just only go back to sleep.

City's are good for budget breaks if you don't eat at restaurants. Most cities have lots of landmark sights to see, free museums etc and we eat at food markets, street food stalls, and self catering meals that don't cost anymore than if we were at home.