Kids have never been abroad, where can we go?

[LiveInSunshine]

My youngest 3 (6,10,12) have never been abroad. I’ve love to take them. It’s more the principal of leaving the country and a new experience than anything. Autumn is great, but they can wait.

Can anyone recommend an affordable solution? Plane is great, but I’m up for the Ferry too. Just, abroad really! As affordably as possible…

Where are you travelling from for a ferry? North or south? What do you fancy? City break or pool/beach holiday?

Going on a plane would probably be really exciting for them! I’d choose a city rather than beach resort so you can immerse yourself in a different culture. Short city break to Barcelona or Rome, maybe? Jet2 city breaks have good deals sometimes.

Ferry options probably Dover-Plymouth

Tbh the leading factors are: abroad, affordable

The rest can be compromised. They are desperate to leave the country like friends, it needs to be affordable.
I have never been abroad for a holiday as such. I have travelled for work, or gone home, or to visit family. It’s all overwhelming me

I like The Netherlands.

You can get the ferry from Harwich, drive on at night, wake up in a new place.

Loads of fun things to look at and do. Beautiful beaches.

I also like Majorca - short flight time of just over 2 hrs

Your budget will need to include passports for you all and travel insurance. Don't be tempted to travel without insurance.

If "abroad" but you don't mind where, I'd go on Skyscanner and see what flights you can get from your local airport.

It's slightly tricky in that you have to specify dates so you will have to do multiple searches with slightly different dates; I don't know of a similar website that lets you search for 3 or 4 nights between date x and date y.

Politely Klipwa, that’s a bit of a presumption isn’t it? I wasn’t planning on a bit of passportless people trafficking.

@Wowzel is a the ferry car or walking? Is it affordable compared to 5 people flying?

@user1471464218 i think my big worry is accommodation, where to find it. Avoid dodgy places and scams.
I’ve traveled, but this is the bit I haven’t really done beyond stop overs driving across Europe. When I was younger also I didn’t have the children, we’d just drive the car up to places that looked promising and ask!
Air bnb seems a wealth of horror stories and hidden charges.

I like eurocamp , cheap and cheerful plenty of options , kid friendly , most places are a short ferry & drive

@Cazs818 I’ll look, didn’t think of that… we do use UK caravans a lot

I would go somewhere in Spain for a first time abroad with kids. It's obviously super popular with Brits so if you stick to a touristy resort it will feel safer/easier.

If going away in the autumn then go for the canaries. If you can wait till summer then one of the Costas or Majorca/Ibiza are lovely and easy to do.

Personally I'd steer towards a package holiday for the first time abroad with kids, again just for ease. You have the reps there and things like coach travel to hotel. We've been with a few different tour operators and found Jet2 brilliant with the kids and so helpful.

Hope you all have a fantastic time whatever you choose , how exciting :)

What is your budget? Do you want a city break i.e Rome or a beach holiday?

Passports for 5 people is going to be complex so leave loads of time for them to come back.

With regard to insurance. I was staggered to read that 25% of people don’t get insurance. Stupid idiots and that is why you sometimes see the sad face Daily Mirror stories where people are trying to raise funds when someone has been taken ill or had an accident abroad.

Depending on where you are look at low cost airlines and sometimes BA can be cheaper than you think. I rate Ryan Air providing you take their polices to heart. Their flights always seem full despite some people on Mumsnet looking down on them.

Long weekend in Copenhagen. Short flight, sufficiently 'foreign' enough to be exciting, a day out in the WinterGarden while they are still small. 😊

And it's a lovely small city

Northern Spain.
The prices are reasonable and the culture is quite child friendly.

We did a city day trip over the summer for this exact reason. Depending on how far away from the airport you are and where available flights are to of course. It was a lot of travelling, airport, plane, train into city but that was all part of the fun for my kids so worked out really well. Also don't try to fit too much in.

What is your budget? You keep say in g affordable but how much can you actually spend?

Ferry and tent camping in France is
Probably the cheapest but do you have kit?

Booking.com is good for accommodation and also has reviews on it. I always check tripadvisor for reviews too.

As Pp has said eurocamp sounds like it would suit your needs

I love Croatia. It’s affordable (we got a villa sleeping 12 for £600 on the first week of September) although I appreciate it’ll all cost more in school holidays. We fly in to Zadar but Ryanair and easyJet fly cheaply in to split too.

We used Canvas holidays recently and were very happy with the experience and cost.

We used to do Keycamp when ours were that age.
Not sure what it’s like now but you could get some good deals.
An already erected tent or a mobile home on a site with facilities.
Or you could buy a tent and book a municipal site, not usually any pools though, but clean and a lot cheaper.

Normandy and Brittany in summer is beautiful. I particularly love Carnac.

We went to Ireland on the car ferry and is was excellent. It's near enough to be a good first trip and far enough away to feel very different. The country is fantastic, the culture is great and there was plenty to see and do.

Keycamp are called Gocamp now.

www.gocampfrance.co.uk/camping-in-france

I've always found the most affordable holidays are Eurocamp type holidays and travelling by Eurotunnel, which can be paid fully or partially with Tesco Clubcard vouchers.

European camp sites are so much better than UK sites. They usually have great pools with slides and lots of sporting activities. The accommodation is like a little house/mobile home.

Klipwa was obviously referring to the costs involved, you keep mentioning affordable and passports are not cheap for three children.