School holidays away question for primary school parents

[mondaylife]

TLDR: when's the best school holiday to prioritise going away on holiday versus staying at home and can I have some ideas please!

Long version: First world question here. As mum to one 5 year old in reception we are just getting used to the school holidays set up and I'm interested to know other families' arrangements for holidays, and in particular which type of holiday is optimum for which of the school holidays, iyswim.

Because I work for myself I have the luxury of (on the whole) being able to drop work in the school holidays to care for my son. My husband works full time but can wfh and is therefore able to go on holiday and if necessary work from wherever we are even if he's used up his annual leave. So we are in a really fortunate position. However we haven't booked any holidays this year so we are leaving it dreadfully late.

My son is very full on and "fully charged" and therefore can be hard work and frankly exhausting to look after 24/7 at home with no break! I love him to bits but it's just how it is!

So I'm keen to book as many holidays / mini-breaks or trips away we can afford just to keep the school holidays interesting and not be stuck at home for too many days in a row. Our budget is probably good, but not 5 star luxury iyswim. We also enjoy a mix of activities, outdoors, culture, UK and abroad. I'd prefer to spread our budget and get more trips away in than splash out on a 5* holiday once a year.

In an ideal world what type of holidays work best for each of the school holidays? Eg I'm looking ahead to Feb half term thinking it's going to be cold and a boring week at home but also I'm not sure it's worth wasting our budget on any trip away as you'd have to go far to find proper sun and skiing is not our thing. Is it better to save the holiday away until the longer holidays?

Ideally we like going to North Norfolk self catering, France camping, and would love a beach holiday such as Balearics. Other ideas we have had are Northern Lights holiday, city breaks, EU Centre Parcs / Euro camps, and maybe Cornwall.

So we've got Feb half term , Easter hols, summer half term, summer holidays, then Oct Half term to fill up! Which of these is easiest to fill up with activities and when do you recommend going away?

We are so lucky to be able to afford a few more holidays that just one week a year I know. This is our first school year so we are just trying to get into the rhythm of it all and work out what works best for us. Then I can actually start booking in advance!

If you're fortunate enough to have more than one holiday a year with DC in primary school, how have you spread them out and which school holidays have you stayed at home?

Easter is nice for a week away and then you still have ten days to fill off school. Canaries or Portugal would be warm usually. When they are young I think they need a rest in Feb half-term and a week goes fast at home.

I think May / Oct are nice for a long weekend in the country / seaside / UK city break.

Summer definitely nice to get away for a week /10 days/ 2weeks, ideally in the middle to break it up a bit. The holidays did seem longer when my kids were littler, once they are older and entertaining themselves it seems to fly by!

if you want guaranteed sun in France in school summer hols you need to head to central /Southern France.

Centre parcs are expensive but good - may be better value to book when your school has an inset day?

Thanks @Andthebellsringout this is really helpful. I especially like the idea of using the INSET days to book cheaper weekends away! I never understood why Centre Parcs insists you check out on a Monday FFS.

We pepper our holidays with days out where there’s a bit of walking involved but near enough by for them to be home in their own bed at night then a day or two of chilling at home. I know you say no 5 star but booking at this time of year for eg northern lights and Center parks will be very costly!

October is easy to fill up with activities as almost everywhere has Halloween events.
May half term is a good one to go abroad for, as not many other European countries have time off school then.

May half term is a good one for a cheaper holiday like camping. It's the only holiday in the year (because of having to align with public exams) where literally everyone is off - other holidays there is usually some variance in different areas.

Which brings me to my next point that if your school/area has a holiday that starts or ends earlier than the norm, that's a good week to go away.

Otherwise the summer holidays are long, and it's good to have to separate breaks to divide it up a bit. Also consider going away (with friends, or to see friends/family who are not local) without your husband, to give you additional breaks without eating all his annual leave.

I like to do something with DD during the Feb half term, DH had to work and we alternate holidays, in the past I've found the Feb half term dreary because it's cold, usually wet and she's 10 now so we've done all the local stuff so many times.

Last year we branched out and did Mon-Fri at Butlins. It was loud and busy but she loved it, there were activities on constantly, the indoor pool for swimming, local seaside stuff.

This year I'm considering a last minute booking to a Costa del Sol type Spanish AI with indoor pool. 3.5/4 hr flight, 15-17 degrees during the day, it will feel balmy compared to here.

DC are a bit older now, but this is what we did when primary age:

• main holiday right at the start of the summer holidays
• go away somewhere in UK for autumn half term (half term weeks in that terms are sometimes different dates in different areas, so it's not quite as busy as in the summer term when they're all the same because of the public exam timetable dictating secondary school break and primaries all following suit). Weather can be variable, but attractions will be open then.
• we were lucky because one set of grandparents live in a "holiday" part of UK, so we could visit them and still have holiday type things to do. We had (and still have) impromptu long weekends and other half term visits with them
• other family live in nice places, with attractions within easy reach, so ditto
• in the years we were flush, we would ski in February half term (DH is mad keen, and wanted to start then early). This takes organisation as it's THE peak week, priced accordingly and very busy at all resorts that are easily reached.

We do:
Feb half term - DH takes off (its his birthday that week)
Easter- I take a week off and holiday club for a week
May half term - DS goes to my parents house 2.5 hours away for the week or we take some time off.
Summer hols - we do a mix of long weekends away as a family, some days with each parent and then some holiday club.
Oct half term - DS goes to my parents house 2.5 hours away for the week or we take some time off to do day activities.
Christmas - DH work is closed so he covers it mostly and I get a few days off together as a family.

We camp for our holidays so its better to do that in the summer holidays - we go pretty much every other weekend in the summer holidays then may bank holiday weekend as well.
I find half terms harder to get holiday clubs than Easter, Summer or Christmas so try to avoid that for holiday club. Usually we can get 1-3 days in half term whereas whole weeks in the summer. DS prefers football camp too which is outside so better in the summer/easter too.

Easter I find a great time to take off as there are lots of easter related events planned. Oct half term too as there are usually alot of Halloween themed things.

Check when your training days are at school. We usually get 2 in Sept so its cheaper to go away that last weekend of the school holidays and 1 in easter too again usually at the end. We got centre parcs for about 40% off full holiday prices for the last week of Aug this year because of the training day on the Monday.

We don't do week long holidays every year but save up and go on 2-3 week holidays every 3 ish years. My DH family live in Australia and South Africa so this works for us doing long weekends most years.

Definitely look at any inset days tacked onto school holidays.

We find we fill holidays quite quickly with a mix of days out and days at home. I probably wouldn’t bother for a half term. Having said that, we usually visit family for a few days in each school holidays unless you, which breaks things up.

I also think it depends what kind of holiday you want - a few days here and there can be really nice and break things up well, without costing a fortune, whereas a week’s AI and sunshine during a school holiday will be a lot more expensive.

For a week abroad, I’d avoid May half term as the prices seem so jacked up compared with even summer holidays unless you can go a few days before. However, I took one DC to Paris last year for a few days and that meant flex on when we travelled - I don’t think it was more expensive than it would have been at any other time, overall. October and February half terms do seem to vary more by area, as do Easter holidays some years.

The second half of August is often cheaper in many European countries and less crowded, eg France’s main holiday period always used to be roughly 14 July to 15 August. The very last week of August can be cheaper - but whether you want to wait until then for a holiday is another matter!

I often find holiday clubs / childcare isn't as easy to find (many of the camp stop) for the last full week of the summer holidays, so often plan that week as a family holiday or annual leave

We've had some really good deals for the first week of the October holidays abroad.

We always do a 'proper' holiday in the middle of the summer holidays rather than a short break, as it helps to break up, the very long 7.5 weeks!

We rarely do UK theme parks and attractions in July/August it's just too busy for us, takes all the enjoyment out of it.

Main family holiday during Summer most years. It breaks up the long stretch and as DH and I both work, it also meant DD wasn't in clubs for the majority of the time. The last week in August was always difficult to cover as lots of clubs based in schools closed already. We had one but it was very sports orientated so we sometimes did our holiday either the last two weeks or had at least a couple of days left to take.

Easter - often a city break or visiting family abroad. Mix of me and DH taking time off, otherwise clubs

May - more doing days out. We did a couple of holidays maybe 3-4x in the whole 13 years of schooling.

February - DD went to clubs. She had chances to play, spent energy, a lot better than staying at home. We did the odd day out to go to a museum.

October - like Easter, trips to see family. We did some resort trips and it was nice to have a chance to soak up some sun but you need to go quite far for the last week.

This year we're doing Gran Canaria Feb half term, Marrakesh at Easter, turkey in july and then dc has a sports training camp in October so me and dh will do a city break. We always do centre parcs at new years.

I like a feb get away - usually the Canaries, then I'm happy to stay in the uk, camp, visit family etc during Easter and Summer, if I can have a final blast of sun in October then I'll take it