Did you go abroad this summer?

[Lilacbluewaters]

Family of 5 soon to be 6 here. A lot of our family members were lucky enough to go abroad this summer but somehow I don’t even understand how. What sort of income do you need to be able to afford a holiday abroad?

No. We've never had a holiday abroad as a family, 20yrs. SEN and food allergies mean I simply don't have the energy to deal with it. Don't have much money either.

Italy for 10 days at Easter - Airbnb and travelling up and down the amalfi coast. Turkey AI (last minute, wouldn’t be my choice I prefer a villa in the med, but work had made it too late to book and it turned out to be lovely) for 10 days. 2 adults, 17yo and 15yo. Plus a few 2 nighters walking in the UK. Holidays are v important to us, help us reset from very busy lives.

I think, unless you are very wealthy, when you have 4 children, you wave goodbye to all inclusive for two weeks.... It just gets prohibitively expensive.

We have 4 children, 16, 14, 11 and 8. Did two weeks in France (just returned yesterday). 380 for crossing (motorhome plus bike trailer so more expensive). 690 for camping for the first week but included theme park tickets for the whole week, so meant we spent nothing on excursions. 320 for second week, on a beach and pool with slides, so again no other trips out. Did pay a bit in fuel and tolls.

Went to McDonald's twice on travelling days and had a portion of chips out once. Otherwise everything came from the supermarket and so probably spent less than we would at home.

Probably all in, still comes to 2k and it is hard work, but if you have 4 children, pretty much everything is. It is still unachievable for many. My sister goes to a great campsite in the Dordogne on a river (swim in the river rather than a pool) and they pay 25 euro a night. You can pay a bit towards your crossing with clubcard vouchers.

You do have to have camping kit and we have built it up over the years. I get something new each year. This year I upgraded the blow up mattresses to memory foam pads.... The luxury!

Well, DD and DH stayed with me (while I worked) in between organising DD move between 2 uni cities in the EU country next to me - and I went home with DH for a couple of weeks back home and we had an overnight stop on our way back to the ferry together. If you call that a holiday.

DH was off while I worked, we had 4 days off together, and I was then off while he was back at work. Just timing of both our work. Last year was similar and the year before was cancelled when DH got sick 3 days before we travelled for a 6day break (before I took this temporary posting). The previous 3 years were not abroad (Covid) and our “holiday” the previous 2 years had been attending a sports event for DD (2018 was very “organised school tour”
in China and 2019 we did the event in the EU and stayed on for a family week in the same country).

We haven’t been good at organising “holidays” for a few years …..but we used to be decent enough.

Next year needs to be a proper break of at least a week. Although probably in Europe. Where there are loads and loads of options.

No kids.
1 week in Italy
1 week in Greece
1 week UK camping

Still got 2 weeks in Asia later this year.

Holidays are a huge priority to us.

We (2 adults, 1 x 16yo) had a week AI in Lanzarote the first week in July, we only managed to go because we squeezed it in in term time post-GCSEs. We paid £3k, and used a travel agent to get the best option available for our budget.
We won’t be going abroad next year as we’ve had a couple of years of big expenses.

Back from Mallorca this afternoon. £5k for 4 people, 6 nights. Plus probably £600 spending money. It’s a lot of money, which we can afford, but it’s still a lot of money.

Eurocamp is the most affordable option imo. Join the Facebook group for ideas on the most appropriate sites for your family.

Nope never do, instead we do a week in may and a week in October, we did do 7 nights in the Lake District though too.

we can afford this by choosing as a family to prioritise seeing the world and having holidays over having more children. We stopped at 2 because we knew we couldn’t afford to give any more kids the same lifestyle.

Yep, just got back, 3 of us, 1 child. We prioritise our lifestyle, including holiday expenditure, over having more children! We are by no means well off, we saved hard and paid our holiday in (interest free) installments.

We had a week AI in Turkey in May and are just back from 10 days in France. Family of 4. DH and I are also going to Berlin for the weekend later in the year.
We prioritise travelling and save around 14% of our take home pay for this purpose.

Yes - honeymoon in April (Rhodes, AI, less than £700 for 2 but off season so cheaper!) and then Spain for a week in June (it’s DMs holiday house, we only had to pay flights) - first time I’d been abroad in about 3 years

No, I had DC2 in march, so we decided it wasn’t much of an idea for this year. We will have been away in the UK 7 times for between 4 and 10 days by the end of the year though, so all is not lost.

We don't have any earned income and went on a Mediterranean cruise this year.

We’re a family of 3. We go abroad at least twice a year. But we travel cheaply (no fancy hotels, and choose places cos the flights are cheap) and wouldn’t be able to afford to go anywhere if we had more than one child!

Family of 4. We holiday abroad twice a year for a total of 3 weeks. We also tend to have a uk break too at some point. Absolutely wouldn’t be able to do it with more than 2 kids!

Just the two of us, a week Dorset in August, luckily glorious weather!
Got a week booked in Spain in October though, looking forward to it 😎

No kids, and we did a mixture of overseas holidays and staycations this summer. Like every summer. I live to travel and have done it on every budget - from $10/night hostels to five star hotels. Where there’s a will there’s a way. 🙂

I went to Sydney for two weeks in October last year, and I spent just under £ 2,000. The return flight with Singapore Airlines was about £900.00. As I stayed with my friend, I didn't pay for the accommodation. However, when I returned to the UK, my husband went on holiday with my daughter to Portugal for a week (during school holidays) and he spent around £ 3,500. Basically, going to Sydney was cheaper than Portugal.
Just to add, he is a snob, so they went out for breakfast, lunch and dinner while we had a lovely lunch picnic by the harbor.

Ten days in Italy in June in a four star hotel.
Retired with pensions and savings.
We'll have a couple of city breaks as well in this country.

I've got three adult children but when they were small we only had caravan holidays. That's the choice you make if you have children.

We've visited family in the US (but still needed to pay for an apartment as no space to stay with family) and did a cruise to Spain in the summer. Had some cheap weekends away in the UK and doing Butlins in October half term.
Family of 4. Expensive but we are on a good income. Honestly the dcs would have been just as happy staying in the UK and the weather has been great here, but I like them to have the education of travelling so it's important to me to go abroad, but UK holidays are just as fun.

As some others have said - if you have a car, there are some very reasonable options. Some people only associate going abroad with AI package holidays but if you do the Eurotunnel and are happy to do some driving - Europe is your oyster. There are so many amazing options on Airbnb, euro camp type places! With a big family, also much nicer to have your own place where you can spread out.

2 adults and 2 kids in Rhodes. Cost £5k; sometimes there is 6 of us and we usually spend about 1k per person.

Family of five. We do go abroad but by car and get an apartment not hotel. I was horrified at how much it would cost to get flights or a train for five in the summer holidays.

I’d also recommend going somewhere like the Netherlands or France in May half term, when local kids do not have holidays. It’s much cheaper and less crowded than summer and often better weather. We do this for any premium type trips (theme park etc). In summer it’s basic self catering or stay with family.

We went to Lanzarote. There were 4 of us and it cost £2600 S.C. We paid for it over a year. Struggled to save spending money towards the end but then didn’t spend it all.