What do you spend on holidays as a percentage of income?

[sellotape12]

Don’t think we can afford a family holiday this year because I’ll be on maternity allowance and still have some nursery bills from DC1.

Anyway, I just popped over to that crazy place Reddit and saw a question where someone else asked what percentage of salary people spend or budget for their holiday

I’m pretty astonished by the replies. A lot of people saying that they spent 10K on a family holiday, but “if they want to keep it under 3.5K, it’s usually just drive to France and rent a villa.”. They’re talking about one or two children, usually in school holidays. Am I being naive? Do you need about £4000 + to spend on a family summer holiday?!

Zero. We decided some years back they are a total waste of money. We do two or three nights away in a city or location of our choice in UK or EU from time to time.

Haven't had a "holiday" as in a full week/fortnight away in over 10 years.

About 10% of take home pay. We tend to go in October half term rather than the summer to save money. But for a week AI or in a villa we are at least £4k

As a percentage of income, we spend much less than 10% but that’s mainly because we haven’t got it to spend/it is committed to other things. We have two DCs and are bound by school holidays. We usually go for a week.

We have done static caravan/self catering holidays in popular areas of the U.K. for around £1100-1400 (most expensive included a ferry) and Eurocamp for around £2k (we could have reduced the cost a little by taking a cheaper ferry and driving further). It all depends on what you want - you could pick up a cheap Eurocamp in northern France and a ferry for as little as £1k during summer holidays, but equally for sites with more facilities you’d be looking at more and then it’s whether you want to drive or fly and hire a car.

I refuse to spend £3k on a hotel with pool
holiday where two out of the four are on a sofa bed. A caravan is much better for us. But I agree I’ve been surprised by just how expensive it is in school holidays and also by how much more others seem able to spend (guesstimated from either the types of holidays they’re having or the number of holidays).

I budget 10k for a ‘nice’ family holiday but we also do camping trips and eurocamp style for much less. We are high earners and spend around 10% of income on holidays.

Mine is about 10% of my salary this year and that this year is for my daughter to go to Florida and all of us to go to Disneyland Paris for my 40th and stay in Disneyland hotel as well as a night in Paris.

I’m a right holiday snob but if on a tight budget when I had kids at home- I loved Eurocamp ( others are available) , just pay for the best accommodation in my opinion if you are a bit fussy - fabulous sites , friends to make, great facilities - to me it was a far nicer holiday than cramming into slightly grim basic apartments with few facilities - but and it’s a big but, they tend to work better with a car , be it yours or hired as often not that close to a town

2k
Focus on paying into pensions and mortgage

we usually spend about £6500 give or take a year on holidays about 8% household income, sometimes its one holiday (x2 weeks) and centre parcs type thing sometimes its a week in May and then October. Family of 4. Main holiday/s are booked a year in advance and paid off monthly

Absolutely no idea. 😂 I went on one proper holiday last year (3 nights in Spain), otherwise rest was visiting family or wild camping or a few nights or weekends in a campsite with the kids.

I’d say my Spain trip cost maybe £700. Camping cost maybe £300 over the whole of the summer if you include campsite fees and days out. So maybe £1000. Our income is over £100k.

Only time we’ve ever spent £3.5k on a holiday was a trip to the US to see family and only done that once in 10 years. Otherwise, I’d say max £2000 a year if we were also to include a week’s self catering in the UK.

Spent way way more than income during 2025. Yes, i'd do it again if I had that time over again.

When dd1 first started school we started camping in France. Tunnel £300, camping pitch for a week £500. As the kids got older and the tent got a bit more weather beaten we have upgraded to hiring safari tents so yes the cost is more like £3k for a fortnight. But if we took our own tent we could definitely do it cheaper.

School holidays are expensive especially if you go for a package deal, Saturday to Saturday. But if you shop around, maybe take kids out of school for one day just before the holidays start, or make good use of inset days, it can make a huge difference.

We have a savings account we put 180 euro per week into and that covers all holidays and breaks over the year so a summer holiday maybe city break/theme park and a hotel stay at home. It's great to be able to have a pot when a good deal or a flight sale comes up.
So that's just under 10% take home pay.

Never went away when they were very little (and that was just before Covid, so tbf I don't suppose many did 2020-21). Partly money, partly that it's nice and easy to have holidays with under 10s at home, and they/other people wouldn't want them on the plane. Never thought about percentage, but I'd say a few hundred a couple of times a year,

A summer holiday in Europe is easily 4k for 4 of us (all adults now unfortunately!) and we’re not particularly extravagant - we only go for a week. Total holiday spends for the year probably about 10% of income, including shorter breaks at other times of year.

We spend a lot on holidays, but I’m not interested in designer clothes, bags, shoes, cars etc.

2 adults + 3 little kids, would expect to pay £7-8k all inc. for a week.

This is the 1st year we are tied to school holidays and having a 3rd child has significantly increased the cost.

For a pretty average 3 bed villa somewhere like Spain or Portugal for one week in school summer holidays, with EasyJet flights booked well in advance, I find it’s always about £4k-5k for accommodation and flights (for 4 people). Holiday spending money on top.

My main “summer” holiday is usually around £1k in September after the schools go back and prices drop so £4k for a family in school holidays doesn’t sound unreasonable.
its best I don’t work out what I spent on holidays last year 🫣

2 holidays abroad me, dh and ds. Roughly 5k for 2 1 weekers. 6k if we do 1 week and 1 10 days. Plus 3 nights at Disney 2k. This includes spends. Earn 100k ish between us

15-20% of net income

Honestly you’re in one of the most expensive phases in your life. Having a new baby and another young child in nursery. When my kids were that tiny we hardly travelled. The kids are 3 and 5 and one is in school and I’m finally feeling like I’ve recovered financially from the two lots of mat leaves. We can finally properly go travelling again. We spent about 6% of our gross income last year

I think percentage of net worth spent on holidays annually would be interesting!

We haven’t been abroad since 2019 🥴 Never thought that would happen!

And we’ve now got a 1yo so no idea what kind of holiday would be worth it 😂