I'm going to visit my son. It's going to cost a fortune..

[Beakthrough]

He's in Uk at the opposite end to me.

He can't put me up so I need to pay travel and accomodation, plus I won't be able to cook for him (or vice versa) so I'll likely end up paying for several restaurant meals too.

I reckon, by the time I'm done it will cost me close to £1000 for the six days planned.

Nearly £200 in travel, £400 for the cheapest accomodation I can find, plus 5 or 6 dinners and ither spending money.

I have the money, I'd spend it on other trips without thinking too hard, but I'm struggling to justify it to myself for this one, which makes no sense to me. Can anyone else work out what's going on with my head?

Hopefully, eventually he'll have somewhere he can accomodate visitors but for the time being he can't.

Do Sykes have places in the area? They are often cheaper than some agencies.

Whatever you do, do NOT book accommodations via 3rd parties like Booking.com or VRBO....They're absolute SCAMS! You can use them to search the area and compare rates/amenities, but always book directly with the hotel.

The benefit of booking an Airbnb rather than a hotel room, is that you'll get a whole flat or house with more space and a full kitchen, which means you won't have to be eating in restaurants, breakfast, lunch and dinner, for an entire week.

He's in tve same country. Relatively its costing peanuts. What would you do if you had to go to New Zealand or Australia?

Would you be able to stay in a nearby town as the self catering places might be less to book ,especially as it is out of season.

Some of the replies on this thread are insane!! She doesn’t love her son, £1k isn’t that much, nowhere in the uk takes that long to get to, no child should ever move away…

i love mn and its batshit craziness.

I would eat at Wetherspoons but I am poor lol

Yep, the perfect MN thread where people think the UK ends at Manchester, everywhere has masses of public transport and no one bothers to read the OP’s comments.

Given the distance of travel ( I assume it's like Cornwal and Scoand) basically the entire length of the country could a future solution be that you both travel half the distance for a shorter duration like a weekend and meet somewhere cheap in the middle in accommodation where you can cook and chill out together so you maximise your time. Like a cheap caravan park or cheaper airbnb.

only read op’s posts, but doesn’t surprise me. We visit elderly relatives, and we reckon a one night stay can easily cost us £300 with accommodation. , a meal out, travel costs etc. Doesn’t help that they live in a holiday area, so even premier inns/Travelodge etc can be expensive.

Yes, there are a few steep hills in London, but it would be a stretch to describe it as mountainous.

Why don't people read all the OP's posts before replying to a longish thread? It's so easily done.

Im sure you have tried but are there any holiday sites nearby where you can hire a static caravan?

We hired a camper van once out of season in a remote location and it worked out really cheap, maybe he could drive it somewhere for you to stay in ?!

Not always true at all.

I frequently find hotels are cheaper on booking dot com, especially if they have a genius discount. If they aren't cheaper booking direct, I stick with booking dot com.

I agree. I’ve often found the property to be cheaper on booking.com.

When someone is in Australia the expectations of how often you visit are a lot less.

For a number of reasons, our last visit to Australia cost us less than a visit to relatives at the other end of the country. No need for accommodation, family willing to pick us up from the airport etc., not having to eat out so it was really only flights that were over and above what we'd normally spend at home.

Booking.com and VRBO aren't scams.

Airbnb is the most expensive way to book self catering, and it's another 3rd party booking site, exactly the same as the other 2.

I suppose it’s partly that, as he’s working, you’ll be there at a loose end a lot of the time.

You can reduce your outgoings a bit by reducing your stay by a day or so. If it’s in the mountains (Lake District? Snowdonia?) there are likely to be things to visit. Do you own some hiking boots? Solo hiking isn’t a good idea off the beaten track but there are likely to be plenty of good walks etc. You’ll have a better stay with your son if you aren’t bouncing off the walls by the time he gets home.

Ultimately you do need to make this work. Unless there’s a birthday, though, I think in future it might be worth waiting a bit for the weather to improve

I’m guessing that seeing as the Ds is living in shared accommodation with 8 people and his gf and presumably working full time and only last saw his dm at christmas he’s probably not the one instigating this visit.

Could you get an airbnb locally with room for you all? Then you can cook and eat together and save on eating out but also get more quality time together and they can still commute to work. They might love a few days peace and quiet if they're in a big shared house normally. You might feel you're getting better value for money that way?

I love the way everyone recommends air BnB is much better than a hotel (even though OP has said hotel is cheaper) but it will be all these air BnBs that mean her son is sharing a house with 8 other people.

Mumsnet is so keen to bemoan landlords and second home owners but so quick to always offer this type of accommodation as the solution.

In places like Aviemore they have made getting staff almost impossible because of the lack of accommodation available.

Or, she saw him at Christmas, she doesn't need to rush up right now in the cold and wet and stay for a whole week; she could just take her time finding both a time and a budget that suits her a little later in the year.

Agree with others: don't go for so long. I know it takes ages to get there, but honestly a 6-day visit with my parents (or my grown up kids) is TOO MUCH. If they lived in another country I would still probably only go for a day or two and then go and do something else. My eldest lives a 6 hour drive away and I visit him and have occasionally overnighted (and stayed in a hotel) but wouldn't go for longer than that.

Could you get an Air bnb and get them to in with some of the cost and they stay there with you for the week?

Go and spoil yourself. I used to do the same when my son was a long drive away. It was my excuse to go to a nice hotel and have some time alone with him. If you don't want to spend so much you could hire a cottage and cook there.

Hire a cottage/apartment on AirBnB or Booking.com and have them come to stay, or at least for meals, then you can spend time together without the expense
of eating out.

You've said travel takes 8 hours then you said 2 days? We are talking about the UK aren't we? I live in northern Ireland and my family in England and that's doesn't even take 8 hours. (Including the ferry)

Anyway, if you say where abouts you both live (even town name or closest city) maybe someone could recommend somewhere cheap to stay or some other form of travel that doesn't take 2 days.