Last minute cheap holidays - still a thing?

[Hummingbird233]

We haven’t taken our kids abroad yet due to the cost but they’re getting older and we’re all craving a bit of sunshine and that holiday feel.

I wondered; are cheap last minute deals still a thing for the summer holidays? We are 2 adults and 3 children, and we really don’t mind where in the world we go. Very flexible on hotel standard (as long as it’s clean, we don’t mind basic) and our work is flexible so we can swap out annual leave around fairly last minute.

A friend has told my husband of a cheap last minute deal he had, but I wondered if this is generally still a good way to go or if we’ll likely end up with no options?!

Looking to spend £3,000 max for a week. Ideally all inclusive but bed and breakfast would be fine.

What do you think? Have you done it in recent years?

It depends what you call 'last minute' in my experience.

I now tend to book main holidays way in advance. I booked one for 2027 in 2025 as I wanted somewhere specific and flying on a certain day.

If I'm looking for a 'last minute' getaway, I generally 'watch' a shortlist of say 3 holidays. In my experience the best deals are 6-8 weeks before departure.

I'm a little wary of what's 'left' with just days to go (plus booking a plane seat can be problematic at that point too).

I think it’s cheaper to book as far in advance as possible.

Not in my experience - I tried it this year, watched prices religiously for a wide variety of hotels, for months. They went up and down up and down but never 'cheap' or even what I'd call reasonable. I think outside of school holidays, probably more of a possibility but not when we were looking for August.

I'm not sure £3,000 for 5 people All Inclusive would go far to be honest. Or it might but it probably isn't somewhere you'd want to be all inclusive. Choose wisely because if you've paid and committed to eating somewhere for a week, you want it to be good!

For three of us this summer for a 4* resort in Turkey it was coming in around £3-4.5k.

So this summer I did something a bit spontaneous. I checked on skysnanner where the cheapest flights form London is to that week (obviously change airport if London is not convenient) and Ibiza was the cheapest with £18 per ticket. I then booked the cheapest All Inclusive hotel by the beach (with a pool) 🏖️ for those dates on Booking.com . It was fabulous and very cheap! 😀

Check skysnanner and click on "Everywhere" for destination.

Yes of course you can. The advantage being if you don’t find anything, you haven’t lost anything.
You’ll always get those saying you need to book in advance but they aren’t the people who would be looking last minute , so how would they know.
You can book all inclusive hotels without a tour operator. Flights are on sale throughout the year ( including now).
Either pick something that has lots if capacity like Spanish all inclusives or something “out of season” like a city break to somewhere “too” hot like Rome or Seville.

£18?!

Roughly how much was your holiday in the end?

I have a friend who does this. From what I hear, it can still be done but there's less scope than there used to be.

My worry about booking flights now in the sale would be that we could buy the flights then struggle to find a hotel…

Look on Easyjet at Egypt. That's a tight budget for 5 people.

Yes, you can definitely get flights for under £30 and sometimes under £20 to Ibiza, Croatia, sometimes Italy, mainland Spain.

Our AI hotel was roughly £450-ish for me and my teen for the week but it was right by the beach with a pool. It was Bluesea Coral Beach hotel. It was very nice for the price I thought and great location. Very family-friendly. They have deals that kids go free. Also there is a direct bus from the airport that stops literally outside the hotel and it's very cheap (I think around 10 euro).

Book free cancellation hotel/ apartment

Just looked on TUI for this weekend. Less than half price to Cape Verde or Mexico! We’re going last minute next year! I think that’s probably only ok for off peak hols though.

I’ve heard very mixed things about Cape Verde…

Yeah I think you’re right, peak times are likely busy enough not to need to sell last minute. But like a previous poster says, if we don’t find something, we can always take our tent to a nice UK site instead, nothing lost. And then book something well ahead of time for future years.

I know £3k is a tight budget for a holiday, it just feels like an awful amount of money for 7 days, it’s crazy how much holidays are now.

There’s a facebook page I follow (Graeme’s Travel), he often has fairly short (3/4 nights), relatively last minute (within a few weeks) and sub £1k for 2 adults, 1/2 kids so it’s not impossible with a £3k budget. Usually Newcastle departures. Consider April or October rather than Summer as well as that impacts price hugely, or fly from Scotland once Scottish schools go back (assuming you’re based in England).

Would you consider a Eurocamp type holiday? We booked a package through jet2 this year for cheaper than it would’ve been separately, including car hire.
We usually pick 5* campsites and eat at food trucks/restaurants on site so no need for cooking. Can be good value for a bigger family.

Yes unfortunately we’d need to fly from London. I found some decent prices recently but then found they’re from Manchester, London was quite a bit more.

Its annoying that October and May are only 1 week school holidays, it puts me off as I think we’d feel rushed. And finding destinations that are hot enough in April seems tough.

I think I’d be fine with a 5 day trip, maybe 3/4 nights may feel a little short.

Definitely would. How much cheaper is it though if you fly? I’d have thought the flights would bump it up significantly?

We paid around 2.8k for 8 nights on a 5* campsite in Italy. Flights from Manchester and car hire for the week - last week of August. Only booked it at start of August as we’d had to cancel our original plans due to a medical issue.
Prices for next summer are 3.5-4k currently on Jet2 app.

Nope, not in the summer holidays and wanting even a basic hotel - it’s the most expensive time of year. Book far in advance and in stages i.e flights one month then accommodation the next.

IME the limiting factor are the flights. There are so many options for accomadation especially if you are not too fussy. Naples or as others have suggested Rome ( other European cities are availible) are lovely in October or May. PM if you would like any help I love planning holidays !

Oh and interail is having a 50% sale just now

It's the other way round. There's any amount of hotels, apartments hotels, Airbnb private rentals etc. Even in exclusive resorts mid summer there's a plethora of good choices.
Flights have limited numbers.

If you are that worried why not go at Easter? Tui have loads of AI 7 night holidays for 2 adults and 3 kids for under £3k. It won't be hot hot in Spain but it's nice enough and there's still beaches, sea and general swanning around.

We stayed here not too hot lovely clean site pretty town loads of cycling was €400 for 4 nights in mid August
https://www.allcamps.co.uk/camping/netherlands/utrecht/camping-bos-park-bilthoven

The Neverlands is good value think also Romania.

I think it’s harder for more people. Much easier to find a deal for a couple but once you throw DC and needing to go in school holidays into the mix then the options are more limited.

I think you could still find a good last-minute deal, especially as you’re so flexible about where you go.

The only tricky bit might be finding accommodation for five, as some family rooms only sleep four. I’d keep an eye on Turkey, Bulgaria and Spain, particularly towards the end of August.

For a future family holiday, though, I’d really recommend considering China if you can plan a bit further ahead.

Chengdu is a great place for kids to see giant pandas, and Xi’an has the amazing Terracotta Warriors. I think both would be fascinating experiences for children.

I’ve written a little travel guide to Chengdu on my own website if you’re ever curious:

Hotels, food and transport within China can be surprisingly affordable. It’s really the flights from the UK that need planning, especially during the school holidays.

For this trip, though, with just a week and such short notice, I’d probably stick to somewhere closer to home with plenty of sunshine. Hope you find a lovely deal!