...to just want to find an affordable holiday abroad for a family of 5?

[StilleNachtCarolling]

Posting for traffic really. We have three kids who will be aged 7 and under and want to go on holiday during the next summer hols - somewhere sunny.

All the places we've been quoted have been really - last year was the first time we looked at a foreign holiday during school holidays. We almost fell off our seats I think DH actually did fall off at the prices.

This year we went to France and stayed in one of those Al Fresco park things (it really reminded me of the resort in Dirty Dancing!) for a week, and then drove over to Disneyland Paris for another week. It was good fun but not very sunny and all self-catering. I don't think self-catering is much of a proper holiday

So...does anyone know of a secret place somewhere sunny, half board or all inclusive, that's near the beach and has good pools etc? I'm probably asking for the moon on a stick but we don't really want to spend any more than £4K in total. Is that totally unreasonable??

[StilleNachtCarolling]

madwoman I've been to Budapest and I agree, it's really gorgeous. The kids are a bit young for city breaks though. They just want to swim and build sandcastles

Once they are a little older then we will be doing more adventurous and cultural holidays but for now I think sun, sea and sand is ample.

ssd Average temps for that area of Turkey in August are 26/27C, so not too boiling at all.

Puzzled we had friends come and house sit for a week this summer - we got the animals fed and looked after and they got a break away to somewhere new. It took me almost a fortnight to get my house back to how I'd left it. I don't think I could handle that again. There were also a few of my children's toys broken, which upset them a lot. Possibly the worst thing of all was the fact that all (approx) 15 tubs of carefully tended PlayDoh (some of which were special ice-cream 'flavours') had been all mixed up together to result in a large mass of khaki. Sent my OCD through the roof. I was so thankful that I'd put all the Playmobil under our bed!!

[riveravon23]

I have a large family as I am a foster parent. We also usually holiday with our adult children, so there are usually about 8 of us. We love Corfu, the children have loved it for the My Family and Other Animals connection since they were tiny. In the past 4 years we have never paid more than £3,000 in total, as I say that is for 8 of us in the school holidays. We usually book a villa with a pool, and then get the flights as cheaply as possible depending on what is available. Also included in that price is the car hire we also book, which is very reasonable considering we need a 9 seater. By carefully picking the place and times of flights you can get enormous bargains. Not sure if advertising is allowed, but if you want to PM me I will let you know the websites I use...and have never been disappointed as the villas are magnificent.

[Bearbehind]

Have you booked your holiday? If not you should do it now or get that link deleted as I'm pretty sure most websites base their prices on hits to the pages and posting that link on a forum like MN is going to put the hits through the roof.

[Dowser]

Does I'le de re still have the toll. I rather liked ile d'oleron as we liked to have trips to cognac and la rochelle and there was no toll on that bridge ( a very long time ago).

[lolalotta]

River do you mind if I PM you, we are looking at going on holiday with another family so that would make 8 of us... We want to self cater so a villa would've perfect!

[Eggybread00]

We've been to Corfu a few times over the last few years. in your budget is a fab hotel called art hotel de bono and also spitti prifti appartments, both near marina, restaurants and water park. Feel free to pm me x

[Ilovefluffysheep]

Would you consider a cruise? They are great value, you get to visit loads of different places, have fab food/entertainment/facilities etc, and there is plenty of kids clubs and stuff to occupy them.

I have only done Disney Cruise Line (amazing, once you've done one you'll be hooked!) but would also consider Royal Carribbean as they look great with their ice rinks, climbing walls etc.

[Lucyccfc]

Please, please ensure that if you book through On The Beach, you red the terms and conditions very carefully.

If you were to book a holiday through e.g. Thomas Cook and it included flights, hotel and transfer, these would be covered by Atoll and classed a a package. If anything went wrong with any part of the package (hotel went bust) then Thomas Cook (who you have the contract with) would be responsible for sorting this out.

With On The Beach, your contract is not with them. It's with each individual supplier. For example:

Flight: Monarch
Hotel: Elba
Transfers: Holiday transfers Europe

If anything goes wrong with your holiday, then On The Beach has no responsibility to do anything to help you, as the contract is not with them.

All On The Beach do, is what you can do yourself, and book each component of the holiday separately.

Please be careful.

[dingit]

Yes cruises are fab. Look a Thomsons. Not such fancy ships, but great entertainment, ports of call and food. We did the Adriatic in August.

[abigamarone]

Try Travel Republic, gives you lots of options.

[Branleuse]

I suggest looking at end of may half term instead.

Were a family of 5 and we're doing an 11 nights in south of france next may (will have to take a couple of days out of school, but they do a duscount every year if you do between 11&14 days. also a discount for early booking and a discount for repeat customers. May in the south of france wont be boiling but its likely to be reliably warm. Also free kids clubs and swimming pools. 11 nights in the may half term is costing us less than £600.
If we did that in the summer holidays it was closer to 1.5k

[Branleuse]

thats a eurocamp btw, who i think are very underrated

[SecretSquirrels]

Veteran holiday booker here. My DC are 18 and 16 and we have travelled abroad every year.
I always spend a lot of time researching and booking and never find that do it yourself holidays are cheaper.
One tip is to make it 11 or 12 nights instead of two weeks. You won't feel short changed as you might having one week instead of two.
I'm currently looking at Tenerife for August with Jet2. I have to book two rooms for 4 adults and can get a reasonable hotel for around £4500 AI with entry to Siam Park included. If I drop to HB it's cheaper. Often AI is only actually cheaper for very heavy drinkers but I tend to choose it for convenience..
Just tried the same holiday in OnTheBeach and it costs more without free entry to the waterpark.

[isseywithcats]

another reccomendation for turkey and even going self catering you wont have to cook even once the whole time you are there the restaurants are good and cheap, i like marmaris as a resort

[cantbelievemyeyes]

StilleNachtCarolling you may well find it gets much hotter than that- I tend to look at max temps as opposed to averages as they're the ones you'll be experiencing in the daytime! This summer typical highs were between 30 and the mid 40s I believe, with lots of reports of it being 'absolutely boiling'. I like this website for historical weather data, it's not the exact resort but it gives you a good idea of this summer www.wunderground.com/history/airport/LTBS/2014/8/19/MonthlyHistory.html?req_city=NA&req_state=NA&req_statename=NA&MR=1

[HyperThread]

You've got a healthy budget. Try a 5 star hotel in sharm el sheikh.

[HyperThread]

Someone above mentioned the cleopatra luxury resort in sharm. I can highly recommend them. They have separate restaurants you can book dinner for too.

[StilleNachtCarolling]

I'm trawling Love Holidays currently - they seem a lot cheaper than On the Beach.

Despite some of the really gorgeous looking resorts in Sharm, I just don't think it's going to be great for my middle child and husband in terms of the very high temperatures. She's a whinger and a moaner at the best of times - being super hot won't help her temperament!

Branleuse We went with Thomas Cook Al Fresco (v similar to Eurocamp) this year for a week - one not far from Paris - and we and the kids loved it, despite it being a bit chilly. We then stayed at the Davey Crockett Ranch whilst we were at Disneyland Paris for another week, which I can highly recommend! I've no idea why that particular Disney Hotel is only rated ** as our cabin was spotlessly clean, the breakfast boxes are fabulous and you can take them into the parks for your lunch if you eat cereal for breakfast instead. The food at the restaurant there was delicious too. The pool is supposed to be good but we didn't have time to use it.

[GreenPetal94]

We tend to book flights on easyjet and then find a place to stay on the villarenters website. But then I like self catering as it gives us a lot more space than a hotel. And can go out to eat / just cook pasta.

[Branleuse]

this summer in france wasnt great weather. It's usually much better, and they had a better spring and autumn than their weird summer, but ita not usually like that so dont be put off x

[defineme]

We are a family of 5. We went to costas apartments in kalamaki on zante with thomas cook... 14 days cost usless thsn 3000 in August sc but restaurant pool bar so cheap it was not economical to do more than eat breakfast at home. Plus points were it was very warm, beautifully warm sea few minutes walk, edge of resort with lots if nice restaurants, turtle nesting beach so very quiet, incredibly friendly family run hotel with menagerie of random animals, regularly cleaned apartments and fun evening entertainment. Downsides were it is super basic and small pool...but my kidsplayed in it all day with the friends they made which is the benefit of a small place.

[douchbag]

I've just booked the first choice holiday village in Turkey for a week 3dc me and dh 3.5k all inclusive in August so it is doable

[FuzzyWuzzywasaWoman]

Marking Place

[SantasLittleMonkeyButler]

That's where we are going too douchbag!

[StilleNachtCarolling]

Quick update for those lurking for ideas!

We have FINALLY booked our holiday for the summer - we are going to Menorca, to Isla Paraiso hotel. It's right next to a gorgeous looking beach, has a couple of nice pools (although sadly no slide for the kids) and there's a water park type place nearby if we fancy it. There's also a land train around the area that I bet the kids will love.
We are going half-board for 11 nights and it's come to a grand total of £2830 in August. We are using some of the leftover budget to go to Alton Towers Splash Landings resort for a few days at Easter so it's worked out quite nicely.

We also have Starry Skies to go to in the summer holidays so I think that's plenty of fun for the kids to be getting on with