To not want to spend £5000 on a holiday?

[roland83]

There's only me and my partner, we both earn 30k a year each.

When we look at holidays I hate the idea of going Turkey / Spain etc for £500-£1000, but everywhere I want to go such as Las Vegas, Canada etc are just ridiculous money! £5000 for around 10 days, not including food and drinks.

We are savings for our first house, so it's not really a big issue as the choice between house deposit and holiday is obvious.

I've been Turkey, Egypt, Spain and similar and I find it a bit crap. I don't want to sit by the pool/beach all day getting a tan, I want culture.. but all the day trips are rubbish and crowded. I want to go to Las Vegas and visit the Hoover Dam, Area 51, Grand Canyon but when you work out a realistic price it's astronomical!

So, is it me? AIBU to think all the decent holidays are overpriced and now I'm in my 30's £5k on a holiday seems crazy when I could get a lot more for my money on other things?

[Only1scoop]

I must say Op sometimes our expectations do let us down a little....
However some of my most memorable holidays have been along the lines of what you suggest....

I've visited LV and surrounding area many times. Have done a couple of road trips originating in LV taking in Area 51 ....death Valley ....Yosemite....San Fran....

Always great adventures ....plan everything you want to do and allow a couple of weeks....

Happy hols

[countessmarkyabitch]

You feel like you're missing out on the world but you've decided half of it is crap without any good reason.

Why not just say: I really want to go to Vegas but its too expensive?

[Lizzylou]

If you don't want to spend £5k, don't. Lots of suggestions for getting your Las Vegas trip cheaper, but you seem hell bent on just giving in and accepting defeat.
If Cornwall's your bag and you think you'd end up spending 2 weeks feeling like you'd wasted money on a foreign trip, stick with Cornwall and put the money towards your house.

And I really don't see that Adsy was making any personal attacks, sorry.

[Bailey101]

If you're getting charged £5k before food etc for Vegas, you're getting scammed! I spent 3 months travelling the us, saw 26 different states and spent a little under £6k.

If you don't like lying on a beach, don't do it! All the places you mentioned have loads to do and see, plenty of which are cheap or free. You just need to research your holiday destinations a bit better.

[AwakeCantSleep]

unweavedrainbow I love it there too. Though I'm probably biased (born and raised not far from the Rhine)

OP to me it comes across as if you don't really know what you want to get out of a holiday. I'm not a pool/beach person either. But I'm heavily into culture/museums, nature, as well as getting an authentic feel for the place. I'm also very anti stress on holidays (am lazy if I feel like it). There are dozens of destinations in Europe I haven't explored yet where I'd like to go.

Architecture is usually found in cities, which tend to be not very calm and relaxing. So don't try and square the circle there. How about a few days in Rome (can't complain about the architecture) followed by a week in Tuscany, lush countryside, great food etc?

[roland83]

Thanks for the site recommendations, I guess Virgin holidays are quite pricey. I suppose I thought that if you spend £5k you will get a really nice holiday, but it doesn't seem to be the case.

Mamma - Maybe I need a lobotomy? Cornwall is nice though!

Italy does sound very nice Boobz! I'll look into that!

I'm self employed, that doesn't help.. Taking a week off adds about £1000 loss of earnings per week too, ontop of the £5,000. Maybe that's my problem, I'm not getting a "paid" holiday.

I think what I'm saying is, for £5000 you can get a lot, something for the house that will last 10 years, upgrade your car etc.. £5000 on a holiday is great, but you still have to come home and life goes on.

[adsy]

Thanks lizzy

[AwakeCantSleep]

lastnightiwenttomanderley Provence would have been my other suggestion! Gorge Verdon is amazing, isn't it? I wouldn't recommend going late July/early August as it will be baking hot in the south of France (which radically diminished my wish to go out and look at architecture).

[Aherdofmims]

Umm... You can go to lots of places in Europe without doing a package holiday. This seems to be where you are going wrong.

You book a holiday house/apartment (or hotel if you like), book your own flights and book a car. Then you drive around seeing what you want to see. Find somewhere with a pool if you want to. Air b and b is really good for reasonably priced accommodation.

There is lots to see in pretty much any European country - Italy, France, Spain, wherever. You don't have to just sit by a pool and do crappy "laid-on" day trips.

Nothing wrong with LV per se, but it's the way you are approaching holidays that is causing a problem.

[climbing]

So you like cities?

Have you tried Paris? Rome? Vienna? Florence? Riga? Madrid? Berlin? Amsterdam? Bruges? Barcelona? Seville? Venice? Kraków?

You're so lucky being based in the UK and having the most incredible places accessible to you on a short hop by plane.

You need to start widening your horizons. I agree that sat in a family friendly hotel in Turkey or Spain is shite - I'd rather stay at home! So instead I go to places that I find interesting!

[rookiemere]

I do have to say that Las Vegas is somewhere as a holiday destination that I was a bit underwhelmed with.

We ended up there by accident on honeymoon after it started snowing in June in the US Rockies so just kept driving South. If you don't like gambling and loads of smokey crowds, then there isn't that much to do - I'll give an honourable exception to the M&Ms museum.

We did have an amazing night at the Grand Canyon as there was an astronomy night on so we got to see all the consellations and planets from people letting us use their high resolution gear. We also saw the Hoover Dam - it was a Dam, we saw it, not much else to say.

Overall I have had much better holiday experiences. The Canadian Rockies is an absolute highlight.

[titchy]

It sounds like you're only looking at packages, and in school holidays. Book flights, hotel, transfers and trips separately and go in May not August.

We were thinking of Vegas by the way and I managed to find flights and hotel for four of us in school summer hols for less than £4k total. So you can do it.

[Aherdofmims]

If you can't/don't want to drive on the right go to Ireland or use trains/local buses - most European countries have great rail networks.

[cocoblu]

I got married in vegas last October and honeymooned in nyc for a lot less than £5k we did the hoover dam in a hummer for about £60 each, our flights direct with virgin and flying back to nyc were £800 I also stayed in the vdara for less than £300, the weather was also great.

[DisappointedOne]

We did a US road trip which included Hoover dam, vegas (3 nights), yosemite, san fran, highway 1, desert etc. 13 nights, 2000 miles. Best holiday ever. We stayed at the Bellagio and it didn't come close to £5k for the whole holiday.

(Vegas is at the bottom of my list of places to return to. Hideous, awful place.)

[timeforabrewnow]

For the USA stay in cheap motels (or even youth hostels - amazing value).

I did a road trip on a Greyhound bus across the states and managed Niagra Falls, New York, New Mexico, Grand Canyon, San Diego, San Francisco etc for a lot less than £5000. We also rented a car to drive up Highway 1 along the West Coast of California - super scenery. Managed to avoid anything to do with Universal Studios/Disney as not my bag really. This was around 15 years ago so no doubt prices have rocketed and that may not be relevant at all!

[rookiemere]

Is the £5k per person OP or for both of you?

[fredfredgeorgejnr]

Direct flights Vegas - London are around 900 quid fluctuating maybe 15%, so yes not super cheap, there are plenty of better stopovers than 10 hours though to bring that down to nearer 600 quid.

Still assuming direct is important to you, then 1800 for the two of you. 100 quid a night on hotels will get you something nice, so that's 2800 for your 10 days. What are you spending the other 2200 on?

But if you don't want to spend it - don't, I've travelled to lots of places, for a lot longer than a few days staying in all sorts of level of accommodation and yes I'd say spending 5000 on 10 days in vegas would be a lot - but then I also know it's a completely unrealistic thing.

There's also a lot cheaper places to visit in north America on direct flights from UK airports, Vegas is expensive for direct because there's so much between the destinations people will pay a premium for flying direct. Toronto direct will likely be half that price - because there's lots of direct options.

[roland83]

Yes, I agree that the previous holidays to Europe have been crap because of the destination, not the country itself. I'm not saying Italy/France/Turkey etc have no culture, I'm saying I didn't enjoy those places when I went before as they weren't in area's of culture and I didn't see any culture, just rubbish day trips.

I think I am approaching it in the wrong way yes, and some of you have given some good advice as to what I actually am looking for in a holiday.

I guess I'm frustrated. I want to go on holiday, a big holiday.. (once we have a house).. but I'm struggling to see the wood for the tree's and struggling to see the value in spending a large chunk of money when I've been disappointed before.

Snowboarding holidays are fantastic, but we want something a little different for a big holiday.

Climbing - I've been Bruges yes, none of the others you mentioned.

We love American culture, and would really like to go the the USA.

[roland83]

Rookie - £5k for both of us (flight + hotel) No food.

[NotGoingOut17]

You need to do more research Op, las vegas hotels are really not that expensive if you book separately. i considered going for a cheapish break. and if you want culture; well i consider myself very lucky to be so near to the continent... there is sleep much culture i haven't fitted it all in yet.... Barcelona, Rome, Berlin, Venice,

[dreamingbohemian]

I like structures, bridges, canyons, cities, architecture.

Spain, Italy, Germany -- you're bonkers to write these off, and would be super cheap to get to.

I think where you're going wrong is not doing your research -- and I don't mean on prices, I mean on all the amazing things you can find in these countries. Don't just go for the obvious or package day trips.

Here's an example: everyone goes to Venice, which is indeed amazing, but costs a fortune and is crammed with tourists (would probably disappoint you). So what you can do is fly budget to Venice and then take a quick train to Padua, a lovely city not too far away, and stay there for like 50-60 quid a night. From there you can do lovely day trips all over the region, from smaller towns in the hills to big cities like Bologna, you can see Venice and Lake Garda, etc. The food is amazing too.

If you like nature, cities and architecture, Italy can't be beat.

[roland83]

Canadian Rockies would be fantastic..

We don't smoke or gamble, I guess I was attracted to Vegas for the location, it being near to other things we want to see.

I know the Hoover Dam isn't the highlight of most people's lives, but I've a degree in Quantity Surveying and Construction, so it would probably be the highlight of my life! .

[ChazsBrilliantAttitude]

Step away from the package holiday

If you are free to choose then you can create great holidays for yourself even if it costs the same as a package (which it probably won't) it will feel like better value.

I think you have been "blinded" by package holidays into dismissing whole countries
Barcelona has amazing architecture
Seville, Granada and Cordoba are fascinating

France has some amazing bridges (just saying)...
www.leviaducdemillau.com/en_index.php#/phototheque/
www.pontdugard.fr/en

[BolshierAyraStark]

If you want a nice holiday with good experiences then yes you can expect to pay a lot, not sure what it is about Vegas that appeals but there you go.
We paid £4k for a safari & beach holiday 8 years ago which some would say is a lot for a holiday but for us it was a trip of lifetime & money well spent.