People moaning about holiday prices in school holidays

[Vodkamartine]

Say holiday to some hotel or centre parks cost 1,000 for them to make a profit. in the holidays they will fill the spaces easily on January week day they won't. so they put the price down it's just sale and demand why don't people get this. Everyone i know keeps moaning that holiday company's are mean and keep pricing them out.

Do people really give this much thought to making all holidays and "parental engagement" educational experiences. Seriously? Relax!

Oh ffs irregular it's an AIBU and I'm expressing an opinion. Why don't you relax and accept that other people want different things from a holiday. It's really not that shocking. Seriously.

I reserve the right to continue to moan profusely about the cost of August holidays. I've been doing it for years. In the olden days (early to mid 2000s) I used to take my children out of primary school regularly for a week, up to the oldest being in about year 4. The teachers didn't bother one bit, in fact I remember one actually encouraging the practice. Some aspects of those holidays were educational, some were fun. It affected my children's education absolutely not one bit. They are both now at University (one at an elite institution) and have done extremely well at school.

Holidays in the sun are restful, restorative and make for fantastic family time. UK holidays can be great but can also be cold, wet, expensive and stressful and involve doing exactly the same things that you would have done at home anyway. If we could get away with it I'd take my primary aged step children out of school to go on a holiday abroad, but schools are so strict these days and everyone's so bloody judgey.

We always did what could be seen as educational things on holiday, we never spent a week on the beach (UK only, never went abroad). Hope to do the same with ds.

I know education can be fun - but I'm not kidding myself that a Florida visit is primarily educational. I won't be asking them to calculate the velocity of roller coasters or lecturing them on symbolism in Disney movies.

Using Centre Parts as an example, you can get a weekend break during term time for much much less than in school holidays, arriving on Friday after school finishes and leaving Sunday night. It means you miss the Monday morning at CP most of which probably would have been spent packing up anyway. Two and a bit days is usually more than enough for our family anyway.

Another valid point is, it's not the Tour Operators who decide (on the whole) the accommodation cost elemement of a package holiday, it's the overseas supplier. So when a Tour Operator decides to take on a large family hotel in Majorca the Tour Operator's overseas contractor fir that area will visit the hotel and agree with the hotelier a nightly rate per person for each room the TO wants (each TO is allocated a certain number of rooms with the hotelier keeping some). So Tui get say 40 rooms, Monarch 15, Thomas Cook 20 etc).

None of the Tour Operators can haggle too much on the cost per night the hotelier wants (although the larger the Tour Operator the more buying power they have).

If any Tour Operator (say Thomas Cook) turned round and said "oh that's too expensive for families during the summer holidays, the hotelier will simply say "Adios my friend, TUI will happily pay that and therefore they can your requested allocation of rooms too".

Supply and Demand.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is separating fun from education.

However if you're going to Seville and don't believe it's an education (albeit an experiential one) as well as a holiday then I believe you're doing your destination a huge disservice.

If you're engaged parents (and I do accept that some aren't) you'll use whatever opportunity you're given to allow your children to continue learning while they're away from school.

If I went to Center Parcs we might go for a walk and do nature spotting. I might tell him about the history of the surrounding area. The parents you know might (or might not! wink ) do the same.

Don't "ffs" me please. You have to admit the above comes across as a more than a bit judgemental and dogmatic, not just different ideas of what makes a good holiday. The "wink" makes it more so, not less.

And actually most of our holidays probably have been quite educational in a broad sense, I just don't actively think about them that way - and I think it is quite rare to do so.

There's nothing wrong with going on holiday to swim, eat ice-cream, stay up late, go to a water park or a jeep safari. I rarely do anything very educational on holiday (once took DD to the Tombs of the Kings in Paphos) and she was bored rigid - plus it was 94f and roasting hot.
We're off to Madeira in 4 days, she's most excited about having milky coffee in a glass and eating those lovely little custard tarts (oh and spending hours in the hotel indoor pool).

My dd is in year one and every year her school give us two weeks in may like a lot of schools but ours starts the week earlier than most, we break up 19th may, ds in in secondary school in the same borough and he breaks up 26th may.

Were going on holiday on 20th may and it's almost 3k dearer the week after so to me it makes sense to go the first week and unfortunately keep ds off ( who has 95%+attendance ) as we simply couldn't afford almost 5k for a weeks holiday.

It's always been like this though so I don't get why the same argument keeps being trotted out every year.
Maybe it's the people who are now affected by it are now the ones morning!

Ha moaning not morning

I believe school holidays should be staggered in different regions, creating a longer peak season, and more affordable prices during the peak season.

Holidays in school holidays are prohibitively expensive for many.

I work in a proffesional job, yet would still struggle to have 2 weeks in the sun with my family once a year. For this reason we holiday during term time (which I realise is frowned upon) or stay with family or friends.

We took our preschooler to Orlando. She learned:

• different countries have different money
• different countries have different leaders
• queuing and how to stave off boredom
• water confidence - stepping stones to swimming
• different new types of food
• gator spotting

Just for starters and without consciously "trying" to educate. With an older child you would also be looking at exchange rates, political differences, advertising differences, most of which would be picked up without needing to be heavy handed with learning.

Unless a child is in an examination year, I would think the experience of being immersed in a different environment would always be more beneficial than a few days of school.

hibble
Yes I agree with staggering the holiday times- i think they do this in France, splitting into 4 regions or something so that it's not everybody on holiday at the same time.

Quite a few friends take their children out of school during term time and just pay the fine, as annoying as it is! Also, I think the fine hits each parent?! not just one amount for the child

I like sightseeing and culture, so taking in a bit of culture on holiday is something we do anyway. I don't make it sound so earnestly boring like some parents do.

I have taken DD to countless castles, stately homes, monasteries, Pompeii, Rome, Knossos etc as part of a holiday. I don't bang on about how "educational" our holidays are.

DD wants to go to Venice and Krakow - to visit Auschwitz, so we will do that at some point.

If you send your children to state school you are buying into the whole idea of the state running your children's education, and therefore dictating when you are allowed to do stuff with your own children. Everything then mentioned by PP about tour operations and making money etc will apply.

If you don't like it, then don't send your kids to state school! Home school or private school them - It is a simple as that! Always makes me laugh how people CHOOSE to send their kids to school, then moan about school holidays, or uniform etc. You made your beds...

There's not always a choice for everyone Gammar

"If you don't like it, then don't send your kids to state school! Home school or private school them - It is a simple as that!"

Except it's not simple is it Gamma? Come on now. Don't say silly things, this is supposed to be a place for intelligent debate.

Yes, gammaraystar, of course. If you choose something (job, car, house, school, restaurant etc), every single thing about it must obviously be totally perfect, so you clearly waive the right to ever criticise anything about it. What a silly, smug post.

In any case, private schools have set holidays as well, so I'm not sure how that would help.

The reason I'm 'banging on' as you put it Iamastonished is because I have raised a perfectly valid opinion about term time holidays being less expensive. Our holidays are fun, of course they are, and relaxing first and foremost. All I have said is that learning and fun go hand in hand. I'm not sure why you think I'm being judgemental or dogmatic, when everything I've said points to people being free to do as they please. My only difference of opinion is that children do continue to learn, and probably more effectively, in a fun environment such as on holiday.

Always makes me laugh how people CHOOSE to send their kids to school, then moan about school holidays, or uniform etc. You made your beds

Yes, how silly of them to choose to not have enough money for private school! And how fucking hilarious that they also can't homeschool because they must work, or have no home!

We laugh and laugh about it daily!!

Apologies Iamastonished that latter part of my post was in response to irregular.

wheatcheif

I said I do understand but peak times aren't really peak times if I can jump in the car, travel for 2 extra hours and save £300- £400 on my holiday. I know a lot of people who do this and the last time I flew from a Scottish airport the plane wasn't full, as a result.
The companies therefore aren't maximising their profit at either end, which then baffles me as to the price difference between the two flights.

I also said that I'll moan about the price but don't actually expect anything to change. I am allowed to point out something that seems to make no real sense to myself.