I just want a bloody holiday!

[radiorentals]

I am struggling to find anything. I have modest standards, I've stayed in many a Premier Inn or similar, happily eat at a Beefeater, Brewers Fayre et al...yet there seems to be no choice at all, places are either super expensive or £££s.

DP and I have had a tough year, as have my DC who have just finished their exams. We have about £3k to spend. I want a weeks holiday in the Med, all inclusive, in a reasonable hotel with a pool near the beach and town so my DC (16 and 18) can go off on their own a bit.

I honestly thought that wasn't asking too much, but the choices seem to be awful run down hotels (judging by the reviews), or ones miles away from anywhere, including the airport, or spending £5k plus.

Am I just expecting too much? 🙁

I think you will struggle to get what you want for £3k, I think £5k would be more realistic. Have you looked at villas? x

Stop looking in Europe would be my advice. Now nobody is going to Tunisia/turkey/Egypt the prices of holidays to mainland Europe have gone insane. We've just been to Dubai for a week, all inclusive in a five star hotel with emirates for £2k for 4 of us.
Look at Thailand, some great deals going there I noticed in the Sunday times last week.

i agree that in height of season £750 per person for all inclusive and flights etc is unlikely .

Self catering villa somewhere where eating out is cheap my be better option.

Lanzarote?? Cheap and cheerful

AI for 4 people in the summer season, and last minute? Tough job.

Try the aggregate last minute type sites like here

For example.....

Have a look at Jet2 Holidays. DS and I had 11 nights in Crete in the school holidays last year with breakfast included (€15-30 for both of us to eat out locally most nights) for £702.

Thomson last minute offers. There's loads.
Greece, spain, turkey etc. All inclusive with trip advisor 4/5 rating.
Starting 350 each for a week.

I really don't want a villa. I will spend an entire week cleaning and cooking, and if I'm doing that I might as well stay in a caravan in the UK.

I'm a terrible flyer so am reluctant to go outside Europe (I've never done more than 4 hours on a plane), plus my understanding is in places like the UAE because we're not married DP and I should not be sharing a room.

I don't know how they would know you aren't married?! They don't ask when you check in!

3k on a holiday? seriously? ?? people are saying that isn't alot of money? id expect 5star luxury for that money.

This us why i have a tent!

As you are English, the rules about not sharing a room won't apply.

I'd suggest Morocco, there are some really beautiful places a few miles outside the centre (but with easy and cheap shuttles/taxis). We've been here:
www.fawakayvillas.com/
here:
www.fawakayvillas.com/
here:
www.marrakechholidayvilla.com/
and can recommend all of them

It's only 750 quid per person. No, that isn't a lot of money for flights, a weeks hotel and ALL food and drink.
You'd need to pay a lot more than that for 5 star luxury!

Bum I missed one: www.marrakechholidayvilla.com/ - this was the cheapest, has its own pool, and free shuttle into the city. Although theyre all villas, they aren't self catering.

Flight time 4 hours from London.

Love Holidays are good. There should be loads in your price range. You can search by airport, country, price, trip advisor reviews, star rating facilities or a combination of all of these

Try Thomson. You can get all inclusive for 3 adults 1 child to Majorca for £3k

My dp and I travel all over the middle and Far East unmarried from backpackers hostels to 5* hotels. Put a ring on your wedding finger and nobody asks anything/gives a second glance.

Greece and turkey are your best bet- very cheap, 4-5 hour flights. Lovely countries and wonderful people - and great food and sun.

Greece used to be cheap, not anymore, you'll be lucky to find a hotel with everything you need for 3k in Greece. I hear terrible things about Bulgaria but it's cheap!

Have a look at Cape Verde, I went there last year with my partner and paid £1600 for 11 nights for the both of us.

Thomson has some deals right now for last minute bookings have a look there

Second the jet2holidays recommendations or Olympic Holidays. If your DCs have just finished their exams, can you go very soon? Or the last week in August is sometimes a little less expensive.

Look in the deals section of jet2holidays so you can look everywhere and something you haven't thought of might come up. Take a lot of reviews with a pinch of salt - as long as the overall consensus is 4/5 or above, it will be fine. Some people are extremely fussy and will complain about everything.

Also consider hotel B&B and plan to eat out all the time - somewhere like Greece or Malta/Gozo that may work out less expensive than AI, and will be a better experience - you don't have to worry about the hotel food not being that nice. If going AI and just wanting a relaxing hotel/beach holiday, I would also go to Turkey or Hurgarda without concern but would expect those places to be too hot for me in August.

I was also going to suggest love holidays. They have really flexible search terms too, which makes looking for any location really easy.

Our holiday budget is about a tenth of that

However. Have you thought about south of France? You can get Eurostar down to south for £600 for all four of you, leaving 2.4k for accommodation and spends.

St tropes, Cannes, nice, marseille...beautiful beaches, luxury hotels. Great weather.

Just an idea. Would love to go one day.

You should be able to get somehting all inclusive for £3k for the 4 of you, but it won't be amazing.

If you are going al-in why do you need to be central? You'll be spending most of your time in-resort?

me to LEM i often think i live in a different world to most mumsnetters i cant just magic up £3,000 or even half !

We're looking at end August/ start of Sept, we have to be back by 10 Sept for a wedding but anytime before then.

The idea of somewhere central was more for my DC than me, I know they might want to escape from me and DP for a few hours, and I'd rather they could walk to the town rather than having to hire mopeds etc. Likewise the beach, they are all quite watersports orientated so are likely to want to go and do something of that nature. I am happy by the pool with my kindle.

Am checking out some of the sites mentioned, hopefully something will come up. Am favouring Greece/ Cyprus as we've done Spain many times before.