To ask how you actually afford to go abroad

[lavenderpekins]

Aibu to feel fed up? Not going away again.. nearly everyone I know is going on a family holiday to the med this summer holiday.

Sort of lighthearted I know we're very lucky to live in this country, able to buy good/nhs/school.. I'll get over it too..

We are away every school holiday, we live in Scotland so getting away to the sun is a priority for us

For me the UK is abroad. I go for the cheap and nasty option. Book in advance before the nasty cheap stuff is snapped up. Go in the autumn and spring holidays. Browse the Internet for ages.

Static caravans, privately owned and rented out work out cheaply - people advertise online directly, not via the caravan park's official website. Some years back now, for example, we went to this holiday park near Hull, in the summer:
www.directholidayhomes.co.uk/patrington
I think it was about 250 GBP a week. Slept 6.

Another time we were in Maldon, Essex, same price. All rather old static caravans, not pretty but you have beds, fridge, cooking stuff etc. Wales was also cheap.

Budget hotels can also work out OK too, though. Stayed at the Southend on Sea Travelodge, again really ugly, not top quality but you can just walk down to the sea and there's good public transport. They had some sort of special offer on and there were just three of us so it was just under 300 GBP. If you booked 5-12 August now, with no special offer (just checked) it would be 512 GBP for 2 adults 2 children.

This is the first year we have gone abroad. We booked it this time last year and saved and saved so that it was paid off before we went. It meant giving up some treats during the year and working extra hours if they were available but it was so worth it! We've already put a deposit down for next year and the savings jar has been taped back together

Interest free credit cards.

A few people with school age children do take them out of school for holidays abroad and just absorb the cost of any fines into the savings they make doing this, i am sure there have been lots of threads over the years on here about doing this v not doing this etc etc.
I live in a fairly normal area, but so many people take their children abroad in the six weeks to places like the US, Mexico and so on and i am amazed how they can afford it, Centre parcs seems very popular and that isnt cheap either. My husband gets a holiday bonus which used to help when the kids were little and we could afford camping or holiday camps/ caravans and so on and we saved up for two years for a holiday abroad and my dh sold lots of things on ebay too for the spending money. We had years when we didnt go away at all. Its all about priority i suppose, a lot of people will just pay for it on credit and worry about it the rest of the year. They are a lot cheaper than they used to be i think , but then i havent had to pay out for four of us in a while now.

We work hard, don't have children so we can travel outwith peak times and don't have a car. I can't remember the last time we went out drinking, it's just not something either of us fancy so that saves money.

We either hunt for cheap city breaks or we book in advance and pay it up. We were in Paris in April, we spent a week in New York last month and we've booked ten nights in Cancun in March. Not having kids is brilliant

We don't holiday abroad often.

Our most recent one was skiing, which cost a fortune. The one before that was longhaul which also cost a fortune. The two holidays were 8 years apart. People notice we have been on these big holidays but not how often we go.

In between big holidays we camp or stay with friends or family in other parts of the country. I have also been abroad with work a few times so I do get to do some travelling, but our priority is our home and most of our spare cash has gone into making it nice (it was 'in need of modernisation' as the estate agents say) and overpaying the mortgage. Holidays are an extravagant luxury to us.

@Blowingthroughthejasmineinmymi I can't see if anyone else answered, but most international flights are on sale 335 days before the date of your return journey. You can use something like Skyscanner to play around with dates to find the cheapest combination, and you can set up alerts to tell you about price drops.

You can also get cheap-ass flight if you can travel very short notice.. I've seen Mexico return flights for £250!

On our last holiday the in-laws came too which was handy,as we booked and paid for ourselves and got one free child space for dd,and the inlaws booked for themselves and my ds,and they also got a free child space for our ds.
If it was just us going without pil's,we would have had to pay for one of our children,as you can only get one free child space with your booking.

Go either all inclusive or self catering,as eating out all the time will add up.
If self catering,don't buy your food from tourist shops by the hotels as they are normally a bit more expensive.

Term time holidays are cheaper than half terms/school holidays.

My friend looks for a good but cheap holiday in a travel agents,then goes into a different travel agents and asks it they have a similar holiday they can do cheaper.which they do,so he goes back to the first travel agents and knocks them down on price,and again at the second travel agents.he's been known to do this a lot and always gets a good bargain.

If that's not your style,book your holiday online yourself as travel agents put a small fee on top of the holiday.

Bring nappies,wet wipes/suncream with you as they're normally expensive abroad in shops near the hotels.

I earn 13k but we still manage to go abroad most years. I find cheap deals on holidays and I've never spent more than £1200 on a holiday.

To save that money I have to cut as many corners as possible. I keep my bills down by being very energy efficient. I shop around and buy cheap food, sticking to a budget. I hardly ever buy clothes or anything for myself. We cycle everywhere, don't own car. Our monthly outgoings are very low so don't miss out on all the fun stuff.

Les Étangs Fleuris is another campsite near Disneyland Paris that a lot of people use. I've never been, but I know it's popular with British families.

Can't see us as a family of now 4 with one at school age affording to fly anywhere for the foreseeable future. But luckily we love France, so save up and usually take our caravan over there which halves the cost of accommodation, though does push up diesel and toll spending a little. We use Tesco rewards for the crossing on Eurotunnel. This year however I'm on mat leave (dd is 7mo) and we want more space to spread out so have hired a static van which is more expensive in peak season. If you're able to travel outside of peak season there are deals out there if you're flexible. If you're happy to drive to destinations in Europe that's another way of doing it cheaper rather than flying. Basically if you don't have kids of school age the world's your oyster. Otherwise pay the fine and take them out of school for a few days or cut corners/ revise expectations!

confused I think I am going to do 4 nights in your camp site in safari tent then another 4 at a hotel near disney but not disney.

Sorted :) then we get best of a few worlds. wonderful.

If we like the camp site and go back, we can try out park asterix, but we have never done DLP yet.

little

to fly our dc we would have to go in term time, a few days here or there

but from DC point of view - any form of travel is wonderful for them, it doesnt have to be via plane.

After dc were born we had little spare money. When they were 6&4 we went camping in Brittany in early June ( cool and damp) and after that we worked upwards. We very gradually went on better and better holidays. Some of the more expensive ones less fun than the cheaper.

Now they have left home and we go whenever we want but it's not so much fun as the old days TBH.

wombling thank you sorry op your thread is getting massively de railed here on the way to DLP

Always go in spring or autumn holidays rather than summer. We drive to France/Spain - as a family of 5 it's much cheaper than flights and car hire. Research your accommodation. We spent a wonderful week just outside Sorrento in a 2 bed wooden chalet 2 years ago for £400 for the week. It was small but the outside space was lovely and easy access to visit places.

If we invite her along, then my mum stumps up more than her fair share because she doesn't feel able to travel unaccompanied and likes to lie in the sun.

I'm willing to drive an old banger.

I'm willing to shop in Aldi and charity shops all year.

I'm willing to eat cheap supermarket food and cook abroad, rather than eat out every meal.

I'm willing to forgo birthday and Xmas presents, and cash I'm given goes in the holiday kitty.

I love sunshine.

We go abroad once or twice a year.

We earn pretty well now and don't need to scrimp to be able to afford it. But we've always managed to pay for holidays, even when we had a much lower income. We just did everything the cheapest way - budget flights in the sales, no checked luggage, transfers by local public transport, cheapest accommodation (including hostels sometimes), self cater or supermarket food, cheap sightseeing options.

These days we can afford nicer hotels, but we still prefer to use the local subways instead of a taxi, we travel hand luggage only to avoid paying extras, we only pay for one hotel room for all of us. In every day life we economise a lot by living near to work so zero commute costs, we don't run a car, don't pay for hairdressers/manicures/coffees, only have one DC, live in a small energy-efficient flat, so we can save a big chunk of our earnings.

This year we have trips to Milan, Amsterdam and Portugal. Me and DP are far from high earners but live within our means, save, and prioritise time away on holidays above other things. I have no debt at all and never put anything on a credit card or loan. I work from home and so I like most of my annual leave to be spent having a change of scenery!

I book well in advance to get good prices. It is getting costlier now DS is at secondary school though as he is older and also we are now stuck to school holiday dates where the price shoots up.

DH and I do not go abroad often, not because we can't afford it but because we have more important things to spend spare funds on. Holidays just aren't a priority and even before DH if I went abroad it was because I was forced, I'd much rather book a week off and spend it at home, there's so much to do at home!

We use our Amex where possible and then use the Avios points we have earned towards flights- we are flying 3 of us, Club Europe to Spain on these- so can be done.
We book villa a year in advance when often the following years rates haven't been hoiked up yet and you also normally pay an upfront deposit of say 30% of total cost to secure it, then have around 10 months to budget for the remainder. Holidays are huge priority for us, as long as I have one, even if year away I am happy, so will always figure a way to budget towards it. We pay for car rental, accommodation and flights all upfront from savings, have a budget for spending money, but end up going maybe £1k over that with petrol/meals/days out etc and will just pay this off over next 3 months card.

We have good friends who live in the Caribbean which is extremely handy

But, aside from that...we both drive fairly elderly cars which are paid for. We don't smoke or have expensive phone contracts. We never drink alcohol at home. We don't have Sky TV.