To think its possible to go away 2 adults and 2 kids in the school hols for under £1500?

[NapQueen]

Never done an abroad holiday with the kids, and the last one we did at all was mega cheap and not in school holidays.

We couldnt afford to spend more than 1500, even that will be a stretch (getting rid of Virgin Media, changing utility providers, reducing our meagre food budget).

However I really want my dcs to have a week in the sun, and experience an airoplane and tbh Im sick of self catering/self drive/uk only/cook and clean holidays.

Can it be done?!

What dates would that be in October as I'm in Scotland?

GotToGetMyFingerOut where do you look? Those deals sound amazing.

When's oct hols and where would you fly from

Cheesegirl the only problem with magaluf is it's not as warm end of October and there's more rain. You are best looking at the Canaries or greece.

Absolutely. We do it on a £1200 budget camping in France.

Try May half term it's cheaper. I 've got ba flights and 6 nights in an apartment with a pool in Nice for just under 900. 1 adult 2 teenagers ( who more or less come out as adults ).

Admittedly I will need to sort transfers and it is self catering but this is 500-700 Cheaper then any package holiday I could see

Flying from Newcastle, if October dates would be probably sat 20th or sun 21st for the week but dhs school hasnt published their dates yet.

S'illot is where mine is and I am going in summer. Its because transfer is a bit of way, but who cares its cheap!

Oh and I mean next October btw.

Cheby we always fly Ryanair from our local airport and i use either onthebeach or love holidays as those are live prices. If you go through teletext or icelolly you tend to need to call up and because the price isn't live it jumps up hundreds.

Holiday pirates on Facebook is a great page.

I spend ages looking for good deals and get a bit obsessive 😂drives my dh mental. We went to occidental le mar in Costa teguise in July and the kids loved it.

We went to zante last October half term for 800. Try holidayhypermarket.com

Thank you everyone for all of these hints and tips!

Not keen on Air bnb as we usually do that sort of thing uk and Id quite like to stay in a hotel with a pool for the kids. And a bar for the wines.

Good tip about looking Feb time.

Your flight prices will often reduce dramatically if you fly from a different airport. Our closest airports are Manchester and East Midlands, but it saves us loads when we fly from London airports, even after factoring in petrol and a Premier Inn for the night before. Glasgow is often a lt cheaper too.

We did a week in France camping - which included 3 days at Disney, a day in Paris and ferry crossing for a bit less than that.

There are some amazing bargains in Turkey in summer if you would be happy to go there

We did turkey half board and three bed villa for under that.

I just checked and flight prices are still far too high just now. I'd wait a few months if I was you definitely.

Like the holidaypirates page on Facebook they often have great deals but they don't suit us as they are mostly in hotels that don't do rooms for two adults and three kids.

We did 2 adults 2 kids self catering to Tenerife from Manchester in 4 star apts for 1300 last year and had a brilliant holiday. 3rd-17th July Scottish school hols. I've become a master at watching the prices via On the Beach, booking around this time. Going when English schools are in means Manchester is way cheaper than Scottish airports (700-800) and worth the overnight stay. We also go to a quieter cheaper golf resort in Tenerife that is out of the main resorts but not far in a taxi or car. I think On the Beach is a great website. It lets you pay a deposit and pay it up. I've booked with them past 3 years with no problem and just booked again for Salou for 2018. For next year I found out flying on the Tuesday rather than the Saturday was a lot cheaper for some reason. x

Thomson did free child places in the January sales this year. Might be worth looking into that around Xmas time. We thought we'd get a better deal waiting until nearer the time we wanted to go (September) but we were wrong.

I've been looking at 2018 holidays recently and they are currently much more expensive than what we have paid this year (we only have 1 dc) so are waiting for Jan sales.

I'd look at a half term, not Easter/summer.
Look to where there are lots of flights eg Spain -Malaga, Seville, etc.
You and the little one might be able to fly friday morning, and your partner and the older one fly friday evening
You can also go for less than a week
If you find a hotel you like the look of you can also contact directly to see if you can get a better price

Double check whether you school(s) are adding any inset days on to any of the holidays as travelling on a Friday can be cheaper than Sat-Sat, or even if you could get a later flight and go straight from school or work, you'd arrive in resort late but it could save you some money. Also, be flexible with your airport if you can ie look for anything from any northern airport/Midlands airport. We went to Cyprus during October half term a couple of years ago. 2 adults and a teen, less than £900 sc. The weather was really good whilst we were there but sometimes at the end of October it can get a bit rainy.

We did Tenerife 7 nights all inclusive 4* hotel, for around £1100 in school hols (May) last year. We paid £100 more this year for same hotel week before May half term.

We go to New York around 2/3 times a year which is self catering for around £1,000 for three of us but do this Autumn and Christmas, as we like to do certain things there at that time of year.

Try booking direct with hotels rather than through an Agent and book flights separate.

We went to Agadir for 2 weeks last week July/1st week August. Room only but there were some very good SC and HB deals but we prefer to eat out and have some variety. I booked hotel after researching on trip advisor and suchlike. Hotel was booked via love holidays ( the deal via expedia was cheaper than the deal on their own website!) and flights direct with easy jet. Cost 1400.

I've just booked for me and eldest daughter only to go back in October for 9 days. Cost 540. Research does pay as does being willing to book direct and I'd never simply book with a travel company again.

We also had 10 days in Marrakech at Easter and found a riad via Homeaway, again booking the flights direct with easy jet. The riad was 200, and we could have had 2 extra people in it, and the flights were 400.

It's definitely possible with some canny shopping around.

Definitely May Half Term week. We've done many short haul holidays to Southern Europe which is heating up 25 - 30C nicely by then. If you keep your eyes peeled, it's not too hard to get cheap flights for say

Following with interest!