To wonder who can afford this? What do you spend on your holidays?

[Bridgeofpies]

I was flicking through a travel magazine and having the usual envy of the people enjoying sun drenched beaches, bustling exotic markets and artistic sunsets etc. So I had a look through at all the places to stay.

Almost all the hotels and accommodation (or a large proportion) were from £400 per night for a double room! Some were up to £700. It got me wondering - who actually stays in these hotels? They look amazing and I can imagine doing it for a one- off special occasion like a big anniversary or birthday but are there people who spend this on their “normal” holidays?

We are definitely well-off by most standards but wouldn’t consider this for a holiday! (Especially with 2 kids, it would be insanely expensive). Our last big blow out holiday was around £3500 but that was 2 weeks, all-inclusive, with flights and for all 4 of us!

So, just got me wondering, is it just billionaires and business travellers on expenses who stay in these places?

The top 1% of UK earners earnt an average of £267,000 pre tax in 2010.

Right, but...

The UK working population was 32 million in 2016, so roughly 320,000 UK nationals earn £267,000 or more.

They don't. It means that of the top centile the average (I'm guessing median) income was £267k. If it's median, then that means of people in the top 1%, half of them earn over 267k (ie, 160 000 people). If it's a mean, then fewer than half earn over £267k, because of the presence of a small number of very highly paid people.

The current position is here:

www.gov.uk/government/statistics/percentile-points-from-1-to-99-for-total-income-before-and-after-tax

which was updated a couple of days ago. In 2010, the year you cite, the 99th centile (ie, the lower bound of the top 1%) was £149k It's currently £170k. So 320 000 UK nationals have pre-tax incomes of £170k or more, which is rather less than £267k. The figures aren't available breaking the distribution down in more detail, but adding a rough inflation to the £267k it implies that about 160 000 people earn between £170k and about £300k, and another 160 000 people earn over £300k.

Flowersandbirds

George49

You are both making me laugh. My parents were so poor when I was a child that they sometimes didn’t have enough money to feed us. I was the only child on free school meals at school...and suffered the humility of being given a free packed lunch in front of the other children during the teachers strikes of the 80s (when everyone had to go home for their lunch). As I said, if you want it, go out and get it.

We are doing over a months wage on a uk holiday for five For one week in august this year. A lot of places you can put down a small deposit and pay off bit by bit if you book early enough. We are looking at next August now and infact booked this years last February.

Is this kind of expenditure the norm?! I am genuinely surprised at how much you all spend on holidays. We generally go self catering in the UK and spend £600-£800 p/w on a cottage. If we need to stay in a hotel we book a travelodge for 1-2 nights for relatively little. I thought we were normal?!

Don’t you ever worry you’ll spend £10k on - holiday and then not enjoy it?

I think i’d feel so much pressure to make it the best holiday ever / to get £10k’s
Worth of enjoyment out of it!

mrsbaffled, each to their own. Last time I went to a cottage (for a long weekend) and came back tired rather than well rested. It was more cramped and a lot less nice than our house and the weather was rubbish. Given that we can get to the hills in 20 mins and the beach in under 1h and have an amazing house, I'd rather just stay put and go on day trips when the weather is nice. If we actually spend money, I want the holiday to feel worth my while and time off work.

mrsbaffled A UK cottage holiday is indeed a normal family holiday, but you must be aware that many people go abroad, which is usually considerably more expensive.

When you are looking at all inclusive in August, a holiday doesn't have to look especially elaborate for it to cost around £5k. You could spend this on 10 days in a 4 star hotel, which could be far from luxurious (buffet food and dated rooms).

We went abroad last year to Belgium. Yes, we paid for the ferry but drove to our holiday cottage which was in a holiday park like a Hoseasons for about £700 iirc. It was an amazing holiday !

I would love to go somewhere more exotic but the prices just seem ridiculous to me. I can’t justify spending that much on a holiday each year. I guess we might do a big one just the once as a ‘holiday of a lifetime’.

It’s not that we don’t have the money, it’s just I can’t justify it.

But, as you say, each to their own...

I remember watching a doc about Richard Branson's resort on Necker. It looked lovely and luxurious and obviously cost megabucks per night......and still there was a barbecue with a 1970s disco dress code.

Imagine spending all that dough and then being expected to take part in a naff disco themed barbecue with the other guests?

Always enjoy our holidays and I particularly enjoy seeing DS who is ASD deliriously happy when he's seeing wild animals / trekking through rainforest.

I think also its having known a couple of people one who suddenly dropped dead or one diagnosed with stomach cancer (both) early 40s and died 6 months later. It made me think if suddenly I was only given 6 months to live what would I have wanted to have done with the kids / where would I have wanted to go. Never regretted any holiday spending.

The only thing I feel pressure for is to get the holiday right but I love doing all the planning and research. It can be a lot of work though and I can understand people who work longer hours than me just paying someone else to do it. Had fun today looking at quokka, wombat and tree kangaroo videos and its a good distraction from my biopsy on Tuesday. My only worry is what if I get diagnosed with something and am then too ill to go but you only live once.

Just thinking back - three weeks August Cornwall - £2700 (ish) - cottage for 4, 2001-3.

I know someone who is forking out £10k to go to Disney World all inclusive shudder. I just can't imagine ever having that kind of money and wanting to go somewhere so uncouth! Plus..the stress of having to have a good time?! What happens if it's shit?! £10k down the drain.

Mind you, reading threads like this make me realise how poor we are. Haven't been abroad in 10 years now. We are actually going on hols this year - £700 (which is a LOT of money to us) for the accommodation and we will just have to 'live normally' for the week we are there (nice UK beach cottage hols)

We're paying £3.2k for a fortnight for 3 in Gran Canaria in August school holiday. Nice hotel, kids go free - and yet... The boy will be in with us. We can't afford to pay for sex on holiday as well... ;-)

Fully aware we could get something cheaper. But if you want to go abroad in a child-friendly/pool holiday kind of way, it is EXPENSIVE.

StarUtopia

Disney World, uncouth. Get over yourself. My four year old believes that the characters are real. The sheer joy in his eyes makes it worth every single penny.

Really bunsy?..... It’s worth £10k? For something which will most unlikely be remembered by a 4yr old in 10yrs time.

It's worth 10K if she feels it's worth 10K.

Well by that reckoning let's never do anything with our young children then because they won't remember it

GreenOr ... it’s not about him remembering it. It’s about me remembering the look in his eyes. My mum was two years older than me when she was diagnosed with the illness that eventually killed her. The same illness that killed my grandma too. Life is too short. Memories are very precious.

Penguinsandpandas your holiday sounds amazing.

looking where do you go skiing to get 2-3 weeks in school holidays within that budget?!! 😮 Sorry slightly off track...

Thanks very much Annabelle I had lots of excellent advice from the tripadviser forum who got me to add in the Great Barrier Reef/Cairns area and told me about the treehouse with possums and the lady you can stay with who looks after tree kangaroos which children can cuddle. My DS (11) in particular is so excited and keeps telling everyone he is going to the "land of cuddly animals". He has said though he is worried how Mummy is going to climb the tree to get in the treehouse in her heels, he hasn't realised there will be stairs.

Omg, I feel such a cheapskate in comparison. We barely spend a fraction of that on our holidays. £50-60 a night would be pushing the boat out for us. Having said that we have had some great holidays for that money and are lucky to have family and a few friends in some lovely locations around Europe that have helped to keep the costs down.

We averagely spend £200 - £500 per room, it really depends on where we are going and there is a difference in luxury, better views, designer furniture, better location, less rooms. OH in Derivatives in the city.

Wow! We spend a fraction of the figures mentioned early in this thread and by the OP. We’re lucky to have a small house in Spain and this obviously helps but we go other places as well - mainly Europe - and have never spent more than £1,000 in total for flights + accommodation and that’s for us as a couple. If family are coming with us or friends we will have extra flights to pay for, but I’m amazed people spend so much!

We use budget airlines - usually EasyJet and book while price are still very low.
Accommodation is for whole apartments/houses on Owners Direct and is usually £400 - £600 a week

We spend £12k - £15k a year on holidays. Usually we gave a couple but sometimes we might have 3 or 4. We pay around £4k on top of that for ground rates for a static caravan in the UK which we use for short breaks too.