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?

We couldn't afford that either. We've done Menorca for 5 staying in a lovely SC appartment in SantoTomas for 2 weeks, for £2500 including car hire, about four years ago, though. Also we did France on the cheap by travelling by bus and Eurostar and staying in a very nice but inexpensive appartment just outside Amiens. Travel was £280 return plus about £900 for the accomodation, again for 5 people for 2 weeks. So less than 1200 not including car hire.

This year we're doing Northern Spain, taking our own car, getting the 24 hour ferry from Portsmouth to Santander and staying in a 6 bed SC appartment, again for 2 weeks. That's costing about £3000.

Most expensive overseas holiday was an AI 4* hotel in Rhodes, costing about £5000 for the 5 of us for 2 weeks. That was very luxurious, though, a once in a life time holiday.

So, that's about our budget for holidays abroad. We also have plenty of holidays in the UK, usually spending between between £900-1200 for two weeks depending on accommodation.

But £400 a night for a double room in a hotel? I wish!

We are about to book some eye-wateringly expensive hotels in Italy but it is for a very special week to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. No way would we spend that sort of money usually.

We lived for 10 years in SE Asia where you get incredibly good value for hotel rooms compared with Europe - when we returned we found it really difficult to adjust to what you got here for the same price as a very high end hotel in Bali, Langkawi etc.

I'd like to move in raindrops circles ! Having a second home in France, skiing and city breaks being modest would be ace!!!

It does show you how much those around you influence your ideas of what's "normal."

We probably spend around £3- £4k a year on holidays, just over £1.5 for our main 1 week summer holiday (and the rest on a city break for DH and I and short long weekend breaks around the UK around the various half terms.

kids grown so just me and dh 1 week europe £500 flights and accom for both of us + spending money

Have felt the same as you. DH and I have a price cut off with hotels as generally we find after a certain price we are clearly too scummy to appreciate the extra £££ we have spent.

Same seems to go for restaurants as well. The added value has to be spectacular otherwise we can't get over the 'how much?'

We stayed somewhere v pricey and had a crap breakfast. All holiday all we could think about was how much we had paid for that crap breakfast. Never again. We now go much cheaper and go out for breakfast some place nice.

I think you will get slightly skewed responses here as MN has a disproportionately large amount of high earners. Me and DH both work full-time on a UK mean average salary. No way in hell could we afford £400-700 a night in a hotel. But then we do have quite high childcare costs and live in the South East, so our day to day living costs are quite high even though are earnings are pretty typical. But when you factor in that a high proportion of the UK population are only on minimum wage, I think it becomes pretty clear those are hotel costs far out of the reach of most people.

Most people I know with children have holidays in the UK. We book cottages, ranging from 500-1200 depending on time of year and location. I would love to have a family holiday abroad, but no way could I justify spending thousands of pounds on one.

I was just looking at private villas in Majorca (no intention of booking one, was just curious) and a smallish one, albeit very nice location, was about £3400 for a week in August!!!!!

I do however have a cleaner who I pay around £2000 per year so I suppose if I got rid of that luxury I'd be able to afford expensive holidays! it's all about what your priorities are financially.

Really enjoying Raindropsandsparkles assertions that their three holidays a year, one of which is in their own holiday home, is modest.

Last year we stayed in my dad's caravan in Norfolk for five days.

The year before we didn't go anywhere. Or the year before that. We won't go anywhere this year either because DC is due in June.

We sometimes go to such places but it's just the two of us at the moment. Some are lovely but some are disappointing anyway - e.g. the service isn't nearly as nice as expected.

With a baby on the way, though, it got me thinking that if you've got 2-3 children than a couple of weeks away would add up to the price of a new Merc. That just feels wrong to blow that sort of money on a holiday so we'll probably go for more 'run of the mill' options.

I also think that while 140k is a high income, with a London mortgage and children it probably affords a comfortable lifestyle but not the bracket for £500 a night hotels or yacht charters.

Just back from a week away, and we paid over £400 per night for our room, but we usually want club lounge access and it was a high end hotel, we needed a bit of pampering.

But we have also spent the same amount for a very sub standard, poor well known hotel brand in the states which offered terrible value.

Its a personal choice, and we all choose what we spend what ever disposable income we have on what suits.

Personally I prefer to spend money on doing things rather than having things

Out income is £150k PA.

Last year we went to Disney world Florida for a trip of a lifetime and that cost us £9k for 6 of us. We booked our luxury villa via VRBO, flights through virgin flydrive and Disney/universal tickets through American attractions. We had an amazing time and seems to be nearly a 3rd less than my friends family of 6 paid. Because I researched everything to get the best deal.

We also go to the Algarve every year autumn time (October last year was 28deg) and stay in a luxury Vila. Our flights through easyJet cost less than £300 for all 6 of us including reserving our seats. I know that Self catering isn't for everyone. But as a family, we are not fans of All inclusive and fighting for the buffet and sun loungers! We like our own space to relax together and to go out for meals every other night.

We are not extravagant in other areas of our lives, apart from cars perhaps, but to us our holidays are important as my husband works away all week.

We spent 130k on 2 holidays this year because on both occasions we took away our extended family as was milestone year for us. Would not normally do this, was a one off.

No idea, I used to spend about £30 a night on a room when I went away.

Ok I'm not ashamed to say that this thread is making me sick with jealousy so I'll just slink away now...

You can easily spend thousands on a holiday if you can afford it. There are holidays at all levels.

I priced up a trip for the four of us to fly to LA, couple of day stop over and then onto the Bora islands for two weeks. 24k!

A friend of mine working in HR for a luxury travel company, they make tailor made holidays for people. Some will cost tens of thousands.

She showed me a luxury ski holiday were it was 28k for a four bedroom chalet for a week. Full butler service, with transport around the resort and childcare.

We usually do a self catering villa with pool in Europe, DH uses his air miles for our flights, which means we can get a nicer villa as flights are pretty much free. We usually do it for about 3k for 10 days.

We are spending a lot on holidays this year, we’ve done cheaper last few years with the DC younger. Now they are 7 and 9 they can be a lot more flexible and will enjoy more!

We’ve booked Sri Lanka for Easter which is costing a lot, Italy for the summer and then Thailand for Christmas - we live in ME though so travel to Far East is easier and cheaper than if we were in UK.

We are lucky in that my Dad owns property in some lovely countries, so our holidays abroad are cheap, even with there being five of us. Flights last year were £900, accomodation was nothing, we probably spent 1.5k altogether on a week away!

We also do a couple of weekends away a year (some with the DDs, some without), a week away just DP and I and a week camping with the DDs.

I actually didn't realise how much we go away until I wrote that down.

many people pay private school fees - before and after that, they can afford expensive holidays

We are a high-income family by most people's standards and would never dream of paying £400 + per night for a hotel.

Maximum is probably £250 for a short 3-4 night break, and that gets you a very nice hotel in most places.

But our normal budget is a lot less than that.

We just spent close to 3k on a Mediterranean cruise for 2 people. Flights were another £400 And then a couple of nights in a hotel in Barcelona before about £280. We can afford it but it's still the most I've ever spent on a holiday and I can't help feeling panicked because I'm generally a saver not a spender!

I'm justifying it as it's (probably) our last big holiday before starting a family, and the cruise fare was all inclusive so shouldn't need must spending money at all.

These threads do make me smile modest holidays in our own holiday home and then just a week ski ing or city breaks we live in different world's my modest holiday was four days in Anglesey at the end of September in a holiday chalet type thing

The boasting on this thread is obscene.

Take home household income about £40-50k, 3-4 kids.

Examples In last few yrs:

• cottage in Lake District for one week (£750)
• 12 days s/c in the Alps for about £4000 in total (appartment, car hire, flights, fuel, etc).

I wouldn't spend £700 per night on a hotel, but often it's not a realistic figure. If you have a hotel in the Caribbean or Mexico or somewhere which only does all Inclusive, if you break down a £3500 holiday into the cost per 7 days, then yes, it's costing you £500 a night. But that's not just the hotel, it's the food, flights etc. Also some hotels like to market themselves as ultra-exclusive by having the Presidential Suite at some ridiculous price when the other 249 rooms in the hotel cost a fraction of that cost.

I do think on MN the holiday thing is very polarised. People either go trekking in the Himalayas with their own private sherpa and hand-stitched yurt costing £25k, or scrape together £2.50 for a weekend in a caravan in Skegness. In January.

We do lots of different holidays each year. Last year we had a big, expensive holiday to America. This year we have a very busy summer with lots happening so are looking at a week self-catering somewhere in the UK, with a week in the Canaries at half-term in October.

When we go away I want accommodation which is at least as nice as my house. Yes I could look at 1 star or 2 star rated holiday cottages and get a week in July for £400 rather than £900, but I'd rather not. To me, it's well worth spending the extra to stay somewhere really nice.