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?

Family of 4.

We've spent years taking our main holiday during summer/Oct half term weeks when the kids were primary aged so we could get more for our budget. Now the DC are secondary school age, we can't do half terms as much due to other commitments but I do mourn it!

Shorthaul for one week - normal budget between £1.5K - £2K for 2 bed accommodation plus flights + car hire. (Excludes food spending which obviously varies with location).

This year, I've managed to get 10 nights in Italy during Jul/Aug for £1.8K (flights x 4, 2 bed s/c apartment with shared pool + car hire) after ALOT of research and buying budget flights early for

We are a family of 6 with school aged children. I am good at holiday hunting and get some good bargains. This year we are having two holidays abroad, both on a budget. The first is in France and with spends will probably work out at £1600 all in (flights 300, accommodation 800, 500 spends - staying near friends who will host so not lots of expensive trips out).
Second in Portugal which will be just over 2k in total including spending.
Both in summer holidays. I book flights as soon as they are released and we are doing air BnB.
With 6 of us it is very difficult and prohibitively expensive to stay in hotels.

Household income around 75k which is good in our area for two people no kids relatively low outgoings though we do both have a car payment this year is a special year we will spend 2.5k each on our main holiday probably a few hundred on a couple of little holidays. Wouldn't prioritise 400 a night for hotel though could spend that on another holiday!!

We let our home in France outside of August. We now have 4 adjacent gites which we have developed and gradually over 12 years we have covered our costs.

What always entertains is that sometimes our "City" clientele look at us pityingly in our Y reg citroen that we keep down there and DH looking like he is on the bones of his arse, sometimes watering. It's part of the thrill of the holiday. After the snotty looks, on about day 4/5 of their hol they realise we are the owners. DH gets a special thrill from raising his hat and speaking only French .

Ooooh raindrops where is your house?

South. Won't say exactly where for outing. But the low rental should tell you which side.

suckysnow 22k for a fortnight in Portugal is ludicrous. Lovely though it is, your friend could go to many more wonderful places for that money.
Generally speaking I can't imagine a hotel being worth £400 a night, anywhere! But that may be because we don't tend to do the whole all inclusive lying around a pool type of holiday, so for us it it just a base to sleep at rather than a major part of the holiday experience. I want a comfy bed, decent shower and wifi, then I'm happy.

It is though Honey. I know what your're saying about outgoings, but that can't be the measure of it - If I earnt £900k p/year and had outgoings of £830k, I'd still be rich and have an excellent quality of life with that money. That example is exaggerated, but it's the logical extension of saying that outgoings determine wealth.
Given that £70k puts you in the top 1% globally and just shy of the top 25% in the UK, I think that qualifies as rich. For balance, our household income is just over half that, and I consider us 'rich' too.

Right, will stop de-railing now!

"Joint income is around £300k and we're almost mortgage-free, so we can comfortably afford it"

We are a family of 5 and find holidays the biggest cost we have. We were looking at a Eurocamp place in the summer holidays and it was £2200 a week for the accommodation alone. Then another £1000 on flights. For just one week! Not including any food or excursions. It would probably end up being £4500.

We are rich and we still wouldn't pay that!

We probably spend about £10k a year on holidays tho but do 4-5 of them spaced out for 4-7 days at a time.

Bargains are possible if you are savvy with your flights etc. I love travel but we don’t have a lot of spare cash - however last year we (family of 4) went to SE Asia for 10 dats for just over £2,000 including spends. Cheap flights with a stop over in a random Chinese city, 3 star hotels and some internal flights too. It was amazing (& in the school holidays) I genuinely don’t understand why anyone would spend £5,000 on a week away when you can do it for so much cheaper - if I was rich, I would rather do 2 holidays for 2.5k each than one for 5k!

I normally budget about £1000 a week for accommodation and travel. We will have a week away at Easter in a 4 star hotel and 3weeks self catering in South of France in the summer within that. Food and spending money on top. We don't go mad though and tend to mix eating out with shopping in the market / takeaway etc. I prefer s/c to hotels. I like space and mod cons and private outdoor space not shared with hordes. I like to drink coffee in my dressing gown on a terrace of a morning with good WiFi.

Ferry to France and two weeks in two bed cottage.
2 adults + 2 kids, 14 nights
Total: £1900

we had a freebie night in a very unusual and special £1k / night hotel room once and god yeah it was nice. I found myself struggling to work out what to do - whether I should stay and enjoy the luxurious suite, or use the hotel facilities. Even going out for dinner seemed a waste of room, so we had room service on the balcony (which also had a hot tub on it..)
It was amazing but I think I'd probably rather have a week in Devon for the money.

Luckily we don't have to spend much at all on holiday as we go away with my parents and they pay.

I imagine the bills are fairly eye watering though - skiing every winter for 4 adults plus the kids and I know they cleared £15k on a week in Greece last summer.

We're very lucky.

Well clearly some people earn more so can spend more on holidays. Others might not earn so much but prioritise travel ( such as pp with an income of £20k who spends £5k on travel). We are lucky enough to have a reasonable amount of disposable income and have made a conscious decision to show the kids as much of our world as we can. It’s not all expensive - last year was beach camping in Wales. We are about to go to Australia for 3 weeks and of course that is expensive. But everything included - international and domestic flights, apartment in sydney, motor home, sailing on the reef, ‘once in a lifetime’ activities such as a hot air balloon, swimming with dolphins etc - the total cost per night is less than the total cost per night of a chalet (and only the chalet!) at Center Parcs over Easter. So, swings and roundabouts.

Absolutely nothing. We last went on holiday (camping in the rain in the UK) so long ago that I genuinely can't remember when it was. However, I do pay school fees (which rule out holidays, or even days out).

In the past I've always got the cheapest deal I could - a last minute package holiday from Thompsons or the like. Usually it's been about £500 for two people, 14 nights 2* B&B somewhere in Greece. Another £600-ish spending money.

But I've had a tough time recently so this year I thought screw it, and I've booked two weeks in a 5* with a spa and all that jazz. £1,500 for flights and half board (B&B not an option for some reason) and with the pound being down, it'll probably be more like £1,000 spending money.

I'm interested to see how much difference the extra cash makes. Maybe next year I'll be back to the £500 no frills stuff.

Spending too much on a villa with gated pool in the Algarve this year from a small regional airport for 2 weeks. £7000 with car hire in the school holidays.
3dc all little so hopefully next year will make our money go a bit further and be more adventurous.
We earn well and pre dc spent a considerable amount on holidays possibly upto 10 times per year.

I can’t even afford passports let alone going abroad.

Camping, in the UK, £300 or so for a pitch with electric (luxury!) and 1 adult 3 kids for a week

We do spend most of our spare money on holidays, we will usually spend £6-7k on a weeks skiing, £7k on a summer all inclusive or a cruise for 2 weeks plus a few shorter cheap breaks where we may go on our own with friends so only paying for 1 of us. We are most definitely not billionaires, earn £100k ish in total.

This year we will spend about £20k on 4 holidays (skiing 7 nights, europe 7 nights, US for 4 nights and eurodisney) excluding weekends away. We don't always spend that much but we have a few special occasions this year. We never go for the highest level rooms or flight upgrades as we'd rather do more trips.

I think £700 per night sounds a lot but I think for AI it is probably fairly normal to be honest so like others have said it is flight, food, drinks etc also, £700 per night for just a hotel is way out of our budget.

For the posters who have said it's boasting, the OP asked so I think it's relevant to this thread so not really boasting.

I’m a travel agent and while most of my clients are mid range budget I have a handful that consistently spend £10k+ several times a year. None of them are obviously multi millionaires, they’re generally couples with adult children, professional jobs and no mortgage who live very normal lives and spend the vast majority of their spare cash on holidays. They know the standard they want and are happy to pay for it.

Bargain holiday hunters would do well to check out some of the travel bloggers such as Sunshine Stacey, or AffordAbroad, who do the legwork so you don't have to spend all day searching the web for the best deals.

We spend around 10-12k a year on holidays. We usually go on 3/4 holidays a year. Household income 100k. The only place we've spent near £400 for a room was New York where hotels are really expensive. It was worth it for the extra space, location and amazing city views.

I was in a travel agent a couple of weeks ago and 8 nights in Mauritius for 5 was coming up as £8000, I went online and found the exact same holiday for £5000. If you shop around you can get very good deals!