Am I deluded or have holidays become almost unaffordable for many families?

[Tractorprincess]

Looking at holidays and everything is so expensive.

We usually pay around £1200 for a very very nice holiday flat in the UK right on the beach but we're all getting a bit bored of the same place. I always thought £1200 was quite pricey but I'm starting to think it's an absolute bargain.

I can remember going abroad a few years ago with ds1 for around 1k, now I can't find anything half decent for less than 3k.

Thought about doing a few UK weekend breaks but nice places for the dc, the Legoland hotel is £700! I know you can go to cheaper local ones but having done than previous years I was thinking about making it extra exciting.

Centreparcs is extortionate too.

Dh and I are both on ok salaries, hardly rich but above the apparent UK average.

I don't know how people afford to go unless they're very well off or go in term time.

We book TUI or TC, 5 of us around £2,700 beginning of August for 10 nights, Greece or Spain self catering. I book on release date, so booked our 2019 summer holiday in March 2018.

Prices have rocketed since the brexit vote. Holiday companies price the uncertainty of the exchange rate into their future products. It may settle depending on how brexit goes.

Mine is for the haven site in Berwick upon Tweed.

Not haggerston castle.

Search social media for places that you can book direct with the owners.
I'm in the trade and this is the best way to get a good price.

Yup its eyewateringly expensive term time. We always holiday in the uk and have a lovely time but am looking at abroad holiday next may half term. July/august is way out of the price range for me. Will have to keep buying the lottery tickets

@Lifestyle - there's nothing under £1500 PER PERSON for Aug 2019 in that kind of resort. £2.2k for 4 is an amazing deal.

We are a family of 4 and we have never been on a proper holiday UK or abroad. We did 4 nights camping last summer holidays and even that was £300 just for a pitch to go camping! This year we aren’t doing anything because it’s all just too expensive. Kids are 6 and 10 and have never had a proper holiday in England or abroad. Well...DS did when he was 2 (so he can’t remember it) we went to a haven park with us for a week but that was during school term time and even that was over £500. We are trying to look for something for next year during the school holidays but just don’t know if it’s going to be possible having had a leak at some of the prices. I don’t understand how other people do it.

I wonder if there is a case for staggering summer holidays somewhat from region to region?

So, some places could do their summer holidays starting from mid June, and then other places progressively later, with the latest starting from mid-August.

Of course the start of the year would have to be different in different regions as well.... (ponders)

Kokeshi
Staggered holidays are the norm in Austria and Germany. When my kids were young we would drive from Austria to the Netherlands in August as we still had holiday, but kids there had already gone back and it was about half the price of holidays in June and July.

I think you have to get flights in early as they are so expensive otherwise when you are paying x4 or x5. Plus think outside the box - look at b&bs rather than resorts etc.

But yes I think it's more expensive. Perhaps prices have gone up as certain regions have become more popular as others seem more risky. Plus weakness in the pound and stagnating incomes.

I hired a small boat for our beach holiday this year and the price in local currency was 35% more than it had been just in 2015. No idea why.

We just got back from Disney, Orlando. DH said “Do you want to know what the holiday cost?” and we both decided we didn’t! Wel’ll just pay the bills as they come in and not think about it.

why will we need visas post Brexit?
Non-EEA/Swiss citizens will need to apply for a visa waiver costing €7 before travelling to the Schengen Area.

www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2018/04/25/european-travel-information-and-authorisation-system-etias-council-confirms-agreement-with-european-parliament/

We're going to Malaga in October half term, I paid £700 for the four of us!

I think you just have to avoid the long summer holiday.

When ours were small we always did Spain cheap. Booked low budget airline flights as soon as they came out then a self catering apartment with access to shared pool and a small hire car like a fiesta. We had many cheap holidays that way, never used agents. Ate out only once a week and had BBQ, picnics and meals at the apartment on the terrace.

We're currently at Haven in Pwllheli, Wales.
It cost £131 including entertainment passes, sil found a great deal for us.
That is for Monday-Friday for 4 of us but only 3 of us have come, myself, dp and dd who is 7.

Ds is 15 and goes on holiday tomorrow with his dad, stepmum and little brother.
A week in Cyprus AI to a 5* hotel which has cost them £2600.

We normally go to Turkey in may half term but we just couldn't afford it this year.
For anyone who is unsure about Turkey, I was too, until I went.
It's the most amazing country, people are wonderful, food is amazing and I wouldn't go anywhere else now.

We stay at the Aqua Fantasy water park hotel and spa in Kusadasi, over a thousand miles from the Syrian border!

I highly recommend it. We will be booking for next year when ds has finished his GCSE's which also gives us time to save.

I don't know how people do it. We have a good income, but I'm always perplexed how people can have holidays of £1500 plus every year and sometimes more than once a year. I never spend more than £700 for a week's accomodation.
Best bargain was a holiday at the end of July on the Isle of Wight; a week in a static caravan with ferry crossings for £350, which I found on the ferry website.
We went to France over half term, which was about £1200 for a gite and ferry crossing to Brittany. Unforseen circumstances made it much more expensive in the end and it will take us years to recoup what we ended up spending.
We did do 2 days at Legoland with 1 night in the hotel a couple of years ago, it was about £500, but worth it. We all have really good memories of it.

In defense of the teacher complaints on holiday times, they have no flexibility at all. Parents can use inset days to make things a bit cheaper sometimes. This year we are having the last days of August and early Sept (DS goes back mid week on Weds because of 2 inset days and the fact that yr 7s start first). The teachers can't use those days but holidays are definitely cheaper in the week of 27 Aug Mon to Mon which is what we are doing

When our children were small we had two jobs and were earning a reasonable amount but our expenses were so high we had little to spare. Our holidays were all cheapskate breaks. We sometimes managed a week in Brittany with cheap gites and ferry crossings and we always had a very cheap Devon holiday cottage in the May Bank Holiday as, being a teacher, we couldn’t go off peak. For a while, when Cosmos offered holidays for Tesco’s Clubcard points, we went for a few days to Venice in October half term and also used the points for hotel breaks in the UK. Four of us usually cost about £600 to £1000 for a week’s break.

At the same time, the kids’ friends used to holiday in top resorts and fly, for example, to Barbados for Christmas. They were seemingly always on expensive holidays and mini breaks. A colleague of mine said that they holidayed in Europe for £7000 for four of them which really shocked me - and that was over a decade ago.

While we could not go on pricey family breaks we ensured the children went on educational school trips and they went to: Russia, Poland, Venice, Rome, Belgium and Paris and studied the history and culture there.

I do not feel deprived and we all, the children (who are grow now up with only one at home) and the DP and I still go abroad for cheap flight and AirBNB trips to Europe.

You can have a lot of fun for less than a huge sum of money. What helped us was having a holiday fund and saving £100 a month.

I noticed many great suggestions from other commenters on this thread about getting bang for your buck on holiday.

Everyone on here says use expedia etc bt when u find somewhere u like the look of check their website direct. I do this for our hotel In ibiza in july and pay half the price of booking with them or as an agency package. i book flights early too by feb. oR it wd cost us 5k and we break up very early!

Our last holiday abroad was 5 years ago and was a silver wedding anniversary present from my in-laws. Easyjet flights to Prague a week in Prague paid by Avios, then a bus to Czesky Krumlov, beautiful mountain town in a B&B through trivago and back to Prague by train for a couple more nights.

We usually do Prague in winter and hotels are a lot cheaper

Oh yes and for alternative destinations have a look at Slovenia. Water park holidays there for next to nothing and the country is amazing, mountains, forests, castles, amazing history and culture to see on day trips.

I agree. Loved Slovenia. Beautiful place. I went on my own though. But I would imagine the water parks (did not know of these when I went) would be fab. I went for the mountains and lakes.

Be grateful if there are two of you earning to split the cost. Try being a single person wanting to go on holiday and paying for it all yourself.

I had a look myself and found a few under that amount that were 4 how are you searching name changed? All of the cheapest deals will be gone annoyingly as airlines seats get more expensive with each one purchased (I couldnt afford to go this summer). But I am almost sure you could find something for under that amount. For instance there was one to mykonos which 4 £700pp it is self catering but Greece is cheap to eat out. Then with BOOKIT it’s £100 off too. That’s for 2 weeks as well. One to Santorini for £723. All of these prices are about £1-200 more, but that will keep going up the more is booked. One week is even less, £587 to Skiathos. So that would’ve been under £500 when they were first out.

EasyJet and the budget airlines don’t release their flights for a while so later this year more cheap holidays will probably Be released.

If you really want to go you could book accommodation with AirBnB, wait for the cheap flights and then book transfers which on somewhere like holiday taxis.

There are always ways to get it cheaper!

Also Spain and Turkey are particularly cheap. If you don’t mind not going all inclusive then there are still 2 week holidays in a 4-5 resort for just over £500pp

This one may slightly cut into term time but just one example and I’ve only searched Thomas Cook, no others.

I live in mid Wales so I just get a train up the coast and stay in a caravan! Or take my DD on mini city breaks and stay in air bnb. The city breaks can end up being very expensive if I'm not careful. Our extended family sometimes books a big cottage which can work out quite inexpensive - but we do that a year in advance!

We’re in Scotland and our schools finish up end of June, so first two weeks in July is cheapest for us and English schools are still in.

We booked this years holiday a year in advance, 4 of us was £2k for all inclusive canaries resort (one child free). Plus £300 for passports, £70 for airport parking, spending money, all in about £3k!

As we live in Scotland driving to France for camping really isn’t an option!

We can only afford to go abroad every three years or so, other years it’s Haven at about £250-£300 for the week, we always enjoy that too.