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.

Eurocamp is good fun!
House exchanges?

Book early or book late. We've already booked for this year but I'm getting deals coming in my inbox right now for August this year £350 pp including flights to Turkey and Greece, which is way cheaper than staying in the UK. We're planning on Turkey ourselves next August and I'm just waiting for the cheap flights to be released (in October) when we should be able to do 10 days for around £400 pp, with ds taking the other adult place and the younger two doing the kids go free thing.

YANBU

We have fairly average incomes (but we both work full time and childcare is soon to drop to almost nothing-yay!) and we save £300 a month into a holiday fund. We could have a bigger house with a bigger mortgage but instead chose to have a more modest house in the mean time so we could have the lifestyle we want, ie holidays. So that's how we afford it. We are going to Disneyland Paris this October half term, Tenerife next summer and aiming for Florida 2020. A couple of small bonuses help us do this, but mostly it's the £300 monthly saving. No debt.

Going abroad has become more expensive especially in the eurozone since the Brexit decision 2 years ago. Parts of the UK have always been expensive- it has always seemed to me to be luxury or basic in most of the UK, not much in between.

Also if you book 10/11 months in advance, you just put down a deposit and pay the rest off gradually. Or if you book flights and accommodation separately, put the flights on a 0% credit card and pay it off over six months (cc also gives you protection). Very often Airbnb just requires a deposit too - again, save gradually for the rest. I've done it this way before as well.

I am in my 60's now but had 4 dc's (2 then unexpected pregnancy with twins)
Once we had 4 dc's just the practicalities of packing for 6 of us put me off going away.And it just hasn't suddenly now become expensive to go away it has always been so.
We stopped having 2 week breaks and went on a lot of "Sun breaks" to break the year up.
You just have to be very imaginative to arrange holidays that the dc's will find enjoyable. Mine were never too bothered about a beach, as long as they went once during their holiday, but they loved a theme park, so we would book accomodation within a shortish drive from the park instead of booking the accomodation there.
We had 2 very enjoyable holidays , at Disneyland Paris and Legoland Denmark, all done on an absolutely tight budget. It is possible.

I would imagine the value of the pound following the Brexit vote has had a huge impact on the cost of holidays abroad.

We aren’t having a holiday abroad this year but have started to save for one next year. It is a LOT of money to go anywhere nice during the school holidays.

Montenegro- £500 flights, £350 air bnb for 2 of us. Amazing country, hot, beautiful, gorgeous food and cheap!! (Go next door to Croatia and it's a lot more expensive! But can easily do a day trip there).

Think outside of the box and not typical holiday resorts- Spain, Tenerife, Cyprus etc.

Depends what kind of holiday you want. We’re using Airbnb and have a cottage in Cornwall for 5 days near the sea for £350 in August.
I plan to take DS abroad at least once but will have to budget v carefully.

Actually planning holiday number 2 there at the moment!🤷🏻‍♀️

Completely agree OP. I've not been on a proper holiday (abroad/ for more than a weekend/ not camping) since 2009. I'm a single parent and it was always too expensive to go in school holidays. DC are now at college so could go before the schools break up, but still way out of my price range as would now have to pay adult prices for both of them.

There was a thread earlier where someone was looking for a ' low budget' holiday for £3k! Completely unaffordable for many people.

Eurocamp, yelloh, al fresco et al are the way forward.

Our last AI in Mallorca cost us £5k for a family of 5. This year we did Italian Eurocamp for under £2k. If you drive to France or Holland I think it would be even cheaper.

YANBU.
I've been looking for a UK holiday too as I don't want to go abroad while pregnant, but it grieves me that I'd have to pay almost the same price to have a holiday in the U.K. than I would abroad.

I can't see us going this year now. Even two nights away is going to break the bank.

God yes, it's crazy.

I'm a teacher so no cheeky term time breaks for us either.

Center Parcs we can only do sharing with friends or relatives.

Caravan holidays and UK based camping here. Hoping to save up for Eurocamp next year in France but doing to not moving house too so we can afford more holidays later on.

Agree that the £ doesn't go as far as it used to in the Eurozone in terms of spends, but for eg Turkey this isn't an issue, and other places like Greece are still cheap for eating out anyway. Maybe not quite the bargain they were before, but cheaper than restaurants in the UK.

Well....... it could be worse. You could be single! I pay extra for the privilege!

Go camping if you can hack it, that tends to be cheaper especially if you can borrow some of the equipment.
Its not always cheaper to go on holiday here in the UK, I once looked at going in a caravan for a week for me and a friend to the Yorkshire Coast. I think it was Filey and it was cheaper to go to New York for a week all in.

We’ve booked a cottage in Wales with its own swimming pool in August for £770 which was 20 per cent off for paying in full at the time of booking.
I’ve noticed that Cornwall is very expensive compared to Wales.
It looks like October half term for schools here is a week later than most so there are some bargains around then. Just not sure if I fancy being away end of October/early Nov.

We always took holidays with a walking holiday company in the UK. They run their holidays on traditional lines eg walking in the day, family games in the evenings eg rounders, family beetle drive. Accommodation very nice - think 3-4*. Best of all - all food is included incl packed lunch and children go free so you only pay for adults. I always thought it was amazing value and a proper holiday as my kids loved it and loved playing and walking with all the other kids whilst I enjoyed social interaction with other adults as well as my own family. There are good options in the Uk with careful planning and I'm not sure small children appreciate or even want to go abroad. It's too hot for them, the food is strange and they get bored sitting around a pool.

I think it can be as cheap to go abroad as stay in the uk actuallly. I’m going to Prague and Budapest, 2 nights in each with breakfast, flights and rail transport between for £350 (Secret Escapes). I can’t find a hotel in London for much less then £100 per night. Holiday cottages are upwards of £350 a week for very small ones and you still have to get there.

7 of us go to center parcs for £900 for the week but we book a year in advance. There are lots of holidays using airbnb with cheap flights too but again advance is key.

They have shot up in price over the years.

spababe is that HF holidays? I’ve done a uk break with them and it was great value.

We’ve just come back from a week in the UK and the prices actually rose in the middle of June and continue until the end of the season.