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.

@HollyDibney it was with Royal Caribbean on Independence of the Seas. Next October half term it’ll be starting the Transatlantic depending when your term falls but there are some 3 & 5 night durations in May holidays.
Most packages are realised in April for the following summer and if you want AI that’s the time to book for free child places, otherwise wait until Boxing Day when more get added. Scheduled flights are 11 months in advance.

I wonder if a lot of people are going on holiday to Europe this year as it’s the last year pre-Brexit, so people who only go way every few years are going now in case things are a bit more of a faff for a while.

Similarly, there’s maybe an upsurge of people who are going on UK holidays because the exchange rate isn’t as good as it was/in case it gets very busy post-Brexit because people are avoiding going abroad.

We make use of deals like the Sun newspaper's £9.50 holidays.
They might not be the most exotic of holidays but we've had some enjoyable family breaks for about £100 or so.
Package holidays abroad do seem ridiculously expensive to me. I priced up a 1 week Easter break this year. For a fairly bland hotel in the Canaries it was going to be about £3000. We ended up going to Disneyland Paris instead. It was half that price and included free half board.
I would love a sunshine break holiday but I don't see it happening for a while. Luckily I live down south and it's been hot and suuny for weeks now, so back garden and the paddling pool up it is for this summer. 😂

We have done a cheap weekend deal in June in a really nice caravan park, and then a week staying with family in the summer hols. Long weekend is about £200 including activities like swimming, archery, art and crafts and nature walks, week away about the same as we only pay for day trips. Kids have an amazing time. We might go abroad when they are bigger but there is so much of the UK to see first. Neither child has been north of Birmingham or into Wales yet!

So yes you can do cheap holidays but no, fairly obviously they don't include themed hotels or CentreParcs.

YANBU - I know you can do cheaper holidays with booking cleverly etc but it is still shocking to me that, with a fairly good income and one child, holidays are so expensive.

I have stopped going to CenterParcs as they just feel greedy and also because I was so intrigued that it remains so popular and busy despite the expense that I was tempted to start going round holidaymakers, carrying a clipboard and questionnaire, and start quizzing everyone to get to the bottom of it.

It's never really been affordable for us, so less so now. We used to go away with family, but that was in term time and we can't do that now.

Luckily we don't live too far away from the coast so days out at the beach are easy and there are plenty of great places within reach for day trips - castles, parks and so on.

We do try and visit DHs family for a big get together in the summer holidays so do get a change of scene and DS gets to see all his cousins.

School holiday prices are ridiculous. We are going away for a week with 2 dc in September AFTER the schools go back and its £5k. The exact same trip in August was £8k. Bloody ridiculous. But that's economics.

YANBU and I love travelling with the kids. It bums me out that it’s so difficult.

Somehow we’ve managed to book a chalet in Cornwall for the 4 of us (and pooch) in August for a week for £700. It’s on a holiday park type place which has great reviews and it all looks great. Not sure why it’s so cheap. I’ll come back and let you know if we survived....

Gillie and Buxton - my experience is the opposite. Everyone i know who grew up in the 70sand 80s went abroad every year to the Costas or Canaries, Malta, etc. It was a complete given that you worked hard all year and then flew off to 2 weeks in the sun somewhere. We were all taken out of school tho. There is no way my parents or any of our friends would have considered not going abroad or taking the kids out of school.

In January this year we took ds1 out of reception for a week to go skiing. It would have been £10k+ if we'd have done it in the Feb half term. Which i would have thought was totally unaffordable, but they still get booked up. So enough people obviously can afford it.

As for Centre Parcs, we went off peak for about £500 for 5 days but 7 days in August is £2k. And again, doing all my own cooking and shopping just isn't a holiday for me.

Holidays are eyewateringly expensive, it’s not even that we can’t afford it but it just feels like a massive waste of money, we could easily spend £4K and have nothing to show for it at the end. We got a camper van instead. Obviously the inital cost is several years worth of holidays but we go away most weekends, did a 10 day tour of Europe last October half term and went to the Isle Of Man TT this year (and going next year) which I honestly think was my favourite ever holiday. Then when we come to sell it, we’ll get some of our money back.

DH and DS (9) also ride motorbikes so we spend the equivalent of a holiday abroad on upgrades each year .

I do feel guilty that ds hasn’t been on a plane for 2 years though, which I’m quite aware is absolutely ridiculous, most kids would kill for his lifestyle!

We go to France or Holland most years. You can get something quite cheaply if you search around. I save Tesco vouchers for the Eurotunnel which makes travel cheaper. This year, we paid £540 for a week in France in August. (Canvas Holidays - 50% off). Duinrell in Holland can be a very affordable if you book direct you get water park & theme park free & it's right by the beach. Use Tesco vouchers for Eurotunnel or Hook of Holland Ferry. Center Parks is better value if you share the larger accommodation with other family.

We also had a Haven holiday half price a few years ago. We booked it 2 weeks before we went.

In the last week of August, prices go down because schools in Europe are back, so that's a good time to look for.

Gillie and Buxton - my experience is the opposite. Everyone i know who grew up in the 70sand 80s went abroad every year to the Costas or Canaries, Malta, etc. It was a complete given that you worked hard all year and then flew off to 2 weeks in the sun somewhere. We were all taken out of school tho. There is no way my parents or any of our friends would have considered not going abroad or taking the kids out of school.

I knew very few people who went abroad when I was a child. Most people camped/caravan in Wales. The odd person would go to Spain or the Canary Islands but definitely not every year. I lived in a very middle class area & went abroad for the first time on a school trip when I was 15.

My parents definitely see a beach holiday for a family as a human right. When i say we can't afford it this year they look at me like i've said 'shitting on the dining table will commence at 3pm' !!

I lived in a very MC area which also had a lot of 'new money'. Us new money types went to the Costas while the MC ones went to France.

Probably echoing what has already been said but booking early does pay off. I booked our flights in January & the total for 3 return flights to Spain was £420, if I book the same flights today they are £1250.

I can’t afford a proper holiday like abroad and my kids don’t qualify as children with a lot of companies and they too old for caravans and we have been to most good places in the U.K. now. So I am also stuffed. I would like to start taking them on city breaks now because I cannot afford to go near a beach without getting into debt and costing more than £2k

We usually go for a self catering cottage in somewhere like Kent for around £300 per week in August.
Never been abroad -noone did she I was a child in the 70s/80s

I am very jealous Trialsmum you have reached my ultimate travelling goal!

We get no change out of £8k for a two week holiday on a Greek island in a private villa with pool, with car.

It's extortionate but we save all year for it.

I'm a teacher. I can never afford to go on holiday abroad. I'm tied to holiday dates, obviously. I can only afford to camp in the UK. I do feel a smidgen of envy as i see some of my class jet off. My kids love camping but they do say they'd love to go abroad. It's not happening! Even a caravan pitch peak time for two weeks is pushing it on my salary. And i save all year to have a two week slot machine and ice cream purse.

It's been said already but it definitely bears repeating... see if flying from and English or Scottish airport is cheaper. We're going to Florida at Easter and it was 3k... yes, three whole thousand pounds... cheaper to fly from Manchester than Glasgow. That's a huge saving simply because the English children won't have broken unfortunately holiday on the date we leave.

It's also worth remembering that for lots of people a package is their only option because they need to spread the cost. Yes you can book hotels for tiny deposits through places like Travel Republic and pay them up but you still have to fork out the full amount for flights. It's also a bit scary organising your own holiday bit by bit when you don't have any knowledge or experience.

YABU.
I think the exchange rate hasn't helped.
But

Flights are still cheap - less than £50 return to Nice or Rome during Easter a May and October half terms. £100 return to Barcelona in August. Yes £400 just on flights for a family is a chunk of money but Barcelona is over 1,000 miles away. Costs me £45 a week just to get to work.

EuroStar is still cheap if you want to take a car. Camping is cheap, Airbnb is cheap and supermarkets abroad aren't more expensive than what you'd spend here unless you do Scandinavia or Australia.

Oh, can I please ask those who are booking villas where are you booking them through? I'd love to go back to Greece so any recommendations would be very welcome

Book early - book flights and accommodation separately - may or October usually cheaper
I always went self catering - ate out every other evening on a budget, picnic meals in between and a treat meal on the last night
As a lone parent not much money but still managed a holiday abroad every year and a camping,caravan or log cabin U.K. break as well

We were given a tent as a wedding present , we have been very luck to use that to have 2 weeks in France several years... Ferry and tent pitch is not so super expensive.... Bit shit if you hate camping though