Cost of holidays during school holidays is outrageous...

[MarieKondo]

We can only go on holiday during school holidays. DD’s school is crazy strict about holidays during term time so paying the fine isn’t an option. Are there any tricks when booking that I don’t know about or is this just life for the foreseeable future? One option I’m looking at is literally half the cost if you could go 2 weeks earlier. 😤 any suggested websites or other ideas?

We usually do Eurocamp or Canvas holidays & have never paid more than £600 for a week in France for 5 of us, including ferry. Sometimes staying in a tent, but with electric & proper beds, so more glamping than camping. Sites usually have good facilities such as pool, bar, shop etc too.

This year we are going to Portugal in the Easter hols, leaving the day after school breaks up & coming back after 13 nights not 14, although the villa is booked for 14. It works out cheaper that way. We have booked it all independently & sat up through the night when EasyJet sale flights were released to get cheap flights! We are also flying from & to different airports.

So it is doable, if you look around.

@PattiStanger
Previous might be the key word, schools aren't allowed to authorise term time holidays except in extreme situations

Previous, as in the one she was enrolled in up until the week before Christmas.
That is not true here.

I used to take mine out of primary for the first week in may, it was typically a bank holiday and school was also closed for voting one day that week too so no fine.

OP, it's well worth looking for easyjet flights to southern france or italy. Find a cheap flight and then look for a Eurocamp holiday. The caravans are much better quality than UK haven type stuff. I got a week away in August flying from manchester to Marseille the last week in August for £62 return each and £600 for a 3 bedroom caravan on a lovely beach front site. They also have kids clubs, pools etc.

Schools have a number of teacher training days, or INSET days as they were once called. Could you try to get them to take them as a block, at a time outside traditional school holidays, so you could benefit from a week away at a lower cost.

Until school holidays are staggered across areas, the cost of holidays in school holidays is not going to change.

We camped. We hired cottages in the middle of nowhere. We then moved on to holidays in Germany. Not your first idea of a tourist destination, but you get very cheap apartment hire, we used Tesco vouchers on Eurotunnel, it's driveable in a day from the Midlands (we were not so far over the border from Luxemburg) and there's ridiculously cheap cycle hire, excellent open air swimming pools, wonderful beer and wine, marvellous cakes. What's not to like?

I would take issue with you on this, OP - We do camping hols too but have had basic holidays for the past few years and would finally like to treat ourselves to a lovely break but the costs are prohibitive. We waited until the youngest DC did GCSEs and A levels in the same year and we went away in early July when the costs weren't quite so prohibitive. Just be patient. You can enjoy some excellent and relatively cheap holidays in the meantime.

Whaaat?! Try to get the school to rearrange their whole in-service training schedule, not to mention disrupt the plans of other families who might be quite happy with the current setup, just so the OP can save a few quid on a holiday???
Yeah, right!

any suggested websites or other ideas?

Don't go. If people stopped vying with each other to get the holidays the cost would reduce.

Why do people need an "away" holiday anyway? What's it for?

What’s yr budget and what type of holiday are you after?

Sking in feb half term crazy expensive in a hotel

Diy med in summer hols not so much if your clever.

Why do people need an "away" holiday anyway? What's it for

Well no-one 'needs' an 'away' holiday, but they're pretty popular you know. People go abroad because they like the guaranteed sun, and change of food, culture etc.

And while the whole point of this thread is that 'foreign holidays are very expensive', it's probably also the case that cottages in Cornwall, or going to Center Parcs is similarly expensive in the summer, when you take into account the cost of eating out and indoor activities during the inevitable rain.

And if I was to spend thousands on a holiday, I would probably go for one where the sun was guaranteed, at least some of the time, says she who is going to Scotland in July to do something that is weather dependant and is likely to cost more than doing the same activity in the Med, even before taking into account alternative entertainment if the main purpose of the trip is disrupted. If I get a week of wind/rain, it's literally a thousand pounds per person completely wasted.

OK - so stop going.

It's like saying why are Rolls Royces so expensive?

Some schools do do the random week off. The school in our village has a week in late June instead of inset days tacked on to half terms.
Obviously no good if you have one at secondary but some families will be able to take advantage and have a week away.
I know other local schools that have 2 weeks not 1 at May half term using inset days.
I think more and more schools are doing it, worth raising it with the governors.

It’s been a hard few years (miscarriages, bereavement, huge medical costs for cancer treatment for DF who lived abroad and had no medical insurance) and we haven’t had a proper holiday in 5 years. We’ve finally saved up enough money (we thought naively) I guess I’m shocked at prices because we’ve done staycation / self catering / camping for the last few years and this is the first time we are looking at going away with 2 children (both over 2) and 2 adults.

I know we could book a self catering option but honestly the best options are shitter than my own home and I don’t want to have to cook / tidy up. I just want to relax. Is that allowed on the peanuts I have to spend?

Our budget is £2500 for a week, somewhere that will have temp in the mid 20 degrees Celsius. Lots of you have suggested some places in Europe but it’s just. It warm enough for me in May. I’m from the antipodes!

We were hoping for a proper treat with a hotel with All Inclusive, Kids Club and spa facilities. Canary Islands look like the best option so that’s where I’ve been looking.

What a stupid comparison. The holidays I’m looking at are £1200 for 4 people on 18th May and £2400 on 25th May.

The Rolls Royce doesn’t double in price a week later.

Canary Islands can be a good place to go on a budget. Go B&B in an apart hotel or self cater. Eating out fairly cheap.

If B&B, have a big late breakfast at the buffet, late lunch out somewhere. If DCs are small this can work quite well as you can then just have nibbles and wine on the terrace in the evening. Couple of trips to the supermarket/local shop for drinks, ice creams, snacks, easy food like bread, meat, cheese, olives, crisps. Make sure your partner and DC if old enough pull their weight and just do as little as possible.

I read about people cleaning bathrooms, tidying and preparing complex meals while self catering, which is all completely unnecessary. Just sit on the terrace and ignore the mess in the living room and all you need to do is minimal washing up to keep the kitchen usable.

Or you can chance your arm with AI, but food not guaranteed to be to your taste and you're kind of stuck with it, as you've paid for it, but look on jet2holidays for free child places offers.

You can get an air bnb for a week and flights for £2500. You do need to book in advance though. Half terms are usually cheaper than August. Easter you'd probably need to go to the canaries for the temp you want.

Can you flex dates/airports at all OP? assuming you've looked at the free child places with Jet2 holidays and Tui?

Sorry i just chose a random airport to see what there was

We usually do Eurocamp or Canvas holidays & have never paid more than £600 for a week in France for 5 of us, including ferry

That cannot be in August! We went to France last year (first two weeks in August) and it cost just over £2,000 for the ferry and two bed caravan. It was a super campsite so more expensive than others we saw but we were surprised at the cost. This year we're going further south via a different ferry crossing and it's costing us nearer £2,500 😣

Re: blocked inset days, I'd like to see the stats on any schools who have done that more than once. My impression is that it's not been a popular move, but that's from a teacher's point of view.

We have a week in paighton, Devon booked for £595 for the first week of August. We have a lovely 2 bed apartment booked. Yes it's not abroad but I will be away from work and spending time with dh and ds.

Needsleepzzz >> Nope, those days are fixed. I’m in education and can never ever take any additional days leave.

since our kids have been school age we've mostly camped/caravanned or self catered. The last 2 years have been my favourite - a week in a "luxury" (campsites words not mine) caravan in cornwall. Location was fab. we booked 4 days ahead and got it for about £450 and last year we had a mobile home for 10 days in France. We drove/ferry there. Again amazing location, this time with better weather.Personally I actually find self catering more relaxing than hotels.

If using Airbnb can I remind you to check that the property is allow to be let out. An increasing number number of of cites are either banning short term lets or only allowing them in certain areas. Airbnb is a link only and don't check this.

Jet2 had holidays on 26th (my screenshot was 26th), but i think airport dependent, that was out of Newcastle, Manchester though didn't have availability

By the way totally agree with you it is outrageous, i have a toddler so ok at the moment but dreading her starting school with these restriction :-(