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?

Saying that though we have booked many Eurocamp/Al Fresco chalet parks in France & Spain with pools/slodes and the kids love it and I think their prices are reasonable.

OP- what is your budget? How much do you want to pay? There has been lots of sales recently.

Travis...”Why should travel operators lose money because it’s tough on you!!??”

Why do you have to be so rude? Is the anonymity too much protection? I doubt you’d be so rude if we were talking face to face.

I guess I was hoping for some useful suggestions rather than a virtual bollocking for being such a CF to not want to pay double what I feel something is worth.

Lots of posters are saying that the prices during school holidays are the regular price and it’s a saving the rest of the year but that’s just not true. Most of the deals I’ve seen for May half term are double if you leave on the weekend at the start of half term. Then the cost halves a few days later.

1981... ideally under £2k but will stretch another £500 if needs be.

Not sure if it is where I have been looking, but prices seem to be more this year than last year.

I have looked in Dorset, Cornwall, Devon, West Wales and North Wales and was struggling to find much under 1000 for a 2 bed property. We have stayed in a couple of places over the last few years for the same week and paid around £600-£700.Try adding in wanting three bedrooms and most were around 1500/2000 upwards to several thousand.

We have ended up doing Monday to Friday mid August for around £630 whilst on offer.
On the other hand, if you know iw where to look you can get offers.
We have booked an overnight stay and 2 days in legoland on a May weekend for £200. (2 adults 1 child). Pre booking day tickets for 2 days entry would have been £210, without any overnight stay so a no brainer.

Check your holidays against the rest of the country and plan ahead for the following year. I teach in North Yorkshire and for the last couple of years we have been out of sync with other parts of the country. This time last year we realised our February half term 2019 (so the next holiday) was really late (25th February) and so we could actually afford a week at centre Parcs. we've paid £500 instead of £1000 the week before! As a result I know lots if people who have booked for the week. Probably the only time we will be able to afford a week there!

@MarieKondo
I’m not being rude, I’m being realistic, you see the price of a holiday in the time that you cannot go, and feel shit. But you can’t go then, that is not the problem of the travel company.
And yes I would say that to you in real life, there are lots of advantages you do get as a parent that perhaps other people don’t.

Life is swings and roundabouts.

And of course it’s more expensive a few days later when everyone like you wants to go on bloody holiday!

You’re making out their doing it just because they can. But it’s much more about supply and demand.

The price must be higher than the true value in summer hols to make up for the lower prices outside peak season. Schools & councils could do more to stagger holidays but choose not to.

We’ve spent the last few years not holidaying or paying £500 for a week in a caravan. We could afford a decent holiday but it’s poor value for money, especially with young children- same shit different location and less home comforts, utter stress. Kids are older and we’ve just booked a week half board in a four star resort - £4.5k! I’m looking at a similar amount for three nights in Lapland before Christmas- although it will mean two days out of school and not to save any money. But it’s once in a lifetime and they rarely miss school.

Supply and demand is no excuse. It’s a rip off. Two or three times the price just because it’s school holidays. Parents are stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea (quite literally!!). If our children have been in a really important school year eg. 6, 10 or 11, then we don’t go on holiday/pay the extortionate prices, but other times we take them out for five days.

Everyone knows that prices are reduced outside school holidays (Not increased during them), so if you want cheaper holidays, don't have kids or be/marry a teacher.

No-one forced you to have children so don't complain about one knockon effect that everyone knows about beforehand.

State schools have no choice but to implement the rules introduced by the government in September 2013. Kindly direct your righteous indignation at the Department for Education

Bravo, I do think that some people think that schools make up these rules as they go! Most Heads dread another nutty idea from Whitehall.

MarieKondo Look on Jet2 - I’ve just looked from Stansted and found Gran Canaria 4* all inclusive flying 26th May for £2140. That’s luggage and transfers. And free resort check in which I think means you check your luggage in at the hotel and don’t worry about it until you land?

Generally it’s more expensive to fly on a Saturday so try the Sunday.

Easter is always very expensive as there is a two week window only. We've been in 'summer term time ' when DS was in a school that finishes two weeks earlier than other local schools and now he doesn't we have to go in the summer holidays period. it's worked out as £300 total more to go in the standard 6 week holiday. Book very early to get the deals and look for discount codes.

As teachers we have always used Feb half term for a city break, very cheap! Any other time we have just sucked it up and saved

Oh and clear your cookies on computer when looking at prices to change. They tend not to reduce if they know you've looked before. I don't understand it all but it works.

Oh and clear your cookies on computer when looking at prices to change. They tend not to reduce if they know you've looked before. I don't understand it all but it works.

Also TUI and first choice altho same parent company have different prices.

We have an AI in the Baleriacs this May half term, we are able to fly on the Friday as I work PT for £2600, however we booked this last September to get a child free place and pay it off over 8 months.

Temps last year on a similar holiday were mid 20's.

Everyone wanting schools to stagger holidays, I live on a county border with lots of feeder primary schools in one county the secondary's in another. The moaning locally where half term in October didn't marry up was ridiculous, the same people who ask for it to reduce prices but obviously not to the point it will impact on them!

Sometimes you need to accept what things are, I am a teacher so have had this for years even without children, and my parents were teachers so grew up with it!

Look for places that aren't traditionally 'summer holiday' destinations, I did a trip to New York one Feb half term which was pretty much the same price as going at any time in Jan/Feb/Mar.

OP, lower your expectations ? We go every other year so we have about 18 mounts to safe up and than look for something to fit the budget.
And quite honestly, some of the fun holiday things my kids remember are not the expensive trips abroad but camping in the garden, or going to kids fun days organized by the council or the bike ride around a lake with bbq.
They are in their teens now, and we are busy teaching them the value of money and that it can't but happiness.

Sinuhe...you’re right of course and we do all this and more. You might have missed my previous update but after a few hard years and budget holidays we just wanted something a bit more catered...

I grew up in a different country where you can take your kids out of school for a few days if you wanted to. No fines, no unauthorised absence. Your teacher would just expect you to be able to talk about your holiday when you got back. In the UK, 10 years ago it was way more relaxed than now and HT’s could use their common sense about whether the absence was approved or declined. I’d be happy to go back to the old system.

Blithering...thanks! Will try the cookie clearing trick x

Ltjudy, thank you! I’ll try jet2, that sounds doable! 🙏🏻

Morning Ritchie...I hate this argument and it comes up on MN all the time. So no one can ever complain about anything related to having a child because we all chose to have a child and should have known what we were getting into when we decided to procreate?

Are there any travel agents who can confirm this statement? Several mumsnetters have said this is a fact : prices are reduced during term time not increased during school holidays.

Doesn’t sound like a good business model to be discounting 38 weeks of the year but what do I know?

I think it is more a supply and demand thing, holidays are probably somewhere in between the two - prices increased for school holidays, reduced a bit term time. Especially abroad as the differing holidays etc. Places in the UK like Centre Parcs definitely hike for school holidays! But people will pay it, they moan but they still pay it so you get away with charging it!

Try booking flights as early as possible (sorry that’s no help now for this year). Also use sky scanner to find cheapest flights comparing airlines.

If you see hotels you like the look of in brochures, try contacting them directly rather than through hotel booking sites like Alpharooms. Ask for their best price for booking direct and it will often be lower.

I think you said you’d like to go somewhere warmer, but if you’re open to non warmer places there are great deals to be had in Denmark, Sweden and Norway after the first week of August when schools go back there. You can get hotel rooms and cottages good value then. If Legoland would interest your kids then flying to Legoland Denmark (just 5 mins from Billund airport) could be good as it would be very quiet in most of August.

Summer Garden... thanks! Useful tips. Must start booking further in advance, you’re right of course but often difficult for DH to book in advance as his work holiday diary only opens in Jan for that year. We have just booked though and paid through the nose for it!