To not understand holidays

[RandomlyChosenName]

Aibu to not understand how people choose and book holidays and what they do when they’re there. Except millionaires...

My childhood was spent self catering in the UK. I get them! And as a couple we went on short city breaks. I get them too. And we had an expensive all inclusive chill out honeymoon. Also easy! But I can’t work out how to do an abroad family holiday without being a millionaire.

All holidays seem to cost £2,500+ for the family for 2 weeks- I’m looking on First Choice, Tui etc. And the cheaper ones are a self catering room and a shared small basic pool. My children would be bored after an hour or two. Whilst they love swimming, they’d need to do something else for some of the day. Do everyoneelses children just happily swim non stop for 2 weeks? All the holidays seem to be miles from anything. Everywhere with lots of things to do is horrendously expensive.

I can’t work out where you find self catering villas abroad- I looked at AirBNB but couldn’t understand it. I thought it might be cheaper we could maybe go sightseeing or on walks or something. I cannot work out how to even start finding something!

AIBU to not be able to adult enough to even find a family summer holiday that won’t leave us bankrupt? And to not understand how everyone else does it?

Depends on ages of kids

We go to Norfolk, huge sandy beaches, penny arcades, building castles etc

I guess abroad it's the same, sand castles, evening entertainment, complexes with table tennis etc , a posher Butlins?

But I can’t work out how to do an abroad family holiday without being a millionaire. All holidays seem to cost £2,500+ for the family for 2 weeks

I'm not sure why you'd need to be a millionaire to be able to send £2500, or £5K, or even £10K on a holiday.

I’d probably call them pre teens. And I was imagining a Butlins abroad, but places with stuff to do seem to be prohibitively expensive!

Very close to giving up and sticking with the UK. But can’t understand how everyone else can cope booking abroad holidays and I can’t!

Try the website " owners direct" you might mind something there. I find air bnb confusing too .
It is bloody expensive to do hotels. Twas a shock to find out that our dd will be full price adult for all inclusive when she turns two, it's disgusting. We've considered just going every 2/3 years and doing an all inclusive all singing all dancing kids club etc type thing.
Hire a car rather than do trips.

Not a millionaire then, but pretty rich if you have £5k to spend on a two week holiday!

And surely everyone isn’t spending that much... are they??

You could try a Center Parks based in Europe? I’ve heard good things about the one in Holland. They have them in quite a few different places.

I’m not sure what’s so difficult? Are you making it harder than it needs to be?

We paid around £2500 last month for our annual holiday. All inclusive 4* resort for 2 weeks.2 adults and 1 dc.A lot of holiday companys do free child places especially tui and first choice.

Easy jet flights etc and all those hotels or self catering apartments, you see on Tui etc, email them direct as can be cheaper! My DS10 can play for hours in a basic pool, we jump in, push each other in, do handstands in the water and races, roly poly, get out and chill, go to the beach, play cards, a boat trip, and out for dinner in the evening, he loves it 😁

If you're looking for self catering but with kids club (or villa style but otherwise all inclusive) it's tricky.

Maybe mobile home (eurocamp style) them own rooms and cooking facilities for breakfast etc., eat out on or off site, kids clubs mini disco, swimming, adult fitness on site.

Or look at Eden Resort Portugal, all inclusive (but optional if you choose), kids club, access to beaches by free minibus, trips out etc. (or hire a car)...

I don’t book package holidays as they are pretty spenny. We have had great family holidays to places you may not necessarily expect eg Austria, Slovenia, Morocco. I book EasyJet or Ryanair flights then a combo of air bnb and hotels on booking.com
It takes time and research but has always yielded great results with 2 kids.

Two year olds don’t pay full adult price for AI - it’s just that a lot of tour operator websites average out the total cost on the front page. 12+ is normally adult pricing on AI.
OP we aren’t millionaires by any stretch but go away a couple of times a year, on the last few years it’s varied between AI, Cruising, Eurocamp and Disneyland Paris. If we go to a beach resort we swim, go for walks, play card games on the beach, jump on local buses and explore. May do a trip to a water park or a boat trip. On a cruise of course you get off and explore the ports.

2 weeks?! I couldn't find a family holiday for £2500 for a week outside the UK! I don't know if people still go to travel agents maybe? I don't really travel much abroad but when I look I tend to find a villa or hotel then flights separately. Villas are easy to find - owners direct or similar are good.

Our holiday this year is £5500 for 5 of us for two weeks. That’s sharing a villa with another family. Works out about £500/ month doesn’t it? Family income is about £46/year so not rich by any stretch.

Depends on how much your budget is.
Have you tried HomeAway? It's like Air bnb.
If you want real cheap then try sky scanner for flights and then look for a holiday rental. It can be done fairly cheaply.

I’m scrimping and saving for a £150 break for me and DDs.
Pay when you arrive.
Think I’m going to have to cancel it.
Would have been our first holiday in 6 years.

Whoops I delayed the ‘k’ by mistake. £46 a year would be very poor indeed!

I love holidays, but how is it so difficult to understand that a lot of people don't have thousands of pounds disposable income?

OP. Perhaps look on Love Holidays or Very Holidays. Last year I found a deal that Thomas Cook charged triple for and the shop staff admitted they couldn't get near the price I had found despite it being their own hotel

Anotger alternative is looking at Eurocamp style holidays.

Yeah my kids like the pool but don't want to spend all day by the beach and in the pool for two weeks. Its too much and there is not a lot of cultural value compared to other places.

This is why we don't really do package holidays, we only go to Spain etc for a week and maybe go to Madrid or Barcelona.

But we are lucky in that we can afford to go long haul which gives us a variety of options.

I have no idea what I am doing wrong!

Hadn’t heard of owners direct, so off to look at that...

We don't do package holidays or all inclusive, our favourite destination is a park in France staying in a caravan, the are loads of activities for the kids, house riding, high ropes course through the trees, wakeboarding, Segway riding etc plus beautiful pools with slides, it's called domaine des ormes and we book with canvas, just booked for 10 nights next August 2 adults 3 kids for 1700.

That would be horse riding not house riding!

Holidays are sodding expensive- we spend a couple of grand on a one wk holiday all inclusive a year with TUI, but out LO isn’t of school age. When we are having to holiday at peak time it’s going to be near on 5k for the same holiday- im putting that out my mind for now.

Pre child we holidayed in the Caribbean or Dubai, half board for a wk in March/ April, again c. 2k

I get this OP. I posted a couple of days ago on the travel board. We are doing cheap UK holiday this year but for next summer i’d Like to go abroad. 5 of us, school age so limited to peak times. Even a week in a caravan is 2500, flights on top, and then food and your looking at 4K for a week. So then I think we’ll if i’m Spending that much, maybe all inclusive the way to go, but then it’s over 5 grand for a week, villas too, and I feel like for that it needs to be perfect, and I can’t decide what perfect is! I just want it to be nice and for the kids not to be bored!