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?

Some of the best times I had on holiday were when my sister and I got bored and found made up things to do. I don't think you need constant entertainment for the kids. Just give them lots of time and attention. Kick a ball around, play board games, watch movies, go for walks.

And as I said before (although Dungeondragon15 poo pooed it) that kind of disposable spending comes after sensible saving like pensions.

I didn't "poo poo it" I just made the comment that not everyone prioritises things such as pensions and "sensible savings" before holidays.

I agree with posters who prioritise holidays.

I live in a small house and do not smoke. Go out socialising about three times a month. Never buy expensive jewelry and get clothes from Next/High St.

I probably spend around £10k a year on holidays which is about a third of my net pay. Mortgage payments only about £5k a year and no childcare costs. I prioritise travel over everything else. Me and the DC just love exploring different places and cultures. They are both art and culture buffs and we have brilliant trips.

I am sure some of my friends, most of whom are wealthier than me, are puzzled why I don't spend more on the things they enjoy such as frequent and expensive socialising, big fancy cars, big housing costs, but we all accept each other for our differences. And they love coming on holiday with me too!!

We book flights and eurotype accommodation before Xmas for following summer. then in January start booking hotels via booking.com for the cities etc we want to stay in as we tend to travel for a week and then camp for a week. Don’t do package and book early.

@RandomlyChosenName it would be useful if you told us what your DC interests are? What sort of holiday would they like?

It's not unusual for pre teens to roll their eyes at two weeks building sandcastles but we can give you more tailored advice/recommendations if you provide more info.

I spend A LOT on holidays. Probably way more than average as a % of income. Three Uk breaks a year with friends, One UK break with family, One alone. One Big Family Holiday with both adult DC costing at least £5k and then another two overseas breaks with DC. Plus maybe two overseas holidays with friends.

It helps that I am freelance/part time so don't have to worry about the amount of holiday I am allowed to take etc. To me it is a huge lifestyle priority. More than cars, housing, savings, anything. I lost someone very close to me a few years ago and my whole world perspective has shifted.

@microferret YYY to Poland.

Zakopane/ Nowy Targ are lovely for family holidays with older children.

Slovakia is another overlooked destination - significantly cheaper than Austria but with huge charm. Banská Štiavnica has lots of attractions, as does the Low Tatras National Park. Bratislava and surrounding region offer lots of nice holiday options.

Stay in the UK. Flying for leisure is a luxury we can’t afford to keep doing. By flying abroad you will be emitting more carbon than you do in the whole year. We all need to stop flying so frivolously. Even if you drive somewhere far in the UK, the carbon emissions will be much lower. Please consider this in your planning.

Or get the train/ferry.

For my 40th we had 4 nights in Barcelona. We stayed at a budget hotel and flew cheaply. There is lots to do there, good public transport and we weren't bored at all. The kids even had a couple of goes in the hotel pool . If you enjoy sightseeing then staying somewhere with good transport and lots to see is vital. Mine would be bored with only swimming.

Does your time away need to be a fortnight? Could it be a week going midweek?

No children.
Dh and I have booked for Malta in October. Still warm enough in the late 20s. We paid £620 each for half board and including 4 tours one of which is over to Gozo. Trips include lunch.

Oops, that's Malta for 7 nights.

We do package trips or book hotels separate to flights. We book late or early to get good prices. There is always an offer somewhere.

Op you sound like you are making it far harder than it seems. We choose a good hotel. And complex. And I don't take that much spending money as I make sure it's half board and we don't usually need to eat lunch s breakfast is late and large.

If out and about we may eat somewhere but most European places are really quite cheap for food.

This yer friends have been Bulgaria and Croatia. Along with Malta these places have nice hotels, good beaches and healthy cheap food.

For 4, ive never spent more than 1.8k and for 4 or 5star hotel. For a 3 star self catering for 4 you can spend 1k of you shop around.

Teletext, Thomas Cook website, jet 2 and all the airlines run offers. Then booking, Expedia etc, there are so many.

I can go in school term but for those who can't then the half terms or xmas is cheaper than a summer holiday and at least you get a holiday in the year.

Forward planning - once you’ve identified your destination, find out who flies there and when they release the flights for sale. You can save ££££ by booking as soon as they are available. I once saw flights to Mallorca for £1k at 7am and they were £1600 by teatime when I got round to booking them.

We book apartments separately but had a bad experience with air bnb as the owner didn’t reveal that the house was up for sale. He cancelled our booking because the house was sold, leaving us with no option but to book something more expensive at short notice. Booking.com is usually ok

We used owners direct when we booked self catering villas when DD was a baby.
Have also done EuroCamp - self catering but stuff to do on site, and Holiday Village all-inclusives too.
I have found that, if you don't really know what you want, go and speak to a travel agent - they often have really good advice & can really help you narrow the choices down.

We have been booking houses direct with owners for nearly 30 years and it has always worked. Others have mentioned Owners Direct and HomeAway and we have tried both successfully. Never tried Airbnb. But if you are thinking of France then Chez Nous are very good. We have used them for years. Just come back from a Chez Nous stay actually. Excellent property.

OP, I wonder about holiday prices too!

We usually go and stay with friends and family, and they come and stay with us.

We live in such a nice part of the UK (not amazing, but pleasant) and we used to travel so much for work, that we rarely do (afford) "proper" holidays.

This summer my teens are doing NCS (amazing value and DS is loving it) and army cadets annual camp for younger DS (he loves it, very challenging but fun)

I dream of Greek AI/watersports holidays in the summer hols, but can also happily live without them.

OP if you think Paris and South of France do consider the train. It is cheap, green and hassle free. We did air bnb it was great, why is it not working for you ?

I see that a lot of the advice comes from people without school age children. If you have to go in the school holidays it is very hard to get a good price! I had this discussion with my parents recently who are always going on about how good they are with booking cheap holidays compared with me. They changed their tune when they checked how much their "cheap" villa was in August.

booking.eurostar.com/uk-en/train-search?origin=7015400&destination=8727100&adult=1&youth=1&child=1&outbound-date=2019-08-14&inbound-date=2019-08-21

Return for 1 adult and 2 kids on Eurostar for £250 mid August. That's what we did when we were broke one year...

That this August...

If you just want self-catering or similar, just stick some dates into Expedia flight+hotel.
Much cheaper than £2500 for two weeks in some locations eg Costa del Sol

it's not having £500 disposable a month for your holidays. It's budgeting your income and expenditure to include whatever sum you want for holidays, Christmas, going out, etc etc.

Some people might want to have £2000 for holidays., others £10000.

@cantbeb0thered

they are very good in France, aren't; they. We are off to France in a few weeks. We drive, but looked at flying/hiring a car. Works out cheaper to drive our own car, although it takes a day and a stop over to get there, and puts 2000 miles on the car. The surcharge for CDW on car hires is stupidly high. I am just cautious about buying 3rd party CDW.