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?

Yelloh campsites in France and Northern Spain are fab! We stayed in a chalet on the west coast with direct beach access and walkable to lovely town. Or Eurocamp (haven't been with them since having kids though). Car on ferry might be cheaper than flights. My colleague is also very positive about Huttopia. Center Parcs in Europe is much cheaper than here.
Here in the UK there are loads of campsites around where I live in Sussex. West Wittering has gorgeous beaches. And don't forget the YHA - I'm a member and I love it, but you don't have to be a member. Lots of them have bell tents and pods now - we stayed in a bell tent in the New Forest last year with all bedding and camp fire wood provided, toilets and showers, for under £50 a night.

Take your holiday in term time, just make sure that you can prove it's an "educational" experience. I worked within a school environment for 11 years. No one was fined, because it was obviously educational.

Is your experience recent? That is not the case now unfortunately.

And congrats on the forthcoming grandchild. But I am a bit confused at the mention of iPads. Can’t see anywhere on the thread that they’ve been raised.

If you want kids entertained then club med is fantastic but might be out of your budget depending where you go and when.
My kids are pretty happy in and out of a pool all day - they meet other kids and have a ball.
All inclusive is nice as they can go and get their own snacks and drinks as they please but they pretty much play in the pool.

Where do you live? Have you considered a holiday home-swap? I’ve never done it but people do and they love it.

Who said that? I said that being able to save £500/month didn't mean you were rich.

In what world does being able to save £500/month for a holiday not make a person rich?! If you can't see that this does actually make you pretty bloody rich in the grand scheme of things, you are not enjoying your good fortune and/or hard work enough!

Simple - book everything directly. So villa/ self catering through any of the many sites. Use a comparison site. Book flights directly. Always hire a car. Don't ever go on any of the tourist tours BUT see where they go (as they are usually the top places to visit in the area) and copy their schedule. Get to the tourist information office when you arrive and plan a morning excursion each day - new beaches, sightseeing, sports etc and then back to your pool for the afternoon. Maybe a few nights of the week eat out in the evening.
My DH and I are seasoned backpackers and have travelled extensively. Try to look at slightly different destinations off the usual track. We went to Sunny Beach area of Bulgaria in the half term and it was amazing - also very cheap.

Haven’t read the whole thread but feel the OP’s pain. Holidays when the DCs were small were self-catering in the UK if at all, or a trip by car and ferry to friend’s in Normandy.
Now they are older we get super cheap flights, only take hand luggage and stay Air BnB. You can get quite a cheap holiday that way. Our older teens enjoyed Poland and eating out there is dirt cheap so we got the luxury of eating in cafes and restaurants which was a rare treat for us.

@doubleraspberry you can still take kids out without a fine, we recently took a 10 year old and 14 year old. Just requested permission from the school beforehand.

Eurocamp is great for kids. We bought a 12 year old caravan last year so that we could cut the cost of holidays. Campsites are a lot cheaper and some have great facilities: we went to pentewan sands last year, pool, beach rock pools, parks etc and we had no money to spare, was about 400 for a week plus self catered and we ate out once . This year we’re sailing to France ferry for 4 cost about 600, campsite for 12 nights is about 500 but lots of facilities. The ferry would be cheaper if we took our tent But with the caravan it’s higher:

DifficultSituation19

Finding cheap holidays is my superpower 🦸‍♀️.

This year, me and the DC are going to the south of France. Booked the flights on the day they came out - £180 for the 3 of us. And booked a 3 bed stone cottage with pool for £390 for a week on air BnB. Will need to hire a car which I haven’t booked yet which will be around £140

Ooh tips please - we want tips. Where to look? Is it better to book waaaay in advance or last minute?

We’ve never ever done a package deal. Definitely not beach people. Tho one of our children uses a wheelchair so the beach is a ballache anyway.

City breaks and sightseeing is what we like to do. We went backpacking last summer, Paris, Berlin, Munich and Prague. This year Italy (4 cities, will travel by train)

Can’t think of anything worse than lying by a pool for 2 weeks!

Sorry, I'm assuming, which is wrong. However, I rarely see even very young children without an iPhone/iPad attached, and feel that our children will evolve with oversized thumbs, because of texting, etc. Whilst working within the school environment, it was sad, so many children came into school, and didn't know how to play. Children are sponges, and absorb information, given the chance. Sometimes, they need to be shown, or given the opportunity, of learning different things. Give them a project, (no homework) and the chance to investigate different things. Prove that this holiday is an opportunity for learning about a different environment, culture, people, etc. Even sitting on a beach, they can investigate pools, go shell seeking and "Name that Shell". Find interesting pebbles, and discuss why that pebble has that shape, colour, etc. Make it an adventure, not a holiday, perhaps?

I have got good value holidays in the past using sites like On the Beach and Travel republic. Here you can book flights and hotel separately. One year I got return thomas cook flights from manchester plus a self catering apartment in a golf resort in tenerife for 2 weeks in early July for £1200. But then costs you a fortune when you are there for food. Another time we went to the same resort to a hotel for £2800 all inclusive then after a while the kids got fed up of the food so we went out anyway most nights...its expensive whatever way you do it. This year my son is 15 and daughter 12 so we are trying Salou in Spain where there is theme park and Barcelona to visit so more for them to do. If you can find a location you think your family would like then look at Booking.com as they have cheap owners apartments and then book flights separately. Hoping to do Florida in 2 years for the parks and I'm already researching it to get best times to book flights in sales and will book a villa direct with owner X

Search flight options and prices on the independent site skyscanner then you can see if a travel agent is over charged potentially. Depends where you want to go I find Expedia really good for America/ sought American holidays as they show hotels we don’t see here.

Homeaway.co.uk for private accommodation search on trivago too to compare. I find travel republic pretty fare on pricing. Love holidays are cheaper in general but an annoying inflexible company to deal with. Don’t go for 2 weeks, try 7-10 days max - lots of options

Holidays are costly. Centerparcs Europe can be ok. Not been but DS goes and loves it and is cheaper than UK versions.
Villaplus was a fave of ours-but we’re happy to self cater.
Turkey all inclusive worked out well for us last year with 2 teens who joined all the pool games, had freedom within limits, and became friends with all other teams. Those 2 certainly aren’t the shy types but they had fun and we could relax and didn’t need to spend much when there.

Look at yelloh villages in France. Eurocamp-y style places (but better lodges booking direct I find). But,it's style holiday abroad and cheaper as you save on airfare by ferrying over and driving.

I take it you’re looking during term time? Which is like double the price of off peak

My recommendations are yelloh campsites in france and landal holiday parks in Holland. We drive+ferry and all in its about £800 for 2 adults + 1 child for a week for travel and accom (9 days inc travel). We love it.

Teens not teams

It's probably worth going to some places in October half term. We got flights for 4 for £108 (£27pp), for a week, in school holidays. If the place you are going, eg Poland/ Germany doesn't have school holidays at that time of year you can get reasonably cheap accommodation and food too.

Try HomeAway. Might get something suitable there. You book with owner direct. Good luck x

Eurocamp, canvas type holidays are your best bet. Don't fly into holiday destinations e.g. When we go to the campsites in the south of France towards Barcelona we fly into Toulouse or Barcelona and drive. Much cheaper than Perpignan or Marseille . Venice is a good option lots of eurocamp near there , you can travel around easily on buses or trains for something different. We don't camp btw but go in the mobile homes. Lots of things to do onsite pools, disco, cycling etc difficult to get bored.

Why not go further afield like say Thailand or something. Lots to do, absolutely outstandingly beautiful and not expensive in the slightest. Lots of culture too. Or anywhere else in Asia for that matter

Back when we didn’t have any money at all, we found a Company renting out ex Eurocamp Static caravans in France, literally half the price of Eurocamp but no kids club. We then discovered the last week in August was typically half price again so used to do about 10 days at the end of August in their caravans at nice campsites in the Vendee. We’d self cater there so living costs where same as being at home, but more bread and cheese. Typical costs where ferry £200, caravan £400 plus maybe £400 in petrol all together.

The Vendee has the most stunning beaches and some good stuff so kids would happily spend morning in the massive (at least the seemed massive to a 5 yr old) pools with slides and then after lunch at the caravan off to the beach for the afternoon.

Our kids loved those holidays as much as when we took them to Florida. Also gave them a life long love of swimming and surfing

This may be about how you are managing your money. You just need to go through your finances. I’m an assistant psychologist (pays barely anything!) while I study to go clinical. I totally get it, money is hard, I manage to put away £500 a month now and never thought I would be able to do this before. You basically have to work out your priorities, for me going on horse riding / sailing holidays with my DD is something we both love and is a big priority for me along with a couple other things.. Because of this I ban myself from spending money on things that are low on priorities list, no alcohol, quit smoking, no sweets or sugar (although i will drink or eat sweets if offered, its just about not putting money into those things)... we moved into a tiny cheap flat which gives me so much financial freedom, DD and I both like spending the day outside so neither of us are bothered... try to organise things like this it will really help, I would have never thought I would be able to be putting £500 aside a month a few years ago! holidays are great, they can be edifying or just a needed recharge there’s nothing wrong with making this a financial priority over other things that are less important. You don't need to be rich