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?

I can't imagine having a six figure income and no holiday.

Well our income increased to that level when our youngest started school and DH and I increased our hours and I got a promotion. And our childcare costs dropped from £15Kpa to less than £2K. So it's reasonably recent that we have so much disposable cash. We did have a holiday in Paris last year with the DC but that was our first time abroad for 13 years. And we are going to Florence this year. TBH we spend a lot of our holiday time when the DC were younger visiting family, and hospital stays (DC3 has a health condition that is much more stable now).

But actually quite a few of my friends on similar incomes haven't had holidays abroad when their DC are small. I wonder if it's actually cultural and the established middle class who live far away from their families don't go abroad as much as some others because we spend our holidays doing family visits in the UK. Travelling abroad now has gone up our priority list but that's because the DC are at an age to appreciate the cultural experiences. Florence will be art galleries and restaurants, no way would I travel abroad for a pool complex.

I cannot understand anyone booking thru travel agent for short haul unless elderly or really really strapped for time and money to spare.

It's a business there is no reason why you can't book your own holiday!! Cheap flights, acxmd....

It's interesting that public is brain washed to think every camp site in Europe is a euro camp and that holidays have to be booked via an agent

Someone was saying the other day or I may have read blog going round...

We only have 18 summer holidays with our children..

We need new kitchen but ours is perfectly functional.

We scrimp on so much.

Going away ( short-haul cheaply) is def priority.

Airbnb great. It’s so much cheaper booking flights separate, and Airbnb prices are really reasonable. This means you can go for how many days you want too, and not just the standard 7/10/14 days. A lot of holiday resorts abroad have all sorts going on without you having to rely on hotel entertainment.

My experiences with airbnb have been crap

First one, a 4 bed flat with 2 double beds...one of the beds was inflatable, had a puncture. Owner tried to patch it up, it still deflated. 2 nights sleeping on the floor

Then we need to give feedback first, so.if it is negative owner retaliates with negative feedback about us

The system is a joke IMO!

Me and DH love Airbnb. We use it all the time in the UK and abroad, at least once a month. We are staying in one now.

We always choose entire place and have had some lovely places and all much cheaper than even a budget hotel.

The trick is to read the reviews thoroughly and look carefully at the photos

We never had holidays when I was growing up (queue violin). Any time we had for holidays was spent visiting my relatives, who quite fortunately lived at the coast. For DH, his parents were both teachers (so not big earners) but they did long trips every summer. When DH and his sister were younger they would drive around Europe, and when he was older they travelled to the USA. They would stay in cheap accommodation, and in hotels where breakfast was included they would make sandwiches for lunch (or just power on through until dinner). They prioritised it as a spend.
We’re fortunate (in a way) because DH has to travel a lot for work so we use his air miles to buy flights in the sales, and I’m from a country where day to day life is cheap,even though the flights are expensive. We did a ten day trip during half term. The flights were cheaper because we booked early and used miles. We stayed in Airbnb, and once you’re there day to day costs (food, activities) is much cheaper than in Europe. For eg we went to the aquarium - £5 each for adults, kids free. In London it would be £25 each for adults

It's possible but just takes a lot of research. I refuse to pay silly money. I e just booked a weeks AI to Bulgaria to a hotel with entertainment and slides for next year for £650 for me and my son.

For next year I'm also going to look at a weeks camping in France. I wouldn't expect to pay more than £600 for site and ferry but can't get ferry prices yet. There's some great sites mid France with loads to do.

I'm also thinking of a trip to Madrid or Barcelona for a few days in October. Flights are and hotels are cheap.

I also use travel republic site rather than the usual sites. You can find the same hotels for a fraction of the price. I use the other sites to find the decent hotels but then book through travel republic.

"This means you can go for how many days you want too, and not just the standard 7/10/14 days."

You can choose how long you stay in a hotel too

@Tiredtessy
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,
Presumably you have a private pool...

Kids would be occupied Linder if they were allowed inflatables too where as the majority of places don't allow them,

We’re a family of 6, a weeks holiday costs us that, go for one week not two? Ours genuinely swim and mess about in pool non stop for entire holiday, we don’t even have to leave and if we do they complain!

You keep saying two weeks- why two? One is half the cost, half the time so less likely to get bored. I know very few people who go away for 2 weeks.

There is a thread on MN right now on how nice Lithuania is - Vilnius really nice, and prices very, very affordable, even flights.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3636607-To-tell-you-how-fantastic-Lithuania-is-for-a-holiday

We stayed on a campsite in france last year with DC who were 8 and 10. There was a pool with slides, mini golf and softplay, also a shop and hairdresser. It was 5 min cycle (we took bikes) or 10 min walkto the beach and probably 3 miles from the nearest town. We also took bodyboards. Kids loved the beaches and the pool. We went to a historic town nearby, went sea kayaking and cycling. We had 11 days holiday for probably 2k (ferry + accomodation+ food/extras) and we stayed in a mobile home. Ours was pretty basic but there were much nicer ones with a different holiday company for the same price.

Stay away from the continental EU. Exchange rate is dreadful and resort prices are extortionate.

This was my view of a recent half board package with TUI (Majorca). Lovely holiday but not for us plus £££. Will go back to Majorca but not on a package.

Booking individually often works out cheaper as other have said. And my kids definitely aren't entertained by just the pool / beach/ pool. We ended up hiring a car anyway to see something different.

Just back from Budapest. Air BnB as always. Never had a problem with it. We have had 5 Air BnB apartments, mostly in Poland, and all have been great

Hate to be a party pooper but...

Are we all seriously talking about taking short haul flights and using air b and b’s without anyone atall mentioning any notion of social or environmental responsibility?

I don’t particularly want to explain why I thought it was more important for us to have holidays in the sun than stop flying and contributing to climate change. And air B and B hollows out the cities and destinations it operates it, causing mass displacement of communities.

This isn’t uncommon knowledge. Are you all just pretending to not not know?

sorry ginger i genuinely don't understand your post.You say it is more important to have holidays in the sun than stop flying and contributing to climate change, but you don't want to explain why?

Air BnB hollows out communities and causes mass displacement? Our apartment in Budapest was in an old building of many apartments over several floors. From our meetings with fellow residents,and the signs on the buzzers, most of them were locals just going about their daily lives and we lived a part of that.
I genuinely don't understand what your point is?

I missed out a word, sorry. I meant to say I don’t want to have to explain to my children why holidays in the sun were more important than addressing my impact on climate change.

And the plural of anecdote is not data. It’s well documented the effect air B and B is having on places!

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/italy/articles/airbnb-boom-is-emptying-italian-cities/amp/

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.scotsman.com/news/politics/edinburgh-s-rampant-airbnb-growth-hollowing-out-city-1-4849285/amp

We pay around £3000 each year including spending money for a week all inclusive somewhere nice with waterslides, beach, kids club etc. We save up all year, so works out saving up about £250/month. We do this because a family holiday is important to us, we go without nights out and other treats to afford it, and for us it's well worth it.

Dee There’s so much expectation on that week away that you’ve saved so hard for. If it’s not up to scratch it’s a bummer. Would rather have smaller, less expensive breaks and nights out sprinkled throughout the year but each to their own.

Also at the risk of sounding very boring and sensible, those of you saving £500 pm for holidays, is that after regular savings and pension? 🤔

@Benjispruce I agree with your comment about the massive expectations if people have scrimped and saved all year just for one or two weeks away.

We tend to do one week and a couple of small breaks as opposed to two weeks at once as there's always something to look forward to then.

Our holiday saving is certainly less than £500 but no, it's not really on top of rainy day savings. We pay into workplace pensions but then save a regular amount which ends up being for holidays and the odd dishwasher / freezer etc . I wouldn't want to be always saving for a future which may never happen at the expense of living today.

Hmmm I'm kind of with you but I'm in my late 40s and it's bit of a wake-up call. Had a free pension check and realised that to have a decent standard of living we need to save even more and we already have pensions. I've always been live for today but am having to think ahead, it's only 20yrs away if I'm lucky! EEK!