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?

"Hostels are great for city breaks and you can get private rooms rather than dorms. Loads of museums, galleries, etc."

In my experience, private rooms in hostels are no cheaper than rooms in the cheaper hotels and in the latter you get a TV so I wouldn't bother with a hostel if I wanted my own room.

Jet 2 holidays do lots of self catering holidays in the Canaries that are reasonable, with pools, beaches, lots of cheap day trips etc. It will be hot though! Good luck with your search x

We went to port aventura near Barcelona. Like Disney but better and cheaper booked direct with hotel and was within your budget for 4 people. Also look at Euro camp. They have some great sites with fancy pools and entertainment again close to your budget but depends on flights. We also book everything direct one piece at a time not through an agent. Much cheaper!

I think the best thing about holidays is that everyone’s taste is different. We tend to go for smaller apartment complexes in Europe with a shared pool, or splash out on a more luxurious, yet unpretentious, resorts long haul. I’d struggle with a villa holiday as DS needs some other children, but we prefer smaller accommodations as we don’t want to many or crowds. In Europe we’ve always booked independently, but next year we’re going with Jet2 as we found a place which really appealed to us. My children do enjoy playing round the pool and making new friends, so that’s them sorted.

Don't plonk them by a pool take them off to see things.
At that age I went backpacking round new Zealand- I'm not saying do that but go see things- galleries, museums, architecture, restaurants, musicians, monuments. Honestly they'll remember the amazing stuff they experienced. They've got more energy now then they'll ever have so see a waterfall or climb a mountain.
You can stay in cities in airbnbs so cheaply and do stuff. Or a lodge in mountains etc.
What's the point of butlins abroad you might as well just go to bognor.

The reason I've not taken my kids abroad since I've had to a. Pay for them both and b. Had to go in school holidays. 2.5k for 2 weeks sounds on the low side. I actually don't know many people IRL who can do that though, we've managed to stretch to 11 nights in a caravan in Cornwall, 7 nights in an air b n b cottage last year and no holiday the previous year. Lots of my friends have done 3-5 nights somewhere and even gone in term time to avoid the price hike. Whoever said save 500 a month is clearly in a very different league to me , that's like paying a second mortgage or rent, some people have literally nothing or very little left after bills and basics.

what do people actually do when they are there, I mean do you actually do nothing except swim, sun bathe, eat and drink?

pretty much, yes. I mean, I read, a LOT. I love it - just completely switching my mind off / not wearing my watch / not having to be anywhere at anytime. Perfect holiday.

@Cath2907

for what its worth we took a touring caravan to France. We had a week in the davy crockett ranch at EuroDisney. We had 2 days entry in Disneyland, spent a couple of days in Paris, and looked around the local area. Then we had a week in a caravan site at Guines just outside Calais (quite near the cite Europe shopping centre) - absolutely great - so much to see. At that time the asyluym seekers were at Sangatte, so it would be a good idea to check out that situation. I don't know if the Davy Crockett ranch is still going, but it was a terrific way of doing Disney. Note that they made sure you couldn't easily put an awning up.

PS. Just checked the davy crocket ranch. Still going but no tourers, only log cabin type things. Shame

It depends what you want. Eurocamp is relatively cheap.

You can book air bnb apartments.

You can book hotels with shared pools, either half board or AI.

We book villas with their own pool. They are more expensive ... but they’re what we want.

Why not go in to a travel agent, tell them what you want, and see if they can help you? They’re the experts!

Holidays are not cheap though, esp if on one income. When DH was unemployed saving 500 per month was near impossible, the fact we managed to save for a cheap caravan holiday in the UK in June was a near miracle (kids were not school age).

We sacrifice a lot for our family hol abroad and it works out nearly £3000 for a week during the school hols.

We don’t eat out or buy many new clothes,just buy mainly for dcs.We hope clever on food and try to save a little for spending money.It means a lot that we get our week away though,try to find things you can save on (utilities,food,clothing etc).

My DS13 has been happily going on all inclusive pool holidays for 7 years. We play a bit in the pool too as it's so hot. Then he makes some friends and plays with them. We spend a lot of time with him on holiday playing in the pool, going out for a wander and playing cards etc as we both work full time and family time is limited with that and homework.

Children also need to learn how to cope with being bored and making up games. Don't have to be entertained 247.

Sky scanner for cheap flights
Booking .com for villas and apartments
Or go last minute

We don't do holidays abroad - can't afford the passport costs, let alone flights & accommodation.
2 weeks self-catering in the UK with ice creams & chips daily is just about budgetable.

Our summer holiday all inclusive to 5 star hotel in Spain in the summer English school holidays including flight upgrades and taxi transfer is £2.8k for three. When I take off the upgrades and taxi it goes down to £2.6k. Then take off return flights approx £250 each if flying budget air it comes to £1850 which equals £88 a night each (3 of us) for all board food drink and entertainment. Couldn't get that in a 5 star hotel in the UK with guaranteed sunshine.

We have a few different types of holidays we go on. Now we're bound to school holidays (mostly, we do some cheeky long weekends taking the Friday/Tuesday off school if there's an INSET Monday etc) they're all fucking expensive. But we enjoy them all.

• Center Parcs. Swim. Activities. BBQs. Etc. Sometimes with extended family.

• Disney holidays. Definitely our biggest expense. Full on. But very magical. Every day is spent in the parks. Great meals. Lots of wonderful memories.

• UK coastal breaks. Walks. Beaches. Swimming (we always make sure we have an indoor pool). Movie time in accommodation. Visit local tourist places parks/farms/sights etc.

• Balearics/Canaries. Generally we do mornings at the beach. Back to villa for lunch. Afternoon by pool. Out for dinner. Add in things like mini golf, tennis, movie in the villa to cool down on mega hot days. Occasional day out at water park/market/boat excursion etc.

I know my brother books Easyjet flights a year ahead for very cheap prices . If you go on their mailing list you get notice of the twice a year (?) release of cheap flights they have.

We've stayed here and was one of the best holidays. Amazing complex with all the features of a hotel at the price of an apartment.
Beachfront, loads of on site activities and 3 min drive from the main town.

www.altalomacosta.com

My best holidays with kids have been stuff like eurocamp in a nice caravan. Somewhere with walks nearby. Pool, lakes or beach to swim in. Nearby towns or places to visit. Few books. The eurocamp sites usually have kids clubs etc and parks so you can drop your kid off and get a couple of hours peace in a morning

Centre Parcs in Europe are much cheaper than the ones in the UK.

Either book early or late for the best prices - and different countries have different peak season dates so you can get lucky if you can go a smidge early or late in some places.

For example, we went to Het Heijderbos in the last week of August a few years back as the Dutch schools go back a week before we tend to so there was a big difference in the price going that week. Exchange rate was better back then but checked the same mon-fri cost for a cottage for 4 there this year and it's 520 euros. Other parks are cheaper still.

The dc were a bit younger than yours but loved it - great playgrounds, lovely swimming dome with several pools and an area within the pool that you could snorkel and there were tropical fish around, another amazing dome with a massive adventure climbing frame that was like being in the jungle section of the crystal maze - big enough for adults to have fun climbing through for hours too.

We stopped at Ypres on the journey both times to break it up and got a good deal at a central hotel, so got to explore aourd there, very different from centre parcs but still great and turned it into a week long holiday, got cheap ferry crossings too.. Even including food and petrol we spent less than a thousand pounds on the whole week.

What can you not understand about Airbnb? You just have to select an area and search based on your needs. Select "whole apartment". Find the right one, click, book.

It's quite late to book but there must be some availability.

We are off on Saturday and booked the apartment in February

Why? You need to be able to say £500/month and that's £6K. You don't have to be rich to do that

You do. If you earn 2k a month then you are going to struggle to save 25% of it.

I have one teen and one pre teen. They both love a city break and they can be done fairly cheaply. If you go onto Skyscanner and type ‘everywhere’ into the destination, it’ll come up with where is cheapest to fly to on your chosen dates - a brilliant way to narrow down where you want to go to!!

We went to a Greek island last May 1/2 term, not all inclusive so we went out for the odd meal but spent the vast majority of the day hanging out by the pool. The children swam/played in the pool, read a lot, played cards, wrote postcards, we’d taken a few games so played them, chatted, ate ice creams etc. I joined in as and when they wanted me to.

We’ve previously done centre parcs in Belgium and Holland - loads to do and brilliant value compared to the UK sites. Well worth looking at.

This year we did a city break at Easter, we are doing a UK city in August then trying our first AI in the October 1/2 term. Booked flights and hotel separately and going for 5 days as I couldn’t afford 7!

Good luck! Hope you find the perfect holiday and have a fab time!!

For years we holidayed in Cornwall and always had a lovely (and affordable) time. Last year we rented 2 x villas (a week in each) in rural Spain, villas and flights were about 5k.

Biggest waste of money ever, it was too hot for DS2, the food in rural Spain was not to his taste and the few restaurants opened so late he was past it and too hungry and tired.

We had swimming pools but the novelty wore off after 2 days and the kids fought and were grumpy and bored. There wasn't much else to do in hot rural southern Spain!

We're trying Holland on a ferry this year, staying near Haarlem, it looks like there's lots to do in the area and loads of restaurants.