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?

Went to Majorca to a family friendly resort. Our idea of hell! Started with a breakneck private taxi to arrive “relaxed at our destination” and it had no child seat. 6.00 a.m. queues for sun beds. Adult aerobics in the children’s pool every morning. DD age 5 came back from kids club swearing - learned from the adults! A good 30 minute walk to get away to the nearest town as having seen chef drop a cooked chicken on the floor and put it on the restaurant table no was would we ever have eaten there! Subsequently always went self catering - larger accommodation booked directly and did our own thing. And much better value. Just choose locations wisely - look on trip advisor for reviews. Have a great time 😃

Love the way some people are saying about how they go on lovely expensive holidays when OP has stated she can't afford that. We are in same boat. We aren't choosing badly we just don't have enough spare money to allocate £5k for a holiday plus spends. It's great some of you can do that but it's not the case for us all. I still think my kids are lucky they even get a holiday.

Why are you insisting on 2 weeks?

Have a look at eurocamp style resorts. These are meant are meant to be really good:

www.yellohvillage.co.uk/

to the earlier poster, Booking for 2 adults and a child is paying for 3 and is not the same as paying for 2 adults

Our DS13 is classed as an adult even though he can't drink the all inclusive alcohol. Even when he was classed as a child it was 2.7 cost

Just been to Cornwall with toddler. Accommodation had access to shared indoor pool also a huge play park suitable for kids a range of ages.

Literally spent the week rotating between beach (he would have happily just pottered about there all day had the weather permitted), park, swimming pool. He loved balance biking EVERYWHERE. Plus cafes/picnics/ice creams. Did a walk/bike to a ruined castle (free) which he loved, plus there was loads of wildlife to spot etc.

We were in slightly pricier accommodation due to going with in-laws but could have done it for way less than 2,500 and had a fab time. However, I know school holiday prices are brutal. I think (on mn especially) plenty of people save up & can afford to splash 2,500 on their family holiday though.

Next time book in January for cheap hoilday in the summer ( a freind got 2adults 3childen, half bord in Dubai with a 4* hotel for 4k in January for last two weeks of August (I was skint then so I could not take advantage of the offer)). The last two weeks in August are generally cheaper than the first two. But they always change and an offer might appear. Use trivago to search for hotels.

I hate camping which is generally quite cheap

Which is why I haven't been on holiday since ds was about two as I can't afford them as a single parent.

It is enough to achieve modest savings.

We're definitely not rich! I've been saving for the last year, we booked 2 wks AI through TUI for £3.8k for a family of 4 this August. Dc's are adult price as over 12yrs.

We will relax by pool, and read a bit but hotel is next to beach also. Other than that we have a few day trips planned, and exploring nearby islands by boat. Local towns by bus. We id similar last year and the DC's loved it.

Holidays are luxuries and are expensive. We took the DC abroad for the first time last year and we earn well above average but childcare fees meant expensive holidays were not an option. It cost few thousand to take the train to Paris and staying in an airbnb last week of August for 5 of us and the DC all shared a room. We are culture vultures though, couldn't imagine having a week by a pool. This year we are going to Florence in October, accomodation was OK (still paying over £1K for the week but for 3 bedrooms in a central location that's OK) but flights were relatively expensive, we're assuming over £4K for the whole holiday.

I think from these threads self catering is always the cheapest option but flights are where the big savings are. You need to a) live near an airport with cheap airlines flying out of it (we don't) b) be prepared to fly at stupid o'clock (we're not) and c) buy flights as soon as they become available. Our next holiday abroad will not involve flights, Eurotunnel was excellent and very easy even from the north of England.

Just google ‘self catering villas mallorca’ etc and you’ll find various companies. HomeAway is good and also has an app.

We only go away for a week, I feel like 2 is just too expensive, wherever we go!

You can't work out how to find a villa abroad? For real? Is typing "self catering Majorca" beyond you?

What a ridiculous post.

A woman at work was saying the same thing about it being expensive, yet she smokes 20 a day which works out at £3500+ per year.
Always have saved monthly for holidays, as for me they are important

Totally agree - we were gonna do a week in Croatia with our 2 DD (one would be free as she’s under 2) but was looking at over £3k (including travel to airports, spending money etc). Did a week in the UK instead and loved it!

I'm a single parent on a budget and we have been on holiday for the last 4 years. I shop around a lot until I find something that fits. 2 of those were a week in a caravan on the south coast. Last year we went to Greece in the May half term and this year we are going to Turkey. I paid £1100 For the week for 1 adult, 1 teen and 2 younger kids in self catering apartments with a pool. It's in a town so not miles from anywhere, we will get out and about and explore in the evenings. When i arrive I will find a local supermarket (not a tourist one!) and stock up on drinks and snacks to keep costa down. It can be done relatively cheaply.

I browse Skyscanner, find a reasonable flight for somewhere I fancy going, for the time frame I have off from work.
Then I tick all relevant boxes on booking.com.
Hire car for duration of holiday.

Cost about £900 in total for 3 of us in Gran Canaria, October half-term last year. (Self-catering in 2 bed apartment)

We holiday in the UK for several reasons. We explore and do stuff on holiday, I can’t personally imagine sitting by a pool or on a beach for 2 weeks, I’d be so bored. “Abroad” scares me a bit if I’m honest, I prefer exploring the UK where I’m familiar with currency and language etc. Yes, I do suffer with anxiety.
I live for the 6 weeks summer and it’s always amazing!

I can’t work out where you find self catering villas abroad

I know I’m not the first person to mention this, but I’m baffled

Google ‘self-catering villas [country of choice]’ and tonnes of sites will pop up. That’s pretty obvious, surely?

Lanzarote has loads of self catering villas. We stay in Playa Blanca and there is loads to do in within a short walking distance and even the coach trips aren’t that expensive and include the entrance price to the attractions but if you have kids you may find the car works out cheaper.

There are also plenty of supermarkets which stock everything so you can do a big shop as soon as you arrive which sounds like a pain in the arse but actually not as bad when on holiday.

Like everywhere else though, August will be the busiest and most expensive, but Easter will be cheaper with the same amount of sun.

Have you looked at Euro camp type holidays In France? Plenty of other kids to play with/activities. May work out cheaper than packages to Spain etc.
When we have gone away with the Dc we have used alpharooms, it allows you to build your own package by choosing the flights and the hotel separately, I think it usually works out cheaper than TUI etc. However, going away in the school holidays will always be expensive.

We book flights in advance and book self catering properties through air bnb or Homeaway.
It works out a lot cheaper.
I’ll book september for Easter, Christmas for summer, Easter for October half term. We don’t go away every holiday but depending where it is, I avoid going when it’s too hot over the summer holiday and might prefer a week in April or October instead.

I also do a bit of research to find interesting places to go. I get inspired by an article and have ‘travel’ as a newsfeed.
We might not go away one year so we can go somewhere more expensive the following year.

OP I agree. £2000-10000 for a holiday is loads of money. We earn £50k here, no mortgage and we couldn't afford that. Two teenagers don't help matters. We go camping in France and book it all ourselves. £1000

Our standard family holiday is two weeks in a villa with a pool in France (self-catered - we do a mix of cooking ourselves & eating out).

We generally try to do something in the morning before it gets too hot (I.e. visit local towns, historical sites, cycle rides etc) and then the kids spend the pool in the afternoon.

We generally spend around £2500-£3000 on this holiday. We’re not super-rich but it’s a big priority for us, so we allocate our budget accordingly.

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If you're trying to book now for this summer, it will be expensive.
I've booked a villa in Greece for 4 adults with flights and a car for approximately 4k

Kids are teenagers. We read/ mess in the pool/play board games/ explore/ day trips/ beach.

I dont understand why you domt understand.

Also if you do choose to go the package route, you pay a £100 per person deposit or whatever and then can chip away at the balance monthly. Lots of people do this. It's not like you have to find the entire cost st once.

I find the false "but what do people DO all day" really annoying. Most of us have great holidays without non stop entertainment.

I think it depends on one's personal view of holidays.

I never enjoy them all that much so to me it seems a waste of a couple of thousand pounds with "nothing to show for it." However as a friend pointed out, a lot of people see a holiday as money well spent because "no one can take it away from me," ie they value the experience much more than a material thing. Not me though! I'd much rather have the material thing.

I also think that people like to pretend they have got a really cheap holiday "only cost us £1000" but they don't mention that that was just the accommodation, that on top of that were the "cheap" flights that were only £40 each, but that's both ways for a family of five and then extra for suitcases, plus the £££££ taxi ride to the airport x 4 and food and spending money. . . But no they just tell themselves - and everyone else - that the holiday only cost a grand, so everyone else thinks they are a genius for sourcing a cheap holiday (and wonders like the OP how they can't do they same) when actually they have paid a heck of a lot more than they claim and just "forgotten" the extras.