To be surprised by the number of holidays?

[brondary]

I have been really surprised by the number of holidays some people on MN go on. I would not have the money or the annual leave to go on that many.
Last Summer people were commenting saying how since the first lockdown in March, they had already had to cancel three holidays. Various people talking about how they normally go on five or six holidays a year and are really missing them.
I must mix in different circles as I did not realise any except the super-rich went on this many holidays.

[lockdownalli]

Most people I know prioritise holidays. I know I do. I usually go on about 6 holidays/breaks a year minimum. I spend about 25% of my income on this, so it really is my priority. I live in a very small house, drive a 7 year old car.

I get 7 weeks paid holiday a year (am legal professional working in a not for profit) A lot of my friends still work in academia so they have longer holidays than me, although of course they are not paid holidays, aside from legal minimum.

[shivawn]

@Kidson For sure, its very doable if you're a bit savy with booking your own trips and taking the time to look at different dates and routes rather than looking at package deals! Even better if you enjoy the planning process! I love a good stopover break too so I always play with stopover options, for example we stopped in Hong Kong for 3 days on the way to the Philippines and Seychelles for a few days on way home from South Africa, its a great way to get a taste of a place without any extra/very little extra flight costs!

[greenwichvillage]

I would usually have 2 holidays a year, one 2 week summer break and one week in October. Holidays over the school holidays are so expensive so we wouldn't be able to go away more than that.
I get 45 days a/l a year including bank holidays and dh gets 35. Now that both our kids are at uni both me and dh intend to go abroad at least 3 or 4 times a year including one family trip over the summer as we will not need to go over the school holidays which will massively reduce the cost.

[mogsrus]

and of course,you can do anything on a credit card,& pay all your life,if that's what you want

[theleafandnotthetree]

@eileenGC. I appreciate your answering my question on the environmental impact of your travel. I can appreciate that compared to your work travel, your personal travel is nothing. I would really hope that business travel will be subtantially less post Covid but that doesn't give license to fill the gap with personal travel! We all need to be doing much more (or more accurately much less) on ALL fronts, including travel, family size, food waste, diet generally.

[Wearegoingtoneedabiggerboat]

Threads like these reinforce my suspicion that there is a secret stash of cash families are entitled to that I know nothing about.
FWIW we earn a decent wage 90k, have one oldish car, average mortgage. My mum also buys my children their clothes. We have one holiday a year, have never been long haul and don’t go away for weekends. I seriously think I must be doing something wrong.
Our holiday this year is a couple of days in London, then a cottage in the lakes for a week. I have booked something for everyday so it’s costing around 2.5k then there will be spending money on top so probably about 3.5 in total. We did think about going somewhere on the days between London and the lakes but I just can’t justify any more money being spent.

[brondary]

@Wearegoingtoneedabiggerboat I think you either have your kids in private school or are spectacularly bad at managing your money.
Our family income is £45k, we have a three-year-old car and manage a holiday every year spending about £2k.

[SwimBaby]

I don’t think there’s secret cash pot anywhere, some people have more disposable and some people prioritise holidays, that’s it.
The UK is an expensive place to holiday in, 3.5k is a lot of money.

[SwimBaby]

brondary how can you say that about people’s finances, you don’t know their outgoings, what they are paying into their pensions, who they are supporting etc.

[brondary]

Okay then you have answered your own question. You have large outgoings that others do not.

[Wearegoingtoneedabiggerboat]

They don’t go to private school could not afford that either.
I actually feel worried at spending 3.5k and think it’s too much

[SavingsQuestions]

Wow 3.5 on a uk holiday! I guess you expect more if you have a higher income. We wouldn't spend that!

[cocoloco987]

@Wearegoingtoneedabiggerboat in 2020 id booked and paid for a flight and accommodation and tickets to a theme park in Holland for 4 days then a night in Amsterdam plus activities and overnight ferry home, a week long camping trip, 2 weeks in Cyprus and a weekend in Pitlochry for less than you've paid for your holiday in the lakes. I earn a 10th of your wage as a single parent

[SavingsQuestions]

That sounds fab coco!

[Dishwashersaurous]

bigger boat.

You need to look at all your expenditure, magazines, coffees, prime etc.

If you really have an average size mortgage then you should have lots of disposable income

[PegasusReturns]

I’d take more holidays if DH could get away more but he has his own firm and it’s a struggle to get him to take more than a week in the summer.

My work is more flexible so as the DC have got older I sometimes just decamp overseas and work from “home” leaving him to it.

I have thirty days leave plus bank holidays and it’s be very unusual to spend any of those at home.

[coco123456789]

A lot of it is about what you spend on holiday too. Self catering in the UK can cost a fortune if you go to a nice area. But you then just budget what you spend in the day. When we are on holiday we probably eat in a similar way to how we eat at home. We have been to a couple of the luxury family hotels in the UK which include 2 meals a day. So we don’t really spend any money when we’re there other than a sandwich on the beach for lunch and a spa treatment for me. However I notice many families order drinks during the day, have lunch in the hotel, buy their kids soft drinks, extra drinks with dinner etc. They are probably easily spending £500 more than us on extras across the week. Same at center parcs. Some families eat literally every meal out and pay loads for extra activities. I think we save a lot of money as we don’t drink alcohol!

[Lemonwoe]

We have a very average family income circa £60k. But, I only work “part time”, and we have a big house with a big mortgage and all the other large bills that go with that. We also spend a lot on takeaways (or meals out pre covid). If, as a family, our priority was holidays, we would be able to live our lives accordingly: buy a small flat outright: cut back on takeaways / meals out, and we would then have the budget to go on lots of holidays. So although it’s not what we do, I can easily understand how a family on our income could go on multiple holidays per year. Many of our friends are fortunate that their parents also take them on fabulous once in a lifetime type holidays: usually the parents have found themselves in the fortunate position where they can afford it, and want to treat their children and grandchildren to a big holiday they can all enjoy: and good for them

[Kidson]

I totally get it you’re on a low wage you maybe can’t afford these things. If you earn close to 100k as a household I can’t understand not being able to afford a yearly holiday though. If you have a huge mortgage and car payments etc maybe. We all cut to our cloth but it seems disingenuous to say you can’t afford a holiday on that wage when people on a third of the wage you do manage.

[ChristmasAlone]

@Kidson

I totally get it you’re on a low wage you maybe can’t afford these things. If you earn close to 100k as a household I can’t understand not being able to afford a yearly holiday though. If you have a huge mortgage and car payments etc maybe. We all cut to our cloth but it seems disingenuous to say you can’t afford a holiday on that wage when people on a third of the wage you do manage.

I don't buy it at all, you can literally fly to Italy for less than what it would cost to get to the airport return in August. Think the big is most people try book all inclusive at X and it costs a small fortune when you really don't have to.

[astery]

@Lemonwoe A household income of £60k is not average.
The median household income in the UK is £29,900. Your income is double the average.

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/incomeandwealth/bulletins/householddisposableincomeandinequality/financialyear2020#:~:text=Main%20points,(ONS)%20Household%20Finances%20Survey.

[Gothichouse40]

I haven't read all the replies. One thing I have encountered is pre- Covid, people who lived in the travel agents and then moaned they couldn't afford x. Having said this, Im amazed by the wages and annual leave allowance people on here seem to get. What I will say is enjoy it while you can as when we retired our income dropped- considerably. We help out with our grandchild, so we normally go two holidays in the UK per year. We have been on the odd cruise, but they were saved for very special occasions and definitely not every year. Sometimes on the cruises we met people (in the main rich Americans) who went cruises about 5-6 times per year. Often wanted to ask what they did for a living, but thought it would be rude. How do people afford all these holidays in one year? I felt sad that we never had the money to take our (now adult) children abroad. They always said they enjoyed our family holidays in the UK, even though they were not luxurious by todays standard. I would love to go more cruises but if we went every year it would wipe our savings out. Also I hate flying. I do hope all who go abroad here for holidays or to see family can get back to travelling soon.

[Dustyhedge]

We are a high income household but don’t really prioritise holidays. That might change when we stop paying nursery fees but we’ve got a big mortgage and one day are likely to do private school. When the children are older mini breaks feel like they’d be back on the cards but for now (even without the pandemic) the children aren’t the right age to make them feel worthwhile.

I’d also say that for us, we only really want to travel if we can do it quite luxuriously. I’d rather have one very spendy holiday every 2-3 years than a holiday every year staying somewhere less nice. My husband also refuses to pay for self catering in the Uk and thinks centre parks etc is a massive rip-off.

So while we earn more than most, we go on fewer holidays than people would expect for our income. I’ve got friends who absolutely prioritise holidays. Neither of us are right or wrong- just making different choices.

[cocoloco987]

A lot of it is about what you spend on holiday too. Self catering in the UK can cost a fortune if you go to a nice area

It can also be done very cheaply but camping, sun £9.50 holidays (we've done these a few times and dc have always had an absolute ball and stayed in some really beautiful places - it's not just pontins, we've had free upgrades to some really lovely vans) or groupon or Wowcher deals where you can actually find some really nice quality accommodation (probably not now but pre covid). No I couldn't afford fancy luxury holidays of a lifetime ever, let alone several times a year but can certainly manage a real variety each year through knowing how to find cheap deals both abroad and in UK. Perhaps those earning 100k wouldn't entertain such places but we've had some wonderful budget holidays. We once went to Cyprus at the end of March a few years ago - the entire holiday cost less than £350. The hotel was one used for 18-30 type holidays in the summer and had virtually no one in it. It was basic but clean and my dc were the only ones using the the pool the whole week, the return flight was that particular companies very first Uk-Cy-Uk flight of the year so it had no one to bring home yet - there were 4 others on the plane. It was amazing.

[NeedATan]

@Smarshian

We are not mega wealthy and go on several holidays usually. Usually a cheap caravan holiday for a week, a bigger foreign holiday (7-10 days) and then DH and I often have a long weekend each with our friends.
This year we have already done a caravan holiday (last week), have 10 days in Lanzarote (which may be cancelled), a week in Devon, a long weekend each and 2 weeks in Thailand at Christmas. We have more planned due to moving some from last year. We have a joint income of around 70k and 2 DC in nursery but we prioritise holidays!

How do you get so much annual leave from work?