AIBU to wonder how anyone with kids can afford to go on holiday?

[stilltiredinthemorning]

My husband and I both work. We're not huge earners, but both professionals earning above the average wage. We have 2 kids (3 and 6). I know this has probably been raised many times before, but honestly, how to 'normal' people possibly afford to go on holiday??? Just for giggles I just had a look at Centre Parks for either half term or Easter - it's £1800 for 4 days!!!! Even bloody Butlins in Skeggy is over £600 for 3 nights. Cheap package holidays seem to be at least £1000 (but at least feels like your getting a bit extra for your money). Even if we had £1800 sitting about, which we most certainly don't, I really don't think I could bring myself to spend it on 4 nights in a very average log cabin in Suffolk (especially since pretty much everything else costs extra). I'm honestly thinking that we just won't be able to go on holiday again until the kids are finished at school. I mean we could save up the money over a year or so, but the pressure of spending that much would undo all the pleasure of the holiday I think???

I'm with you op. We've done travelodges/premier inns for £35 a night and had days out - cheaper than a cottage!

But the prices are creeping up again so not sure what we'll do this year.

Don't most people just pay a small deposit, and pay the holiday off monthly by the due date? Just treat it like an additional bill.

@converseandjeans I’m hoping they’ll remove that restriction soon but I’m not sure how soon. Ours has been rescheduled twice from 2020 and 2021 too - I think we could actually have gone on the 2020 dates in the end but it was difficult to know.

I think I might just change to another country if we can’t go to Netherlands rather than postponing yet again!

Braddicks holiday park in westward ho! Have caravans (good quality ones) sleeping 4 on 14 August for under a grand. It doesn't have a pool or anything but there's a sea poll close by.

@Isthatthebestyoucando Have a look on the gov website but it seems to be the case. I’m hoping they’re going to remove it before Easter but who knows?

We've been lucky over the years.
Done a couple of package holidays back when xh used to get a bonus from work in the summer, we'd book last minute and weren't fussed about where.

We used to do centre parcs in January from a Monday to Friday before it got crazily expensive always for under £350.

Parents have got a touring caravan they've put in a couple of different places around Wales and the coast for us. They also used to have a holiday home abroad and have paid for big family holidays all together.

In laws have also been generous and have paid for holidays for everyone so all in all we've had many more holidays than we would have ever normally been able to afford. Both sets of parents said they'd reached a point where they'd paid off their mortgage but were still working and said they enjoyed having disposable income to treat us.

Totally understand where you're coming from op: it's so expensive just saying that often behind the scenes there can be different things.

Take them out of school for a week. Depends what you like but Greece self catering can be manageable and isn't to pricey out there.

Look at jet 2 holidays etc and you can also contact apartments directly which is sometimes cheaper.

In the Summer I took my DC to a city we'd never been to. I got a room in a Premier Inn for £30 per night. The breakfast is kids eat free. We had one meal out and just got food from Lidl the rest of the time. We just went around exploring the city and doing free things. I have a Railcard which makes the train much cheaper.

@Nowayoutonlydown

Don't most people just pay a small deposit, and pay the holiday off monthly by the due date? Just treat it like an additional bill.

That's exactly what I'm doing. 5 payments left then ill have an extra 100 a month lol. But will probably save that for spending money.

I totally agree - we normally go abroad but last year because of covid we looked at home and I was absolutely flabbergasted at the prices - even if things like Butlins

You really got to be on a hunt for a good deal and maybe sometimes some glitches. We booked Butlins Minehead this year for 4 nights and 5 days for £108. I think it was a glitch but they still honoured it.

Other than that if it's your thing you can hire some beautiful static caravans in lovely places, seaside towns etc. They're always reasonably priced.

Look on UK caravans for hire and book privately for a Haven or Parkdean site.

Butlins isn't too bad on price.
Bluestone is lovely if you're not too far to drive there (West Wales)
We booked to go away and just saved every month for over a year but it's the Caribbean so we saved hard

Another vote for Centreparcs in Europe. We’ve been to ones in Holland and Belgium during may half term and the easter break and it was significantly cheaper than going to one in the U.K. Facilities were great and the kids enjoyed the euro tunnel!

Im going for a week on the Northumberland coast in August in a cottage, £500.

Usually go to Wales for a week for a similar price,

Book early and don't expect a sea view.

I just booked a holiday let for 1week in August, France in a pretty little seaside town. For 5 people - 4 adults 1 child - it comes to €1250.- (Been there before on a day trip), add channel crossing and some entertainment and the holiday will cost just over 2k. I always budget food the same as at home... but find a basic shop cheaper on the continent.
So fingers crossed that we are allowed to travel!

I don't want to camp in tents for more than two nights.

We find a villa somewhere with cheap flights, using someone like HomeAway (called vrbo now). Or Eurocamp/European Center Parcs sometimes.

Try being married to a teacher as well! (Or being one!) Can't really take a teacher out of school for a week or two so we're stuck with ridiculous prices on a teacher salary - therefore no holidays for us.

We've decided to utilise our parents who live in nice rural/coastal places instead but know we're lucky to have this option (I may not feel this way once we've been )

Cottages in wales - usually pay about £700 for the week but that's 4 adults and 2 kids (so we split it)

I have no idea how people afford to go abroad.

My parents always booked the half term week off in advance as annual leave then waited and got last minute deals on First Choice/TUI.

Book a long way in advance. We booked center parcs this year for the February half term, so a less popular time of year than when it's warmer, but by booking 14 months in advance it was £1200 for 7 nights and not in the most basic lodge. We looked at all of the sites within 4 hours of us, and I'm guessing some areas have different half terms to when we have ours, as the sites further south were significantly cheaper the week we wanted than the ones further north. It's still a lot for a lot of families though.

Likewise we're doing a 4 week mini tour of Europe, we're lucky that both of us can work from anywhere, so will do a couple of days a week throughout the trip and we've booked places with gardens so the kids can have those days just playing as they choose, but we booked a long way in advance so we got the better value accommodation and we can also pay off £50 a month or whatever, none of our trip is over £100 a night and most is under £80 a night for 4 people, apart from the one night in Amsterdam, even the overnight ferry was £162 when we booked it with an outside cabin, but for the same day now it's over £300 and it's still 7 months away.

Another option is the Sun holidays for £9.50 which were released a few days ago, we do a couple of weekends a year for under £100 for the 3 nights, but our biggest bargain was booked 2 days ago which is a week in France in October half term, and was £159 for a 3 bed caravan for 7 nights. If there is nothing left on the Sun's site itself go straight to eurocamp, it's only about £50 more to book with them direct. Other sites may be very different in price but this was in Normandy. It's a huge difference compared to going in peak August dates, but you can still see somewhere new, play on the beach, and for smaller children especially we've always found the shoulder season a better climate than peak anyway.

Travelodge are a great alternative to explore new areas too if you're not a camper and want to see the UK, last year we ended up spending a week in a Travelodge for £180 in August for a 4 person family room, and that was booked fairly last minute, so there are options, but you do need to be creative to keep it on a budget.

Youth hostels are a bargain, much better than camping in my opinion. www.yha.org.uk/breaks/family-breaks

Cheaper to holiday abroad than uk. We like caravan sites in Europe like canvas holidays. Fabulous value and locations with pools etc. Very different atmosphere to uk caravan parks. But we also save and go further like Canada and USA. Travel is a priority for us so we have fairly old cars that are well maintained. If we didn’t have £8-10k holidays then we’d afford new cars but Dh and I aren’t interested as the old fords are still going well.

I have a friend who has three kids and he goes on holiday every year - and ends up in debt because of it. So I think a lot of people use credit to holiday. Like you if the holiday would put strain on my finances I wouldn't enjoy it anyway. And sometimes even when they don't I still worry because holidays are sooo expensive unless it's within driving distance and only for a day or two.

I never book through travel agencies, have never been on a package holiday and don't stay in the big AI resorts. It's so much more expensive that way.
We search for deals on flights on price comparison sites and then look for hotel deals on Booking.com and other similar sites, or stay in Air B&Bs. We've stayed in some great places for cheap that way.
I also speak other languages and if you change the language setting on airline websites, the prices are often different. English speakers get charged more!
I appreciate not everyone speaks foreign languages but for booking a flight you could probably do it with basic GCSE level skills.