To think nobody spends THIS MUCH on holidays with kids?

[GrahameSylvia]

Scouting around for September holiday ideas for us and our 18 month old and came across this in today’s Times.

25 cool family resorts in Europe, the cheapest is about £4k for a week, the priciest £32k but on average about £7k. Admittedly they are mostly all inclusive but REALLY?!?!? Is this the kind of silly money people spend on holidays are once they have kids?

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/25-cool-family-resorts-in-europe-g9knl5n7l

On a side note, if anyone has a great hotel or self catering recommendation for somewhere sunny in Europe that will work well with a young toddler do share, finding places that don’t cost the kind of money we can - but are not willing on principle - to pay is a nightmare.

OP I suspect you are talking about your "priorities" rather than principles.

Last holiday I took with my two DC, Just me and them cost around £6k That was ten days in South of France. Worth every penny as far as I am concerned.

www.facebook.com/groups/153207178160816/?ref=share

I paid £1400 for an all inclusive with 2 kids within the summer hols. Think it's a 3* hotel.

Just checked and it's a 4*!

This - £639 pp early Sept in Croatia….?
www.neilson.co.uk/beach/croatia/alana-beachclub
exceeds all expectations…IMHO

Don't look at packages, they are a rip off. Search flights well in advance on skyscanner website and once you booked the flights go to booking.com and find accommodation according to your needs. We travel at least twice a year with a child this way and not just in Europe. Turkey, Egypt, Morocco etc.

Yes they do! We spend around £7-8k every year when we go to the USA and stay in my parents house, this is for 3 weeks over Christmas. This only includes flights, spending money and car hire as we stay in the family home. If we had to pay for accommodation too that would be another £4-5k which would tip us over into unaffordable territory. We usually do another cheap holiday mid way through the year around June in Spain or Greece for around £2k. There are for of us, myself and DH and our two ds’s of 3 and 6. Thats flying to the USA indirectly too, if we flew direct it would add another £1100 to the flight prices.

Just go somewhere cheaper

Yep people spend that - welcome to the world.

Obviously some people will spend a relatively stupid amount on holidays but I get the Ops point.
I also agree that these sort of articles are written with both skewed perceptions and intentions.

Toddler's are ungrateful bastards and generally make holidays harder work than older kids or even babies.
Luckily you don’t seem to be tied to school holidays so make the most of that. Realising that all your holidays need to be in a) the busiest months b) the most expensive weeks and c) you just used your leave on something that was harder work then staying home, is why some people will just pay anything.

Our kids love AI so that's what we mostly do. Easy access to food, drinks and ice cream for them makes life easier. We always pick a 4 star with good reviews which tend to be a bit more expensive. When they were younger we could get away with about £3-4k but one is now over 18 so we book 2 rooms which definitely adds to the cost. We haven't been away since before covid, but planning to spend around £5k next year. This is just on a sun holiday package in probably Spain, Portugal or Greece. I would expect to pay quite a bit more for a holiday outside the typical family sun holiday resorts.

We’ve just got back from Lanzarote with my 2 nearly 3 year old and it cost us £1800 for one week all inclusive for 3 adults and 1 child. The hotel was lovely.

when looking for next year the price has almost doubled and that’s for a hotel that doesn’t look half as good as the one we went to this year.

I guess it all depends what you’re looking for and what board basis you’re wanting to go. East jet aren’t too expensive compared to other companies I’ve looked on.

easy Jet*

4K is cheap for a really good hotel with AI. We recently went and it cost us close to £7k, 4 people in total.

Holidays are expensive but don’t have to be that expensive. £7k for a week is quite a lot!!
if you want the full all inc package it won’t be cheap. If you are happy doing flight and accommodation yourself I’d recommend Turkey (lots of flights) and then look on www.Otelz.com for some great hotels and cracking prices.
you have the advantage of not having to go in school holidays yet so make the most of that! Hell you can still afford centre parks 😂

the other option (I do this), is go long distance for longer than 2 weeks. We just did a 3.5 weeks trip, Asia, and it was about £4K, but we got flights a long time ago. Once there beaches bars and accom is so cheap.

we also have a credit card that gives us travel miles for flights and we put everything on that every month and pay it off. It’s taken years to get value out of it but now every other year we go to the Caribbean for less that £1k. It just depends how much you want to plan it yourself.

I have booked turkey this Summer for me and my DD for £1600. 5* all inclusive. Bought my flights through Opodo prime on a free trial and found a good deal for the hotel on Love Holidays. Hoping it is as good as it sounds as seems good value for money. If I had a bigger budget I would spend up to 3k max but it would hurt!

The most we’ve ever spent is £6k two weeks AI Caribbean resort, 2 adults, 2 dc, end of August.

We budget in the region of £1k/head when we go on holiday. There are 5 of us which makes it tricky - two adults, teenage boy, two younger girls, so we have a specific set up we need, plus flights are expensive in the holidays so if you're going in the shoulder seasons (October/February) you spend the best part of £500 a head just to get some sun, let alone having somewhere to sleep!

We've been to a couple of the (cheaper) places on the Times list, and they really can be spectacular in fairness.

I’ve gone ahead and booked one of the recommendations shared on here for our September break. Many thanks! xx

Utterly ridiculous especially out of school holidays. Nobody needs AI, and babies even less so. You can get lovely apartments in a complex by the sea in Spain for £1000 max, flights £200 per adult, maybe a hire car for £100!

Yes I need AI on holiday with children.
There is no way I am food shopping, cooking, washing up, cleaning sinks and taking out garbage on holiday.
I would rather stay at home than go self catering.

Car hire for £100 😂what you mean for a day?

yes I also do need AI! It’s my hard earned holiday, if I am cooking, cleaning, shopping, tidying every day I mighr as well stay at home.

@Teenagehorrorbag no one needs a holiday either!

Some people like to go to an AI resort, and even so when they have children or babies for the ease of having everything included and within arm's reach.
And if that's what they can afford and it's what they want to do, then why shouldn't they?!

Thanks for sharing the article. There are some lovely resorts I’d love to visit 🏖

Totally agree- you are right- no one needss a holiday.
AI worked really well when my kids were young. We would go for accomodation ( usually just 3 star) that had some outside space, so a villa or ground floor.
I loved the fact everything was on hand. Early breakfast/cooked breakfast/ endless supply of coffee, drinks, ice cream. snacks. Usually some form of hot afternoon snack by the pool to keep little ones going until dinner, so pide, pizza, kebab, cake and coffee.
Early lunch, no problem, two lunches Ok. Take food back to the room or hotels would usually make a packed lunch if ordered the night before if you were going to be out. No one is tied to the hotel, AI is usually an affordable choice, so we ate out lots too.
AI provided us hardworking parents with least possible domestic stuff to do, meaning we could spend all day playing together as a family.