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.

Check out Villa Pia in Tuscany/Umbria border. We went when our first was the same age as yours and it’s great for their age. Also a bargain if you go outside school hols.

We are looking to go away in September, so pricing holidays- so far finding typical cost for 10 days in Canary Islands to be £1500 for two, that includes luggage, all inclusive villa accommodation and car hire.

We are going away for a week in September to an all inclusive resort, 2 adults, 2 kids and it's just shy of £11k (and 1 kid's place is free!)
We also haven't been abroad on holiday since I was pregnant with dd1 in October 2019 so it's a big deal for us. Plus the resort we have chosen is very similar to the resorts we were going to pre children, but with added family friendly aspects.

Yes prices drop a lot in September so op should find something

Of course people pay that. We are a family of 5, soon to be 6, and we’d be hard pushed to find a nice fortnights holiday during the school holidays for less than 6k.
4k is cheap for school holidays.

We are going away next week and spent about £2.5k for 5 days all incisive in Spain. We usually have UK holidays but decided to push the boat out this year but this was as much as we could afford.

Pressed post too soon…

villapia.com

£695 per adult in September. 18 month old free. All inclusive. Flights to Pisa/Florence/Rome on top.

Everything has gone up in price and it will continue to do so as long as people continue to pay. You have the luxury of choice (you say you can afford these options if you want to). Therefore, it’s a case of deciding whether that’s what you want to spend your money on, or not.

DH and I used to have very extravagant holidays before covid (although not AI, we tried it once and didn’t enjoy it) but we realised we didn’t really miss it and we enjoyed having the extra cash. So for now we aren’t bothering. We ploughed some of the saved money into new bikes, tents and outdoor gear and go away every weekend that it isn’t raining. We’ve discovered a whole new way to holiday that I would never have considered before. I appreciate you can’t do that with a toddler, but I have friends who do Eurocamp with their young kids and that sounds fun.

Personally I don't and won't. But I know people who do. Just very different holidays to what we like.

Our last holiday to Italy was £2k total, Spain was £2400.

@Astrabees this sounds amazing - can I ask did you book through a company?

I'm a wiz on this OP !! - what kind of dates, what airports and what length of time, a week, 10 days, 2 weeks etc- are you looking for AI or ok with just breakfast and eat out-

We’ve booked Disneyland Paris half board (staying on site in a Disney hotel) for a week and it came to £2.8k mid august with flights, transfers and excursions into Paris for 3 of us. More expensive than what I would usually pay but DD is 6 and still believes Disney is “real” so is the perfect age to go and we need a trip as our last holiday abroad was 2018.

I do however think holidays are generally more expensive this year. In 2015 we went touring around Italy for 3 weeks using the trains for our honeymoon. I planned the routes myself and booked it all separately but we got the Eurostar to Paris and the thello train overnight to venice and did a big circular route and flew home from Milan. We visited Florence, Rome, Venice and Milan with all the normal tourist excursions and stops along the way. We stayed in really nice central hotels and it only costs us £2k altogether; I don’t think that would be possible now.

£4-5k for a week in August, all inclusive family
of four in the med, £7-8k for a fortnight, flying from
London airports. Price has jumped a little in the last few years.

YABU for having to mention that you can afford it, like you don't want anyone on Mumsnet thinking you're poor.

Unfortunately a decent AI holiday for a family of four in Mallorca is going to cost £4k - £4.5 k now in term time.

Now, that's ok if that is the kind of money you save in a couple of months, but most normal families can't get anywhere near that in a year.

It's a shame, as a pre covid if you had two incomes you coukd probably save up for a year and get £2 k together to do it.

I worry about my daughter being 'income bullied' at comprehensive school, as she sees classmates having the holidays we simply can't afford.

People live in a different world to me.

We’ve not had a holiday in ten years, and only two in the ten years previous to that.

We couldn’t even afford a bloody premier inn in the next town for a night 😂

Highlight of my child’s summer will be one trip to the cinema and two trips to a soft play place, no more money for anything else.

What some people pay on one holiday would be a life changing amount of money for me.

We have just done a few days in Budapest (amongst other places in Europe) seriously amazing place to go with kids. Stayed in a fancy hotel in the centre, went to an amazing place called Margaret island a tram ride away from centre where you can keep kids entertained for a week and we spent about £300 total incl all food and activities. Amazing water park, best we’ve ever been was £15 for 3 of us. Would highly recommend

Yep, that's why we mainly drive to France for holidays. We've done AI before, also done villa in hot country before. But just can't afford it anymore. Especially now our kids are both over 12 - they're classed as 'adults' for holidays now, so it's even more expensive. This year we're driving to a beautiful, sunny city in France, lovely apartment for two weeks, also right near Germany, so doing lots of culture, sightseeing, food and probably theme park etc, as kids aren't as entertained just by swimming pool anymore. Accommodation was £1,600 and Channel crossing was paid for in tesco clubcard vouchers. We've done nice villas with pools in France too, if more relaxing holidays are more your thing. Just got to stomach queueing for hours to get over to France 🤣

If you're taking kids to ai resorts in the summer holidays, that is what it costs, I £4k would be really quite cheap. So we don't do that, we take the Eurotunnel and stay in a caravan in holiday park in France. Usually Eurocamp, sometimes an independent park. The total cost for four of us, including spending money, is about £3k. It may not be the type of holiday I'd choose without kids, but I feel fortunate that we can afford to go on holiday at all, and the kids have a great time. They just love the waterparks and making friends, which is pretty much the same experience in a Eurocamp as in a swanky AI resort.

Lake Garda has fabulous hotels for reasonable money-book direct and do separate flights for the best value. Also, don’t discount the Alps in summer-really reasonable prices (Austria for hotels and French chalets for sc), very good quality accommodation and surprisingly sunny in a beautiful landscape. Plenty o do with children.

The Ceos reading thetimes can easily afford it
www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jan/07/ftse-bosses-pay-average-9am

This year we’re going to Greece, island hopping. 2 weeks family of 4 last 2 weeks of August. Have put it all together myself, contacting the hotels directly etc. High end hotels and villa. Booked it all within the last 2 weeks. I’ve brought it in at £3.5k including flights, accommodation and car hire.

it is possible to still get good deals but you need to not go through an agent in my experience.

Op you know that’s for four people right that price, not each? So yes this is fairly average and not out there. The article is on cool family places to go, not budget breaks.

It is silly money though and completely out of the realms of reality for most families

You’ve just mentioned spending £2500 on a holiday as fair. But in this article the cheapest one is £4k. Quite a big difference

its hardly any difference as that price is for three people, so for four it would be 3750. The article is for a family of four.

And how much will all your food drink fuel etc cost on top ?