To ask how much spending money you'd anticipate needing for this holiday?

[holidayquestion22]

Sorry posting for traffic and I have name changed.

Just looking for views on roughly what you might budget as spending money for the following.

2 adults, 2 DC. We have booked an all inclusive resort in Lanzarote, has water park etc and a few pools so don't anticipate needing to venture out too often. We will be paying for her private taxi transfers to and from the resort (about 20 mins travel time each way). We plan to eat out 3-4 nights max at local restaurants but otherwise will eat at the resort, and all breakfasts and lunches will all be in the hotel. We plan to visit a local waterpark, but otherwise no big days out / excursions planned.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

Pre book your airport pick up as it not only will be cheaper but you can then set aside that money within your budget.
if you have booked a budget flight pack some sandwiches and food as their prices are a rip off. A tube of Pringles and snacks for the flight will save you at least £25.
I would then budget around £200 a week with the aim to not spend it all.

@Proudboomer I don't think 2 adults and 2 chn will be able to eat out 3 or 4 evenings PLUS visit a water park where they'll have to purchase all food and drinks there for £200!!!

If money is tight I'd forget eating out of the AI tbh.

I reckon every time we leave the house it’s £100, so at least £500 plus taxi minimum £30 each way, in euros equivalent

At least £500.

If all inclusive, why not eat dinner at the resort? Is it not full board?
Not clear from your message if it’s a package holiday, if so, why not use the coach from airport to accommodation?
Maybe budget £100 per day but that is excessive if you can eat all meals at hotel. Otherwise you probably need to budget about £70-80 per day for dinner only plus more for extras. I think it’s quite hard for strangers to estimate your costs as everyone has different attitudes to spending. We would buy a box of magnums in a supermarket vs buying individual cones for everyone.

How much would you have for dinner? Starter x 2, mains x 4, bottle of wine, 4 soft drinks and 4 desserts will probably cost you anywhere from 100 euros to 300 euros depending on where you go

Isn't the point of booking AI, that it is all included in the price of the holiday ?
Why would you pay twice for meals 3 or 4 times ?

Can't you see the price of the waterpark on line ?
Pre book transfers then you will know ?

Maybe 300-400 Euros? I'd definitely pre-book transfers. Have fun!

I I took from the wording that they are going for 2 weeks so a total of £400 for spends.
4 meals out will be half of that with the other half for the water park and any small bits they might spend.
But why they would waste money on a water park when their hotel has one is a matter for them to decide on.
plus I am assuming the children are young rather than teens and so if eating out will only require a child’s meal.

I did 12 days in a self catering villa in Croatia for £250 last month and Croatia isn’t a cheap destination but I was just paying for myself.

Thanks for the replies.

I wanted us to eat out a few times despite being AI in case we get bored of the hotel food and fancy a change. We may not, it's just an estimate that we'd eat out a few times possibly.

DC are teen and toddler - so one will be eating adult meals and the other kids meals.

Thanks for the tip re booking transfers in advance, will get on to that

My DD is out in Tenerife just now and has said prices have shot up, they've been about £50/60 for a meal for 2.

I went all inclusive a few months ago and never felt need to eat out. that's madness. spent nothing the whole week! talking to people who did eat out approx £100 a night

I'd say at least £75 per meal if there's four of you and you'll be drinking, plus many resorts aren't close to town, so you may have to pay for a taxi.

The waterpark will also be expensive and you'll need to at least buy snacks that day, if not lunch, surely?

I'd say at least £500.

Unless the food in the hotel was dire I'd be happy to eat similar things over a couple of weeks, rather than spend money going out 3-4 of the nights. I'd maybe just go out on the last night or something. It's also worth checking to see if your hotel does packed lunches to take with you to the water parks. It'll save a merry fortune not having to buy food there. When we went to Ibiza back in 2019 we ordered one the night before and picked them up the following day from reception ready for a day trip. Can't remember precisely what was inside it but it was somewhere along the lines of a meat roll and a cheese roll, a sweet pastry or a biscuit a piece of fruit and a carton of juice.

£500-£1000.

Wow, I’d have said lots more than others here, but I’m not used to all inclusive.

£100 per meal, plus around £100 for the water park. With any other extras, transfers, days out, ice creams, taxis etc I’d expect to take about £1000 for the fortnight, and hope to take some home if possible.

Well the internet will help you work out how much you'll need for the waterpark e.g. entry to Siam Park is 148 Euro for 3 adults and a child (up to 11), Aqualand would be 104. Plus food, drink etc

I would say min €100 each evening meal out. Prob €150 if deserts and drinks - €500 approx

water park - probably €200. Tickets are usually €30-50 entry alone.

You can pay by card for most things

Thanks. It's just 7 nights so hopefully we can get away with half of that amount.

Just returned from Lanzarote with 2 adults 3 children (9,7,5). We didn't take anything other than £200 cash in euros (think it was about €240ish), £25 (€30) for each child to spend and my bank card for any bigger purchases.
We spent the following: €90 on a meal with 4 starters, 5 mains, 4 non alcohol cocktails and one alcoholic cocktail.
We needed taxis to the meal, plus waterpark and as there was 5 of us we needed 2 taxis as they couldn't cope with sending bigger cars (we realised this after waiting over an hour twice only for them to then tell us we would need 2 taxis!). So that cost us €40 in total. Would have been half that if we could have fit in one taxi 🙄.
€106 on waterpark entry (in Costa Teguise - don't recommend - nearly broke my neck being flung out of a rubber ring and landing on my forehead). Plus €50 on lunch and one drink each.
That was it pretty much other than the kids buying another inflatable (we took one each!!) plus some souvenir tat with their cash, armbands as we somehow left one kids float vest behind foolishly, and an extra bottle of aftersun as our p20 factor 50 plus regular top ups after swimming, hats, rash vests and staying out the afternoon sun completely failed us on day one 🥴. Also bought some drinks and small gift in airport for around €20.
So we spent about €300. Which I thought reasonable given i budgeted £700 to give us extra in case we wanted to do more.
Hope that is useful.

I’ve never done all inclusive but won’t you be wanting to explore the area, hire a car, eat in local restaurants? Won’t you get bored at the pool/water park every day?

@ThisMustBeMyDream

Very helpful! I've budgeted around €900. Hoping we don't need it all!

Yes possibly, that's why I was asking how much extra would be a reasonable amount.

We did 7 days, and tbh didn't get bored in the hotel. The food was not great at our hotel which was the only reason we ate out. The last AI we did 3 years ago we didn't eat out at all and only left the hotel once to go to the beach as the hotel had everything we wanted from a holiday in it. If we wanted to explore the area we wouldn't do AI.

I agree, it’s definitely best to pre book your transfers.
If you are only there for the week I can’t see you eating out 4/5 nights. I would budget €120-150 per meal out, €85 waterpark entry for you all plus €80-100 for food, drinks, ice creams and general tat when you are there.
Money for food at the airport plus extra for delays, medical emergencies etc.