To ask if this is too much effort for a holiday

[Auntiejohnfromjamaica]

Am I mad to try to make this holiday work?

PILs have surprised us with a villa booking in Greece next year, for them, us and BIL and his wife.

We were so excited as it’s somewhere we have always wanted to go, but I’ve been looking at travel and it’s so complicated.

PILs and BIL+SIL live near London and don’t have kids. We are further north, don’t live that close to any airports, the closest ones to us don’t fly to this destination, and we will have a 18 month old and 4 year old with us.

I think we have two choices. Drive 1 hour to nearest airport, take a low cost flight to one place then another low cost flight to actual destination. would have to be Hand luggage only :(

Or we drive four hours (setting off midnight) to London and take direct flight.

First option seems more expensive but I haven’t priced up fuel and parking.

PILs won’t be impressed if we don’t go. And won’t really understand about the kids, and how long it’ll take, and the price (we are on a budget).

So I suppose my question is - would you bother?
YABU - make it work, it’s worth it!
YANBU - too much effort, don’t go

I'd drive down the day before and stay with the Inlaws. Do you not stay over when you visit them anyway? And depending on flight times stay over again on the way back. It's not that long a journey though.

Breaking up a journey, with a visit somewhere or a long lunch stop and a walk is always good with small children.

I wouldn't go to the trouble of connecting flights as an alternative to driving to Heathrow, and it's a 3 to 4 hour drive for me depending on time of day, traffic etc.

I'm guessing with the age of kids you won't have done much traveling with them because of COVID.
But driving to an airport and staying the night at a hotel and leaving the car is stress free and quite often done.

Drive to London, stay with in laws or in a hotel.

Airport Hotel with parking? It's not expensive. I have room travel over 4 hours to the airport and its worth it for the holiday.

Stay with them the night before, leave your car at their house

Nearer airport with direct flight?

Assuming your final destination is close to the airport in Greece, even if you lived right next to the airport at this end you’d be looking at a minimum of 7 hours door to door. So adding on your 4 hour drive to London you’ll be looking at 11 hours door to door.

If you want to go on holiday then that’s really not too bad. Of course if you don’t want to go then it’s a different matter.

Too much effort for A holiday? No, lots of holidays require that amount of travel and it's worth it.

Too much effort (/cost) for THIS holiday? Only you can really answer that.

Do you want to go on holiday with all the ILs? How much will it cost? Can you afford it? If you can afford it how much of your discretionary spending budget will it be - could the same amount get you e.g. a preferred holiday with just your family and going on this holiday means going without something else which is a greater priority for your family.

Personally I think it's really weird/ possibly annoying to surprise someone with a villa booking, if you're going to treat to a holiday you should treat to the whole thing i.e. including transport costs, or else discuss with whoever you're treating beforehand to check they want to / can spend the money for the other associated costs - and tbh even if you're covering everything, you should probably still check they're willing/able to commit the time. Otherwise all they're really do is obliging you to go on holiday with them and spend your money on something that's not your choice.

Also in making your decision make sure you consider other associated costs- taxis at the other end, food etc. Will you be expected to eat out/ go on days out etc?

Thanks. I’m gonna look at airport hotels and parking. I am nervy of the cost, and DH and DS would have to take another day/afternoon off work/preschool but it might be a sensible option.

PILs live completely the wrong side of London, plus they’d probably not love putting the four of us up the day before a holiday.

Do you know before I met DH I did a lot of solo travelling. But I’ve not been abroad for SIX years now, and never with the kids 😭 . It shows clearly, need to stress less!!

It seems unlikely that there are no direct flights from Manchester/Birmingham etc. What is your destination in Greece?

Thank you @mynameiscalypso this is how I feel. I’m anxious about the cost yet guilty because it’s an amazing offer.

I’ve trawled every airline. It needs to be a Saturday and a morning flight so that rules a lot of airports out.

Yes again someone has booked a surprise holiday without consultation as to whether it will work for the recipient in terms of cost and time off work etc. People do that?

Anyway, it doesn't seem such an unsurmountable problem. Drive down the day before and get a hotel and parking deal will probably be the easiest and most cost effective solution. Maybe take in something the day before in the area that you wouldn't normally be able to do due to travel/cost to make the most of the day.

Then get saving so you'll be able to enjoy the holiday without worrying about the cost.

Make sure you buy travel insurance as soon as you've paid for the flights and get the DC passports sorted if they don't already have them (plus check yours too).

Airport hotel the night before and all will be well. If you can't afford the hotel for one night and the petrol then you need to have a conversation with DH.

Can you not get connecting flights with a flag carrier from your local airport? I appreciate not all of them have your typical connections to Amsterdam / Frankfurt / Zurich, but worth a search.

Must you go on Saturday morning or could you join them a day or two later when there might be more suitable options?

Doesn’t seem like a big issue? I’d definitely not bother with option 1. Depending on how much in law time you can stand, you could even go down a week before your flight and have a holiday at their house! (Id sooner die personally but sounds like you have lovely ILs!)

If your flight is a Saturday morning and all you are doing at the airport hotel is sleeping I’d suggest setting off after you’ve eaten on Friday night with children in PJs at say 6 ish. They will fall asleep in the car, you will arrive at 10 ish so be happy enough to go to sleep in your hotel room at that time. If DC do wake up you just get yourselves into bed as quickly as possible and try to get everyone back to sleep in a dark room. It will be worth it for the holiday and to be able to travel together too.

I would stay with in laws the night before (but then I really can't see why they'd be funny about putting you up when you're about to go on holiday together, as my in laws wouldn't mind at all) and offer to pay for a large minivan to take everyone to the airport together the next day. But then in your circumstances, I'd definitely be wanting to travel with my in laws so I had extra people to palm the DC onto when going through the airport and on the flight 😁! If in laws aren't helpful and willing when it comes to the children, I can see that this might not appeal to them.

If the two flights was the easiest option then hand luggage wouldn't be the thing that put me off doing it tbh!

Advantage of the car is it's "door to door", no chance of a missed connection & less waiting at airports.

Disadvantage-it's 4hrs in a car!

If you want to make it work you will.

It's next year. Surely you can save enough for a hotel and direct flights in that time?

Where is everyone else flying from? Just all book together.

OP we live miles from airports too. This year, we decided to save £700 on our flights and fly from Gatwick (the nearest airport was £1400, Gatwick was £700.
it was a 4 hour drive. We drove the day before, stayed in the premier inn opposite the terminal which cost us £50, and we paid something like £60-70 for the airport parking.
it was a minor faff but worth it for a lovely holiday.

It can be quite stressful going on holiday with 2 DCs that age, without throwing being tucked up with all your in laws as well.
Will it be a holiday from hell if you go?
Are you in a villa all together? (And will worry about DCs disturbing everyone at night or early morning, and disruption to your routine?)
Brace yourself, OP, you might not get any relaxation time there.

Take the train to London?
If you time it right, your little one will sleep and you entertain the other one. At that age, there is a thrill about going on the train.

In laws live really far away.
they make a lot of effort when we stay (getting in food, giving us their bedroom as it’s bigger) and I don’t want to put that on them the day before a trip.
and, we will be flying low cost from Stansted. They will not.