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

just to answer a few queries here …

PILs will be flying from a different airport with a different airline.

the villa is Saturday to Saturday so I was initially looking for Saturday flights. Some suggestions on here have been around going a day early to Greece, so thanks to these ideas I will consider things like that if it works out better for us. I also didn’t want DS to miss preschool and DH to have to take another day annual leave, but we are now considering that.

I did see a direct flight landing after 11pm in destination but I decided I’d rather go on an early flight, in case there were delays or transport issues.

@Disneyblueeyes very reassuring thanks!
@Crikeyalmighty yes these costs made me a bit nervous. We are so grateful for the kind offer but we will have to save very hard
@Endlesslypatient82 i already answered you on this: there’s No drama with in laws but thanks for taking the time to offer your support.

I am actually in shock how many find this a normal holiday arrangement. So much waste of time, money and resources.
Not everyone lives near an airport and money is not always the highest consideration. I live in Lincolnshire and the vast majority of holidays I have taken over 40 years have involved an overnight at an airport hotel.
I prefer it because;
A morning flight gets you there in time to enjoy the first day of your holiday.
You can do twilight bag drop and avoid some queues.
It also means you check out and come home instead of hanging around all day and arriving home late at night.
An airport hotel allows you to sleep instead of driving through the night and again helps toward enjoyment of the first day.

This

@Auntiejohnfromjamaica I do totally understand by the way- one reason I mentioned all the costs wasn't trying to put you off- Greece and Greek islands is one of my very favourite destinations-- more that I've had a similar situation in the past , and it cost us a hell of a lot more than we imagined overall- partly because we were too embarrassed to say up front that although we weren't paying for the accommodation we were still on a tight budget at the time and sharing a hire car plus meals out every night plus an awful lot of booze meant it cost us double in spending money to what we had budgeted for- I was actually panicking whilst we were away that we would run out of cash if I didn't get paid on a particular day. That's why I think it's best to be really upfront about things like this, it's much easier to control costs as a couple/family- harder if in a big group unless you are upfront

@katepilar Again, money aside, what about this is so shocking? You can't go abroad without spending some time traveling. Most people are capable of making a bit of an effort for some gain/pleasure at the end of it. Nothing worse than having the "can't be bothered/that's far too much trouble" attitude.

No drama with in laws but thanks for taking the time to offer your support.

in laws that book a villa without involving you and then “would not be happy” if you did not go?

in laws that you don’t feel comfortable enough with to discuss a fairly straightforward logistical issue?

🤔

Are flights available for a year? I can’t book for July next year

I also didn’t want DS to miss preschool

and you honestly expect us to believe you want to go on this holiday when one of your main reasons is this??

I was a bit at the worry of missing one day of pre school in a years time too!

Speaks volumes to me!

@Endlesslypatient82 oh dear I think you have misunderstood. Missing a day of preschool would not prevent us taking a holiday no!
we will probably end up taking the Friday off to and going down early
thanks for your comments I’m really finding it useful getting all this input, I never expected it 😊 x

There are several reasonably priced airport hotels at Stansted and most will do a one night stay plus parking deal. I think there's even one very close , on the airport property itself, so you wouldn't even have to get the shuttle bus from the hotel to the terminal. (They cost a few quid each way)

Missing a month of preschool shouldn’t prevent you! 😂

seems Weird no direct flights to a popular holiday destination on a Saturday

I wouldn’t do 2 flights

so would drive to 2nd airport and stay at prem in. And generally I’d do that you get free parking

Sounds like you are ready for a holiday! I can’t wait to get away now 😃

@SiobhanSharpe that’s what I bet we end up doing! Thanks

When is it next summer? Not all airlines have released their flight schedules. Eg Easyjet flights are only released until May next year at the moment. So it might be better to wait and see if flights become available.

@Blondeshavemorefun not having a full choice of flight destinations every day is the reality of flying from Not London.

If the OP is in the far south west, Wales or northern England, you generally get to pick from London, sometimes Manchester or go on another day.

There are far more flights from London airports to many places.

Go the night before. We're doing that for our next holiday as no direct flights from airports near us so going to parents the day before and then they are driving us and picking us up again. We are 4 hrs from parents and they are 90 minutes from the airport.

They will be a little older next year. Gives you plenty of time to prepare. Do some backpacks up for them with they're favourite small toys, snacks and a blanket.

@Goggin this is true. We are going away end of May and think ej only up to May 8 at the moment

@BarbaraofSeville guess that makes more Sense

I am!

You don’t seem particularly keen though!

I can’t wait to get away now ive had some great advice here and been reassured it’s totally normal and doable

your user name sure doesn’t match your comments! Hope you get your hol soon xx

Patience has very little to be confused as to what the big issue was!

And also I can’t imagine my family being annoyed if I couldn’t join them on holiday but then again - I would feel happy discussing logistical matters with my family!

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).

You are going on holiday with these people. Yet you don’t think they’d understand and wouldn’t be “impressed” by you talking to them about your smaller budget, their young grandchildren and the journey?