About holiday costs

[Chippychipschips]

I always holiday in the UK because it’s what I can afford plus I don’t really like travelling.

For some reason this choice always warrants a big lecture from people about how holidaying in the UK is too expensive so that’s why they go abroad.

I am all for people doing what they want but just think this is bullshit.

If I have a budget of £800 to spend on accommodation for a family of 4 the UK is my best option. Yes I know I won’t get the guaranteed sunshine or cheap dining but the UK is all I can afford.

What people actually mean when they say things like this is you can get more for your money abroad. This is probably true but if my budget doesn’t stretch to £3/4k for a weeks all inclusive then it’s not an option for me!

It really gets on my tits that people imply you are spending badly when they don’t realise choices are obviously dictated by budget!

It does bug me that the UK is overpriced but I still want to go on holiday. I could save for years to go abroad but if I’m not really bothered why can’t I enjoy a UK holiday once a year?

I know this is not a big issue but I have shared my holiday plans with 2 people this year only to be told how badly I am spending my money (by people with a lot more disposable income than me)!

I think I must just have insensitive family and friends but for some reason this week I have annoyed the people in my life with my holiday choices!!!!

I would just say " we are very happy with what we get for our holiday budget".

I think you're giving them too much information and too high a level of engagement.

£800 for a caravan in Devon in school holidays is pretty good going.
I love Devon and Cornwall but it's so tricky to get to from Scotland. We pretty much always holiday in UK in summer now - it's too hot abroad, you couldn't actually pay me enough to go to Turkey in July or August, we would just be sat in the room most days.

Why don't you just say that you don't have £3k to spend on holidays ? It's nothing to be ashamed off. Most people don't.

I don’t get why people do this either, I think half the time it’s to justify their own choices and they completely exaggerate and forget about the costs for passports, currency exchange, transfers, airport parking etc! I’ve done a lot of holiday rentals in this country, all below £800 for a family in school holidays. It’s a lot cheaper

I think it sometimes comes down to the type of accommodation people are looking at. I’m lucky that my parents own a holiday home they let us use for free when it’s not booked, but at market value it’s just as expensive as going on a package holiday in Europe. I would never pay those prices for the UK.

None basic hotels in tourist areas are often even more expensive (though we have found good deals with a bit of shopping around).

Obviously a basic caravan costs less, but if people don’t look at them as an option, they won’t know you can go away in the UK for less than a holiday abroad.

£1400 in total budget does go further overseas but the cost of passports is a lot and ferries this year have shot up. In the long term I do recommend Normandy and Brittany for holidays, passports aside it would cost around the same assuming ferry costs dont disproportionately increase any more. People don't get tight budgets or the costs in school holidays I find. We have taken U.K. holidays by choice anyway, we have a beautiful country - I like Scotland, Pembrokeshire and the NE out of preference

Well it does get your more in many cases

You would struggle to get decent holiday accommodation for 4, for £1000 in August. It’s costing me £720 to stay in a very average 1 bedroom cottage in May when I return home to family for 4 nights, that’s 3 of us squashed in. It’s not even a ‘holiday area’, I’m only going to see family and no where to stay.

Where as I know for £1000 I can get a 2 bedroom place, overlooking a lake, with outdoor area and bbq. In a prime holiday area with nice stuff to do and toasty 30 degrees summers. Flights cost £100 each max

For those saying you can get a week in Spain for the money you pay for a UK holiday, have you factored in the cost of passports for a family, the cost of travel insurance and the cost of airport parking? The extra costs soon mount up.

The UK trip is 800 plus 100 fuel.

Show me a week abroad in the school holidays for 800 (plus 100 for passports) and I'll show you rocking horse shit.

But your passports last 10 years. Yes not per trip. So most people aren’t paying for all 4 new passports at once. Ie mine has just been renewed, but Ds will need a new one in 3 years, dh in 6 years. £82 for 10 years is a bargain imo. £53 for child. It’s £8-10 per year for unlimited use

For us, it was still cheaper to go abroad last year - only the two kids needed passports, travel insurance is free through our bank, and we spent £50 on parking for a week. It cost £250 more for a week AI than it did for a week SC, granted we did still eat and drink out but we didn’t HAVE to, but with SC in the UK we would have most certainly spent more than £250 for a week.

The money still has to come out of this year's budget though.

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz - but only if your family has no passports. Most families this isn’t the case, and in say a typical family of 4, they would only have renew or new costs of one passport per year. So you can’t really say those costs are included.
As next year you might not have any. I don’t have any passport costs for another 3 years now. Travel insurance is included in bank also regardless of if I travel or not.

Our return flights for 3 from Central Europe to Uk are £210.

Jet2 holidays - 7 nights sc in turkey on the 30th of June for £850.

Or £1220 for all inclusive for a week in fuerteventura, same dates.

It can be more expensive in the uk. We did two weeks in a caravan for £2k in 21. The weather was shit. We spent a fortune on doing stuff to entertain the kids. If we had had great weather maybe.

The thing is, a lot of the time a foreign holiday IS cheaper than the U.K. Pre covid I had two weeks self catering in a three bedroom gite in the Dordogne with a private pool for 1800 euros plus fuel and channel tunnel (booked well in advance it was £200 both ways for the Chunnel) plus food and occasional days out - this was August. That May I’d paid £1100 pounds sterling for a two bedroom cottage in Yorkshire - no pool obviously! The same cottage in August was just under £2000 per week.

Currently in a lovely one bedroom cottage in Suffolk which I’ve paid around £900 for. It costs £1900 for a week in August. A fortnight in Majorca is definitely cheaper by comparison.

Holiday costs are crazy wherever you go. We like camping (as it’s cheap and you can stay in great locations) but even that’s getting expensive. I just can’t justify spending thousands on a week away when there’s so much else we need to be spending the money on first. We’ve never taken the kids abroad - one of them is autistic and would find different food etc difficult, the other hates hot weather. UK camping/beach holidays suit us perfectly. I don’t mind if we don’t have the most amazing holiday ever when it’s cost us £250 - if I’d spent £2000 I’d feel like I had to make it ‘worth it’ and if the kids didn’t enjoy it it would feel like a waste. We’ll wait til they’re older. You just do whatever suits you, ignore people who think they know better.

OP - don’t suppose you’d be happy to link to the Devon site?! We have our summer booked but we’re thinking of a few days in the UK in May…

30th June isn't the school holidays though.

I am one of the dozens of people who do not live in England. It’s the Scottish school holidays.

£800 for accommodation that sleeps 4 is good value in the UK summer holidays!

We holiday in the UK usually due to having dogs but find accommodation in nice locations is so expensive.

As a comparison, 6 nights at EuroCamp in France in August (Picardy - so not too far from Calais) would be £890, but then you'd still need to drive to Calais, and pay for a ferry crossing too (another £200).

I see. I doubt they'd be that price in the English school holidays.

For some strange reason people get really intense about holiday costs and choices and seem to take it personally.

But that’s exactly what you are doing

I holiday in the U.K. because I like it, but accept that it means I am paying a lot more by choice, and that other people can’t necessarily afford that extra.

Where is a week in a caravan in France £400 in the summer?