To ask for your tips and hints on how to afford abroad (school) holidays?

[ErikaReadsTheDailyMail]

Hi all,

Our oldest son started school in September and we've entered a new world a world of being incredibly boundaried by our holiday availability.

Before this we managed to do it fairly frugally least once a year- we'd usually manage a d.i.y break- skyscanner cheap flights and an air bnb sort of thing. We'd keep costs down by shopping in supermarkets there, doing free stuff and staying in of an evening (no worries with two under 5's).

We'd occasionally go on holiday in the U.K instead but to be honest it never worked out cheaper and was usually a lot more expensive. Last year after swearing I never would, we had our first ever all-inclusive resort holiday (and it was absolutely fantastic with the free booze and the kids club and i had to swallow my words!)

We're on a pretty low income and I just physically cannot afford to pay well over 50% more for a holiday due to having to be so limited by school terms.

I'm hoping I just don't have to suck up the next 15 years of not having an annual week away to look forward to but I fear that might be the case.

Does anyone have any words of wisdom? Do people take the kids out and pay the fines? Cheap companies who offer it all-in? Camping in Wales forever more? I'm struggling to see how to do it.

Thanks for your help 😃

Look at where you can fly from regional airports, book your own hotels if you want AI. Try Bulgaria or Costa Brava. It really depends what your budget actually is though.

Book early so monthly payments are cheaper and make sure you get a good deal. We have gone away all inclusive every year in the 6 weeks holidays since DD was born and she is ten now. TUI offer zero deposit and monthly payments, all inclusive x

This is very good advice, Morrocco and Egypt are great value for the hotel facilities

I was discussing this with my 2 primary school teacher friends at dinner last night and they were both advocating for parents taking kids out during term time. It's not just lower costs, it's also less crowds. My child isn't primary school age yet but I think I'll definitely be doing this.

I don't live in UK though and things are less strict here, you don't get fined over children missing school.

You can do b&b city breaks with Tui to places like Seville and Valencia for about £300 each for a week.

May half term. Just take one or two days off ( we often had an inset day that helped). A lot cheaper than the whole holiday being in school holidays and a good balance with not taking the whole week off. We once flew Fri eve for a AI holiday in Majorca for considerably less the 7 nights going leas than12 hours later on Sat morning

We take dd6 out for school week before ht so 5 days 10 sessions

We get a letter saying we May be fined

We haven't been so far

But if we do then 60per parent so £120 is still cheaper

Yes, it’s much cheaper to book if you travel mid-week and go part school holidays and part term time. The authority will not fine you for less than 5 days missed.
Although my daughter is 11 and we’ve taken her out for a family holiday at least once a year and we have never been fined. Whilst we’re on holiday she reads daily, practices spellings, writes in a diary and often draws pictures of her adventures. I’m not sure if lenience has been shown because of this or if our local council don’t enforce the fine.

If your two adults 2 / 3 kids look for the single parent deals
I used to do this with my husband when the kids were small so we would get a free / reduced child places up to the age of 12 and we would book 2 separate bookings for the same hotel / flight so we would get 2 rooms which was great
we would email the hotel and ask for the rooms to be next door to each other
Thomas cook / Tui first choice used to do these type of holidays

Save up and go every 2 years. Maybe a shorter weekend break in the year in between.

I'd rather pay our £2400 for the four of us to go AI in August for 14 nights than the £2100 for a week in Cornwall.

OP try booking directly with the hotel and book flights separately, this can sometimes be cheaper or use an independent travel agent.

Or look for private holiday rentals and again book flights separate. Or book the time off work and book something the day before.

Air travel is.more expensive than it used to be though. We've noticed a huge increase in price and though our holiday is.more expensive than it used to be, it's cheaper than staying here for us.

I absolutely do not want to be doing any cooking or food shopping whilst I am on holiday, neither does my husband. It's our only two weeks holiday to relax and do nothing, we both do plenty at home!

The Scottish holidays start at end June and go back beginning/mid august. Flights from Glasgow and Edinburgh are less expensive from mid august… if you live in north of England that might be an option? Or half terms when they don’t match up.

We’re taking our daughter (5) out of school in June. It would cost in the region of £900 extra for the same holiday in August so if we get fined it’s still a hell of a saving. Don’t get me wrong, I probably won’t be doing this once she’s into secondary school and starting exams etc but I can’t see the harm at her age

If money is tight, you could look at last minute deals. We did this for our hols and paid a fraction of the brochure price. Worth a try.

Exactly this, from a fellow teacher. Yes it’s a PITA when children miss a week term time but if it was a way we could afford an abroad holiday with the children we would 100% do it too.

Can you go with another family who you are friends with, we are doing this in the summer and there are quite big age gaps between their youngest, 3 and my youngest 12 but one in between is 6 and the eldest are 16 and 17, boy/girl so not even DC very close in age but it works out really well, in the past we went as three families as friends and had a huge house with a tennis court, games room. This year it has a pool as what you can afford can be more luxurious.

Hi, the main ways we save on holidays during summer is by:

• Houseswapping
• Camping

I used to do competitions too to win holidays, with success, but haven't for years. I wrote about it more here: museummum.com/2018/04/14/6-ways-we-saved-family-holidays/

Southern Europe in October half term.
We have done both Naples and Costa Del Sol at that time, it's really warm and you can get v. cheap flights.

Jet2 is cheap to Dalaman in Turkey, particularly if you book when they're offering free child places.

Oh, and this explained how we did a year's worth of holidays for five for under £1k - this is including the extra holiday we took, spending £220 for the Eurotunnel for 10 days at a houseswap in Brussels in December, which wasn't part of the original plan! https://museummum.com/2018/05/21/2018-travel-plans/

I’ve just done a week in Turkey
took my niece as a free child place
ans including flight hotel was 5 star AI and beach front cost me 875 inc flight luggage /transfers with Jet 2 booking last year
my other niece took her son and paid the same so we both had a room each
weather was sunny / sunbathing but cold at night
Hotel was fabulous with heated pools and loads of stuff for kids

but had we booked this year for the same dates it would have been around 3k for the 4 of us as no free child places

I'm taking my children out for a few days at the end of term, I don't even care if I get fined. To go fully in term time it would have been 3k more on an already 2k holiday.

This is probably a silly question but how do you know when companies release their flights to book?

We often get better deal just taking them out a couple days either side of the holidays.

So we bought timeshare - spent £3500 back in 2000 and funnily enough over tge ladt 3 years, they gave md more than this back as they sold off one of the resorts in the chain! It costs me around £600pa now for maintenance and club fees (you could avoid £150 annual club fees if you only go to accomodation your timeshare owns). Booking fees are £150 per week, so a 2 week summer break is £900, 3 weeks is £1050 and 4 weeks is £1200 plus flights. We managed 6 weeks away when the kids were in school every year.

The times I normally buy flights are just after Christmas. Prices are low because few people are buying flights for obvious reasons.

When I've separately booked holidays, I tend to look at onthebeach and groupon. I really miss teletext holidays tbh...