To think you can’t get a family holiday for £500

[Lalalawhitenoise]

inspired by a thread of a woman who’s taking her kids to florida, one of the poster said It was obscene spending that amount of money and that some families spend £500, maybe £1000 max on a family holiday for a family of 4.

I read it got me wondering, can you really get a family holiday (not tent camping) for £500? If so where? That would really help us out as was maybe thinking we might not be able to get a hols this year, what hols can you get (summer time ish) for under that £1k mark? Is it even possible?

We don’t pitch at Haven but admittedly it’s a site with a lot of facilities. I don’t really consider it a holiday though, just a break.

That's true, Camping is definitely more of an "experience" than for example an AI abroad would be or even a self catered place. AI style pool holidays have zero appeal to me though - I hate being too hot and not having much structure to my days. My autistic child would also be over hot and bored so it would overall be very stressful. But then I also wouldn't do very basic camping like some people I know - literally just going off to the woods somewhere and pitching a tent.

We have a week booked at Pontins, in August this year, for £420. I have a 5 year old and a 3 year old who have never been to a beach before. They will love it. Dh and I will survive it. And if nothing else it's a weeks worth of accommodation on the lovely Welsh coast in the middle of the school holidays for a not obscene amount of money. It can be done, but it depends on what your standards are. And tbh when the kids are the ages ours are it's not really a holiday anyway! When the kids are a bit older and we're hopefully a bit better off, we will raise our standards a bit but for now, this is what we can afford.

Www.sunshine.co.uk - another website with cheap holidays - including Costa Brava and Algarve - less than £200 pp for a week in June. Doesn't include hold luggage so you would need to travel light .

I camp because we like it and it's cheap. And I'm in the SE so easy access to France. As you have ruled out tent camping, you could do a similar holiday in a self-catering cottage.

Camping is half the price, so we get two weeks not one and can usually find a campsite with a pool.

Loads of places on the gites-de-france website at around the €500 per week mark in northern France. If you have loyalty rewards anywhere, you might be able to get a discount on the tunnel or ferry. I've paid £385 for the tunnel this summer, but half that was Tesco Clubcard vouchers and I could have paid less if I'd booked earlier. Even without the discount, that's under £900. £700 in actual cash would leave £300 to spend. Over seven nights, that would get you a meal out and a couple of activities. Add in a few walks on the beach and pottering round town and you could have a week's worth of break.

There are petrol and toll road costs but if you stay within a couple of hours of Calais then they may not be much more than usual commuting costs. I allow myself to offset some costs. E.g. I allow for my commute and after-school club in my monthly budget even though I don't spend that money every single week. So I can re-allocate it to holiday petrol without feeling it (I hope that makes sense).

If you self-cater then food can be similar to what you'd spend at home. I'd love to be more extravagant on holiday, but if getting away is the main goal then eating is one thing you can do cheaply.

Admittedly doesn't leave much for activities, but France tends to be much cheaper than here for visiting historic buildings, museums, etc. so you could do something.

£500 would be a real challenge for a week if you don't have your own tent, but £1000 is doable if you do some research.

We regularly stay in a comfortable chalet that sleeps four which is a 3 min walk from a gorgeous Gower beach for £650 for 7 nights in summer school holidays. We self cater with maybe one takeaway and a meal out. We spend less than £1k all in.

Park Dean. 7 nights October half term. Priced for 2 adults 2 children. And change from £500

Last week of August, our Hardheads cottage in Cumbria is about £750 per week. Super king bed and two singles. We are on edge of Lake district so close to beach (10mins) but just far enough from the really busy tourist spots that you can visit but not pay crazy accommodation costs of central lakes. look for places in edge of tourist area. Holiday cottages.com is good site and often discount last minute bookings on website. As a family with young children and dogs we find the cottages are great as we have kitchen and don't need to pay for kennels.

You can get Monday - Friday in an apartment on the Devon coast in July for £350-£700, depending on the accommodation. The mid range being about £500. Have a look at Golden coast woolacombe ☺️

I've just booked a Riverside cottage in keswick for a week for less than £500......we won't spend much there other than food and boat hire.

@clary did you read the reviews for the cottage you linked? It might be cheap but the first three reviews alone mention a pungent smell of dogs, it being freezing cold and not even having any toilet paper 😂

We booked a 2 bed apartment in Greece which was £498 for 10 days in school holidays. But the flights made it way more expensive.
Accommodation abroad is often lots cheaper...but obviously the cost of getting there is more expensive

My experience is that holidays in the UK are more expensive and tend to be more disappointing (at least weather wise) than going abroad

Yes I have seen a one or two
places self catering in Cornwall around the £500-600 a week for accommodation for 4. In school holidays.

Butlins for a week in December, including food package (basic) cost me and my friend about £400 for the 4 of us (2 adults and 2 kids)

We didn't pay much more than than for 5 of us at the tots week in March wither (my dp tagged along)

And that included breakfast and dinner!

This reminds me of the shopping threads. People claim they feed a family of 6 (including the MN obligatory “sports-mad strapping teen sons”) on less than £60 a week but when asked to provide shopping lists of recipes they use, in order to help others who are struggling, it’s crickets. Because in reality those figures are either top-up shops and they already have cupboards and freezers full of bulk-bought dry goods and frozen foods, or they live off valued pasta and tinned tomatoes every day.

Yes you can get a cottage or a caravan site for under £500 but that doesn’t cover the cost of getting there, eating, entertainment, etc. If you removed the cost of getting there, food, entertainment, you could get a Florida holiday for £500 if you’re ok with KOA or Motel 6. But is that really what people understand by the word “holiday”? Probably not. Just as bags of value pasta and tinned tomatoes is not really a weekly shop.

It's a 'how long is a piece of string' question and some Mumsnetters have very long pieces of string.

But of course you can get away for a few days on £1000, you just have to eliminate the parts of the holiday which bump up the cost to leave as much of the budget remaining so you can get accommodation, travel to get there and some for activities/food and drink.

You've probably missed the boat for cheap flights, they need to be booked early if you need to go in the school holidays, but in the future, you could try that for next year.

You don't need to go for a full week/fortnight, a few days away is still a holiday. Cheapest accommodation is probably self catering so you can store and prepare food, to avoid expensive eating out. This doesn't have to be miserable, you can get easy supermarket food, use Too Good to Go, have some takeaways, street food, Greggs etc.

You could book a city centre apartment and go to free museums, city parks, that sort of thing. Going somewhere fairly close to where you live will obviously cut the cost of getting there.

Just because many people spend thousands on holidays because they book a naice cottage in Cornwall and eat out in Gastropubs or 5* AI for two weeks, doesn't mean that everyone's holidays cost that much.

Just had a poke around on a cottage site and first choice. I can see a couple of cottages in Devon and Cornwall, first week of summer holidays for £550. I can see a week in Bulgaria for £1.4k

Haha yes I did read them after I linked. Maybe not that one then. But this thread shows UK seasidey accommodation us available for less than some suggest.

The food thing - yes, for sure you can spend more, eat out, get takeaways. But when my dc were small cooking some pasta was easier anyway. I used to take a load of prepped frozen stuff. I mean it can be done.

If you book the ferry early and use municipal camping sites France can be a cheap holiday. About €20 to €40 a night for a pitch for 4 people. Dover to Calais return in August £295.
7 nights and a days travel each way doable with petrol for under £650. before food.
La Croix du vieux Pont in Picardy looks amazing.

The additional stuff on top of the uk cottage don't have to cost a huge amount. A weekly food shop is £100, let's say £150 as it's holiday and your buying more fun stuff. Allow another £150 for a tank of fuel. If your cottage is £500, we are now up to £800. So you still have £200 to spend before your over a grand.

Most day trips we do are free. Beaches, using out national trust membership or free entry museums. Take a picnic from your already paid for shop.

We tend to eat out at lunch time and then have a smaller meal in the evening because we currently aren't doing it on a budget. But we have done before now and it is possible.

A lot depends on what is defined as a holiday. For us it's being somewhere different to home. We take the dog so most days are finding somewhere nice to walk with a place for coffee and cake, and then curling up in front of a fire for the evening. For others a holiday isn't a holiday without a plane journey. But it is very possible to do a holiday for under £1,000

We are going to a lodge in France in September for £400 for 8 nights for 6 of us 😊😊

If I had that budget, I would do a lovely UK city break for 2-3 nights and not stay somewhere shit.

Status caravan places no but have a look at independent caravan places. There’s a lovely little caravan park I go to in Cumbria - it’s not fancy, no pool, bring your own bedding, you have to drive for anything touristy but it’s very near the most perfect sandy beach and my kids and I have spent the most lovely week there before paddling and sand castling. I just checked and it’s coming out as £687 for seven days in summer holidays.

Happy to share it over messenger but I love it far too much to expose to the usual mumsnet snooty “looks grim” judgement

You book eurocamp or similar for around May time in October, and it will be well under that. Not including flights though. And obviously if your children are school age, you won't get long or you take the hit with fines.