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?

You have a good point about the cost of travel to the holiday, notwithstanding that some of the breaks posted would also include that in the 1k budget. It's an expense that's inherent to a holiday, unlike a lot of other things, and does need to be accounted for. But the rest is stretching the argument much further than it'll go.

There are holidays that have been posted with entertainment included on the sites, and with locations where you don't have to travel much once there if you don't want to. Plus the fact is that people do need to spend money on food regardless and self catering can be done for not much more than people usually spend at home.

These breaks may not be to a person's taste, which is fine, but that's not the same thing as when people make claims about shopping that are obviously not correct.

this is super helpful thread for anyone (not just myself) looking to make their budget stretch. I’ve definitely had some inspiration.

Normally I’m not a SC kind of person or if I am, breakfast is breakfast, lunches some sort of picnic/ easy lunch food but dinner I always end up grabbing out. Dinner for me, with 2 young kids is the bane of my existence. We’ve already done our main hols in March but another little break would be lovely

Aw that's great! And if your DC are young young, ie preschool, there are sooooo many more options for you. The budget will stretch much further then!

I think for a good can’t pass up hols, I’d probably end up taking my kids the week before school ends even when they are in school, at least early primary. I know it’s a bit naughty but the cost is insane during term time.

i was thinking something last week of august when dc 1 is off school and dc2 nursery is closed.

then ideally maybe something, just a long weekend in October, break up those long grey months.

what would everyone do in October when weather is likely to be 💩? Did a premier inn break in london before, all the museums. Could do again but something different would be nice!

Clearly not a camper! It is most definitely do-able camping in the UK in the school hols.

I've booked a pitch with electric hook up for 7 nights in the school holidays for £195, although this is with a discount as members of a camping organisation (worth the membership fee on this trip alone). It's right next to the beach, has a decent shower & toilet block, children's play area, games room, bar, and shop - reviews are good. The piers and arcades are about a 10min drive away. We are seasoned campers, so have a good comfortable set up (including a loo, so no stomping across a field in the dark or dew for a wee). The week away is for a sports training camp for DCs rather than our main holiday, so I've had to budget carefully. They do social activities most evenings, but I should be able to cover that for about £250. The food costs will be similar to home (we have a hob and grill in the trailer, and I plan on taking the air fryer). The training camp fees are on top of this (£70 per DC), but that wouldn't be a cost if we were doing the trip as a straight holiday.

There will always be varying factors OP, but I am inclined to agree with you.

I don't have children (yet) but have a long-term boyfriend and we are both pushing over half of our monthly incomes into our savings for a house/the future. After factoring in costs on the remaining money for running a car/rent/bills etc, we usually have enough to enjoy one or two holidays per year as long as it is literally as "budget" as possible. These holidays are often a long weekend or 5 days, never 10 days or 2 weeks.

Just for the two of us, to find the cheapest flights and accommodation, or a cheap cottage or caravan in the UK plus petrol costs, we find it almost impossible to pay less than £500 for the two of us even if it's for a long weekend without literally staying in a hostel which would be so far from enjoyable for us that it wouldn't constitute a holiday!

If you then add the costs of 1 or more children and then increase the overall costs by a significant percentage when booking a holiday within the school holiday times, I can't see even a UK holiday being less than £500 unless you go to a campsite.

Even if, for example, a family of 4 take their solar powered electric car to the cheapest campsite in the UK and have no paid activities planned but instead do free things like hiking/exploring/visiting a beach etc, there's still the costs of buying enough food to last everyone the week, the kit necessary for camping, the emergency fund still needed in case something goes wrong, all of those things which still add up.

October can be a good time for a city break. What region are you in?

midlands, so pretty central to most things. London was perfect, we had natural history, science museum, post office museum, and one of the museums that has lots of taxidermied stuff the name of which I can’t remember. Food was as expensive as the accommodation though.

something that the kids can explore without getting run over/ abducted/ hurt/ breaking something expensive is ideal. They loved the museums, esp the kids basement in the science museum

We did France last year
Drive there and back
£70 for the ferry
Paid about £350 for air b&b
Was one of the best holidays we've had in a long time
Wandering around Paris
A day in Disney
Really didn't break the bank
Will be doing it again this summer

Come to Yorkshire.

Not too far from Brum. Loads to do, cities, coast, countryside, Yorkshire Wildlife Park. Free national museums like Royal Armouries, Railway Museum, Mining Museum, Science & Media.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park, loads of country and big city parks, animal attractions, etc etc.

I’ve done DLP several times, but the tickets to that are like £90 per person per day aren’t they? Not to mention food in the park

The same for Europe. The last week of august is much cheaper.

Duinrell in Holland is £1071 for the week Monday 28th august to Monday 4th sept for a 2 bed mobile cottage with canvas. Amazing place for families often recommended on here. You can use Tesco vouchers towards eurotunnel or overnight ferry with stenaline.

We found that prices went up after Covid. Where we live the schools finish a week earlier than elsewhere in th country, and we can afford one week, in the week before other schools finish but then not for the rest of July. We stayed in a cottage in 2021 and then went back again in 2022 as we'd really liked it. Price had gone up £200 even with a discount for return visitors, for the same week.

I think to get lodgings for under 500, you need to be looking at a French or Italian caravan site in May half term.

So lots of options then. Liverpool and York are both good places for city breaks with kids that should be accessible for you? More of the museums in Liverpool are free.

I do love liverpool as a City! Never been to York

Prices start from €901 for some centerparcs in Europe from Monday 28th august to Monday 4th sept. There will be training days at most schools for that Monday.

€901 exchanged for pounds leaves a bit for the ferry cost if you haven’t got Tesco vouchers for the travel.

This year we are doing Haven (just the caravan- we don't use the entertainment as we use it as a base to explore) in October half term for £300 and a week camping in the Lake District in the summer holidays for £250.

@Florenz Brilliant !!

https://www.canvasholidays.co.uk/search/?dest_type=country&dest_id=1&start_date=2023-08-28&end_date=2023-09-04&night=7&adults=4&name=France

From £355 from the 28th august.

Self catering, 2 adults, 2 children, 18 August, 7 days

Budget £1,000 = 2,600 options
https://www.sykescottages.co.uk/search.html?country=&region=&location=&location_long=&locationdist=10&num_sleeps=4&num_pets=-1&startlabel=12%2F08%2F2023&start=12%2F08%2F2023&periodStart=&periodEnd=&duration=7&fuzziness=3&min_price=&max_price=1003&features=&max_offer_value=&has_broken_week=&distance_to_sea=-1&beds_single=-1&property_type_id=&num_bathrooms=-1&rating=-1&coordinates=&sort=price_a&show=20&page=

Budget £500 = 8 options

And, home exchanges are a great option for a low budget holiday

Yes. We have one on a seasonal pitch. It’s £3k for the year so we have as many holidays/weekends away as we want from April until end October. As my kids are 16 and 17 now I spend most of the 6 months here popping home occasionally 😂. It’s right near the beach.

We managed to get a 4 bed architect designed house in a historic city in May half term in 2021 for less than a grand. But it wasn't in the town centre. We were students there so know the city and crucially can still park at our old college for free so it was a really good solution for us but wouldn't be for other people. Think that's my best bargain ever. We have 3DC so need bigger houses generally but the biggest killer are flights when going abroad, we don't live near an airport with lots of supercheap flights.

Yes I have done it in the recent past, 10 days for under £1000 for 6 of us, abroad, 2 mins walk from the beach and including food. Thats booking flights seperately through a cheap airline and renting SC accomodation in way of a small apartment and dc sharing bedrooms. I always found that booking right at the end of august into september the return flights are much cheaper past the 3rd sept which brings the cost down, and also accomodation. Last holiday flights and accom came to just under £600 for 9 nights, but we flew back the day 2 of the dc went back to school (so they missed the first day back, but were not bothered), but it knocked around £500 off by doing that than if we'd flown back the day before. I would usually search first for the cheaper flights, then once those are found and dates sorted i'd look on something like booking.com or trivago for self catering accom within half an hour max of airport to limit transfer costs. Also strict budget for spending each day. If we ate out one night, we'd eat in the next couple, something cheap like salad and breads, pasta or soups etc.
Flights via ryanair, they have a section on website for cheap farefinder and you can specify month and it lists where the cheapest places to fly to are that month. I think easyjet have the same, though theirs lists price per day of each month so quite easy to see what will be cheaper options.
Also, we have on occasion flown out with one airline and back with a different one and saved money that way.