AIBU to ask where the hell can I take seven people on holiday without bankrupting myself?!

[Whysomany]

Not really an AiBU but posting for traffic after weeks of research and coming up blank.

Promised the kids a holiday, specifically abroad, as they've never been. August 2024. Made the mistake of promising before fully researching and quite frankly I feel a bit fucked now.

I think they'd all like to travel by plane having never done so before and probably unlikely to again but blimey, flights for seven people. I severely under estimated. Looking at driving instead. This we can do but DH doesn't want to drive too far because his car is old and crap, basically.

Originally looking at South of France, Italy, Spain, etc. They all seem out now because of flights and hire car costs. And I don't think I could persuade DH to take his car that far. I have since looked at pretty much every destination in Europe...

All I've got at this point is a week in the Netherlands but honestly at this point, that feels a little disappointing after dreaming of a hot destination and somewhere a bit further away to the UK.

Am I doing something wrong or basically I'm right and it's just not doable? We were looking at Eurocamp and the equivalents.

No set budget. Originally looking at 2.5 - 3k plus food, days out, etc. Might be able to go a bit higher.

Look at budget airlines and AirBnB or apartments with access to a pool- this is FAR cheaper than packages and resorts.

Going somewhere like Naples (then take coach to Sorrento for Pompeii, Herculaneum and the Amalfi Drive via public bus) or Rome isn’t too ruinously expensive. You could do it on your budget for 5 nights.

The Italian Lakes are also quite cheap - try an apartment with pool access on Lake Garda near a beach. Or ferry to Brittany and a camp site. It is doable, you just need to Google a lot. Don’t give up.

Get a ferry to Bilbao from Southampton its overnight and relaxing start to a holiday. The Yelloh camps in south of France are really good, look to book now for next year. Not far to drive and you get San Sebastián and biarritz within easy driving distance. Good luck!

Love how people are suggesting Eurocamp like OP's never heard of it - it's right there in the first post!

We are on the way back from a week in the Vendee at a Sandaya site (similar to Eurocamp) and have spent £2,200 for 3 of us on chalet + eurotunnel + fuel + tolls + foreign breakdown cover etc etc etc - and that's before any food/activities! And it's rained 3 days out of 7 and has reached a high of 23 degrees for one day of the holiday 🙃

If I were you I'd be speaking to a couple of travel agents and seeing what sort of flight/hotel packages they could find - especially if you can book well in advance.

We're south east so any London airports are fine plus ferry and tunnel both under 45 mins

In that case you need to get an American Express gold card or BA card. There are points you can accrue by meeting target spends. You then refer your husband and cancel your card, plus you get a bonus for referring him. I have booked four adult flights for 110000 avios to Turkey next august term time, only £1 per person in taxes. It's even less points to mainland Spain. You are unlikely to get seven air miles seats but four is easily done and then you only have to pay for three. I can't get into it all now but look on the Head For Points page and search American Express it's all on there. Then you have your budget for your accommodation.

Do you all already have passports? First passports are over £100 now.

Also, when you’re looking at flights, the price probably says ‘From £?????’ Please be aware that the price shown will not include any checked luggage. For budget carriers, such as Ryan Air, the price won’t even include hand luggage; just a 30cm x 30cm handbag.

Don’t forget Brits no longer get free healthcare in Europe, so you may have to purchase this but it obviously depends on your individual circumstances.

Oh, and don’t forget the price of airport parking or taxis. We just travelled about 60 miles to Heathrow. Taxi was £160 each way, which was cheaper than parking.

Then add on at least another grand for luggage. We went from Stansted to Alicante last year and it was a further £80 per piece of checked luggage each way.

Consider house swap. Maybe harder for 7 but still worth a try.

I took my kids to this campsite in Rome many years ago now. I booked cheap Ryan Air flights and booked the static caravan direct with the campsite via booking.com saving a lot of money compared with eurocamp who also have caravans here. There was no difference in quality. Pools were great. The bus is easy to catch into the city with lots to see. Ostia Antica is nearby which is great for a bit of history and kid friendly as they can run around.
https://www.booking.com/hotel/it/camping-village-fabulous.en-gb.html?aid=311984&label=camping-village-fabulous-Pi_Suh26QwqjG344yR5ZTgSM392944297407%3Apl%3Ata%3Ap1%3Ap2%3Aac%3Aap%3Aneg%3Afi%3Atiaud-2008455907654%3Akwd-369925488143%3Alp1004059%3Ali%3Adem%3Adm%3Appccp%3DUmFuZG9tSVYkc2RlIyh9YTQUGSsRwx9_3qo3uPTHyoo&sid=8066048fb6a583131a0a99d483d9ceaf&age=14;age=16;checkin=2024-08-03;checkout=2024-08-10;dest_id=-109865;dest_type=city;dist=0;group_adults=2;group_children=2;hapos=1;hpos=1;no_rooms=2;req_adults=2;req_age=14;req_age=16;req_children=2;room1=A%2C16;room2=A%2C14;sb_price_type=total;soh=1;sr_order=popularity;srepoch=1691616330;srpvid=0a0b96a32dfb0005;type=total;ucfs=1&

Try loveholidays.

You can browse everything by price without putting in a destination- Turkey and Costa brava often end up cheapest places. Though there's some cheap deals for Greece currently 😬

It seems just about doable from a quick browse on there. Though you're looking at self catering so need to budget for food etc.

You can also pay monthly.

Fly out from Scotland in the last week of August. I know that people are saying Northern Ireland but that's not quite right and the weather is anyone's guess. You'll get cheaper flights from Glasgow or Edinburgh if theyre within reasonable striking distance. Also, consider the half terms or Easter. Destinations like Poland or the Netherlands are wonderful and lower cost when you get there, flights aren't too bad either. Self catering is your friend.

Have you looked at ferries Portsmouth to Santander? Gets you to north spain or south of france with not much driving after you land. And you have car and can camp that way so the ferry is the main cost.

So we used to stay in Brittany when I was a kid either in a campsite or a gite. See if Sables - D’Olonne is doable distance wise - it tends to be a bit warmer but not much further than Brittany due to the micro climate there. We had a gite for 7 of us there and it was quite reasonable. Having a kitchen means you can save some
money by not eating out every night too.

Have you had a look at secret escapes, wowcher do holidays like mystery holiday but will be like 4 star hotel and all inclusive and certain places star rating etc

Avoid the coast and look at flights to less specifically "tourist" destinations.

Countries like Slovenia, Bulgaria or Hungary will be cheaper and often have beautiful countryside/lakes/forests etc and much warmer than UK.

Fly to somewhere like Bari in southern italy - there are campsites not far away on the Gargano promontory where you'll get glorious weather.

Brittany. We used to go there a lot. We did Eurocamp. It's not particularly cheap, but cheaper than a villa or hotel. Depending on where you are in U.K, it would be v little mileage for your car. Once you're off the ferry in France, max 1.5 hrs drive. If you live further north in UK, could do Hull to Holland.

Alternatively, an all inclusive. Not sure how expensive. Turkey might be cheap.

This is so cool! I didn't know about it and just looked it up. Have you ever tried going on one of these holidays? Quite the range from Krakow to the Maldives! Surely they wouldn't send you to the Maldives for £99? 😱I'm so intrigued

Look at Jet2 deals to Turkey OP. After extensive research for holidays for my family of 6 last year, I don’t think you’d find anything cheaper if you want guaranteed good weather and for it to feel like a holiday.

Maybe 5 nights in a 3/4* resort rather than 7 so DC get to experience a flight as well? You’d probably need to revisit your budget though as you have to go in summer hols but booking early might get you some discount.

I have found an AI resort with everything onsite (beach, pools with slides, day and evening entertainment, bars) is cheaper than self catering as food and drink can work out very expensive (especially in places like Greece/Spain/Italy) if you add in breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, ice creams, coffees, water and drinks in the evening for a big family.

You’d only need to leave the resort if you want to do something in particular but we found there was so much to do at the resort, the DC didn’t want to go anywhere. No car hire needed as coach to hotel and cheap taxis to town.

I wouldn’t do anything other an AI with the DC now.

Wd hardly needed any spending money as everything was included apart from Turkish baths/massages (nice treat) and boat trips which were amazing value at £25 pp for day with stop offs for swimming in the sea. Kids loved them as they are like party boats with music and they could dive off the top deck! We came back with loads of money which we had to exchange.

Also self catering is NOT a holiday for parents so if you can stretch your budget a bit, I’d highly recommend Turkey.

Make sure you read reviews on Trip Advisor before booking anything.

Nice as it might sound, camping/travelling across Europe by car is not my DCs idea of a big holiday I have to say, especially teens and young adults and is no fun with young DC - been there, done that too many times to count!

Nice as it might sound, camping/travelling across Europe by car is not my DCs idea of a big holiday I have to say, especially teens and young adults and is no fun with young DC - been there, done that too many times to count!

It's interesting you say this, as I have loved road trips ever since I was little and I still remember our road trip across the US (from New York to Santa Barbara) when I was around 8/9 as the most amazing holiday I've ever been on. However, my own teen says exactly what you say - that it's torture.

Last year my parents invited us on a two weeks' holiday to Italy - driving from Germany through Austria on the way to Bibione/Venice. My teen moaned the whole way about what a "rip-off holiday" it was because we weren't flying and that it was akin to a punishment (not helped by the fact that her data roaming wasn't working 🤦‍♀️). She reminded me that all her friends were flying like "normal people" 😬

A road trip holiday across Europe is literally my dream holiday, but I guess it's best done with more grateful kids than my own.

Less than 500 per person for a week holiday? Not doable.

No set budget. Originally looking at 2.5 - 3k plus food, days out, etc. Might be able to go a bit higher

When you say plus food, days out are you including this in your 3k?

How much spending money will you have?

Just be aware that some of the recommendations on this thread with places and cheap costs are done on 2 adults and 5 children.

With the ages of your children you will not be charged child prices for some of them.

We're a family of 7 and often have check out the charges for different ages, especially when they were younger teens as some airlines charge adult prices even though they were not adults.

Do you all have passports if the kids haven't travelled before? Just flagging this could be another massive expense!

Just move it till October or school days and go turkey it's cheap then.

Can you do the flight and holiday abroad separately. I took the children on a day trip to London as they hadn’t been on a plane before. A friend did the same but went to Copenhagen. You could then go a cheaper holiday to Europe by ferry.

The day trip could be in the UK, Ireland or somewhere in Europe. Just search for the cheapest flights as it won’t matter which month you go. Could be a Saturday in November or February. I think my flights were less than £30 each but that was pre covid. You can fly out and return with a different budget airline to increase the time at the destination. For example fly to Edinburgh with say EasyJet first thing in the morning and return with say RyanAir in the evening (not sure which airlines fly to a Edinburgh), tram into Edinburgh, photos at the Castle, a walk down the Royal Mile, McDonalds for dinner then back home again.

Flights could be to anywhere really as long as you can get public transport from the airport into the city.

Albania?

I've never been but it came up on a google of cheap holidays.