How do people afford holidays?

[OneHornedFlyingPurplePeopleEater]

We usually book a UK holiday, cheap and cheerful.

We're now in a position to save approx £300/month towards a holiday. I thought that was great, it's the bulk of our savings each month.

I recognise that we're in a very fortunate position, and I thought this would get us our first abroad holiday.

I'm looking at 10 nights all inclusive at a nice (but not luxury) hotel in Europe. Shit flights, they all are. And school holidays, so paying a premium. And its coming in at £4-6k.

Is this crazy or has it always been like this? How are people affording this?
That doesn't even include any spending money, or any clothes or suitcases (we wouldn't need much - and can borrow suitcases).

It's really got me down. Am I doing something wrong?? Looking in the wrong places (tui, on the beach, jet2holidays etc)? Is it much cheaper if I booked closer to the time?

Look at eurocamp, far, far cheaper and loads of activities

Go camping in France? You can drive and book chalet style accommodation, ferry is pretty reasonable.

We're looking at a week in Berlin.

Flights £150 ish per person with Ryanair (carry on 10kg bag plus hand bag), then airBnB £1000 in the city for a week (3 bedroom flat). It's then 39EU each for a weekly travel card, although I believe each adult can travel with 3 kids free after 8pm and at weekends. There's also a Welcome Berlin pass you can get which gives you discounts on the attractions etc...

You'd then have to buy food, but with an apartment you can cook and make pack ups.

So about £2500 for 4 of us.

But a city break isn't for everyone!

We book far in advance and chip away at it through the year!

we also use AMEX and build up air miles - we are on our second companion voucher now which gives us 2for1 flights - we book a year in advance for flights - we got flights to Japan for us and 1 child for 1200£ return exactly 12 months to the day before we went

Then i booked the accommodation on an interest free credit card and paid it off monthly - we keep any savings we had already as the spending money in the highest interest savings account possible.

trying to figure out where to go with the next companion voucher now

We always prioritise holidays / travel though and go without other luxuries! We live pretty frugally really most of the year

So funny that this thread has just popped up on my messages.

P and o have just released winter 2025/26 cruises and I'm considering this one as cruises from and returning to Southampton get 2 extra guests for free per cabin. It's also 10% deposit

www.pocruises.com/find-a-cruise/N528/N528

If I book it today at the cheapest possible cabin grade then it's just £15 a week for two years. I can thankfully afford that and it means I can take my two grandchildren with us as other wise they wouldn't get a holiday as their parents can't afford it. But I'll pay a bit extra and get a balcony room. I don't buy the drinks package as we only have a few drinks B once a week and prices are similar to the higher. Nor do we pay for excursions as we use www.visitacity.com to plan our own MUCH cheaper excursions. Through p and o they are very expensive.

We are trying a motorhome for two weeks for our next holiday. I think its expensive at 2k for the hire, but hoping we will love the experience and enjoy a well stocked fridge to keep the costs down.

Who knows it could end up costing as much as a trip to Florida disneyland.

It's just tough at the moment OP if you, like us, have had massive increases in mortgage repayments etc. Holidays is definitely where our disposable income has taken the knock.

Self catering is your friend here. All inclusive in Europe, unless its the luxury end, is a bit like school dinners every day.

Book flights early- as far in advance as you can. Do hand luggage only. You can find restaurants at the cheaper end almost anywhere. Drink local wine by the litre not bottles, eat simply at home when you do eg pasta and sauce, a salad with bread etc

Have a look on Airbnb/ booking.com etc for apartments and villas. For example I booked a two bedroom villa in Barbados recently, in their high season, for £110 a night, an apartment on the Amalfi coast for £140 a night.

I also got a cheap ish deal to Corfu next year. 14-28th July, flights are £150 each and very nice self catering accommodation with a pool in Sidari is £1000 between 3 of us. Transfers are £20 each return. So £500 each for two weeks. But I am very aware that we are in an incredibly privileged position.

If you do find a good deal or are considering Turkey, don't bother with all inclusive. Came back 4 days ago and the all inclusive food was horrendous, and everyone on the transfer back to the airport said their all inclusive food was the same. However, the local restaurants were amazing and very cheap. We paid £400 pp, everything included in October! The weather was amazing too.

Take them out of school, turkey in the school holidays 6k vs Mexico in October avoiding half term 4k.

Spent 2K on hotel last year Summer in Spain. Breakfast only but in the middle of the city near key locations and 4 star junior suite. It was expensive but our flights were free so offset it against that and it was a lovely hotel and made the experience. Kids still talk about it. You make work whatever works for you. I like 4 star plus hotels so if I can afford it I do it. Haven’t done an apartment or camp style holiday yet just not our thing, don’t wanna worry about making breakfast in the morning and cooking while I’m on hols but may do one day.

I save about the same amount but don’t do 10 days AI. most i’ve done is 7 at 4* luxury/nice resorts and it’s been around 2300 but for only 3 of us

that’s with AI as well. I save and pay deposit in full. then save every month, and pay next payment due and if i’m short by a few at final payment I put it on the dredded credit card and pay off the next month or two.

I'd rather go abroad every second year than a UK holiday annually.
So I guess I'd justify it that way.
I agree that it's expensive though.

The cheapest package holidays I've found are through EasyJet.

I guess your kids are young. So all inclusive is a bit of a waste anyway as they won't eat much nor drink alcohol lol. As for " cooking" well just do cereal ( take take with you) croissants. And fruit for breakfast . Saves a good chunk of eating out. Could pack picnic for lunchtime or go to places that do menu of the dia at lunchtime as that's a lot cheaper than eating out in evening Have you looked at booking flights and accomodations separately? Often better deal than travel company

We earn only 10k more and save 2k a month (have 2 kids, one just starting nursery, so used to save more before nursery fees). Do you have a very expensive mortgage/expensive car on lease?

Maybe look at where you could save more?

Also keep checking holidays as prices do fluctuate. We booked ours in January, a meh hotel in Mallorca, all inclusive for 1 week was £2300 via Tui in August.

I can't afford a holiday OP despite working my arse off full time as a teacher. You're not alone. X

Buy cheap flights eg Tues to Tues - in August I pay about 130 each return to Spain, Italy etc. Lunchtime flights not stupid times. Airbnb self catering apartment or a campsite mobile home - both around 1200 a week.

I’m still truly baffled by it being 6k to go to Turkey in the school holidays. It really isn’t.

We usually go in September as we don’t have kids and it’s cheaper. We went all inclusive in Greece last year for less than £2k. We are on small salaries but we afford it by not having any consumer debt, don’t smoke and don’t have many days out during the year. Food and insurance make up the bulk of our expenses.

That's not bad for an all inclusive nowadays, We went self catering in a nice, modern but not luxury last year in August for a week but ate out every night. It cost about £3K.

As someone said , look at Brittany Ferries. We’ve been to Spain and France with them. They do great packages.

I’m going to Majorca all inclusive 4* in August for a week for £3800 (4 people). There is nothing mega-cheap in the school hols particularly as I want to fly from Birmingham (braving Luton requires saving £££££). But it isn’t that bad either.

Jet2 I find are reasonable for actual holidays but expensive for flight only.

People take on a lot of debt for holidays (I've worked in the sector and used to be all over these figures, now of course I can't remember any specifics but I do remember being astonished by them when we were doing the research). Flights in particular have become very expensive - even something like easyJet flights to Greece are £250-300 per person easily once you include baggage allowance.

You were ripped off. We holiday for less than 1500 between us, regularly.