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?

I think there is an expectaton that we can all afford holidays abroad because we have had it so good for the last 20-30 years and things have been very cheap.

We have become quite entitled as a population with our expectatons.

Before the 80's/90's, people couldn't really afford to go abroad on holiday anywhere near as much, and it is going back to that again. Everything is more expensive.

I wonder this…we always book flights and things separately but this year can only afford a UK holiday without dipping into savings (which I don’t like to do). People at the school gates seem to be regularly going on all inclusive holidays abroad, sometimes multiple times a year abroad. Between us my DH and I earn almost £100k and we can’t really afford that..and I know some of these people don’t earn as much (they work part time, have different jobs etc). My conclusion is they don’t have any kids in nursery and other people are more willing to use credit cards that we are 🤷‍♀️. One particular person always talks about putting stuff on the credit card, which I wouldn’t do. Once we are out of expensive nursery stage we’ll be able to go on hols abroad again! Btw no disrespect to the people going on holiday - good for them, I’m jealous of all their holidays! 😊

Sell your car? They're expensive to run

On that budget I'd suggest self catering or keycamp.

@SchoolBlazers not necessarily. Holidays and travel are my greatest pleasure so we make cuts elsewhere to be able to afford them. One car, try to cycle when we can, don't do a 'big' shop, eat vegan, don't eat out or get takeaways, all second hand clothes, camping holidays in the UK, sell old toys... we do what we can.

OP I would never book a package deal. Book it all separately and see how things look then.

@OneHornedFlyingPurplePeopleEater we sound similar to you in some senses. 2 children, one in nursery (other is a baby) income is slightly higher than yours as general but I'm on maternity leave so probably actually on less at the moment
We've booked a week AI in Cyprus for September which was 2.5k.
5 star, ideal for kids really good reviews. It definitely can be done! Also our flights we changed to good ones (fly out 8:30am and fly back 4pm landing at 7pm uk time) so ready for bedtime 😂

Do you have preference on flight times or distance etc?

Air b and bs are a lot cheaper abroad than here. Get ferry to France and book somewhere nice. £200 for ferry.

I'd also have a look at different lengths. We looked at 7 nights, for some reason I thought id have a look how much for 8 nights and it was actually cheaper. I assume because of the flights.

I’m with you 100% we spent 6k on our all inclusive holiday this year. It was amazing but we also had a conversation that this is unsustainable year on year. My dh said we could lower our expectations but honestly all I could think is I don’t want to. If I’m spending £3-4K on a 3 star all inclusive which is dirty and gross I would be totally disappointed. Rather go ever other year or 3 years to an amazing 4/5 star hotel.

To add prices have gone crazy this year compared to last! I would go for fewer days to a lovely hotel if possible.

We always book flights and accommodation separately, and use vouchers as much as we can (and also stay with relatives sometimes). Sometimes the train is cheaper to get to Europe - but its a long day for DCs!

I've never done all inclusive - usually self catering or B&Bs.

If the Cala D'Or option you're looking at doesn't work out OP, I'd agree with previous posters that your money goes further outside the summer holidays. Plenty of places are warm in the May half term, and Turkey still is in October. You'd get a week all inclusive no problem on that budget. The flights will be shit, yes, but that's packages for you.

Try Egypt or Turkey. Flights will be a bit more, but the budgets fly to both so not too much, and it's so much cheaper than Europe once you're there.

Campsites in France and Spain have chalets / mobile homes which make for cheap accommodation (and can be really good). Depending on the sites there are multiple pools, slides, kids clubs etc. Yes you need to self cater but it can be low effort - lots of fresh bread, cheese, fruit etc.

How about half board rather than AI? That's what we do.
Reasons

• we don't like eating in the hotel restaurant for 21 (in your case, 30 meals) as it gets really repetitive & we're stuck to their meal times
• we don't need three such big meals a day
• we're not big drinkers and don't want to drink more than usual (whether alcohol for us or fizzy drinks/juice for the DC) to justify being on AI
• the AI drinks are often horrible
• the DC don't need endless ice creams and other things I see mentioned as benefits of AI

Some days we might go out for lunch but other days we'll go to a local supermarket and get some bread, cheese, hams & just have a mini picnic in our room. We often go out & get an ice cream too.

We can afford what we like by not going every year. Last year was the first time going on holiday for a few years so we had a savings pot built up.

Self catering villa with our own pool in Provence booked through James Villas. We drove down and stayed in hotels overnight each way. Total cost all in was around £6000 for 6 adults for 2 weeks at the end of June.

No holiday this year. Next year we are looking at eurocamp in the Dordogne: 10 nights end of June in a top of the range mobile home for around £700. Travel/food will be on top of this.

With SC - which is what we tend to do - you just need to be savvy about it. We usually do our own breakfast - nothing different to what we would have at home, then a nice meal out for lunch, then a light supper which we sort ourselves. It doesn't feel like we're stinting ourselves, we buy nice local food, e.g. lovely French cheese if we're in France, no slaving over a hot stove.

For me, this is actually nicer than all inclusive. But it's definitely much cheaper

If they have 10 consecutive absences (5 days), they can be fined even if their attendance is 100% up to that point

Don't book all inclusive!!!

It will be horrible anyway. Plus overpriced.

Get cheap flights first then book an air bnb or something like that separately.

Then save a nice big pot for spends.

We paid £1.5k for 2 adults and a baby to go to Tenerife in April (was 26/ 27 degrees every day so really nice weather) we booked it in the December so not too far in advance really. It was half board (where you get breakfast included) in a nice hotel. 4-6k seems excessive to me.

I’d probably take them out of school and pay the fine or fly out a couple of days before term ends.

If self catering, I wouldn’t eat out 3 times a day. When self catering, I would fill the fridge and freezer up with drinks and ice creams and get breakfast in. Usually a small supermarket close by that can pop to in the morning and get fresh bread/pastries/croissants etc for breakfast. Lunch can be rolls/fresh bread and fillings of your choice, meats/cheese/salads etc. head out in the evening for dinner. Or go out for lunch some days and one or two evenings, maybe bbq or grab a take out. If kids are young that can work out well not having to drag them out every evening. It’s not hard work, you don’t have to cook fancy meals. Personally I’d rather do that option than a budget all inclusive, where the food will be of poor quality. I can’t stand them. Only way i like all inclusive is in very luxurious resorts and the reality is I can’t afford that very often. But even then I get a bit stir crazy.

We always did and continue to do a villa with pool. We started off with shared pool and graduated to own pool. When we had all the children with us we would eat out maybe two or three times in a fortnight, otherwise dh barbecues . …. Breakfast would be a trip to local bakery for whoever is up ( chocolate croissant for that dc as incentive) and lunch would be cold meat, cheese, bread, pasta. Used to come back never wanting to see another sausage or kebab! I am lucky in that the dc were largely happy with pool, books, cards etc so we didn’t spend money on trips or anything like that. We would visit things but they tended to be the free stuff .

I would also say pick your destination, it can vary from year to year but in general Turkey and Croatia are often best value, mainland Spain is cheaper than Majorca/Minorca , Greece varies according to Island but mainland is often cheaper etc . Also look outside some of the bigger operators.

in the past I would have said to book separately but Covid and wildfires have made the protections offered by a package worthwhile.

You won't get 10 days AI for that OP, but for £3600 you can go abroad and either self cater or do bed and breakfast at a hotel or aparthotel. AI is crazy expensive because it factors in all of your eating and drinking all day long, inc. alcohol. And when you see how much alcohol some British guests put away every day, it's not surprising AI is so expensive!

We actually prefer not having AI, because we like to eat out wherever we are and most of the time we also like having an apartment, because there is more space, the kids can have their own room and it's good to have a proper fridge. It is so much cheaper too to go to the local supermarket and get cereal and milk or pastries or whatever you like for breakfast, the makings of sandwiches for one meal and then eat out the other. It sounds like you've got two small DC, so they won't eat much and therefore AI is a waste of money.

I'm.going all inclusive to Turkey in November 600 for 2 of us

Prices for packages and AI have always been higher than camping or B&B’s abroad, but the cost has shot up in recent years because of Covid, demand, oil costs and taxes on flights (rightly in my view).

Look instead at the ferry to France then driving to EuroCamp or similar; they have many nice sites near beaches with pools. Don’t discount cheaper countries or putting together your own package of flights and staying at a gite, villa or B&B. Italian Lakes hotels often cheaper too.

Others earn more or prioritize different areas of spending. We’re higher earners but I’d never spend £4-£6k on two weeks in the sun AI - I’d sooner book flights or take a ferry to less popular destinations then put together a stay at a cottage or similar and self cater. You save thousands that way.