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?

We tend to get a 2 or 3 bedroom suite with at least 2 bathrooms so it’s not crowded and sometimes you can get villas on resorts so you get the best of both.

We’re £1400 pp (4 adults, 1.5 yr old not included in this price) for flights and villa to Portugal for 10 nights. We book things separately.

@Henryhover just take a private transfer.

@EconomyClassRockstar it blows my mind that people who go AI stay at the hotel the entire time. Not surprised you were bored!

We’ve just booked Majorca for next summer - 14 nights in school holidays at a Tui Platinum hotel - came in at £4.5K for 3 of us. It’s all inclusive so minimal other costs.

I spend a lot of time searching to find the best deal I can - particularly the flights as these seem to have the biggest impact on cost. Often flying mid-week and at silly times can save over £1000. We’ve had to pay more next year as DP and I normally have 3 weeks to play with but next year our holidays only overlap by two weeks so we’ve had to take weekend flights which are more expensive.

Exactly it’s nothing to do with child’s attendance. Its just a fine if your school sends it on. Most do, some don’t, but just because your kid has 100% attendance until that point doesn’t prevent a fine as poster here demonstrates

I've just booked Lanzarote for Oct. Never taken the kids out of school for a holiday before but have opted to this time - Yr 4 misses 1 day and Yr 8 misses 2 days. Saved us £1200!

I've just spent 10.5K to go to the Caribbean in January for 2 of us.

I'm mortgage free so what used to be the £1500 a month mortgage payment now goes on holidays. Still leaves us with about 3.5K a month after bills and holiday fund.

I hate these threads. Pointless and stupid. Self-evidently if people can afford things you can't its because they either have more income or lower outgoings than you. It's rubbish but its life. A seven year old should be able to grasp this.

What is the point of torturing yourselves by asking the internet why you don't have enough money? You know what the answer is going to be.

I generally agree, but in fairness to the OP this one is also her asking for tips about how to get a break cheaper, as someone who's out of practice booking them. And she does appear to have had at least one suggestion she liked. It's not quite the bog standard how do people afford thread, despite the title.

Don’t go AI, it’s then biggest fallacy that it saves money. We go SC, eat out loads, we don’t stint on food and drink and I’ve never spent anything like AI costs

Take kids out of school - EasyJet flights - Airbnb

For flights on weekdays, in the evening, out of school holidays there are v cheap deals. Spend some time shopping around until you find flights and accommodation that tie in at right price. What you save you can spend on some nice dinners out and excursions.

I’m impressed with your holiday finding skills!

Only issue is schools finish on the 25th (in my borough at least), so OP needs to be happy pulling her children out of school for 4 days. (Maybe okay as it’s the last week of term? @OneHornedFlyingPurplePeopleEater )

Take kids out of school - EasyJet flights - Airbnb

Next summer would be the first time I'd be able to avoid school holidays (dd finished school, ds will finish early after GCSEs). Unfortunately as I'm a teacher, I'm tied to school holidays until I retire!

We simply prioritise our holidays. A week in the sun with a waterpark for the children is a non-negotiable in this house.

I wouldn't dream of taking the children out of school. I'm afraid I judge these parents very harshly. You can either afford to go, or you can't. I've never understood compromising a child's education, nor will I.

I don’t think you are compromising a child’s education by taking a week off, especially in primary! 😂

I only look for holidays with a free child place, and while I'm away I put my own house on Airbnb. I generally don't do package holidays anyway as they are so expensive but I have done them and that's how I've afforded it (plus savings obviously).

@snowballsinhell I take my daughter out if I need to. Last year was a week, this year will be 3 days. I value education (I’m a deputy headteacher) but sometimes mine and DD’s term dates are different. Education happens in more places than a classroom.

Don’t just go somewhere because it’s cheap there’s probably a reason for it

I think there is something about priorities and that's not to say there's any right/wrong about what you prioritise but fwiw there are a couple of big things we don't have and that allows us to book nice holidays.

We don't run a car, let alone two. We live in London so that's doable for us but most parents of young children in zone 3 do tend to run a car and it does inconvenience us not to. We also have no pets, again everyone around us seems to own a dog or a cat and they are expensive.

How old are your kids?

Look up eurocamps it's not all tents, it's mostly little holiday homes. I found the site we wanted through Eurocamps but booked directly, it worked out better. It is self catering, I have been AI twice both times it was in very expensive places (one for part of our honeymoon) and still I wasn't too impressed with the food.

AirBnB (usually villa with private pool) is what we do. This year 9 nights at a lovely villa in Spain, flights & hire car for £1700. I've never got the issue with SC that some seem to have on here but then DH & I share the cooking!

We Airbnb/VRBO and sort our own flights. We take a minimum amount of luggage so not paying for additional bags we don't need. We do breakfast in the apartment and then eat out for most of the time. We might have pizza and salad or get a takeaway a couple of nights if the DC are too tired to go out.

We're tied to term time now but found bring flexible on travel day help - it was cheaper to go Wednesday to Wednesday than Saturday to Saturday. We found Easter was much cheaper than summer - temperatures in southern Europe better for us as well then, I'd rather be in low to mid 20s heat than mid 30s.

From what I can tell, holidays have gone up massively since covid. We could do a lovely holiday abroad for 3k in 2019. The same would be over 5k now.

You can get the price down by taking crap flights, cutting the number of days, going self catering or half board. But again in my experience, eating out has become expensive too, so unless you're actually going to cook most nights, you may not save much.

We go round in circle every year because a decent static caravan in the UK can cost nearly as much as a self catering 4* hotel somewhere hot. The only truly cheap holiday is camping.