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?

Everything adds up. I think we could afford to save more - and we do save more but £300/month is specifically for holidays. We also save towards Christmas, and general savings for when the car needs repairs etc.

I just thought that saving £300/month would get us a nice holiday - and it will, just not quite as nice as I'd hoped.

WE tend to do AI but usually "quality" AI not the cheap pile em high ones. The reasons I like it are:

1. I'm not on holiday to cook - I do that at home
2. I like not having to worry about a bill at the end of it

However, we do also go out of the complex and I guess we eat out about half the time - we're lucky we can afford it

We do adults only resorts so no screaming kids and no chicken nuggets ending up in the stroganoff at a buffer

Most are a la carte rather than buffet so civilised

Well you can usually get Italian food in Spain. The Canaries or Mainland Spain costs less than the Balearics in my experience.

I suppose it depends what you prioritise. An enjoyable eating experience is more important to me than doing nothing for a week.

A hotel buffet three times a day with food that is not to my taste such as burgers, beige and chips would ruin a holiday. I don't want to pay for a la carte AI, because it is eye wateringly expensive.

I quite like a wander around a foreign supermarket and I wouldn't be 'cleaning up after everyone' anyway. I imagine that it's different if you're a single parent of primary age DC, but if there's two adults and two secondary age DC, only a quarter of the work is on you and what else is there to do?

People talking about having to 'clean and tidy' but we never do anything except prepare the easy food we've bought and keep the kitchen usable.

Spain is good for eating out with little ones because you can do small plates of things , Spanish omelettes , meatballs etc . Greece is by far the cheapest and most laid back we have found . The most expensive and inflexible we found was Portugal .

@Blondeshavemorefun
Regarding cheap flights..
I got the flights going out on the Sunday they were released & 5am. My dad told me this is the best time and day to buy flights, he's got flights for £25 before.
The return flight stayed around £140pp until the first Sunday in January and then dropped to £47pp.
I set an alert on Skyscanner so I wouldn't miss out.

We always do tenerife in May half term and find flights silly money since covid but pay it

Usually around 800 now for the 3 of us. 2a and 6yr

Before covid was around £500

We do tend to get early am flight to gain and xtra day there but maybe will start looking at flights later times

Can you use an independent travel agent? I have used one for the last few years and she has always come up trumps. We give her our spec/ budget etc. Plus she sorts out all the teamsters, checks us in online and deals with the hotel over restaurant bookings etc.

When we were restricted to school holidays a week in the Algarve in October half term was always good value - short flight, cheap accommodation and still warm enough to swim outside. We did try and book places with heated pools though.

AI MAY be worth it if you don't intend to do much more than stay in the complex. You wouldn't necessarily need a LOT of spending money on top, depending what is included in the AI

If, though, you would want to out and about, do other things, then it would not be the best idea to go AI - because you would be paying a fair bit for not using all the food and facilities available

Self catering would almost certainly be cheaper - but you'd need to consider how much the difference would in spending money and that might be difficult to calculate

Italy is expensive - how about Greece/one of the Greek Islands? Our experience was that it was possible, if you wanted, to get Pizza and pasta in a number of places. We tended to avoid those kinds of places, which very much catered for British/American tourists as we preferred to eat in authentic Greek Tavernas, but it was possible

i don't think your question deserves the sarcastic "because people have more money than you" response. if people are prepared to pay these prices then they will stay high and get higher. there seems to be no shortage of people willing to pay huge amounts for something that only a few years ago was much better value. so i think it's really about how so many people can afford these really expensive holidays, rather than how can anyone in general afford it. it seems to be the norm and yet COL... I am surprised by the number of people still going abroad given the prices.

we are comfortable, without going into specifics, and I know people with less who spend far more than we do on holidays. so i don't think it's about people having more money. i think it's about wealth but also attitude towards getting into debt and other priorties. i am sure some people have no (or very little) pension but have very nice holidays. some people are not saving for the future and are happy to live without a rainy day fund. then there's people who would prefer to put it into a pension, putting aside some for children/grandchildren to help them with a house deposit, expensive nursery fees, school fees etc. IMO, if you are not doing all of these you arguably you can't afford the £5k+ holiday and money would be better spent elsewhere, but on the otherhand YOLO.

Hello, I suggested this one. It’s actually an apartment as it states on my screenshot but it says ‘room only’ as this is the type of board. ie no meals.

https://www.melia.com/en/hotels/spain/majorca/sol-cala-dor-apartamentos?esl-k=sem-google%7Cng%7Cc622643828859%7Cme%7Cksol%20cala%20d%20or%20apartments%7Cp%7Ct%7Cdc%7Ca128564497660%7Cg14804757965&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIhK-Kv5nwgAMVVIdQBh0qAgwOEAAYAiAAEgLsNvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

over the years when our 2 kids were smaller, we’ve done this kind of 1 bedroom apartment. Kids get the 2 sofa beds in the lounge and we have the bedroom (or the other way around) as we have the kitchen, balcony/terrace etc. when you start getting into 2 bedroom apartment territory it pushes the price right up.

drink your own drinks, have breakfast in apartment, packed lunch for the beach and dinner out every night in one of the many local restaurants…..
hence my suggestion of £1000 spending money - tight but possible.
😁

Villa holiday is the way. Lanzarote has some great villas for a good price. Own pool and all home comforts. Cook a few days and eat out a few days. We loved it. No rush for Sunbeds. Kids loved it.

We are going to billund next week - 4 adults and 4 kids. It was around £900 for flights (booked well in advance), £1,500 for a 3 bed cottage in a Center parcs style village including full access to most activities & £300 for legoland passes (we can go any time with those for the week we are away). While we are there we will self cater breakfast/sandwiches for lunch and eat out most evenings plus get ice creams/drinks. I expect that to be another £1,200 max. With car parking it will be round £4k. If you have an option to fly with Ryanair (who go from several locations in the U.K.) you could get the air fare down to £300 or so and if you did a 2 bed cottage that saved around £200. So something like that could be affordable for you and an advantage is it tends to be quiet there end of August. We may even return again next year if kids still fancy it as it’s a fairly easy break.

I'm all caught up...wasn't expecting to come back to so many responses.

For those saying they have more money...while that may be the obvious answer I don't think that's always the case. As demonstrated by the responses here. People compromise - either on the type of holiday, going in term time, how much debt they're willing to get in, or they prioritise holidays over other aspects of their life.

I refuse to believe everyone is earning £100k.

Some really good suggestions on here, thank you.
I think we will look for self catering, in a nice hotel/area...with a separate bedroom for either us or the kids. We can eat sandwiches for lunch and cereal for breakfast.

We did similar but somewhere costal rather than legoland/Billund (which is literally just legoland). With flights, airbnb, car it was under £2k so just spending money. It would have been amazing had storm Hans not hit. That's the problem with scandinavia, such an amazing summer holiday location (good food, child friendly, amazing nature and beaches) but the weather is even more up and down than here.

I just paid 2.7k for 10 nights in Spain.
bed and breakfast. That included the flights, luggage etc.
Family of 4. You can it for less the 4-6k.

I'm happy they are getting more and more expensive - I can afford them and it restricts the amounts of chavs who go on them.

In all seriousness, the expensive resorts are still busy and are so so much better than the several thousand bed AI factories.

“Chav” has nothing to do with money though, does it.

It’s not a very pleasant description either. 😒

@Blondeshavemorefun yes.. but when you take your child out of school he/she is falling behind the class.

The children aren't falling behind the classwork when the teachers are on strike - it's a collective.

It's so selfish.

Where we live, only a certain type of parent takes their children out of education to facilitate their own self-serving needs. 🙂

I'm one of those parents then ......

but as mini blondes is top of her class in maths English spelling and reading / been moved to reading yr 2 books since last Xmas and was in yr 1 - then I have no worries about her missing education

This is very OTT. It’s very much the norm at my DCs primary school and no issues. If the child has good attendance and willing to catch up on the few days missed (same as after having a few days off il) then no harm done. Just not a big deal at all.

in guessing you live in a well-off area where the less well-off parents are the ones who take term-time breaks?

Don’t book AI, you’ll get much better value booking the individual bits yourself and will
have a lot more freedom! We’re at a great glamping site in Italy right now which was 150/night for a self catering cottage (in August!) with AC and a nespresso machine (my requirements 😅) that sleeps 5. On site there are 2 tasty and inexpensive restaurants, a bakery, a coffee shop, a wine bar, a little grocery store with local produce and wine. We are eating out most days either on site or out on day trips and will have spent maybe 1.5 all in for the five of us for a week including meals at restaurants/pool snacks/day trips. We live in Europe, so granted we aren’t paying for car hire or flights, but add maybe 1k on top for that and you’re still coming in at 2.5k for a week including food.

Excatly @samuelclemens We did reading and writing /activities books each day. Took her 10/15m after breakie and she did a couple of pages a day

She had geography lessons going up mount teide - Spanish lessons chatting to the locals and saying hello bye thank you etx in Spanish - maths in helping pay for food at the shop - swimming every day so life saving experiences

There's always going to the the type of parents who won't ever take their child out of school as seems above poster and her town

Good thing she doesn't live near me 😂😂

Try looking at a cruise? I got a 14 night fly cruise for 2025 flying from Manchester to Barbados and then cruising back and it was £2200 all in for both of us. I also booked a no fly Norwegian fjords cruise for 2025 for two adults and 2 kids and that was £1300 all in. Just doesn't include alcohol or day trips but you can buy booze per drink/pay as you go. Ask for in the main dining rooms are included ( but specialty food is a little more, we don't bother). In most ports when you stop there are taxis or bus stops and even your companies that you can pre book ( not through the cruise line as they are £££). All shoes etc are included in the ship AND they have children's clubs etc. MSC seems to be more family oriented.

Why not look at a cruise - thats all inclusive anything over 7 nights is probably out of your price range but 7 nights in an interior cabin on MSC is around £2500 with the drinks package or up to £2800 for a balcony cabin. MSC Virtuosa is great for kids loads of pools and a splash park on board.