I hate my budget holiday

[ValentinaTheVampire]

We have small children to do things on a budget so we tend to do self catering in the UK to avoid paying for flights and also so we aren't all squashed into a hotel room.

But ugh, it has been so miserable this time (we are away at the moment). The weather where we are staying is pretty miserable. We are staying near family where I grew up as we tried to do holiday and family visit in one and I am honestly just counting down the days. I'm so tired from all the driving about and visiting and trying to keep kids entertained in the rain with none of their usual stuff around to help.

The cottages we've had the past few holidays have been so tired looking and even then they are so expensive.

I have a small but perfectly nice house at home. Kids aren't exactly getting a cultural experience here (although they are loving seeing family).

Dh wants to do another holiday cottage for my 40th birthday which is coming up over other school holidays and I've just told him no fucking way 😂.

I'd rather spend the money on my house or save for a nicer holiday even if we don't get one as often.

I can't tell if holidays have got worse or if I have become a that who just likes staying at home.

Family room short hotel city breaks.
London
Manchester
Liverpool
Edinburgh
Free museums ect

I have decided there will be no more self-catering holidays where the accommodation is not as nice as my house (and my house is not fancy). So many are just so very tired and yet are expensive.

We have done a lot of self catering holidays with the kids in the UK but not anymore! After spending a fortune and not getting reliable weather then it's not worth it! We decided one year to stay at home but set a holiday budget! We are out every night and did day trips and the kids came back to their own beds' I did not wash, did basic cleaning and it was lovely. Discovered loads of restaurants and lovely places.
and the best hit is when the kids are little they get to sleep in their own bed. We are in Spain at the moment and my youngest who is seven just wants to go home! We always think kids need a holiday but it is more for us!

Yanbu, I refuse to stay places that are less nice than my own house. I’d also rather holiday less frequently but in nicer surroundings

I'm also off to Butlins next week for the first time 😅 not sure what to expect. Three kids, 5 and under. Its going to be spectacular or terrible from what I hear..

The weather has been truly crap this year in the UK so you have my sympathies op. We had a list of things to do with the kids (I'm also on mat leave so have time off on my side) and so many big plans have been skipped because we didn't want to waste the wow factor by trudging along in the rain. No advice but you have my sympathies.

Sorry for typos! It's the vodka. 😂

We are at Minehead if you fancy a wine? X

If you have to shop, cook, tidy and keep clean it's not a holiday, it's just doing what you do every day, but in someone else's house. But without your children's usual entertainment. YANBU at all, and for whoever said you should be grateful for having children, what's that all about?! Someone, somewhere might not have children and so how very dare you want to enjoy yourself. Ever!

Ooh, where is the cruise going?

We’ve holidayed in the Peak District since our kids were tiny and we love it. We’ve just got back from this year’s. Over the years we’ve stayed in a cottage in a village, then more of a ground floor apartment and now a massive bungalow (we take MIL too). Our recent years’ budget has been £4200 all in. That’s £2700 for the holiday and the rest for spends…for 2 weeks. So not cheap but I don’t if any more than abroad. I’m no good in the heat but don’t know if I’d fancy abroad anyway because we’ve always found stuff for them to do more easily over here.

We haven’t always spent this amount and when they were younger only went for a week/10 days but we still found loads to do. Even just going to a different park was an adventure.

BUT holidays with kids aren’t relaxing for parents so if you’re unhappy with what you’re doing now then it’s definitely worth exploring other options, even if you can’t go as often.

Do leave an honest review of your holiday let, OP. UK holidays are so ridiculously over-priced, it amazes me what people think they can charge for shabby, poor quality accommodation.

Canvas holidays in a Brittany or the Loire valley if you’re happy to drive a bit further. Perfect with children and you just bbq or pizza every night.

It's honestly brilliant when you get your head in the right place. I'm a single Mum and this is no small expense for me but it's worth it as DD loves it so much. The beach is only over the road too!

Us too @yogasaurus we ordinarily would have one bigger holiday per year rather than lots of weeks here and there. That may change a bit now we have the dog, but H is retired now so we can probably do a bit of both once we’ve got the dog care/dog friendly hols balance worked out.

Bluestone was under consideration but as the dc were a little bit too young to enjoy the fantastic indoor climbing stuff, Center parcs hit the spot slightly better. The prices were within 10% of those of Bluestone though and the logistics of the location was preferable for us.

There comes a point in life where your house is nicer than many cheaper holiday places and then only the expensive places feel like a proper holiday.

I used to take my kids to Keycamp, at least the weather was usually nice and as it was half outdoors it was cleaner than many places and not tired and poky!

I would love to travel the UK more but whenever I look at things like Centre Parcs/cottages etc they are so expensive! So I think F that I’d rather pay a few hundred quid more and go abroad least the weather is somewhat guaranteed. If you book far enough in advance OP you can pay monthly and find some great all inclusive deals - would that be an option for you?

For the cost of a UK holiday, you could hire a nanny for a week and enjoy some very nice restaurant meals and "grown-up" days out. Throw your kids some pots of slime, a couple of swimming/playground trips and double their usual ice cream allocation and they'll probably be just as happy as if you'd taken them on holiday.

My kids are mid and later junior school age and we didn’t holiday this year. I’ve really enjoyed it! Have done local stuff, day trips, days at home. It’s been much more relaxed and stress free than a holiday!

I dunno. I have loved every holiday I've been on with my children. They're very little. Holidays have been Butlins, caravan parks, UK cottage holidays and camping. Camping I was close to not enjoying but that was because of the camping not the kids ha! I don't know if its because I work so much or if its because I had kids late and went through IVF and that's why I don't find them as unenjoyable as other people seem to or if its because I've avoided things I think I'd find really high stress (I won't go abroad yet as I couldn't cope with the extent of packing and wrestling everything and everyone through an airport etc).

I’ve had a fantastic day out in my local city today. We have plans for tomorrow and Friday too.

Granted it helps if you live somewhere that has plenty of stuff to do, but we decided not to go away, but to be a tourist in our own town exactly because we didn’t want to rough it. It’s been amazing so far - and I get to sleep on my gorgeous mattress each night!

I think we could afford better holidays but less of them. In the meantime I'll probably vote for staying at home, booking the expensive holiday club (which dcs have done and loved) the odd day and spending our money on other things.

I definitely think a policy of not going anywhere less nice than my house is one I'm going with from now on.

We do UK self catering every year. What I hate about it is since covid you have to book EVERYTHING in advance- when I was a kid my dad would just drive round and say let's go there today! Or let's eat there! No more spontaneity these days

My wise uncle said to me when were schlepping around Ireland fitting in visiting everyone with toddler Dts and ddog, try again when they're 7. He was so right.

We were lucky enough to have a holiday ban in France we went there with extremely low expectations and it was mostly great.

Visiting family is never a holiday.

I sympathise, holidays with small kids are rubbish, especially when you're tied to the school hols. It's so expensive.
Whereabouts do you tend to go? We found the south west - Devon/Cornwall etc far more expensive than places such as North Yorkshire. I think you'd get a pretty nice place somewhere like Robin Hoods Bay or Whitby for your budget.
As pps have mentioned, Butlin's (in the top end accommodation!) is brilliant with little children, ours loved it. The Somerset one is lovely and right on the beach so you don't need to use the car at all. We've had some nice holidays on Haven sites too. Center parcs was also good but it's tricky to get something reasonably priced in the hols.
Not ideal holidays for adults obviously but I think we realised that there's an element of 'if the kids are happy...' when they are little. They don't appreciate a cottage in a pretty location. It doesn't last long so we just went with it for a bit.