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.

The only UK summer holidays we do are camping. Kids love it, cos they can go feral and live on sugar and stay up late. For a holiday-holiday, echoing the Eurocamp-type thing. I booked a week in holiday village type place in Italy this summer (end of August) plus flights, airport parking and a couple of extra days in an apartment in Venice at the end. Came to around £1800 for four of us.

@ValentinaTheVampire maybe next time stay home and book an Airbnb for the relatives near you.

We learned the hard way once you have DC you need nicer accommodation. Last year we stayed at the beach in a cheap Airbnb unit under someone's house & weather was miserable so might as well been at home. Couldn't use the private pool either! This year we've just forked 3x the amount for an overpriced unit with a gorgeous view. I feel guilty but we get one chance a year & are lucky to get that this year. I'm enjoying it.

Never, ever, combine a holiday with visiting family. I'm not holidaying to sit in someone's lounge or coordinate with them. We discuss if any family lives somewhere before we go. Not UK so plenty of beaches to choose from, but even then it seems to be narrowing!

I was attacked last year, at a funeral, by DH's relative for not visiting while there two years prior. I had carefully checked if they would be there yet as they had just bought & was told no. I was shocked but reminded me I don't want that pressure & obligation to spend precious break time visiting people!

We live in a holiday area that I often say I wouldn't pay to holiday in. Far cheaper to be abroad. I need a change of scene, culture and for the weather to be as guaranteed as is possible, and to be able to eat out without haemorrhaging cash.

The weather has been abysmal virtually all of this holiday and I feel so sorry for those who've spent their money and hours of time getting here to camp in gales and deal with horizontal rain.

You can't have a relaxing holiday with small children, full stop. When ours were little, we did staycations, and used to use Tesco Clubcard vouchers, in the good old days when they were worth 4 x times their face value. We stayed in some lovely locations.

The first time we went abroad was to Disney Paris, which my parents paid for. Youngest was 2.5 so it was hard work!

Our best holidays have been when we booked flights and accommodation separately, and mostly that's been great (bar one howler in Paris when we got to the place to discover that, not only was someone living in it, the five of us were expected to sleep on the living room floor, with lodger having to step over us to get to the loo... Needless to say we did not stay!

I don't expect somewhere to be nicer than my house, because my house is pretty nice, if I say so myself lol! I expect it to be clean and functional though.

This summer has taught me that I’d rather only have one 1-week holiday abroad per year, in the sunshine with nice food & accommodation, than the 3 little self-catering UK breaks we’ve had this summer, which, frankly, were all a bit shit. And probably cost the same as going to Spain when you add them up!
Granted the weather hasn’t helped.
But like the OP, we tried to combine seeing family with our first two breaks (4 nights each) and just ended up exhausted from trying to keep very bored 7 & 5 year olds entertained.

YADNBU. I had my fill of dingy holiday cottages in UK, trying to keep DC entertained in the pouring rain, in an ill-equipped holiday home. After a grim place in Wales, a grim place in Dorset and a grim place in Devon, I told DH we had to go abroad from then on.

You can definitely do abroad for cheaper than these UK breaks.

We've paid £2,000 for 3 adults and 1 child to Lanzarote during half term - that's all inclusive with flights etc.

We've paid around the same for 3 adults and 1 child to Spain during the summer holidays - again on all inclusive with flights etc.

worst holiday of my life was norfolk with two small children, torrential rain. nothing to do in the rain, kids got up every day at 530 and were bored of tv by 630. highlight of holiday was pizza express in kings lynn. so happy to get home to a bigger house with all their toys and a convenient kitchen.

We're going away in a couple of weeks.

Butlins (bognor regis resort) was under £500 for a family of five for 4 nights, lovely hotel accommodation plus breakfast and dinner hotel dining included.

We booked way in advance hence the deal.

I couldn't part with £1,500 for a UK self catering holiday. You're not being unreasonable OP. I'm sorry you're having such a crap time.

You definitely get less now than previously as UK accommodation costs have risen exponentially. We looked at going to the Lakes a couple of years ago, everywhere looked like such a rip off that we ended up on a European city break in a five star hotel for a lot less than a trip to the Lake District. Rip off Britain

YANBU holidays with small children are always hard but then throw in the weather being an arse and it really doesn't help.

We usually go on holiday in the UK once a year to see DH's family but we're lucky that the cottages we stay in our really lovely and bigger than our house and we've been pretty lucky with the weather (so far)as well so that makes alot of difference.

I don't know where abouts your staying but are there many fun indoors things you can do?

: Museums are usually a good shout and especially in the school holidays lots of them put on different activities for children,some you have to pre book and some you can just turn up for and lots of museums are free to enter,some the activities charge a small amount per child or per family.

: A leisure centre to go swimming.
:Bowling.
:The cinema.

All costs money I know but if you have a look online for the area your in you might find some money off deals and special cheaper showings for the cinema and don't forget with the cinema pop to a local pound shop or supermarket before you go in and take your own sweets with you,that can save you a small fortune alone.

I don't know how old your children are but if old enough could you set them a challenge to find the best item they can get for £1 or £2 each and take them to look round charity shops to find they're very own treasures.

If you do look round some charity shops you could look at picking up a few cheap board games that they don't have at home and have a games evening with an indoor picnic for dinner.

Hope the holiday pick's up for you all.

I haven’t read everything so sorry if I’m repeating a point.

we have a folding camper (a pennine pathfinder) so we can book camping/caravan sites and take it there.

I know camping (although this is posh) is not for everyone but let me give you my pros.

1. We have proper mattress beds (not on ground)
2. fridge, kitchen area including sink, hob and oven and small toilet area.
3. With awning we have tons of space, bigger than most hotel rooms.
4. Its always cleaned to my standards because I give it a quick clean at the end of trips
5. each trip I make it more and more homely - has all the pot and pans I want.
6. Such good value, our last trip was a week in cornwall for £250 (site had a pool and we had electricity) statics on the same site were 2k+ (I’m a teacher so stuck in hols too)

Theres an investment to begin with, and a fairly steep learning curve, but we have been on 4 trips this year and still not spent the same as your 1 trip. If I was away and not enjoying it, I would just pack up and go home knowing I wasn’t wasting a ton of money.

YANBU

The year before last my sister and I took my youngest DD away for a week in the UK and it cost a fortune. I was on a strict budget and it broke me for the rest of the month as I had to spend money I didnt have. We have discussed going abroad simply because although on paper it is cheaper in the uk, in reality it is so weather dependent. We spent the equivalent of a fortnight package holiday abroad just keeping busy because it pissed it down the whole time. At least in Spain you can pretty much rely on the weather so you can plan days at the beach/pool/waterpark and then evenings with dinner etc and budget accordingly.

We went again this year and hit lucky with the weather and we spent a fraction of what we spent last time. We are discussing whether to try the UK again next year or simply bite the bullet and book an AI or similar in Europe.

As it is, DD is 12 so I think our "bucket and spade" holidays will be naturally coming to an end soon anyway. I looked at Butlins as there are always activities etc but the cost of it is not disimilar to going abroad and again....weather.

And a kid of your own…. 😂

Did you buy new or secondhand? Do you mind if I ask what you paid (particularlty if second hand, I am never sure what is a good price!).

I have toyed with the idea of a folding camper for a few years, caravan would be perfect but way out of my price range. I am not a camper AT ALL! But the cost of the statics are eyewatering just for a week! It seems like a compromise between the two. I have camped, ordinary tent and a trailer tent, I dont like it because it isnt comfortable and its just so fucking hard to cook, wash etc. But I think that a camper would be good (the real beds/kitchenette thing are the main points for me).

Ah, the self-catering holiday: all your usual workload but without your own set-up.
Bliss 😬

YANBU it's the dismal summer we have had as well I can't remember a summer as bad as this for years. Yes look at eurocamp but go further south as lots of Northern Europe had similar rubbish weather.

Definitely worth looking at centre parcs in Europe. We did 2 in Belgium and one in Holland when my DDs were primary school age. Took the ferry and drove. Great blue for money. 🙂

VALUE for money, sorry, typo!

A UK holiday in a self-catering cottage is NOT a holiday.

@PyongyangKipperbang we bought a pretty old one first off about £1000 just to check we enjoyed it and wanted to do it. Then we sold it on (for not much less to another family that were testing the waters too) we loved it so much and had 8 trips in the 2 years we had it.
We have just upgraded to a newer version for £8k ready for next year!

@Marmaladesarnie Thanks for the info. I was looking at around the 1k mark, for the same reason!

I agree with you. It is better to save up for a better shorter holiday than have two rubbish longer ones. I think that children hugely benefit from going on holiday / being somewhere different / having some quality time with parents, but probably when they are a bit older, because then "coping with their surroundings" is all part of it. Realise you cannot go in term time, and have a strict budget, but a local-ish parkdean or haven site for a Fri/Sat night off season, where they get to go to the pool, disco etc. is usually pretty cheap, and stay home with your comforts and conveniences in the summer. Premier inns are good as they offer free brekky for kids under 16. We used to use travelodges a lot - just one night. Camping is OK but takes effort and can be awful if the weather is bad. We used to go to places that had a theme park nearby, you can often get 2 for 1 tickets and it kept ours amused all day 4 kids, so needed "something" and quite often just being around other kids is enough. We have done most of Europe theme parks, coupled with cheap flights and self catering. We have always "self-organised" but this is not for the faint-hearted. It has mainly been fab, but we have had some hit and miss times too.

When you have small kids it’s very important you have good accommodation as you’ll probably be stuck there from 6pm onwards. You’re also best going somewhere with separate rooms, guaranteed sun and a pool. So next year book somewhere like Turkey and get a villa with a pool. You’ll all have a better holiday.

You can sometimes luckout with British cottages but it’s very hit and miss as is the weather.