To think no you can’t get a naice family holiday for around £2k

[Bluffyslummers]

… last week of august or last week of October

beach hols with beach and pool weather… you just can’t.

Depends on your definition of nice! My happiest family holidays were in places with super basic self catering accommodation, but since we basically only slept there and spent the entire time on the beach, or otherwise out and about, playing, exploring or eating far too many ice creams, that didn't matter. Sometimes that was in the UK, sometimes abroad. I adore a lovely hotel, and as an individual or on a couple's trip I've stayed in some of the very best, but equally, if you need to be thrifty, accommodation can just a place to sleep, as long as it's clean, safe, quiet and in a charming and beautiful location where you want to spend all your time. So I think of those as two different sorts of trips - one where you luxuriate in the accommodation, vs one where you are really only there to sleep, wash and prepare whatever meals you don't want to eat in restaurants for (including packed lunches for the beach or whatever).

That said, flights are so expensive!

I find I can save a huge amount by ferociously and some might say obsessively collecting Avios points throughout the year, and aiming to only book flights with those... A special BA Amex where you get companion vouchers is a great idea for boosting that, too.

If you go camping in France you can use tesco points to book the ferry.

I agree about self catering - we never use it to cook meals but value the privacy and space as a family to relax together on our own schedule.

We don’t actually self cater either - but instead eat out every night at a range of high quality local restaurants that I obsessively research before hand.

Also the reviews are so detailed and the competition so fierce that you would be unlucky to get anything rubbish. I never stay in anything under 9 on booking.com or 4.5 on google.

The other tip is to book cheap flights ahead and then wait until the last minute to book and negotiate accommodation......so we kept a close eye on large luxury villas in Corsica approx £12k / week ..... but if they are not booked by the month before then it’s unlikely a large party will book - so we offered £6k and one accepted ... this was slightly off season as our kids school holidays start beginning of July.

Naice
In school holidays
£2k budget

Pick 2.

If you could go as late as possible in August, it would cost less and the weather would still be hot.

You say you don't want to self cater, but that's your best option here if you don't want to compromise on time of year or accommodation quality. Then you have control over the food. Unless you pay ££££s for HB/AI it will be a buffet and also possibly not to your taste.

SC will probably be cheaper to book separately, but also worth looking at packages, especially from jet2holidays, who have a lot of free child places, if the airports suit. Don't get hung up on 4 star, it's fairly meaningless and mostly relates to facilities not 'naiceness'.

Be flexible about where you go, it sounds like pretty much anywhere in Portugal, Spain (incl islands but bear in mind that eating out in the Balearics is a little more expensive IME) or Greece will suit. But pick somewhere that has a dishwasher and is walking distance to restaurants, beach and supermarket then stock up with breakfasts, drinks, snacks and easy food and eat out at least once a day, then the 'catering' element is minimal.

We went to Stoupa on the coast of mainland Greece in the last week of August, 4* hotel (bit rundown but lovely and clean all the same) for a week. It was with jet2 holidays, one of their ‘free child place’ offers. For myself, DP and 9 year old DS it was £1400 for flights, hotel, transfers and baggage. The hotel was breakfast included.

ETA we have just booked for the four of us (DS10 and baby who will be 18 months) to go to Corsica next July for £1850 for us all and that felt a lot! Again using free child places. I think you just need to flexible and realistic, no you’re not going to go on an AI 4* resort holiday in the summer holidays for less than £2k.

Have you tried online travel experts like affordabroad sometimes they come up with really surprising deals.

It can be done, but you won't get it through Tui or Jet2 holidays, you'll have to book flights and hotel separately and be flexible about where you go.

For example:

Return flights from Luton to Malaga £800 with EasyJet, Saturday 24th to Saturday 31st, last week in August.

Deluxe 1 bedroom suite at the Wyndham Grand Costa Del Sol, £1,015 on booking.com for self-catering with free cancellation up until August next year.

Cracking holiday in the sun for less than £2,000, even when you add in seats and baggage with EasyJet.

Pushing it for all-inclusive for that price at end of August though - the Ilunion Fuengirola is £1,400 all-inclusive that week and looks nice.

How are you finding these deals? I’d go self catering and eat out for that price!

Not sure if this link will work and show all the holidays available but..

https://www.easyjet.com/en/holidays/mixedresultlist?ibf=true&to=31-08-2024&from=24-08-2024&dst=CY,PT,ES&geog=CYPTES&sAccId=&flex=2&org[0]=LGW&org[1]=LTN&org[2]=SEN&org[3]=STN&aa=1&rooms[0][adults]=2&rooms[0][children]=2&rooms[0][infants]=0&rooms[0][childrenAges][0]=4&rooms[0][childrenAges][1]=2&page=1&take=10&orderBy=price&orderDirection=asc

EasyJet holidays - 2 adults 2 children, destination: Spain, Portugal or Cyprus, 24 August 2024 for 7 nights (departure date flexible by 2 days), filtered by All Inclusive only, total prices starting from £2030 3*.
4* starting from £2206.

Just as an example this is £1372 for a week, last week of August, 2 adults 2 kids. It’s definitely not naice but for us, as long as it’s clean and safe we’ll give it a shot! We prefer SC anyway as long as breakfast is included. There’s a couple of pages of holidays on there for less than £2k in school holidays.

Sorry @Bluffyslummers i meant to reply to you! Good luck on your search!

No you can’t. I hunted and hunted and managed to find a 4 star AI ( so not exactly naice!) for 3500 at the end of July. That’s for 5 of us. Part of it being a ‘holiday’ for DH and I is not having to make any food/restaurant/outing/entertainment decisions while we are away and not stressing about how much money we are spending while away. In a few years time when we have more money and the kids are older we’ll do something a bit more adventurous.

I can. We are a family of 2.

You go in term time then it's cheaper. You're kids are 4 and 2! Use term time.

Only have finite annual leave babe or I would! In a heartbeat!

Do you mean like you work in a school or something so you have to take hols outside of term time?

Not a chance with kids that age and that time of year.

We have booked second week of may, 9 nights, tenerife all inclusive, 2 adults 5 yo and 1 baby for £1950. May half term was nearly £4K. Not a chance.

I’m spending £1900 for five nights in the Canaries AI just me and one small person in Easter hols.

Couldn’t afford a full week 😬

I think you might need to do the maths....if your 2 year old is in day care all year then doesn’t matter when you go - if your 4 year old is in school - then wouldn’t paying for holiday club be cheaper than the reduction in your holiday cost by taking out of school - which means you wouldn’t have to take AL - also there’s a BH in Aug so you wouldn’t be working that day anyway.

Another consideration is that UK summer is relatively OK weather wise - so can do weekends at the beach, outdoor pool, picnics in parks, countryside, camping, weekend breaks etc - so IMHO bit of waste to go off to get heat then......we always did our “hot beach / pool holiday” in the bleak mid winter ie Feb half term - which feels amazing to have blue skies and heat at that time of the year when there’s barely daylight or it’s even dry enough to get little ones outdoors for a walk at the weekend - or even push for 2 weeks / 10 days at Easter (can absorb x2 BHs then). Need to get to the canaries for the heat at that time of the year - if you do a bit of research you can find lovely quiet villages with great restaurants and character - and 2 and 4 year olds just need pool, sunshine, sand and sea.

Sure you can! Just think outside the box. We’ve had wonderful holidays for way less than that (although I have no interest in AI resorts.)

Load the kids in the car, drive across your channel and go as far as you fancy. We’ve stayed in lakeside ski apartments for £700, gites in Brittany, the Loire (no pool, swimming in the river and marvellous chateaux), cottages on the Dutch inland sea, Swedish log cabins. The Baltic states are cheap and gorgeous, Poland has a great Baltic coastline, with cheap, family friendly resorts.

Have fun trying something different!

@ChienneDesFromages - totally agree.

Skyscanner for flights and then spending time on the internet has allowed me to travel several times a year with DC as a single parent on a single income since DH died. I am not sure what you mean by 'naice' but we have had amazing trips including 5 campsites using mobile homes and tents with full kitchen and bathroom, lovely simple apartments in family owned complexes with huge pools and hotels including 5 for some parts of the trip. It is totally doable but searching and booking independently is something I really enjoy. To be honest I am amazed people still book packages through travel agents. I can easily do 10 days in August for two of us with flights, accommodation for around £600 and then add on meals.

Albania in September - flights for 4 were £350, spent about 100 a night on very very nice hotels and about 400 on car hire.

No I don’t but there’s no wrap around care nor family over half terms and then over the summer, so if we took a week off day mid June, I’d still need to take the week off in august as we’d have no childcare for instance.