To wonder if this perfect holiday exists anywhere?

[flowergirl24]

Like so many in the UK, I’m desperate to get away and have some sunshine.

I’ve got 3 kids, a husband and I’m limited to half term holidays, like completely limited, as I’m a teacher too, so not even chipping a day off here or there either side of the term.

I would love to take my family abroad over half term but our total budget is £4K. I can’t seem to be able to do it. If we go Tui etc, then we need two rooms. If we try for an Airbnb abroad, flights are too expensive for the 5 of us. We live near Birmingham so that would be our best airport.

Can it be done and could some incredible person help me please? Our half term dates are 26th May for a week and everything is sooo expensive.

Fly to Barcelona. Flights are usually cheap and loads of beach towns you can get an Airbnb

What sort of holiday do you want? You can get cheapish flights to many European destinations if you are prepared to be sensible with luggage. + AirbnB. But perhaps too late for this coming half term- if you want cheap flights for half term you need to book well in advance, at least 3 months.

Can you drive to France?

We are going in October half term and have 4 kids , a week all in was £6400. I can never find a 2 bed suite or joining rooms for less than £1000 per person. I think 2 years ago we got a free child place and it came in at £5800 but otherwise always at least £6k

Not helpful for this year but look at the canaries with a heated pool over Easter.

I could understand if you said you wanted to go to America, but £4K for self-catering should be absolutely fine! We went to Alicante in Spain for Feb half term and the flights, flat and food was all less than £1K! Most of the teachers I know do Malta as the flights aren't too bad.

I just looked on the Jet2 Holidays app and there’s several all inclusive that meet your brief from £3144 upwards!

I can't deal with the stress of finding holidays now so use a Travel Counsellor. They are a group who will put together flights, accommodation, etc into a package for you

Agreed. You're looking in the wrong place.

Options

1. Interrail - it's free for kids under 12 and a 5 day pass to get you there and back is 500 for a family of four plus maybe £150 for seat reservations.
2. Fly to Greece and Island hop. Accommodation in a 4* hotel with pool via booking.com on somewhere like Paros (so somewhere where you need to fly to Athens and get a ferry to) is £80 a night PER ROOM.
3. Drive to France. Leave school on Friday, overnight ferry from Portsmouth 11pm arriving France 7am is less than £1k return plus a Eurocamp and that includes two nights accommodation. . We usually drive 5 hours down to get a bit of sun. It would be even cheaper if you took a tent rather than renting a chalet.

I would look at eurocamp in southern Europe. You could drive to save money if you're feeling adventurous. It would cost a lot less than 4k, so I'd use some of the money saved for days out/ activities.

I honestly don’t understand the complete reluctance to use travel agency! They literally exist for this. And are experts.

jet 2 all inc.

however you’ll likely all have to share a room otherwise it’s a load more.

You can easily get something good in that budget. Fly to Barcelona or Girona (Stansted is cheaper than Birmingham), hire a car and book a holiday camp. We loved Sandaya Cypsela resort. It had good facilities and a free bus to a gorgeous sandy beach which ran all day.

Sorry photo
this is the top of the search. Kephalonia

Was also coming on to say drive to France and stay on a 5 star campsite. Many have self catering lodges and water parks, some have spas. We’re getting the ferry in August and it’s just over £200 return, family of 4. Lots of options in the Vendee. We’re staying at a Sandayaa campsite.

We're going to Port Aventura with Easyjet so flying to Barcelona as suggested by a PP. We've made it cheaper by doing Tuesday-Sunday. I'd try something like that, then train to a beach town.

I've just looked on Skyscanner and found flights to Palma for £292 each, and there's loads of nice Airbnb around there for £200 a night.

Should be easy!

This meets your requirements

Can I ask how you managed to get a ferry in August for £200? Which company and route are you using? X

Don't go here. It's called Hell vue by anyone who knows it.

Centre parcs in France and Holland are much cheaper than uk and you may find a half term week which is not their school holidays.

You have to persevere with the TUI website. There's deffo avaibility for around 4k flying on the Saturday from Birmingham or East Midlands. More if you'd do Manchester. Two room apartments. Turkey a few Greek islands.

Oh my goodness thank you SO much everyone- such brilliant advice on here.

Interesting that the first post was about Barcelona flights and an apartment as that was what I was trying to do but flights were too expensive to do.

I think I’m going to probably reflect that I’ve left it too late now and will try and be much better organised in the future. Thank you to everyone who posted.

It’s Dover to Calais, p&o, it is cheaper mid week

@Xarrie I know someone who went there about 10 years ago and they said it was a shit hole

Eurocamp. They have a search facility that allows you to search for car free holidays (where you fly to a local regional airport,.like Bergerac), or you could ferry. It's brilliant with kids because of the free activities and they always make lots of friends, meaning you get to relax too.