How the fuck can people afford to go on holiday?

[Figuringitout]

I’m wondering if I am just super naive about how much everything costs. I earn an okish amount, have a small mortgage and don’t feel like we live extravagantly. I have 3 kids who I’d like to take on holiday. My husband earns seasonally (and is trying to increase that) but at the moment his main contribution to our budget is in looking after kids so we don’t have to pay for childcare.
Back to holidays, I cannot find anything somewhere hot for less that £4k and even France we’re talking about £2.5k.
So, do people have holiday funds that they pay into each month? Please tell me how everyone seems to be affording to go abroad once a year.

3 kids and what sounds like a part time earning parent, that's not unsurprising really, holidays are a luxury, you've made some expensive choices so luxuries like holidays will be harder for you. To answer the specific question we save monthly and put bonuses towards holidays, we both work full time and stopped at 2 children to have a lifestyle that includes holidays (though not the only reason of course!)

if it was about your kids getting a special holiday - I would just take them out of school. I strongly oppose the bullshit rules on never taking kids out of schools - this is just one of the reasons why.

most unfairly - private school kids get cheaper holidays because they have far more flexibility and longer holidays.

I had a comfortable middle class upbringing in the 1970s/1980s but can't remember going away once for a family holiday in secondary school (11-18). My parents did pay for a school ski trip once as they wanted me to experience it.

What they did do during school holidays is to bung extra pocket money over for ice cream etc. Also, my father was a teacher so available for lifts to friends and generous with his time/company. Never felt deprived.

Don't struggle to pay for a holiday away, just make the most of the time off at home.

I'd put it on my credit card, which has a 16k limit, and pay it off slowly.

Not everyone can but we manage to save each month (both FT), minimise other spending (no car), and book cheaper flights/trains in advance. Camping is fairly cheap, so if you can get cheap transport and don't eat out too much that helps.

Please consider a UK holiday so you don't need to fly. Camping is gorgeous ‐so many really beautiful places to see and enjoy. There is incredible variety in the British Isles; we love water sports and swimming and go to stunning campsites by both sea, rivers and lakes. The flexibility is brilliant! We go camping around 3 times per year (2 adults + 2 children) and although there's an initial outlay if you've not camped before, this is rapidly recouped. We live like princes for weeks on end in a set-up which has cost less than £1000:
a nice cotton canvas belltent
4 nice quality self-inflatable mats
2 nice-looking large rugs
a camping stove
4 folding chairs + a table
2 storage boxes (food + bits & bobs)
solar lights
a dissemblable firewok

• the pitch fee (we go to some sites that charge £20 / night for all of us and a car, all in!

Holidays are certainly expensive but I don’t know how you’ve not been able to find one under 4K for your family.
We’re going to Tenerife in a week, it’s 7 nights, all inclusive in a 4* resort with Jet2 for 2 adults and 3 children ( one is under 2 so is free ), we booked it last year October and it was around £3k. We paid for it in 8 instalment's so it’s all paid up. We both work full time, middle earners, we didn’t go abroad last year because we just had DC3 so had to do some home renovations but we went to a haven holiday park in Devon for a week and we all had a really good time and it all cost less then £700. DC1 who was 10 at the time loved it as well so you can definitely enjoy staycations as well.

Most families I know don't holiday abroad every year. It is very expensive. I haven't been abroad for 6 years, we have been to Centre Parcs off peak, Bluestone, Butlins and caravan parks. We've had loads of fun and the planning and preparation is also a lot less stressful than travelling abroad.

Except it will likely piss down all week ….who wants to camp in the rain

Definitely not camping? We used to budget £1,500 - spend a couple of days each way travelling down and 10 days on a camp site. The DCs really enjoyed it.

We haven’t been abroad for 10 years but usually do Cornwall each year which also isn’t cheap. We save every month for holiday and Christmas and generally go Easter as it’s cheaper than the height of summer. We don’t have lots of spare cash but budget and I can do extra shifts at work to save for treats

And this wasn’t UK - France and Germany.

Realistically, a confirmation bias is at play:
on holiday - more likely to share online

We can’t. Four nights in a Haven caravan once or maybe twice a year and one of those is term time.

We have 5 kids- we have a trip to Paris and Disneyland booked for sept. Flights were about £600. Offsite hotel about £300 and Disneyland about £2000 for onsite hotel and breakfast, character meals etc. that was with club level upgrade for 3 nights.
we used various special offers to reduce cost (same holiday is £5000 for Disney hotel and tickets alone if you were to book now).

Definitely shop around.

If you want a last minute UK holiday it's always worth looking at Scotland because they go back to school at least three weeks before schools in England do. Also when looking for your European holiday look at flights from Scotland in the same period as they are usually cheaper, unless you live in the south coast!

Finally consider Easter. That can be very warm. We were in the sea just outside Nice last year. Definitely tshirt and shorts weather.

Where did you book please? Thanks

Holidays come in many forms, if you want an abroad hot holiday in peak season in a resort it's going to cost you, as other's say either book early or late on a good deal or put money aside.
While my kids are little (5 and 1) i dont prioritize abroad holidays as I dont feel its worth it. We've done two lovely holidays so far this year. One in a holiday hotel located at the coast driving distance from home so we could use the beach and hotel pool, they had a great time. Second was a short plane ride to stay with close friends in their home with lots of day trips over a few days. To me these were more enjoyable and exciting than sitting around a holiday resort for a week for thousands of pounds eating poor quality buffett food

Having only two children makes things much much cheaper, so that's probably why you feel priced out. This is one of the reasons we stuck at 2... we both wanted a third, but we also love to holiday, and it wouldn't be doable with 3 children in tow. So that was our compromise, less kids, more holidays. We did Mexico at Easter for around 3.5k for all of us, and currently at eurocamp in France which cost around 1.5k, both of these would have cost thousands more with another child to factor in, meaning we wouldnt have done Mexico for sure, and maybe not France either. We actually priced up Mexico with an additional child as were thinking of inviting our niece too, but it literally made the holiday close to 6k, as we would have had to have 2 rooms, and the extra long haul flight cost, made it unfeasible. At least you have three lovely kids, would love a bigger family, but it's not feasible for us.

We have one child - so that's cheaper. We are spending a month in Split, Croatia, in an Airbnb—great location plus flights less than £3.5k. We do a lot of city breaks - airbnb- and use Eurostar when we can.

I work part time 2 days a week and earn 18k a year.
I was a SAHP for a long time so our mortgage and all bills are based on DH’s salary. So my salary is used for holidays and treat days. We normally do 2wks in summer and a few days away a couple of times a year. We are also a family of 5. We are off to Rhodes on Sat for 2wks in a nice looking but nothing spectacular 4* TUI all inclusive. Cost is 12k. (Kids are teens) It has gone up dramatically in the last 5yrs. Even though we budget for it and thus can afford it, it still makes me feel sick every time I pay it. It’s obscene really!

@Kitkat1523 , that's what lots of people say, but we've yet to have a wall-to-wall rainy camping holiday. Sure, the odd wet afternoon, but then we just chill in the tent, play games, read, make some music, snack, drive to a nearby cafe or indoor attraction -not a problem. Belltents are known for being powder dry, unlike leakier polyester / nylon tents. Super cosy.

12k for two weeks in Greece really is obscene! Even if I had that money I simply couldn't spend it when there's an alternative. You could hire a villa for half that if not less.

I save a lot every month, bonus goes in the pot, parents give me money as a birthday/Christmas gift which goes in the pot.
Plus we only have 1 child and look for free child places.

We don’t do extravagant hols as our kids are still little and don’t know/care where they are. We live in NL and drive or fly to one or other set of parents (one in FR, one in UK) for every holiday. So the travel costs us but accommodation is free. We only take one other holiday to a different place (a kinderhotel in Germany that we can drive to) as it only costs about £1.2k for a week for all 4 of us, all inclusive. When what your kids enjoy/remember most is the pool and kids club there’s no point going to especially cultural or far flung destinations. We know their grandparents won’t always be here either so this is how holidays are for now. When they are older/will appreciate it more/when their grandparents are possibly no longer with us/when we are no longer dropping €2.1k a month on childcare for the youngest THEN maybe we can consider other destinations (we are planning a trip to the USA for 5 years’ time, for example). Cut your cloth.