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.

Yes and I am in Scotland where I think we have access to less airports (and therefore deals) than some parts of England

To me a “decent” wage and a low mortgage should be able to save 4k towards a holiday but obviously I’m using my own bias as to what you actually mean by decent wage with low bills.

DH and I have decent salaries, nothing crazy for where we are and high outgoings in terms of nursery but our bills and mortgage are low.
We save throughout the year for big purchases or holidays.

We've camped in France or other parts of Europe.

It's not too bad on a European campsite. And you get decent pools, bars etc.

Plus we always self cater which helps

This is what we did as a child and once my kids are at school we’ll be doing it too. Always had great fun as a kid and my mum used to let me pick out campsites with amazing swimming pools.

Exactly this, our house is a bit rag tag, I drive and old banger, I dont have any self care stuff or high maintenance things apart from hair cuts (no nails, no treatments, no make up unless you count stuff from primark and home bargains and stuff I have had for years), I dont buy fancy branded foods.

Holidays are my priority, I would rather starve than not go away several times a year. My eyes are popping out at some of the costs here for just one holiday, I spend that per year but on several holidays because I spend a huge amount of time researching and comparing what I can get.

meant to say, for city breaks etc I book via booking.com or similar which doesn’t take payment until check in or a few weeks before it. Or stay premier inn/novotel type places and use cashback sites where applicable. I’ve had a preschooler up until now so not stuck with school term dates and like early june the best. DD starting school so will either take out a week at end of term, or go the first two weeks of scottish holidays before the english holidays start and prices skyrocket. I alternate what time of year we go away e.g. The years we have family visit in the summer we don’t don’t go abroad in summer but may do winter holiday which gives over a year to pay it off from when i book it the previous summer. Takes a lot of planning but I have a system worked out hopefully, unless there is another cost of living crisis then holidays will stop being a regular thing. I love travelling so prioritise this over expensive hobbies etc.

Last few years we’ve paid silly money, not sure how much longer the DCs will go with us so is on a “now or never” basis. Before then we always
went camping, usually drove/ferry. Main cost was
cost of pitch (small parks with at most swimming pool, usually from the “Cool Camping” website), fuel and ferry (the latter cheapest if crossing at Calais). We cooked mainly at the campsite so the eating side of things wasn’t any more than we’d have been paying at home anyway.

These threads are always the same though, how can you not grasp that other people have more money?

They either earn more than you, spend less or a combination of both.

We just returned from 10 days in Majorca. 2 adults 2 kids. Kids are 10 (free child place) and 1.5 (under 2s are free) the holiday cost £2250 half board and we booked it last March for this June. We paid the £250 as a deposit and then it was about £140 a month in instalments. It was technically a honeymoon as we got married a few days before and everybody gave us money/euros so we only actually spent about £100 of our own money.

This is just an example of to an outsider it maybe looked quite extravagant (it was a very nice hotel) but in reality we only had to pay for 2 places, and was very gratefully gifted spending money.

No holidays next year - we are now saving for a driving holiday in Italy in summer 2025 before DS1 starts secondary school.

I think this is really the crux of it. Save what money you can. I have standing orders set up saving for different things currently. It means the money is out of reach so it cannot be spent on frivolous stuff.

I used to save all my expenses for work into a separate account (usually about 2k) over the year it paid for our annual holiday - that was 15-20 years ago though

We usually book well in advance so we can spread the cost. Usually at least a year in advance

We don’t. Have 3 kids, two decent wages but the cost / benefit doesn’t add up for us. We have done self catering uk holidays for a week in the past; this year not even that. As others have said: it’s different priorities.

I never holidayed ever with my mum when I was a kid. Couldn't afford anything.

Last minute deals are good, out of season is good. I assume you need to go in school holidays? That makes it expensive.
also though I thought we earnt ok/good money but have recently learned we seem to be at the lower end- hence why our friends have these holidays and I’ve always wondered how (friends that constantly plead poverty and ask for freebies)

Almost all our family holidays have been in the UK, and staying in youth hostels, camping, glamping or Premier Inns.

We've had a few city breaks in the uk and abroad (York, Belfast, Edinburgh, Njce, Paris,,Copenhagen), but it's only now that we have paid off the mortgage that we have started to have long holidays abroad. DH and I are late 40s/50s, dc are teens.

We never chose to pursue the Tui beach holiday fortnight. Nothing about these types of holiday ever really appealed .

1. We both work full time.
2. We earn well above average
3. We save up every month
4. We go camping in the uk or plan our own holiday involving channel tunnel or a cheap ferry, and a french gite away from the coast.
5. We go out of season for example april or october.

Flying adds a huge amount to the cost and packages with all inclusive are expensive.

Not sure what an okish wages is. I gues not a lot if you don’t have disposable income.

Lots of people have higher salaries
People shop around, make compromises
Don’t worry and just get in debt
Prioritise vacations above other things.

We planned ahead, do self catering, cook at home and eat out sometimes, carry lunch; rent a car and explore the place. Still spend quite a bit

Also we usually book stuff separately. Flight first as it easier to find accommodation in budget. If we see cheap flights we snap them up and worry about accommodation later.

3 children are expensive.

We used to go camping, borrow caravans fron relations, or go to Hoseasons resorts, all in the UK until the DCs reached their early teens. We did manage a week in Tossa Del Mar one year and somehow a week in Orlando in another, but all 4 of us in one room. Infact, we only had 2 queen sized beds. That year, we had sales people selling time share points, and we went along and ended up buying enough points to get us a week a year. This gave us the accommodation for all of us, so we had to pay maintenance fees, flights and car hire. It worked really well for us for 10 years, until the credit crunch in 2008 and we tried to sell the timeshare. Not quite impossible, but virtually gave it away. We worked out the costs over the time we owned and it worked out at around the same cost as a cheap package per year, but we had 2 bed accom, on nice resorts. If you want to look at this a few points. Do not buy from the company. You can pick up time shares for next to nothing from people trying to offload them. If you get one for next to nothing, and then give it away after a few years, you haven't lost anything. Check how much the maintenance and any other fees are, and ensure you can afford them, and how much they may increase in the future. The only thing I would say is we are now 70. We always looked forward to retiring and having time for more holidays, as we could only get a week at a time due to our business constraints. First 2 years of retirement spent caring for elderly relative, next 2 years, Covid and subsequent increases in prices. The last couple of years we have managed 4 holidays, but niggling medical issues have got in the way (and bumped up the cost of travel insurance). We also find that we are getting a bit more intolerant of other people and their children, and whilst we hope to get a few more years in before I'll health gets in the way, we are losing some of our enthusiasm for travel, and I can see us settling for visiting the same convenient places, out of season when it isn't too hot or busy. I suppose what I am trying to say is to try and prioritise and budget getting away, especially while your children want to come with you (ours still do) but there is a spell when they may prefer to stay with their friends.

First holiday in May in two years and first abroad since 2015

I had two jobs to pay for it- one part time and one full time alongside my husbands full time job
Was it worth it? Absolutely

@MissScarletInTheBallroom

I don't camp but I am German.

It depends what you like. Germany has great beaches, Baltic Sea or the North Sea Islands/coast.

You have plenty of lower level mountains, google Rhön or Frankonia. I lived 4 years in Frankonia and it's a great area for holidays (incl. campsites, I have been told).

Obviously you have the Alps, we are near Chiemsee this year, that's towards the Austrian border. Bavaria seems to be quite popular for Brits.

Lake Constance is great.

On the east side you have the baltic sea and the lakes in Mecklenburg, the Spree Forest south of Berlin, the Saxonia Switzerland around Dresden.

I tend to book self catering, the cost of a private villa has increased loads though.

This year we are going to Portugal for 10 nights, in a bungalow on a quiet 4 star gated complex. Has a kids pool but no kids clubs etc etc. 10 min walk from the beach.

£1,900 incl flights for 2 adults and one DC11.

we will probs hire a car out there for a few days, so an extra £200 and the airport transfers are £70 each way in an Uber.

That was the cheapest deal I could get this year.

I think it's about priorities as well. £1000 pp (especially when those people are small children) for a week in a nice hotel but not luxury seems really OTT to me. I'm finding it hard to decide whether that's actually what I want to spend £4000 on. I recognise I am very privileged to even have the option (although it would involve saving)