To be shocked at the cost of holidays?

[Fourpawsblack]

We haven’t been able to go away for years (pre DC!) due to finances. A falling down house, part time work due to childcare and the cost of living has made for a rough time.

Just started to look at a week away for a family of 5 (2 adults, 3 DC under 6) in Spain for August 2026…£4k was the cheapest I found and that was not a great hotel. It was more like £6k for somewhere with half decent reviews. AIBU to think this is crazy? Is this just what I am looking at?
It would mean saving at least £400 a month for a year to be able to do it which would be very rough.

How are almost all of the kids in my DC classes on holiday every year. Maybe I’m missing a trick. I feel sad for my DC that they should be able to experience going on holiday and can’t. I know it’s a first world problem.

Before anyone brings it up, there’s 0 way we can go at a time not in the school holidays so we are stuck with over inflated pricing. The joys of teaching.

Jet 2. 4th August 2026 flying from Leeds Bradford to either Rhodes or algarve, self catering for around 2700. If you have little ones self catering would work out cheaper as you can have breakfast and lunch in the apartment (has kitchen) and then maybe a dinner out? If you book now it’s less than 200 a month as you have 14 months to pay off x

I do go away abroad yearly - I book flights the first day they come out as never cheaper then that. Put them on my cx and pay over 3mths

Doing tenerife sc apartment in resort - in august - apartment is £49 a night so £350 a week plus flights for 1a and 1c is £600 so less then a grand plus obv money for food - eating our is cheap and you would be so spending food money anyway even if at home

family of 4 would be another £600 for flights

3 dc does push the price up as many only cater for 4people but there are places for 3 dc

agree with the person who said ask on holidays board as they love helping find bargains

flyinf from a diff airport keeps costs down. I’m near Gatwick but if drove to Luton or even Southend airport much cheaper - tho do Gatwick for ease

I have just priced up to go to a Yelloh village (much like eurocamp) in the Algarve this August for a week, staying in a 3 bed lodge. Added on flights for five of you from Newcastle to Faro (Ryanair, all the baggage and seat reservations included), and the total came to around £3200. That’s for this year, so next year you could get a better deal, as often the Yelloh/Eurocamp sites will have an early booking offer on (summer 2026 will come out in probably October or November this year).

that site is only a short distance from the airport, so could get there with a taxi and use public transport for exploring. I think you can search on the campsite websites for ones that are close to airports and don’t need a car.

anyway, just an idea!

Where about do you live op ? The Scottish airports are half price when kids go back after 17 August we live in Scotland and always fly out from the English airports when schools break up end of June. Try splitting carriers ie Easy jet out Jet 2 back and hiring an apartment with pool make your own lunches go out for dinner every now and again. Portugal food and drink wide wise is cheaper.
Hope this helps

Is that just for the hotel? I looked at May half term and only flights to Majorca were at £900 pp!!! Greece the same! So that’s nearly £4K for flights plus the hotel plus everything else 🙄 I’m new to the half term travelling as my son is in reception so it was a massive shock!

Where are you looking? Jet2 are selling return flights to Majorca for £411 per person during the half term break, for a week.

Flight scanner for flights and an air bnb. Self cater! A lot cheaper!

I never go on holidays in August. Too hot and too crowded. Try the October or May half terms instead.

Also Greece / Cyprus / Portugal are usually cheaper than Spain. Adriatic cheaper still.

If you are in the North, if it is in England could you get to Scotland easily and fly from there?. School holidays finish around mid August so flights could be cheaper. Martin Lewis had some tips on finding cheaper travel during school holidays including this

Holiday tips

Edited to add sorry, just read that your DH needs to be around for GCSE results

Spend some time shopping around. I try to book a year in advance. We are a family of 6. We have paid £3500 for 10 nights in lanzarote in the summer hols this year. 4 star hotel (labranda) with 4 star trip advisor reviews. Know well spend £1500 on food/ meals out when we’re there but I don’t think that’s too bad for 6 people

Have you thought about France or Holland and Eurocamp or Center Parcs type holidays there? They are SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper if you’re willing to drive. We’re a family of 8 and going overnight ferry to Holland in August, staying in a huge beautiful 6 bedroom villa on a big park with loads to do for around half what it would cost to do a “traditional” holiday abroad. There is a beautiful site in Spain only an hour from Barcelona airport if you need to fly and prefer it hotter, you can book transfers to take you there. The site goes directly onto the beach, has restaurants and supermarkets on site, and 4 swimming pools. Again, significantly cheaper than a hotel even with flights.

I'm really taken aback by the price of flights tbh. Last time I flew was August 2016 and my return flight from Venice was £20! (and going out was about £90 I think). I stopped flying for environmental reasons and we now drive or take the train, but I still thought I was being noble and taking a financial hit by doing so. Not so- I'm paying £700 for the three of us to do a tour of Europe this August!

The cost of family holidays during school holidays never ceases to amaze me. We managed one package holiday abroad before our kids started school. Since then we have mostly done camping holidays in France, which we have always really enjoyed. We tend to go as soon as the kids break from school (i.e. July) and book ferries and accommodation in January with special offers/ cheaper options available. I always contact the campsite directly and book their own mobile homes/ camping pitches as find Eurocamp too expensive. DC now 16, 15 and 9 and this has worked really well for all ages over the years as always plenty of friends to make and activities going on to please all on good campsites. Best of luck.

@hailsugar I actually thought those kind of holidays were not a ‘second rate’ option either-I found them far more enjoyable, kids made friends, lots of room to run around . Stayed once in one in Antibes that had a fairground 3 minutes walk away and the coastal railway 2 minutes walk away so managed without a car too, just flew into Nice- great holiday

@Wingingit247 castell Montgri ? Fabulous camp -

There are also cheap deals in the UK. We’ve had some really nice holiday homes up in Stirling that were very reasonable and there is loads for the kids to do

sorry forgot to mention that we can usually do about 11 days camping in France including cost of accommodation, fuel, ferries, road tolls, supermarket shops, bike hire, eating out , day trips etc for about £2.5k for a family of 5. Not cheap and still have to save and budget, but definitely a great family holiday which everyone seems to enjoy.

I'd say £1500 BUT I avoid tolls by taking the Routes Nationales and I never include the price of food, because you'd be eating whilst at home anyway! (And also we stay at cheap simple campsites away from the coast).

Skyscanner, would they not show jet2 flights too?

This sounds amazing! Do you use a particular company to organise this, or just do it yourself. Would love to have this experience with the children, but wouldn't know where to start

Even holidays in the UK are obscene. (Depending on where and when you go I guess).

I do it all myself....but it IS complicated, and it helps that the organisation is one of my special interests (autistic)! Obviously, the driving holidays are less complicated but more tiring.

If you want to try the Interrail route, seat61.com is an AMAZING website- all the answers you need to know are in there somewhere! I'm also on an Interrail traveller's Facebook group.

I guess I should add that the very first place to start would be Interail.eu, the official website.

I just did a calculation and for 1 adult and 2 DC, one over 12 and one under 12 (under 12s get a free pass!) to go to S. of France/ N. Italy for example would be around £600. That's a 4 day pass (full price, not bought in one of the regular sales), travel from your UK station, Eurostar and TGV supplements included. You could include overnights in Paris or a good day trip from your destination in that. The beauty of it with school aged kids is that this is a FIXED price- it doesn't fluctuate according to holidays.

Interrailing is my aim for next summer. We will then have a 12 and 9 year old. We were considering this year but youngest is still a bit little and we had some limitations with work so having one more practice in UK on the trains first
edit to add - thanks for sharing and if you have any other recommendations or tips I’d be super interested!

As always, the answer to the question about how other people can afford something you can't is some combination of they've got more money than you assumed, and they're paying less for it than you think.

If you're stuck with school holidays exactly, the two best ways to save money are to book a loooooong way in advance, and to avoid summer. I have October 2026 booked already, for a steal of a price.

It's still not going to come cheap with 3 kids, and I bet most of the DC in your class have smaller families, but doing both of those things will make it as cheap as you can.