To think that I could find a nice holiday on a tight budget?!

[Teddypear]

Just wondering if anyone might have any ideas.

I separated over a year ago from exDH. We have three teen dc and it's been a difficult time for us all.

I really want to give the dc a nice summer holiday this year if I can. The trouble is, money is tight. I have a budget of around £1500. This would be to include everything - travel, accommodation, food. One of the dc won't be coming as they are working, so it would be me and 2 dc. I have a few weeks off work in the summer as I do contract work, so time is not an issue.

I don't think I can afford a holiday cottage in the UK. We could do camping or a caravan, but one of my dc is autistic and hates being in cramped accommodation. We would all be fine with any standard of accommodation, it could be very basic, but would probably need for it to be a bit spacious.

I went backpacking in Asia years ago, and you can get some very pleasant cheap accommodation and food there, but the flights seem quite expensive.

Flights, food and accommodation in Europe are expensive.

I'm probably looking for the holy grail here, but just wondered if anyone had any ideas that I hadn't thought of!

How about a Eurocamp? They are quite reasonable?

Do u drive op?

Does it have to be in the school holidays?

I've always found Tenerife to work out reasonably pp. Its cheap once you're over there too

3 bed caravans/cabins are your best bet, northern France via ferry is probably a good option as it tends to be cheaper than the U.K. for self catering even once factoring the ferry (ferry is usually cheaper than euro tunnel, Tesco club card used to have ferries on it if you have points available )

As far as cost, you can eat in France self catering for similar to the uk so it’s no different to being at home, just a change of scenery, and if you have them and a rack take bikes maybe, I found it great cycling there. Petrol is cheaper than here or no more.

I'm going to Lanzarote next week, £200 for flight, £800 for 2 bed apartment

Where do you live / neat which airport?

I did the Groupon £99 for my family. It’s basically the mystery tour of the world. You need to barter when they call but it includes flights and accommodation. We got Venice, you just need to have a computer to hand to negotiate the hotel. Another option is joining a homestay group
Best of luck, I also have a child with autism so understand your dilemma. and costs of needing a break. You’ll do it ✨

I did a quick search and found loads of self catering in Spain holidays ...five nights in august coming in at just over £1k for one adult, two children

You also get to select the airport

Travel to destination is quite a big part of costs. I would first think about this.

Look at the low cost airlines and see what they have available without being too picky about destination. You shouldn’t need to spend any more than 500 for flights and luggage etc. Then accommodation I’d say that you’d find quite a lot of self catering apartments available in the Mediterranean for around 700 or less. That leaves 300 for food and extra stuff.

I don’t know how much it costs to take a car over the channel, but if it’s reasonable and I were a competent driver I’d also look at somewhere like
Brittany, France.

Skyscanner and choose the 'everywhere' option. The really early and late flights are still very cheap.

I’d go for whatever flights are cheapest on skyscanner and then a cheap airbnb.

Turkey all inclusive could be worth it, especially if you go just before the kids break up

Thanks! I've just looked on the website - the sites look great, but I'm not sure if it might be a bit too busy/ lively for my dc who is on the autistic spectrum. It's a good idea though!

Yes I do drive

Ideally, although we could possibly go the week before they break up for summer.

I’d look at Eurocamp - we have a child with ASD and need separate rooms so we get a three bed caravan. We’ve done ferry to the Netherlands and Eurocamp for 7 nights, which we could have done for around your budget including spends when there if we’d gone Dover-Calais and driven up rather than Harwich-Hook of Holland. If you’re flexible on location, look at sites in Northern France and Belgium.

Other option might be somewhere like a city break in a place that’s cheaper, like Budapest, Poland or the Baltics?

@minnienono that's a good idea re Tesco club card, I do have one with points on it so I'll see if I can get ferries or any other travel on it!

They have quieter sites too, it’s not all party central - the ones near lakes rather than with their own pools look quieter. The end of August is often cheaper, depending on how flexible you can be with dates.

Also look at Top Cashback/Quidco and similar, as you may be able to get more money off that way.

Heathrow or Gatwick are the nearest

@bettyboo9 the Groupon deal sounds great, I will look into that!

Where are you located so we can check airports. You need to think out of the Bix a bit to get value.
Do the children like culture and history and local parks etc or are you thinking beach bars and night life.
If it's culture and history and local events you could do the Baltic States or Poland. Public transport is cheap and good on these countries so you can get out and about and see some fantastic sites. They do civic culture much better and often have free events in the evenings. In Lithuania we did open air cinema, a music event, and two national museums at no cost last year. There's always river cruises and recreation on the rivers in the bigger cities. Self catering is reasonable too.
Northern Romania is stunning and the legacy of Ottoman and Austrio Hungarian influence make the history and culture brilliant. Great value too.
What's your basic criteria for activities.

We flew to Bilbao 10 years ago and took a taxi to a campsite called Playa Arenillas. We had grand time. Clean, secure, quiet campsite next to the beach. Little campsite shop and cafe. Coffee was 1 euro, ice cream 1 euro. We cooked all our food on the little camp cooker. Nearest town 30 minutes away by hourly bus. You can get a tent and sleeping bags very cheap on Ebay

Thanks so much everyone - there's some great ideas here that I would never have thought of.