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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

If you go on luxury holidays often?

150 replies

Nevaenuf · 30/05/2025 19:37

If you do, Disney Florida, luxury destinations every year? How large is your family? How much do you earn? How much is your disposable income? And how much do you spend?

im in a few Walt Disney world groups and the amount of people that go every year is quite significant and stay deluxe and I’ve always wondered how people afford it’s out of reach for us but our income according to that national statistics thing is the top 20%.

so asking the totally nosey question that people probably wouldn’t want to answer unless they could anonymously

OP posts:
Didimum · 30/05/2025 19:45

Not me, but my brother and sister in law do, and comfortably so. They earn combined £300k. Family of four.

We could afford it but choose to spend elsewhere (higher mortgage, old house renovations and expenditures, and nanny) which means we can’t afford it with those costs. We’re £188k, family of four.

Newnamesagain · 30/05/2025 20:05

I don't do it myself as choose to spend money elsewhere but the people I know who do just have higher disposable income for whatever reason. Maybe they have family help with childcare so aren't shelling out for nursery, or they have help with mortgage/house costs so aren't shelling out for that, or they live in a smaller house, or they just earn more. Any one of those things could provide the extra £15k or so for a luxury holiday for a family of 4.

Crushed23 · 30/05/2025 20:11

I go on multiple long-haul holidays a year, though I don’t think that’s the definition of a luxurious holiday (nor is Disney, IMO). I pay/part-pay for business class flights with airmiles ALWAYS and stay in reasonable but not luxurious hotels. I occasionally save up enough hotel points to splurge on a nice hotel. We have no kids and always travel out of term-time. I don’t think salary has much to do it, I have always, always prioritised travel even when I was a fresh grad on a pittance. I remember funding a trip to Hong Kong with an interest-free credit card in my early 20s!

Didimum · 30/05/2025 20:32

Crushed23 · 30/05/2025 20:11

I go on multiple long-haul holidays a year, though I don’t think that’s the definition of a luxurious holiday (nor is Disney, IMO). I pay/part-pay for business class flights with airmiles ALWAYS and stay in reasonable but not luxurious hotels. I occasionally save up enough hotel points to splurge on a nice hotel. We have no kids and always travel out of term-time. I don’t think salary has much to do it, I have always, always prioritised travel even when I was a fresh grad on a pittance. I remember funding a trip to Hong Kong with an interest-free credit card in my early 20s!

Of course being able to spend thousands on travel is a luxury that is highly affected by salary. You say you prioritise it over other spends - that in itself is a luxury. And of course a 15k holiday to Disney is luxury too.

IwasDueANameChange · 30/05/2025 20:36

We don't go to disney, but every year do:

  • either a weeks skiing in the alps in feb half term OR a weeks winter sun (AI in caribbean/mauritius or similar).
  • a week somewhere sunny in europe in may half term (Spain/greece/Italy)
  • two week summer holiday in Cornwall

Income about 300k not including bonuses. Family of four, two school aged kids, no private fees.

IwasDueANameChange · 30/05/2025 20:38

Ps the gap between top 20% and top 5 or 10% is huge.

Bear in mind over a million people earn over 100k in the uk

Kittkats · 30/05/2025 20:40

Never. £56k, family of 6.

Crushed23 · 30/05/2025 20:43

Didimum · 30/05/2025 20:32

Of course being able to spend thousands on travel is a luxury that is highly affected by salary. You say you prioritise it over other spends - that in itself is a luxury. And of course a 15k holiday to Disney is luxury too.

Edited

It is indeed a luxury/privilege to be able to spend money on travel and holidays, most people on the planet never get to leave their country. But a luxurious holiday has nothing to do with the distance travelled, it’s to do with exclusivity. Some resorts in Europe are far more luxurious than the hotels I stayed at in Arizona, for example. Likewise when I went to Disney a few years ago, it didn’t feel very luxurious because it was, unsurprisingly, heaving with families and young children, although our hotel was actually gorgeous (exchange rate was much, much better back then).

Waitingfordoggo · 30/05/2025 20:54

We never do luxury holidays in terms of smart hotels/fine dining/pampering etc, but if luxury in this case means expensive, then we have done two as a family in the past 20 years. One was a cruise and the other was a multi-centre trip in USA and Canada. Aside from that we have done a great deal of camping, caravanning, Airbnbing.

The kids are nearly adults now and have some very fond memories of our camping trips. They enjoyed the expensive holidays too but no more than they enjoyed camping in Dorset!

(Our joint income is between 60k-100k. Husband is self-employed so it varies).

Redlorryyellowlorryblue · 30/05/2025 20:59

We try to go to Disney World every year, staying at a Deluxe hotel. Fly economy but with meal plan, a few day trips e.g. Seaworld and spending money. We spent about £18k last year. You can do this for a lot less.

Redlorryyellowlorryblue · 30/05/2025 20:59

That’s for 2 adults and 2 children, non-term time.

yeesh · 30/05/2025 21:08

We do, we have a very small mortgage, one car and one child. Son is an adult now but we went to Disney every year when he was growing up & did other holidays in uk, Europe and long hall. Average wages for a lot of that time. We do prioritise holidays & days out but the main way we afford it is the small mortgage. We were lucky enough to buy before house prices shot up, we then sold for triple the price we paid and moved about 20 mins from the city where house prices are much lower.

also we never paid childcare as I worked nights until high school so that probably saved thousands.

Didimum · 30/05/2025 21:09

Crushed23 · 30/05/2025 20:43

It is indeed a luxury/privilege to be able to spend money on travel and holidays, most people on the planet never get to leave their country. But a luxurious holiday has nothing to do with the distance travelled, it’s to do with exclusivity. Some resorts in Europe are far more luxurious than the hotels I stayed at in Arizona, for example. Likewise when I went to Disney a few years ago, it didn’t feel very luxurious because it was, unsurprisingly, heaving with families and young children, although our hotel was actually gorgeous (exchange rate was much, much better back then).

Firstly that’s an individual opinion of the term ‘luxury’ (it’s relative), and secondly OP is asking about Disney and luxury, meaning the expense. Disney will cost as much as many opinions of what ‘luxury’ is.

balcoly · 30/05/2025 21:10

lots of high earners don't spend 20k on holidays & lower earners often spend a large % of their income on them. People prioritise different things

EggnogNoggin · 30/05/2025 21:15

We earn 70k joint pre tax.
We spent 10 years massively overpaying our 200k mortgage and we now owe £30k.

We don't have lease cars or the best of everything and we don't buy much "stuff" because we don't want to buy a bigger house.

Now we are so close to clearing the mortgage we are able to look at that type of holiday.

We shop smart and don't do it all e.g.

  • We will try to use airmiles (easily accrued by using a credit card for every purchase and clearing it each month)
  • currently, its cheaper by around 2k to go last minute this year than next year. We won't have "free" disney dining but we wouldn't spend nearly 2k on food there anyway.
-we accept last minute means cheap but crappy connecting flights
  • when we're there, we will use Lyft/Uber and Instacart for shopping to self cater rather than hire cars and buying meals on site.
  • we don't buy into the magical commercial shit- kids get 1 toy and some holiday money and whilst we don't bring single use tat like t shirts, we buy mouse ears from vinted

Basically, now that we see more of our income and we spend it on core stuff - value hotel, parks etc rather than bells and whistles. We do it that way because it's never been a once in a lifetime trip so we don't need to drop 15k; we can do it twice for that price.

And not that it's relevant, but we won't actually don't annually because it's not affordable for us in so much as we want to prioritise pensions and savings, not spunking 15k a year on a holiday just because we can.

TwinklyRoseTurtle · 30/05/2025 21:26

North West, 55K a year, 1 adult and 1 child- luxury holidays every year- something i prioritise, disposable income 1.5K-1800 per month, spend around £8K per holiday - some years one other years 2 holidays per year but one would be slightly cheaper. Usually stay at a nice resort in Disney but get the offer of free dining

HeyThereDelilah1 · 30/05/2025 21:27

We’ve never done Disney but we do a fair amount of holidays, this year we’ve done skiing in Feb half term, Maldives over Easter and we’re currently in Greece. Summer holidays we go to Wales and one week in France in an Airbnb with friends. For skiing we get flights to a nearby city and drive 4 hours to ski resort to avoid crazy flight prices and the other holidays we only paid the tax on flights as my partner is in the aviation industry, I think we’ve spent about 8k this year so way less than the Disney holiday. We earn about 270k combined before tax and mortguage is significant but both children in state school and no childcare costs anymore.

uggmum · 30/05/2025 21:34

Our income is in excess of £140k pa. We have between 4-6 holidays a year.
2 long haul (Maldives, Mauritius, Caribbean type of destinations)
the rest short haul (European, Nice, Paris etc)

we do prioritise travel and have an annual budget of around £20k ish.
we are not extravagant people. Don’t really drink, lived in the same house for 30 years and we have only started long haul travel in the last 5 years.

ElaineAndBarbara · 30/05/2025 21:39

Two adult childfree household with income of just over £300k, no mortgage or debt so lots of savings and investments. Travel a lot and probably spend £40k+ a year on trips.

Nothing about Disney seems luxurious.

Expensive ≠ Luxurious

Youdontseehow · 30/05/2025 22:20

Two adults semi retired with two grown up DC - one still at home although has bought a flat so will be moving soon (we don’t take any money off them as they are saving for flat and we buy their food etc).

total income including part time work and pensions is £80k. Mortgage free after overpaying significantly for five years.

x2 or 3 l long haul, multi centre holidays a year - upgrade to premium economy and/or business class for flight
x2 European city breaks - 5 star hotel, usual B&B
x4 uk city breaks - mix of 5 star and premier inn depending on where it is/time of year ie cheap and cheerful in good weather, luxury if winter and limited options for getting out and about

Probably spend about £25k a year on holidays. But that’s our thing - neither of us are into “stuff”, I don’t own anything remotely designer, don’t get nails/lashes done, buy make up in Tesco. Share a car now (sold one when we went semi retired), don’t smoke or drink to excess (I did a bit of that in the past but rarely drink now).

Our plan is to visit the remaining long haul bucket list places over the next two years then focus on Europe as we get older.

greengreyblue · 30/05/2025 22:22

Since when has a Disney been luxury. My idea of hell.

greengreyblue · 30/05/2025 22:24

ElaineAndBarbara · 30/05/2025 21:39

Two adult childfree household with income of just over £300k, no mortgage or debt so lots of savings and investments. Travel a lot and probably spend £40k+ a year on trips.

Nothing about Disney seems luxurious.

Expensive ≠ Luxurious

May I ask what you do to earn £300k?

Titasaducksarse · 30/05/2025 22:27

We've been to Tuscany for a week, going to Greece next month for a week then 2 weeks in India plus assorted weekends away.
Household income about £83k no kids, no mortgage and we don't go luxury! Nice but not what people would call deluxe but I'm still getting at least 3 overseas trips a year! I honestly wouldn't spend ridiculous amounts on 1 holiday however I have upgraded class on flights to India as a treat.

Nevaenuf · 31/05/2025 06:37

Didimum · 30/05/2025 21:09

Firstly that’s an individual opinion of the term ‘luxury’ (it’s relative), and secondly OP is asking about Disney and luxury, meaning the expense. Disney will cost as much as many opinions of what ‘luxury’ is.

Yes I am referring to the cost, that’s why I said deluxe resorts which are pegged as luxury holidays, it would easily cost upward of 15k for a family of 4

OP posts:
Nevaenuf · 31/05/2025 06:38

ElaineAndBarbara · 30/05/2025 21:39

Two adult childfree household with income of just over £300k, no mortgage or debt so lots of savings and investments. Travel a lot and probably spend £40k+ a year on trips.

Nothing about Disney seems luxurious.

Expensive ≠ Luxurious

I said luxury or Disney, ie expensive

OP posts: