What is your summer holiday budget versus household income?

[GreatWhiteWail]

DH and I are not aligned on what our holiday budget should be. Because of covid and having young children we haven't previously gone on a (scottish-) school-holiday-time family holiday to a resort. When it was just DH and I we did more city-break type holidays (and even though we went to nice hotels, it didn't cost that much). We have never done a 'week in the sun with a beach/pool' type holidays so have no frame of reference. I'm talking about just a European resort for 1 week plus flights for 4.

I know there will be outliers as some people have no mortgage or childcare costs etc and will spend a lot more than is typical. but I'd be interested to know what's normal for different family incomes.

Is £5k for a holiday for 2 adults and 2 children a 'reasonable' budget? We each earn approx £60k. DH says people earning this would spend much more than that. I am uncomfortable with £5k, as although we can afford it, it seems so much money to just spend (rather than save or spend on the house etc).

Apologies for the nosiness, I don't want to ask friends as although I really want to know if this is normal, it would be rude to ask what they earn!

Our household income is equal to yours, have no kids however.

We spend approx £10-12k a year on 2-3 holidays.
Usually do the nights 5* somewhere which is half the budget then two smaller week long holidays B+B where we can get out and try the local cuisine.

Is the £5k just for the hotel, or does it include spending money?

I don't do AI and we usually drive via the Eurotunnel. I keep a good spreadsheet of costs of holidays so can give you a frame of reference. Last year we went to Duinrell in the Netherlands + two city breaks for 10 days. We stayed in a Premium cottage with 2 bedrooms. Ate all meals out except breakfast. Also have days out to Amsterdam and surrounds. All just order £5k.

We are going to Disneyland + Village Nature (Paris Centre Parcs) and I expect to spend more. Just a meal is 50 euros per adult.

So I think £5k isn't too far out.

£10k summer all-inclusive. Household income £350k. We found if we spent less to get there, we ended up spending a lot more there.

2-3% of our income, which is nowhere near yours, but 5k is 4-5% of yours, I think that’s fine.

We don't go in the summer holidays as it is too expensive. We usually do October half term. We do AI or Villa, more villa recently. And we budget around £4.5k for the week. One of my DC is now an adult so does increase the cost a bit.

Our income is £70k. If going in the holidays we can't really get cheaper than that. I think you will find £5k is not going to go far.

We probably spend over 10% of household income on holidays over the course of a year. But we have a low mortgage and no other debt.

200k gross household income. We are spending 5k for flights and b&b accommodation for a week for 4 in Italy. DH and I also had a 1.5k weekend in Amsterdam. Also 3 day £500 cottage near our daughter's uni. Will do snother £500 cottage with dog in Sept. So 7.5k without spending money. Won't spend anywhere near that next year. But we have 2 at uni, trying to pay mortgage off and putting a decent amount into pensions. When kids were younger I preferred doing a big holiday every few years (Australia, Florida), with camping or v cheap breaks in between.

Our household income is combined 50k. We spend around £3500 on our summer hols, that's including spending money.

I think you'll struggle to find a decent resort type holiday for less than £5k - the cost of holidays has absolutely shot up post Covid. We're spending £14k on 2 weeks AI (2 adults plus DC of 13 & 15) in Crete. Household income c.£230k. We won't take any other holidays this year and we have gone a bit OTT this year, usual budget is about £10k.

My goodness, I see the £8-15k holidays come up on the Jet2 search results and all I can think is "what would you need to earn to be comfortable paying that?!" so thank you for the example!

Interesting that people are saying holidays like this are more post-Covid. I just can't believe how much they cost.

Maybe I need to unclench a bit.

Similar household income to yours and we did a TUI beach holiday in Croatia last year for 2 adults 1 child end of the summer holidays which came in at just over £4k.

10 days in Scandinavia this summer is currently coming in around £3.3k with travel, hotels and days out but is going to come out closer to £5k once we've paid for food/drink.

So I'd say £5k is reasonable to aim for, but I'd be prepared to relax your budget a bit if needed.

10 days in Scandinavia sounds amazing. I think that's more my type of holiday! A new type of experience for the money.

We earn £120k and usually spend around £3k a year on holidays at the moment as we have young DCs, paying nursery fees and have been building up our savings and theirs and getting the mortgage down. Our budget next year for holidays is going to be around £5k as we’re now more comfortable. I wouldn’t spend £5k if our household income was £60k though unless we had good savings and a low mortgage.

It's £60k each (if that wasn't clear, or maybe it was and you still think that?)

Mortgage is £1800 a month (not sure if that's high or normal).

I think your mortage is also normal at £1800. We pay half of that but that's because DH and I are in our 50s.

Income is high (£250-280k depending) and I try to keep holidays cheap because I don't feel like spend correlates to enjoyment with young kids. This year will be 10 days homeswapping with a friend in Europe (£1000 flights for five, let's assume another £1000 for spending which is on the high side given costs there). And then 4-5 days out in the UK at £100-150 each.

I think you need to look at it as how important is a holiday for you. As above our income is only £70k compared to your higher one. Our mortgage is £800.

We have plenty of savings, and can save the money for a holiday without dipping into those savings. This year our holiday spends are higher as DH and I did a city break too. This means I have put off some jobs in the house that I would like to do, such as decorating and flooring. But I prioritised holidays as my kids are getting older and won't want to come with us much longer.

£5k is in the right ballpark for me. I earn half what you do as a couple but only 1 adult and 1 child on the holiday. I'm comfortable with £2k for flights and half board accommodation.

I think £5k for two adults and two children during school holidays is ok. It won’t go as far as you think.

The flights alone could be £1.5-2k now. Similar for a hotel / apartment. Another £1k spending money.

I agree it sounds like a lot!

Sorry I misread. On £60k each you earn the same as us and so £5k is about right. Your mortgage is pretty normal.

Gulp. This thread has been eye opening

Earn around £80k between us and spend around £3k on holidays a year. Mortgage is half of yours and don't have any student/car debt. I think £5k or a bit more would be totally reasonable on your income. We will be spending more soon when the children are old enough to ski.

Our main summer holiday is 2 weeks in August, self-catering, so we eat out every night, for 2 adults and 2 children. Costs £4.5k as a package deal plus we bring £2k spending money. Then we have another mini-break in June at £1k and again in October at £1.5k. We also have a caravan and pay £2.3k per year in site fees. Every few years we’ll visit Disneyland Paris so that’ll add another £3k to the costs.

Our household income is approximately £100k. I don’t budget as such for holidays but they are very important to me and I’d prefer to spend money on travel and leisure rather than on the house or cars etc.

We spend about 10% of our total income on holidays. That is split into a 2 week summer holiday £10k, a week in the winter £6k and two 3-4 day city / spa breaks at £2-3K each.
We travel as 4 adults as DC are now over 16yrs old and prioritise holidays over eating out, drinking, tech etc.