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!

I mean there are a miriad of ways to donate to charity and support improvements in society and peoples’ lives; there’s no point in sweeping statements saying it’s useless because whilst some ways maybe ineffective, others aren’t and of course you can make a difference and do your research before you support XYZ and by what means. I feel there are more important areas of society - closer to home- that can benefit from our support than going on holiday to support struggling tourism industries. But as I said - people can spend how they like of course. I am just shocked at the amounts here; I didn’t realise holidays were so important to people to be honest!

Would you mind sharing the breakdown between the 4 holidays/breaks? Sounds like you’ve managed amazing value on each of them to get all that for under £5k, I’d like to recreate this for us!

Don't want to put our combined income on, we have average incomes, we use around 3 percent of our before tax income on our yearly holidays, slightly more, maybe 4 percent, if a big holiday/ special occasion. Edited to add before tax.

We did 12 days driving in Scandinavia last summer - spent around £5k all in for three of us. We spent £7k on skiing at New Year for four of us. We’re budgeting £12-14k for a holiday in the Far East next summer. Our joint gross income is £150k. We’re mortgage free, and I’ll delay buying new carpets etc rather than not travel.

Yes 4 kids :)

Household income is around 80k and we just spent about 4k on a week in Greece, which included villa hire, flights, for the three of us, car hire and spending money. We could have done it for a bit less if we'd eaten out less and done a few less trips but we'd managed to save some extra spending money this year.

We also did a Eurostar trip to europe over New Year but that was less than 1 k as I used my Tesco vouchers to pay for the train and we self catered.

Then we try and have a cheap short break in the UK, normally in a caravan.

I think 5k is about right. We love going away though so Im happy to cut back on other teats to be able to go away more.

Hope you enjoy your holiday OP, I never regret spending money on going away.

I'll spend £4000 this year, not including food and spending money.
Its about 10% of our income and covers:

Mortgage on our holiday hut in the woods
Sun holiday deal- 4 days out of season in a seaside caravan
Travel to the Netherlands to visit family
One week in Tenerife (cheap flights and 3 star hotel)

Holidays with kids and family are just the best. I don't think the amount that you spend vs your household income is important. What's important is that you feel you will enjoy it relative to the cost. If I had to spend £10k on a 2 week AI I would not look forward to it but would feel £10k on an adventure holiday to Bali staying in hostels would be well worth it. The same goes if you have £500 to spend although admittedly less choice. So perhaps it's about the fact that the holidays you are looking at don't spark any joy for you. Can you look at other options?

This year my lovely we’ll likely only get away 3 times for definite. we may get 4 if we pool resources with my mother and do a week in Cornwall or at a haven (as I said before I really want to go lol)

in 2023 I spent £4500 it went as follows

Disneyland Paris. 4 days in hotel Cheyenne, hotel and park tickets £730 inc ferry. Then 2 days in hotel b and b either side when we went into Paris that was about £250. The Disney deal was with magic breaks and I’ve never seen anything that cheap again.

5 * AI turkey. I believe it was £2600 for a week, didn’t spend a penny out there aside from 2 pool noodles (I booked 6 weeks out I think maybe closer but I watched the prices on tui and jet2 like a hawk and pounced when the price was low)

London think we stayed in a holiday inn, about £100 a night stayed 3. Breakfast included.

then we did Butlins in half term and that was £500 at one of the hotels (our hols miss matched with the rest of the uk then so cheaper)

then last year we spent £6500. £6000 was 2 weeks in a value resort in wdw and then the other £500 was centre parcs and another half term out of kilter

this year
we did London similar £100 a night a bit far out but on the DLR so love that. We did a kids show that was on and then the museums so very little expense. No school missed

we did a 5* AI in may half term but got a bit unlucky weather wise and it rained 2 days, we were told it was very unseasonable so all in all likely a safe bet for the future. That cost me £2.5k again last min, watched the prices for weeks in advance and stuck whilst the iron was hot or so to speak. We booked with jet2 and were flexible with the airport, we stayed at the ephesia korumar hotel. Kids loved it. but I saw comparable if not cheaper prices for canaries. Starting to see the deals now for July after school. I will admit though I’ll have mine miss up to 3 days of school, preferably no more than 2. They missed 2 for this hols

then summer hols we’re doing Disneyland Paris again, just shy of £1700 at the Newport bay and just amending free ferry to have another 2 days at villages natures. Booked with Walt Disney travel company. No school missed

generally I typically watch prices for a good while, maybe a year in advance so I can get a good base line of cost. Last minute if you don’t mind where you go (ie don’t mind too much the destination or have a particular hotel in mind) can save you thousands so for us when we want a holiday in the sun with a c 4 hrs max flight. Perfect for us.

disney generally speaking I don’t like a middle man, they charge through the nose so I tend to go direct or with an independent travel agent who has full price transparency.

£66K household income. £20K on holidays. No mortgage, very small house, very low bills. Its a lifestyle choice for us, it wouldn't work for most people.

Lovely. I’d love a big family but I’m afraid time got away from me.

have you tried last min deals though might be able to cut down cost? If you want of course.

as I’m a dreamer I’ve imagine planned a few hols as if were a family of 6, managed to get a few 4/5* ones for £3.5k (‘missing 2/3 days of school)

Looking at flights and hotels separately might help - although most kids here finish school next week, I would have thought there’s savings to be made by booking ahead of time. Have you already booked?

Our household income is around 200k, although a lot of that goes on tax as it’s weighted one way. Our flights for 2 adults and one child were a little over 1100, hotels around 1500, I’ve paid for stuff like airport parking and insurance and we’ll easily spend another £900 when we are there as only includes breakfast and there’s activities we’ll want to do.

I have priced some resort holidays and it’s really not much different although DH much prefers DIY hols.

We've found going during Easter or May hols much better value and not overbearingly hot, then summer camping or caravan park and a city break.

In May a week in Lanzarote cost less than 3 grand for 2 adults and 2 kids AI and it was the perfect temperature. Xx

kanfuzed myself there ephesus korumar was the hotel

I’m in awe of this and it’s given me much food for thought as to how to get more bang for our buck, thank you!

Income about 75-80k. Holiday budget 5k though we have to go out of season to do it on that and we self cater though that's our preference.
We can't afford to spend more than that, life is expensive.

No problems beautiful! I think I missed my calling as a travel agent haha 😜

my mantra is why pay more when you don’t have to

happy travels- hope you snag some killer bargains

Household income £105k, since having kids we’ve camped, caravan parks in the UK and Eurocamp in France. I can’t justify £5k for a week in the sun. We have significant savings for a rainy day and could pay it with little immediate impact, but it’s poor value for money to me.

Like you, I’d rather spend it on my house or save for a rainy day. Or for their future.

When my kids are older, I intend to take them on a few memorable holidays abroad. But whilst they’re little, it’ll be wasted. They won’t remember it or care if they’re abroad vs 2hrs away.

Can you recommend any Eurocamps?

it’s another one that’s on my list

Look at different options and you can get a great holiday for 5K. Try Baltic Coast in Lithuania or Poland for beaches. Try Solvenia or North Macedonia if you want activities. Montenegro or Albania instead of Croatia. Some great value around lakes in central Europe. Flights better value and accommodation half the price of traditional holiday venues. The future is not Spain or Italy😁

We’ve only done one and it was nice but I wouldn’t recommend it - I think there are better!

Theres a euro camps FB group which is helpful to see the pros and cons.

We drove which saved £££ and allowed us to take more, but it was a long drive.

i think I’d like to venture maybe out of France, not sure but the self drive option does make it a nice cost saving!

thanks I’ll take a look on fb!

Your budget of 5k is about right. That’s what I aim to spend for a normal family holiday for four. There might be years when you want to spend more on a special holiday - Disney USA, safari - but I’d save those for when kids are older.

For a week? Or all year?

you can definitely get wdw for 10 days for around that btw xx

£3k is our summer budget this year, first year of going away in the school holidays so feels like a lot! We earn less that you though, about 85k between us.