to ask how much you spend on a summer holiday abroad?

[chickpea1982]

We haven't had a proper summer holiday abroad for a few years, before our third child (now 2) came along. I've just been looking into it and am shocked by the cost! It looks like it would cost at least £4,500 for a holiday in an all inclusive resort in Europe, including flights - and that's the lower end! Granted I'm looking for somewhere with two bedrooms, rather than just one room for the 5 of us, but still. Is this normal? Does everyone just pay this as a matter of course? I'd be interested to hear what people usually budget for a summer holiday with kids so I can reassure myself I'm not just throwing money away.

Umm, disagree with what..? Perhaps a more articulate argument would be more convincing.

About £1600pp (family of 4) for 8 nights all inclusive in Greece.

All sharing a room, with a partition in the middle. Couldn’t find anywhere that looked nice with a separate room.

Greece in August, £13k but includes loads of sports and activities (Nelson). SO much money and I'm concerned it will be too hot, but a similar one was ideal for us last year. Two probably ADHD kids that need to be kept busy and ideally apart from each other at least some of the time! They loved it and we loved it too.

But before that did a couple of years in Portugal and other countries with fairly cheap flights and airbnbs, which was much less and also lovely, travelling about. You do spend a fair bit on food and drink and entry to places so not quite as big a saving but definitely a lot more manageable.

Sorry should have said this is August.

And I should have said this is all for 2 weeks, and it's Neilson not Nelson!

Sorry just to ask - was it ££3k for the flights and £2k for accommodation? Where did you go?

Recently had two weeks in Tuscany, flights to Pisa were about £1k, car hire about the same, Villa £2,800 through air bnb. This is for four of us. It’s do-able for 4-5k if you book yourself. 2 weeks in nice accommodation in Cornwall is 3k - my kids used to love that

We tend to stay in the UK in the summer, we'll go to Cornwall or Wales or something. We usually go away abroad at October half term and either Easter or May half term. Cost varies hugely depending on where we're going. Eurocamp can start from as little as £1500 total but a week in the Caribbean at October half term I'd expect to pay £2k per person. We don't spend that kind of money thoughtlessly, holidays are important to us and worked into our household budget.

It was Crete, Agia Pelagia. Talking to DH who did the booking, the flights were a bit over £1k - about £1400 with all the extras like booking seats and airport parking. (We seem to find flights cheaper if the return is three weeks later rather than one or two.) But like I say, we go s/c, eat out every day, hire a car for two weeks, go out to lots of attractions.

£1249 for the apartment (10 days) and the detached villa was £1461 (11 days). Both places we hadn't stayed at before but I would go back tomorrow! So £4110 excluding our living costs while we were there, which would definitely bump it to over £5k. This was in July.

Ridiculous isn’t it. You used to be able to get something fancy for £5k. But now it’s really ….basic, canteen style. sickly sweet cocktail, run for a sunbed for £4.5k at a push I’d say.

We tend to go for 10 nights to a 5 star hotel on the Med or Canaries and like to stay on a B&B basis. It is me, DH and one teenage DS. We usually go with Jet2 and spend around £3500-£4000 on accommodation, flights and private transfers in resort. Then we just pay for dinners out and ice-creams, etc, in situ. Last year we did a.Jet2 Indulgent Escape which was wonderful.

We took our children to our favourite place in Majorca for many years and £2000 was our max spend. A really lovely apartment in Cala Ferrera.
Did the same two years ago with our grandchild and didn’t get any change from £4000 !
I have got home just before Christmas from trip to Australia for 3 weeks seeing my son paying for flights and accommodation and I spent about £5000 !
European destinations are ridiculous price wise TBH .

I'm going to Costa Rica (3 locations) for 10 nights with my teenage son in May. Also two nights in Boston and one in New York. It's costing approx £1600 each for flights, accommodation with breakfast and internal travel. We'll be more on excursions. Food shouldn't be too expensive as we fill up on breakfast, stay near supermarkets and eat where the locals do. I got the cheapest flights with long stopovers, but with that we're going to have 2 nights in Boston and one in New York. Suits us well but those are expensive places.

We spent £12k for two of us at WDW and Universal Florida last year (3 weeks). We’ve just come back from New York, that was about £3k for two of us for 4 nights. We’re going to Austria and Slovakia in the summer for a fortnight with DSS and have budgeted around £5k. HTH.

Oh I'm so jealous. We did a similar trip in 2024 and it was amazing. I will warn you though, excursions are expensive and food isn't cheap. It's probably the most expensive Central American country and I'm assuming your 3 locations are the touristy ones (La Fortuna, Monteverde and Manuel Antonio or Tortuguero?).

In 2024 we booked a month before we flew and it was £2500 for a week in Rhodes AI at a 4 star hotel for 4 of us. We did take kids out of school though, it was July. Last year we did 2 weeks in Orlando in October half term, flights and hotel were £4700 and we spent £4K on park tickets for Disney etc and spent about $5k spending.

if you can do a last minute deal there are still bargains to be had and if you don’t mind a few days off school.

It is definitely cheaper if you drive - eurotunnel crossings can be cheaper than ferries, if you camp or Airbnb and self cater.

We have done holidays like this for £2-3k for 5 of us but it is very different to the amount of relaxation you could have at an AI place. We have never done those as having 3 dc makes it really tricky to find rooms.

I agree about long hail sometimes being similar in price to Europe. We were in Trailfinders recently and their Italy trip was costed out similarly to some of their Asia and Canada stuff pp.

IMO the days of really cheap flights is over, with add-ons for the smallest 10kg bag x number of people racking up costs hugely. Skyscanner is great if you are prepared to put in the time to do a deep search with lots of flexibility for date and destination. Charters don’t feature on it obviously; it’s just the public carriers.

Having cut it every which way, we are flying Ryanair to Italy and booking an Airbnb, with flights coming in at close on £1,400 for five pax, and accommodation £1,200, no car hire, and using public transport. We will eat in half the time. Budget is £4,800 to include day trips and water park.

There is a lot to be said for the AI or package bundle if you’ve younger kids or can’t face the uncertainty of figuring out food and getting around.

The post I quoted.
The part where the poster says if you are going to spend less than £1.5k per person per week, you might as well stay home. 🙄

We do eurocamp type holidays too. Two adults then our teen DC (14,16,18, so classed as adults for the majority)

Last holiday was 4n in the Netherlands, 1n in France, 2n/3d in Disney then another 5n in France. Flights, accomodation, Disney holiday and car rental cost £4100 total. Then spends.

In the summer holidays last year we paid £11k for all inclusive with 3 kids 2 adults for an all inclusive in Greece. 2 bedrooms. October half term is cheaper in my experience

It’s always been expensive relatively. We used to drive to France with my kids

I prefer a villa holiday as my kids can be fussy eaters and I cant stand watching people pick over buffet food im about to eat.
We usually can get a week in term time for £1500 inc flights and a villa with a pool, although this year we are spending £5500 on 2 weeks in florida (4 kids so it's always going to cost a lot!)

That sounds really cheap for US flights and accommodation for 6 people for 2 weeks?

I budget 20k a year for travel as I prefer that to pretty much anything else in life. £4.5k is pretty good for 2 weeks in the summer holidays :)