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.

You can get it cheaper. Can you go outwith school
holidays if your kids are young enough? Can you fly from say Scotland if you live in Newcastle or Vince versa? For example summer holidays are slightly different north and south and you can grab a bargain that way.
can you look for free child places?
what about flights only, uber, then booking the hotel direct, or using booking.com/air bnb.
we would have done euro camp holidays a bit when our kids were younger.
cheaper flights at more unsociable hours. Booking on a Tuesday.

AI holidays are more expensive than ones you organise yourself (book own flights, arrange own accommodation). You’re paying for facilities, activities and the convenience of someone else preparing all your meals.
The only AI holiday I’ve done was last year when my son finished his GCSEs so we could go outside of school holidays.

We used to do expensive holidays and spend about £10k a year. DS are now at uni and don't come on holiday with us anymore.

We now have a micro caravan for DH and I and we can go away so cheaply 3 or 4 times a year.

A 2 week summer holiday in the UK including really good campsites in great locations, food and petrol costs about £1k. We are planning to go to France for 2 weeks next year which will be more like £1.5k to pay for Le Shuttle and extra insurance, although campsites there are cheaper

The caravan costs about £800 a year to insure/service, but as it is so small we store it in our garage so have no storage costs.

Also we love the freedom and being in nature. It's great being able to make our own food and make a packed lunch before going out for the day. We bring a lot of food with us do we don't have to worry about shopping and can spend time going out every day.

I thought most people are aware of this , I don't think eurocamp own even one site.

If you book with canvas it wouldn't be any better than eurocamp they are the same company. The websites I think are pretty much identical. The group that owns them both have loads of different brands/companies like this Roan Marvilla etc.

How long is a piece of string? The cost of a holiday varies wildly depending on what you're doing.

Last summer we (2A+2C) spent under £1000 on a fortnight in France - we drove and stayed with relatives in their rural house with a pool.

Then we went and spoiled it all by spending £6000 on a five night trip to a (really nice) all inclusive in Mallorca.

We have booked two weeks on France, staying in 3-bedroom gites. One of them has its own pool. The ferry and accommodation has cost just under £2000. We will need probably another £1000 for food, petrol, tolls, days out etc so around £3000 in total. It's self-catering and we don't eat out every day so probably not the sort of holiday you would enjoy if you are looking at all-inclusive.

We just don’t do it any more because of the eye-watering cost.

Yes I’m using Eurocamp as a bit of a catch all term to mean that style of holiday. We’ve stayed with a few different providers (although Roan, Marilla etc are all EC anyway), but if you just say camping holidays people automatically think of tents, whereas if you say Eurocamp people seem to know what that is! That said the Eurocamps we have stayed in have had decent mobile homes and all the homes across the sites have been pretty much identical style, just owned by diff operators.

Last year we had two “summer” holidays but one was May half term and one October, both sunny holidays,
first one was a cruise around the med 1 week, 3 of us- 3.5k
second was a week in Turkey all inclusive again just 3 people 2 adults 1 child, 3.5k
7k a year is about average for us,

July/ August approx £5000 for 2 adults/2 children give or take for AI. Often look at may half term or October which is more like £3500 and carvan in the uk or eurocamp in the summer holidays. Eurocamps are good but can be add up worked out about £3k by the time we had done the travel, park, food etc however did get 10days for that

Yes we do Eurocamp, considerably cheaper and we love it. Used to be a real 'luxury' person before kids, but now can't imagine anything different. Love shopping and cooking nice ingredients, but you can eat out every night if you want to, still prob cheaper!

Previously I would have said that depending on the age of your other children AI is likely to be a waste of money. A 2 year old will eat and drink almost nothing and your other children, assuming they’re a few years apart, won’t be getting their money’s worth either. Of your £4500, £2700 of that is on children going AI.

However, the price of self catering, especially for two beds, is almost the same price as AI now in the height of summer so you’re prob not saving anything by doing it yourself.

I think prices are especially high this year. People are staying within Europe and I suspect world events have something to do with that. You might get a better deal long haul!

That's why we take the kids out of school for cheaper prices. Even then we don't do a full weeks holiday every year. This year its just a 4 night city break. I dont have over £100 a week spare to put towards a holiday.

For me the advantage of AI isn't really the food, it's the activities and entertainment provided for kids. Some kids are content without this, mine thrive on constant sailing/climbing/biking/games so that makes the cost worth it for us. Ideally we're somewhere where we're out for dinner at least a few times in the week, and where the AI doesn't include drinks (so, not really AI I guess, but a resort)

Struggling to get my head around the prices too. Hence stayed in UK last year and nothing booked!

We stayed at home last year but tbh a few days in London and seeing a show ended up being ridiculous!

@GloriousGiftBag true. I spent an insane amount on norfolk and London!

We toyed with self catering cottages in Pembrokeshire and Cornwall and both were coming out at £2k before travelling, food, activities etc and obviously the weather is not at all guaranteed!

Unfortunately we went camping and despite the forecast being good, ended up with torrential rain and no sleep!

I've got a holiday hom in France about 15 minutes from the beach so it only really costs me Brittany Ferries cost, fuel to get to Plymouth and back, driving around in France, buying food and Eating out, activity costs etc. Over 2 weeks I spend about £1k. This includes all food shopping, eating out 3 times each week, and activities like Go Ape, kayaking etc.

How does the home cost to run ? Or what did it cost to buy ?

Yes it’s expensive. Check jet2 you might be able to get a free child spot. Portugal is quite reasonable

Yes. Plus the cost of the holiday home surely?

Was that for a week or 2 weeks?

Thanks, we're looking forward to it. I've now just cancelled one of the stops to cut down on travel (Monteverde). We'll split it between La Fortuna and Manuel Antonio (and a night at airport hotel in San Jose). Hope I don't regret cancelling Monteverde. It does seem that central America can be pricey, but it may be my last big holiday with teen son and we both love wildlife.

We're going to Bulgaria in August for 10 days. We are going self-catering, as we don't like being tied to hotels. We have the 1 child, who is 15, so only need the 1 hotel room. We are paying approximately £1,800 for accommodation and flights for the 10 days. We will obviously need to budget for meals out/supermarket runs/excursions.

We went to Zakyinthos for a week last year, again self-catering and paid approximately £1,400 for flights and accommodation in August.