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.

Look at the 'Parque cristobal' resorts in the canary islands. They are all mini villas with all inclusive facilities, we have one booked for 7 nights for 3k during school holidays - 2 adults 2 children. It's a 1 bedroom villa, with a seperate lounge with a sofa bed which we will use as a bedroom for our girls. There are also 2 bedroom ones. Much nicer than a high rise hotel.

That's been paid off for years. Running costs not particularly high.

last August we spent just under £5k for 2 adults and 3 kids (6, 3 and baby) going to Tenerife. Including accommodation, flights, food and days out. We stayed in a 2 bed aparthotel which included breakfast. We only cooked once and ate out the rest of the time. Flights were reallly expensive as we booked last minute and we could have saved a lot more by cooking in the apartment.

this year we’re looking to go to Croatia, half board and flights and accomodation is coming to around £4.5k.

Easyjet are pretty good tbh and I do usually take them out of school for 1 or 2 days.

Depends if you want 5 star or not.

You can get a bog standard 4 star to majorca all inclusive for all of you, going in may half term and with them missing 1 day of school for 3.4k with the easyjet sale code.

https://www.easyjet.com/en/holidays/spain/majorca/calas-de-mallorca/alua-calas-de-mallorca-resort?ibf=true&to=01-06-2026&from=25-05-2026&dst=ALL&sAccId=&geog=ALL&flex=0&org=LGW,LTN,STN,SOU&aa=1&rooms=2_3:6|10|2&outId=E98dc15dd40559101c44a2f44d7687449&inId=E029d8c4f26d95e69a6bb38411ef7d2a8&accId=ESMJ0102&packId=2155725944/2/3066/7&boardType=AI&offerRooms=1_2:10|2/DB02,1_1:6/DB02&transfer=JUMB55321KSS&dtransfer=JUMB55321KSS&isExt=0&lateRoomCheckout=0&theme=beach

This year we are broke due to house renovations but still desperately need a break so we've managed to book an all inclusive to tunisia for 4 of us for £1300 for a week. But im taking them out of school for 4 days. Although you don't get fined unless its the full 5 days.

I have always loved traveling and grew up with no money so always enjoyed finding bargains and now I am older and have more money still look for the cheapest way to travel, I usually do multi-destination trips as a result and like to benefit from long layover and spend a ridiculous amount of my free time looking for the cheapest/best routes to make a trip work.

I agree Europe can easily cost the same as a trip further afield so it doesn’t always make sense to holiday in Europe if your idea is to save or if you have a budget that could a allow for a similar trip elsewhere.

to give you an idea of prices I will try to give you the price of what I paid for recent trips abroad.

September (2024): Italy + Dubai + Kenya (Safari) + Tanzania/ Zanzibar - 3 weeks, 2 adults ( 5.5k all included).

October 2024: Marakesh - 4 days- 2 adults (1k max all included)

Christmas week 2024 Lapland: 5 adults + 1 child, (5k all included, we did book 1 year in advance for the accommodation to get the best deal).

September 2025 (Greece) 8 days - Athens + Corfu (under 2k for 2 adults)

October 2025 (almost 3 weeks) : Georgia + Dubai + Philippines + Thailand (2 adults + 1 child, 5k)

and next trip planned is in August for a Cruise to the Carribean/Central American from the US for 2 weeks + a few days in Canada, and everything has already been paid and booked and it’s coming at a price of under 4k for now, for 3 adults but I assume there will be an extra 1k spent in food and transportation outside the boat.

I am sure i could spend the same amount going to one destination in Europe in AI, but I favor self catering and less time in a place but more places to see so if there’s is one I like I can always come back and make it a longer trip.

or, as you can see with places like Dubai, plenty of places come up several times over the years due to its location between destinations so it’s also good to visit different parts of the same place(s) on different trips.

I am not sure it’s harder to find great flight deals because I actually think they are a lot cheaper than a few years back in some cases I just feel like food and accommodations is what’s extortionate, activities can also add up ££££ depending on the location. So it’s only on some trips for specific things that I like to book activities I couldn’t or wouldn’t feel safe doing without a tour guide.

@StepUpSlowly would love to know more about your georigia etc trip, such a good price for all that!

@HorrorFan81 sure, you can message me and I will try my best to answer all your questions.

Mind you I always look at flight prices before anything else as that’s what makes my itinerary. At best I pick a general region I want to visit, otherwise I try to stay completely open. So unless you are dead set on a specific place at a very specific time (like high peak season) you can get really really good deals.

( flight from Thailand to London was under £150pp for example on that trip).

Between £5-£7k for the two of us for a two week holiday. But now we are having a baby that luxury will be gone! I expect it will be a £2k all inclusive in Europe going forward!