Budgeted holiday for 2015. What's the most affordable option? Any ideas and advice please?

[Mrso1987]

This year will be going on a caravan holiday to some where in the uk, two adults, three kids, and dogs for four nights has worked out to be nearly 500. If we're going to be spending that much, for next year we would like to put towards a holiday abroad. We've heard great things about caravan holidays in France and Italy. What would be a cheaper destination? Also plane, ferry or euro tunnel? Would only take the dogs if we used the euro tunnel (we don't absolutely have to take them as family are more than happy to look after but would just like the option to) which brings me to the other point of dog passports, do we need one for the euro tunnel? And does anyone know what sort of prices we would be looking at? Sorry for the bombard of questions, we've always flown to different countries but now with only one income (I'm going into training as well as studying a degree, to achieve a better paid career) we are now looking for more budgeted holidays for the next couple of years. Would appreciate any ideas, maybe holiday stories which could give me an idea of locations we should be looking at, thanks

if you are planning to take dogs to France then would suggest you really look into it regarding places to camp/stop and not taking dogs. also passports and cant remember seeing dogs in the carriages on the Eurotunnel so suspect you have to leave them in the car. just checked on their website and only assistance dogs are allowed on eurostar. obviously if going abroad assume you are looking for a week minimum. are you tied to school holidays? tbh didn't think £500 for 4 nights for 5 people and dogs was that expensive - around £25 per person per night in school hols is pretty reasonable in my book. not sure you are going to find anything abroad way cheaper than that. have you looked at Eurostar fares in school hols for 5 with a caravan?

Don't think you will get a holiday abroad for 500 even if you take your own tent.

I don't think the OP was hoping to get a foreign holiday for £500 as she said she would like to put that amount towards next years holiday.

Totally agree with you Mrso1987 about how much it costs to holiday in the UK. We decided to go abroad this year as I felt it would be worth a little bit of extra cost. In a moment of stress from trying to find a good deal I thought Oh just look at caravans in Cornwall as it'll be so much cheaper. In actual fact a last minute 7 day holiday at a well known caravan park for the last week of August was £1200 for our family of 8. I just booked our whole holiday in Tenerife (inc transfers, airport parking and insurance) for £2300 - for 2 weeks!!! So in actual fact cheaper than the same length stay here in the uk.

It might help if you do what we did though. After finding a holiday we wanted but weren't able to book with our adult/child ratio we tried to book the hotel and flights separately. We then realised it was cheaper to do this but in the time it took us to reassure ourselves that it would all work the holiday sold out. However, it inspired us to narrow our search down to one country and one area, search the top hotels there and move down through the prices until we found the best hotel we could afford. We now have a 4* hotel with 4.5/5 on trip advisor for much less than booking the package. Just make sure you get insurance that covers this type of booking if you go down this route and of course check the cost of flights before booking the hotel. Skyscanner or moneysavingexpert budget flight checker are great tools. Holidaypirates is also a great site for finding bargains that are made up this way. Good luck and have fun searching!

We've done caravan in south of france £800 for two weeks + flights (£400) family of four in summer holidays. You can often find cheaper private rentals on the parks that the big companies like Eurocamp/Thomson alfresco use.

I love the UK but even caravans are expensive and you just can't rely on the weather. This year we are spending a bit more and have an apartment through home and away. Air b n b can be good also.

Suddenly I am pleased you managed to book somewhere. It sounds like you got a great deal. I am sure you will all have a fab time.

Thank you! You remembered my thread about trying to get the best deal I could? It took absolutely hours and hours, I'm talking weeks of 3+ hours a day looking through websites but I finally found something. It was more than our original budget and we opted for SC as I just couldn't find an AI that I felt confident with. Didn't want to pay that much extra and be stuck with slop to eat. But we just got an extra £1000 tax credit payment after our renewal because we earned less than we thought we were going to last year (both self employed) so we'll be able to take that for spending money now. We're going for two weeks as it was cheaper than one week obscenely, due to my two primary children missing 2 days of school (the 3 secondary kids will be back in time) so the price per week is less than I was hoping to spend anyway! Can't wait now, need a holiday after the stress of getting the passports back.

Hey, yep I did mean putting 500 towards a holiday abroad. Maybe should forget taking the dogs then? Yep am limited to school summer holiday as local schools are very strict about taking kids out during term time. Thank you suddenly, that is really helpful,information. I want to be completely prepared so saving now and try book and pay for a summer break holiday by next march/April in the hopes that costs will be slightly cheaper. A friend of mine took her whole family to Ghana for super cheap because she booked about 6 months prior. Our options are either look into caravan parks in France or jump some cheap flights (if available) to Spain and stay with my grandmother for a good week and make sure we have enough spending money and travel insurance. All that really matters is that the kids have a good summer break, that's all i really want is to go somewhere they can enjoy. At the moment there's only one income coming in, I'm doing my degree and going into training as a teaching assistant with the hopes of eventually in a couple of years going into full time teaching, but for the next couple of years it budget, budget, budget. I thought of Cornwall for next year as would be less hassle than going abroad, I know there's dog friendly places there too and it is beautiful looking but bloody hell do they rip you off price wise! I also looked into the channel island of 'sark' as well as another one and thought surely not too much for a little boat ride and stay there but yep again not cheap, unless I'm looking at all the wrong websites? :/

How about The Channel Islands?
I've always found the cheapest (but not dog friendly) option is to book flights and accommodation to Costa Brava or Dorada on Travel Republic.
Do you all have passports?

Yep we all have passports, but our dogs don't so taking them abroad is 50/50 as not sure about the extra costs, just seems so picturesque to bring them away with us. That's the part of Spain my grandmother lives in, costa brava. How about driving to Spain? Does that work out cheaper? Used to do it as a child with my parents but that was years ago, sometimes we would stop over in France, sometimes not as the village we always would go to and have family in is only couple of hours from the border

You might think holiday property in Cornwall seems expensive, but I make very little money from my property after all the bills are paid! We have to let it out for what the market will stand or we would be making a loss! I know this sounds improbable but it is the truth. We will reduce the rate for last minute requests if we are available. I do not intend to rip anyone off and we are offering a high standard of property.