How much is a budget holiday?Am I being unrealistic?

[time4me]

Is it possible to have a nice holiday in Spain for ?1500 beginning July 21st 2007?
There would be me,DH and DD who will be 17.
I dont know where to start and when I went in a Travel Agent and explained my budget of ?1500,I felt totally embarrassed,and rather looked down on.Any recommendations? I would love to go to Majorca,but the main thing is I hate air travel or any travel so as near to the airport as possible,once we get to Spain.I certainly dont want to drive.
Nearest airport is Manchester.I would be so grateful for your advice as my daughter worked so hard for her GCSE Spanish and passed,and she has only ever experienced British holidays which are brilliant but it would be nice for her to put some of her Spanish into pratice,or just to be able to say she is going to Spain for her hols,not Wales,the Lake District or Blackpool just for a change!

Thats supposed to be a pound sign!

Look on Thomas Cook

If you can go on 20th July you could do Turkey or Greece fro about £750 for all three of you

I had similar prob last year almost cracked it! Booked flights to Barcelona with Monarch about 600 for 4 in August and then found a cheap villa using ownersdirect website - there are loads around also cheap apartments in Barcelona.. for 4 it came in at 1700 ...

Have a look at the Magic of Spain brochure for villas/self catering appartments.

have you got a car?

ever thought about camping eurotent style in france?

sites in northern france. a couple of hours to get to.

you can all go for under £500

and

the added bonus is

youhave your own car to go about in - so you are unrestricted whilst there

so if your bored and fancy a trip out to a local waterpark - you dont have to pay the extotionate fees that you would an organised coach trip from your apartment block would cost.

or local zoo
or local castle
local caves
local beaches
local pottery

the reps are usually foreign language students who want a chance to get pissed - so they are always very friendly - very very helpful and all the operators have their own informtation tents with maps of the local area and leaflets for local attractions.

and i have not even mentioned the sites.

usually the sites have a wonderful pool - usually with waterslides, shop, laundery, bike hire, telephones, restaurants, pizza takeaway etc etc

oh and a bar. they always have a bar. where you can get copiusly pissed without the intervention of social services

custardo - i am interested in this.....do you have any links?
we would be more interested in flying then hiring a car as it woul dbe a very very long drive for us....

my friend went with her, her OH and DD aged 2 to ibiza for a week for about £600 which included 2 days car hire, and a self catering apartment... where there was a pool and entertainment etc

im sure it can be done if u search hard enough!

that was in june 2006 btw

these used to be cheap

thanks custardo - they look very reasonaleble

We booked last minute for October half term (2 adults, 2 kids) 5*, half board in Corfu for £800 so I think your budget should be achievable imo.

Have a look here:

www.fleetwaytravel.com/hotel_choice.php?i=2227312

If you can get cheap flights there are good prices with the likes of hoseasons .

We went to Cambrils near Salou last Easter and flew with Ryanair we got a Taxi from the airport to the site as it was fairly close (Reus), we went with Siblu, but Hoseasons prices are good or check sites with Keycamps or Canvas and then google to find the sites own website and book direct with them. All depends on getting cheap flights though.

we went to holland for five days last yearand rented a wooden lodge type thing, alhthough camping was avilable , we went for a week using the ferry and it cost about £600.

My mumis about to go to spain with two friends and thatis about £500 not sure if it is one or two weeks, proably one.

Ours was a hoseasons, it was a fabulous family holiday, details here

well we went on holiday last year and flights for 4 of us cost £500 ish but we didn't book them as early as we could have so you may find cheaper ones. how long are you thinking of going for?

these are at the top of our shortlist cos they are fairly cheap.

1

2 however this one is only a studio, 1 double and one double sofa bed in lounge.

3

4

Hope these are useful, I am assuming that your DD would like somewhere with a lot going on, these aren't too far from the airport. Have also assumed (on flights) that you are after 2 weeks. Try booking independently, we've done this for our summer hols, managed to get 4 weeks south of france for approx £2000 for 5 of us.

Palma Nova

Palma Nova again

this looks nice

bmi baby £778 return

Monarch £637 return flights

Hope this helps.

OK who posted the Villa renters site, I have just realised it is now after 2am argh, getting carried away. Found 2 possibles though.

ooooh which ones are possibles?

There are lots of holidays within that budget on here You can search your dates within your budget.

I searched majorca for those dates and got a few holidays within budget

hth

Great great advice,and I am very heartened by all the messages.We can only go for a week because we have a severely disabled son of 18 and for the first time ever we have got a weeks respite in the summer hols so I want to make the most of it,usually we have to take him with us but it isnt a holiday for any of us then.When he was a toddler we did go on Canvas holidays to France,and yes it was lovely,but it would be too much driving now as he and DD used to sleep.Also he has bad fits and he ended up in hospital for a week in Paris,which on a positive note the staff there were extremely sympathetic and supportive. Thank you again and I will get cracking and let you know how I get on! PS Whats the cheapest way of doing insurance? Would it be through the Internet too?

yes we normally use asda travel insurance and it works out quite cheap. travel insurance

Mumsnetters,thank you,thank you.Spent a lovely evening browsing.Feel certain I can get something nice for less than £1000,so thank you so much,also I got a good quote from ASDA insurance,£32 for the 3 of us.
The £1000 includes flights ( return from Manchester to Palma ),appt,and insurance,for 3 adults ( dd is 16 ).
Thanks for reaching out your hands of friendship over the net,dramatic I know,but I am so grateful as I didn`t know where to start and the Travel Agent left me feeling humiliated ,feel much better now.