Recommendations for a family holiday for much less than £4k!

[redjumper]

We're expecting our third baby soon and would love a family summer holiday in early July, before summer holidays. We will have children aged 4, 2 and 0.
It needs to be super easy like a HB hotel or all inclusive and preferably with pool/water park and kids club. But something nice. Until now we've found this kind of thing easily and cheaply for around £2k eg Mark Warner, First Choice 5 star places. But the prices are crazy this year because we appear to need a suite or family room to sleep 2 adults, 2 children and one baby, and because we have 4 full price flights to pay for. Our usual things are coming in at £3-4K or more which is blowing my mind. Am I missing something? What do people actually do in my situation? Has anyone got any tips?
I know this is only going to get worse when we need beds for 5 and have 5 flights to pay for and were tied to school holidays. What do you do then?!

Rent a villa. Even better get together with another family and rent a bigger/better villa.

Use ferries rather than flying.

Camp.

I'm in the same boat! 1,3 & 4 year old and now we are school holidays only £6k for anything nice/warm/etc for when we want to go as the little one will be 2 by then!!

You don't need school holidays for a four year old , or even for a five year old until the term after their fifth birthday.

You have to downscale your ideas of luxury.
We are a family of 5 (age 6,8 and 10) we are going to Paris and then the south of France in may half term. All in - flights to Paris, airport parking, 1 night hotel in Paris, sleeper train to nice, car hire, 6 nights in eurocsmp mobile home and flights home again has come to about £1000.
No it's not 5* luxury and we've had to shop around and book each bit separately buy that's our budget so that's what we have to go with.

As a family of 5 hotels are a pain in the arse! Ok when one is a baby but now they are all bigger it's actually cheaper to book an apartment than 2 hotel rooms.

We have booked a nice villa with a private pool in the algarve, flights and car hire for similar aged family at the start of July for £3000.
Not what we we used to but should be an easy holiday with kids.

andknowitsseven possibly not legally but definitely morally.

I think if all children in a class take just one week off then the poor teacher is constantly trying to catch someone up. And I don't personally think it's a good message to give the child - that you can just ditch school and go on holiday

Each to their own tho

I feel your pain! We have 4dc and ended up paying £6,000 for a week in a holiday village in Majorca last summer and it was hideous!
Apart hotels can be good. We are staying at the princess yaiza in Lanzarote at Whit it's still expensive but at least it's a decent hotel.

Morally, are you being serious? It's not the teachers responsibility to ensure dc catch up, it's the parents. Some dc do not start school at all until the Christmas or Easter term. They will miss much more than they would for a family holiday.

A four year old is not legally required to be in education nor a recently turned five year. Teaching children than family time is important is an excellent message.

The OP isn't looking at school holidays (at least for England), although early July is holiday time in NI and Scotland.

The increased expense is probably because of the pound dropping against the euro.

We are doing 2 weeks in tenerife half board in August for a Family of 6 for under 4k. You just have to look around.

OP if you go into a Thomson shop they can access a list of hotels with large rooms, i.e. normal rooms not suites. It might help you search. Iirc many if them are in Turkey which you might not fancy.

Personally I'd go to a campsite with a large family, loads easier

I've looked on on the beach and there are loads with apartments full board kids pools beach close by and 4 star ones coming out at 1,600

Redjumper, if you book flights and accommodation separately then you will be able to do it for much less. Book an apartment rather than hotel. I could sort it for less than half that. Use skyscanner for flights/ easyJet/Ryanair etc. Owners direct, booking.com for accommodation.

Have a look at Jet2 holidays - they are usually the cheapest certainly that I've seen. Also if you find something you like, you can try pricing it up cheaper using skyscanner for flights, and other search engines for the accommodation.

However on the times I've looked at it jet2 seems to be roughly comparable with pricing it up separately and they're meant to be good, so definitely worth a try.

It is Scottish school holidays and the peak week for Scottish people to go away therefore if you are flying from Newcastle or Manchester cost will be impacted by that, so try to head further South for departure if you can.

I'm impressed that you have been getting mark Warner for a family for £2k!

Yeah it does seem good for mark warner but that really was the price for our family of 4 last year. One child was under 2 so virtually free and it was mid June. We could all fit in a standard double and that was the price for their 5 star Rhodes place. We didn't book it though and missed out, whoops!!!

Just one thing, be careful if you book connecting rooms. We did in the summer last year through first choice/Thompson and when we arrived they weren't. The hotel was fully booked so nothing they could do. We ended up with dh in one room with 2dc and me in the other with the other 2dc.
When we complained we were basically told tough, no guarantees they would be connecting. We weren't advised of this when we booked (online)
This time we have phoned the hotel directly and confirmed they would be connecting as it really impacted on the holiday last year.

I would also recommend a villa. We have done that for the past few years and it is much cheaper and nicer. You can grocery shop and make all the things that your own fussy kids like to eat (ours are a nightmare about food!). We always do it with other families or extended family so we don't go stir crazy!