Bargain luxury....! Anyone have any tips on how to find this?

[Nanodust]

My DH has a significant birthday coming up. I'd really love to take us all away as a family. 2 adults, 2 kids.

I'd really like to do something special but only have about £2,500 in total to spend. It would be great to do something with a bit of luxury rather than a standard packag holiday. Ideally half board or fully inclusive.

Does anyone have any tips or suggestions on where to go or which travel agents to use? Or the best time to buy etc etc....

The earlier the better
Thomas Cook Sentido or Signature are luxury & not badly priced.
Depends where/how far you want to go?

Thanks Soda. The destination isn't too much if a deal breaker, preferably somewhere with some culture and sightseeing rather than just a resort.......

You may get a cruise for that amount of money dependent on the children's age - which would be full board and would also give you some ME time given the children's clubs....worth consideration...book direct !

Capadoccia in Turkey. Go on an amazing hot air balloon trip for the birthday. Some amazing boutique cave hotels which are really affordable - the one we stayed in was about £50 a night and was lovely.

Internal flights are easy & cheap so you could always do, say, 3 nights Istanbul, 3 nights cappadoccia.

I'd use www.ato-tours.com as they take their time to go through with you step by step what you want and then make you a tailored offer.

Thank you

Madeira is one I’m investigating at the moment- some fantastic luxury hotels at good price and Funchal looks like a nice interesting city.

I’ve done Montenegro recently and it was stunning- they’re not much into all inclusive but you will find it. I booked a long time in advance which helped us get flights for £80 pp

We've been to Sardinia twice at May half term week. If you get cheap flights, a week half board might come within budget at somewhere like Chia Laguna Resort. It won't be affordable in peak week summer.

We booked with Just Sardinia and had 2 interconnecting rooms on HB basis. This was a few years ago and the exchange rate is obviously less favourable now so you basically need to get mega cheap flights.

Another place we've stayed at and would recommend is 2 interconnecting rooms on HB basis at Conil del la frontera. We stayed one Easter and is another hotel which is unaffordable in peak week summer.

Our general rule of thumb is to avoid the summer. May Half Term is usually the best for the weather and you can get pretty good prices for fairly expensive places plus no crowds in Southern Europe.