How do people justify the cost of holidays?

[umbrellaellaella]

I haven't been on holiday abroad in years, UK or otherwise. I thought maybe we could go somewhere next September, and I am shocked at the prices.

For a week, 2 adults, in September (ie. during school holidays), we would have to spend around £600 each to go somewhere decent in Europe (we wouldn't want to go somewhere like Turkey or Morocco, personal preference). That's £1200 before paying for things such as hold luggage, transfers, and food out there.

I then looked at hotels in Cornwall. It cost even more - around £1300 minimum to rent a room in a hotel for a week, with just breakfast included.

How can people afford and justify doing this every year? It seems a crazy amount of money. I know you only live once, but the cost of living is so expensive these days I don't know how people can spend this without feeling guilty!

We went to Spain for a week this Summer. I drove down and we hired an Airbnb villa with a pool.

It was one of our cheapest holidays and one if our best.

We weren’t cramped into one hotel room. We had a house and a pool to ourselves.

Best of all, we normally like to relax by the pool and order a drink every few hours over the day and lunches are either by the pool or out at a cafe.
We were just going to the fridge to get ourselves a juice or water (dp drinks and beer and it was 10per can) and putting something simple together at lunch time.

I have known our tab for 4 of us when staying at a hotel to be £400-£500. This was reduced to about £50 for a supermarket shop at the beginning or the week

Airbnb was around £160 per night = £1120 and driving down was around £500 with motorway toll and petrol.

Or you could go Easy jet but we then had the car

Evening meal in some very nice restaurants was around £70 per night so all in it was under £2000.

The best bit was in the evening when we came back from the restaurant we all could do our own thing. We have teens and we all like doing different things.

Dp likes to sleep, dd and I like to watch a film on Netflix and ds likes to play xbox.

Best holiday we have been on

We are spending £2000 for 3 of us to go to Greece all inclusive next June.We can't wait.We had no holidays this year but 3 abroad last year,it differs year to year with us.

I know peopke who scrimp and scrape all year or worse, get into debt, to go on expensive holidays

More fool them.

But it's no different from getting yourself into debt for any large purchase which isn't a necessity of life.

If OP isn't accustomed to booking holidays then she won't be used to using the tips and tricks which a lot of people use routinely. We're going to the south of France at the end of June (Scottish school holidays), flights were booked on the day they were released with Easyjet and were £90 each. If I were just starting to look now, they'd be more.

Everyone has different budgets - is that REALLY so hard to understand?

(Personally I'd rather not have a holiday at all than go camping, but it's not beyond me to understand that some people love that sort of holiday).

With two young children and only my husband currently earning, we can’t. We’re really lucky that a sibling of mine currently lives in a UK seaside resort and is happy to accommodate us whenever we want to go for a visit, so we have used that as a holiday destination for the past year, but that won’t last forever as she tends to move around quite a lot.

My husband’s aunt often gives our family a few hundred pounds at Christmas as she has no children of her own to spend on, we’re thinking this year that we may invest in some camping gear to start setting ourselves up for cheap holidays. She would love seeing the children benefiting from nice holidays from the money too.

I enjoy planning and researching trips almost as much as going on them so I tend to get bargains.

Although DD is at school now so it's a bit trickier!

We can afford it because we budget for it and have good incomes.
I also spend hours finding a bargain and use cashback sites to help fund some of the trip.
We can justify it because we feel it is good, quality time for our family. We go to new places, enjoy new experiences. Relax away from the rat-race.

And I certainly don't feel guilty for having holidays! Why on earth should I? There's plenty of things I go without or get the cheaper option. We all make choices on how we spend our income, none of us should feel guilty about our outgoings (as long as bills are paid, children are fed and warm etc etc)

Everyone has different ideas of what's important to them. Some people:-

Spend £8 per day on a packet of cigarettes or
Spend more than a fiver on a bottle of wine or
Go to a restaurant every week or
Have hundreds of DVDs on a shelf or
Buy takeaways 2/3 times per week or
Buy a latte from Costa every day or
Go to shows/concerts or
Get a new phone contract every 2 years or
Get a new leased car every 3 years.

Other people do few or none of the above an enjoy expensive holidays instead.

We justify it because we can afford it and holidays are important to us.

We also generally go to Europe in September and June and the Canaries in February and the average cost for flights, transfers and accomodation (SC or B+B) is generally around £400-500 pp.

Sometimes we book independently, sometimes we get a package if it works out cheaper, which it can do.

But say a couples holiday in Europe in September costs £1500 all in, that's about £15 per person per week, averaged out over the year. Or about the same as getting a single coffee shop coffee once a day while you are at work. And plenty of people do that without thinking about it, or considering it an extravagent thing to do.

But it all depends if you can afford it. If you can, why feel guilty? Nobidy else cares how you spend your money.

If you can't afford it, then you look at cheaper options.

Depends what your priorities are. I'd rather give up things at home so I could afford holidays.

I would feel like it was a waste with the budget I have now but if I had money to spare I think holidays and experiences are a great use of money.

But yeah they're so expensive. My inlaws owned a lodge on a luxury site in Cornwall and we used to stay for a week or two weeks at a time. We were surrounded by people paying several thousands of pounds for the same experience and I couldn't get over it! It was just a nice-ish lodge, it rained a lot because it's Cornwall of course, and then when it was nice you'd spend a fortune on trips out. Sometimes it rained all week so they'd paid a fortune to sit inside. I could only justify that if I earned a fortune and could afford the loss.

It’s a priority for us, plus we can afford it.

I can’t justify the cost of holidaying in the UK

I’m lucky because I live somewhere that it hot in summer and I’m a kilomètre from the beach.
A lot of people spend a lot of money to come here on holiday.

Even so, we like to get away an explore new places.
Sometimes we’ll drive a few hours and get an Airbnb for a couple nights.
Other times we fly on low cost airlines.

My husband and I went to Budapest for 4 days and spent 500€ including flights/accomodation and a Michelin started dinner.

It can be done, i guess it just depends what you are looking for.

It gives me something to look forward to, and I have made a conscious decision to cut back in other ways in order to afford it. For example, I wouldn't choose to work part time, or have four children, or spend huge amounts on clothes, or nights out, and then grizzle that I couldn't afford a holiday.

I also tend to travel domestically more than internationally. International travel when you live in Australia is extortionate, so I tend to travel within this brilliantly diverse country.

I keep my spending low on food, clothes etc throughout the year to make sure I have money to spend on the fun stuff. I do a lot of research and am willing to compromise so that we can have short breaks and holidays I can afford. It means we do a lot but we spend a fraction of what I've read other people on here spend. You don't need to go far or stay in premium accommodation to have a good holiday.

Holidays are very high priority for us. We have several breaks coming up, all booked with EasyJet on the day flights are released then cheap apartments booked through AirBnB.

I definitely don't feel I have to justify the way we spend our own money to anyone!

I have had 2 holidays and 2 city breaks tbis year. I don't have a large salary.

HOWEVER I shop at Aldi, don't smoke, never get my nails done as I do them myself, my clothes mostly come from car boots, my hair is done once every 6 months or so and if I eat out it is at cheap places.

I love holidays and prioritise them. They have given my son some wonderful memories and spending time together is precious so worth the money

Also for me travelling out of season enables me to have 2 holidays rather than one for nearly the same cost. I appreciate not every one will be able to do this though

my dp is a teacher so we only go in half terms. We average about 6 holidays a year. We don't have children which obviously helps.
It is expensive but you can definitely find package holidays which are good and we never stay below 5*.
We are going for a weekend away to Berlin in a few weeks for the weekend, flights were £70, we will find a cheap air bnb and spend most the day out, then it'll be lunches and dinners but you can do that cheaply if you look around/make your own. There's definitely a way and I would never ever stay in the UK it's far more expensive.

Everyone has to “cut their cloth” and it really depends what motivates you. I can understand people who would prioritise paying off the mortgage over a week in Greece.

I’ve always been motivated, and in a way it was simpler when I had no money. As a newly qualified driver and broke ass student, I had three great trips where i piled mates in the car, had a whip round for petrol money and set off for Cornwall.

We couldn’t afford to go in the pub, couldn’t afford to eat out, and couldn’t afford accommodation for the whole stay. After a night in a budget hostel, then sleeping on the beach, or sleeping 4 people in my Fiesta we were just delighted to be away.

Now I have a DH and 3 SDCs, the stress is on. HeWe have higher expectations than dossing on a beach and the saving is stressful. And it does make me feel sick when I book. But it’s worth it when we get there, and I’m so aware that the SDCs won’t always be at an age where they love playing on a beach all day, so trying to make the most of it.

We wanted to go abroad for the first time in April 19. It was looking like £3500+ - putting up 5 of us was going to be costly.

So we booked Scilly Isles instead that’s abroad, right?!

The kids go to school in a fairly affluent area and my job puts me in touch with people on good salaries. When we’ve mentioned where we’re going - and that we’re taking the ferry - everyone has been shocked we’re not flying. Including the DC’s DM! But flights are a cost we can’t afford justify. Just cutting our cloth.

we’re thinking this year that we may invest in some camping gear to start setting ourselves up for cheap holidays

Having looked at camping it is neither cheap or a holiday.

I would say Airbnb or holiday let is the way to go.

For us it's a high priority. We specifically bought a house 30% less than our top budget so our mortgage was "small" enough to allow holidays and other leisure. We save a certain amount a month (about 60% the cost of our mortgage currently, so perhaps 10-13% of our monthly salaries?) and that goes towards 1 or 2 holidays abroad a year. It's not a guilt thing because it's what we love to do so it makes sense it's our second biggest expense. We don't smoke or drink a lot, or buy lots of "stuff" plus our kids are now in school. Essentially our childcare bill turned into our holiday budget when the youngest started school! But we didn't have a holiday for a number of years when we had babies, we couldn't afford it then, I think that's why it's such a high priority for us now.

at the Scilly Isles. I'd love to go there, but just about everything about them is expensive - getting there, accomodation, food, drink and activities etc.

Agree with a PP that it can be harder to justify a UK holiday that could cost nearly as much as going abroad, once you factor in more expensive fuel, accomodation, food, drink etc, but you don't have the guaranteed good weather, so are likely to spend even more visiting indoor paid attractions because you can't just go to the beach etc.

But as well as being expensive, isn't the flight to the Scillies quite unreliable because of the weather/wind, so quite often you have to go by boat anyway.