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 leave an oil-filled heater on at night but not a fan heater.

If you book independently you can get much better prices if you are willing to self cater and look at unusual options. We book ferry crossings and then just work out where we want to go - I highly recommend Germany which is beautiful and a bit cheaper eating out, though the formula 1 hotels in France are very cheap. We eat out every night but to keep the budget in check we mix it up from posher restaurants to kebabs - German pubs being our favourite place (though complicated by a vegetarian daughter!). Using Booking.com you should be able to get b&b for £50-60 a night. For lunches we often pick up food in supermarkets and always pack in the car a bread knife, spreading knife, tin opener etc plus a cool bag, some places we stay have kitchenettes and our DD's sometimes choose to buy food for dinner at markets and stay in (that's teenagers though I suspect those days are gone now they are old enough to drink!) All In we usually pay around £600-800 a head but that's everything

another one to say that you're looking in the wrong places.
We go every year to decent places but fly budget and stay in 3 or 4 star hotels. We also eat out whilst there but quite often will have sandwiches as we're on the go a lot on holidays.
We are not high earners but we have managed to see a lot of countries due to the fact that we don't book business class or 5 star hotels. we want to see the places we are in rather than an expensive bed etc...

We go every other year, in between it's a trip to Devon (free, stay at mums) and camping or b&b's (thankfully without kids these days but d have to pay for dog)

I hate this sort of question. Don't you have the imagination to realise that some people have more disposable income than others?!

Don't you have the imagination to realise that some people have more disposable income than others?!

And those with similar disposable income have different preferences and priorities. Regular smokers/drinkers/coffee drinkers probably spend the same on their daily habits as an annual holiday! Some will choose one over the other. Not many will be able to do both!

I went out with a few friends the other night (years since I last went out!). I couldn't believe how much a round of drinks cost. Won't be doing that again in a hurry! I'd rather not waste money down my throat regularly like that and have decent holidays instead!

I can't think of a better way to spend my disposable income than on holidays!

I'm happy to drive a 9yo car and spend my spare cash on family holidays and a couple of girls weekends away, other people prefer to drive a flash car and have less holidays. Horses for courses.

For me holidays are what I work for , I have a crappy car but for me it only serves its purpose to get me from a to b (and there and back from airport numerous times ), I'd much rather spend my hard earned money on holidays than flash cars , gadgets etc

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*

I don’t do any of the above.

I also don’t wear makeup, spend money on clothes and I don’t eat meat or gamble. I was recently at the customer service but in Tescos waiting for an assistant to get back to me and was shocked to see how much money was spent on cigarettes and the lottery/scratchcards.

I think the lowest amount was a tenner and one guy spent £140.

I know looks can be deceiving but some of the people who were buying what looked like a weekly amount of cigarettes and lottery were spending around £25.

Our next holiday will be around £7000 which includes all spending money.

It is a holiday of a lifetime.

We don’t know how long dp has.

I'd rather not waste money down my throat regularly like that and have decent holidays instead

I know. SIL and BIL are always making snipy comments that DP and I 'are always going on holiday' and it's not fair that they can't afford it like we do.

We have very similar incomes but their day to day spending is enormous compared with ours - I spend very little on clothes, shoes and accessories and nothing on hair, make up or beauty treatments, while SIL is shopping or getting her hair and nails done all the time.

They both smoke and go to the pub once or twice a week, whereas we don't smoke and go out to eat about once or twice a month. We tend to have one drink while out as cocktails, wine and spirits are just ridiculously overpriced. If they cut in half what they spent on this sort of stuff they'd still spend loads more than we do and would be able to afford a couple of foreign holidays each year.

Some people don't even have the disposable income for any treats let alone a holiday, some people have so much money they can have everything, but most people are somewhere in the middle and have disposable income for some treats, but not everything all the time, so they have to prioritise and pick and choose according to what is important.

I'm not interested in handbags or designer nails and prefer to take my own lunch to work most of the time, because unless you spend a lot of money, most prepared food that people buy for lunches isn't really that nice, so I see it as a waste of money and would much rather have more money available for holidays.

I do think that if you shop around and not go solely with a package deal and cut down on weekly expenses then a lot of people would be able to afford a holiday abroad that currently cant.

A staycation used to be a cheap holiday.

Looking at £1000 for a caravan somewhere on the coast for a week compared to something of a similar size on the continent for a few hundred pounds seems like an awful lot of money.

We have spent £1000 on one week in a large 5 bed villa. (Sleeps 10) with its own swimming pool in Marbella over looking the sea.

The cost of getting down to Spain is probably cheaper than the train tickets to get to the UK coast

We’re having 4 holidays next year (this is not the norm). All outside school holidays.

1. Skiing. EasyJet flights for £100 each. Car hire from air miles. Accommodation £200 for both. Food will be a mix of eat in and eat out. Ski passes will be a lot but can’t avoid that and we’re getting a 10% early purchase discount). I reckon including food/drinks out this will be £700 a head including ski pass - good going for a main French ski area.

1. Family holiday

£1400 all inclusive for 8 days for 4 of us in the canaries. EasyJet flights, mid range hotel (says 5* but it looks more like a 4)- reviews are generally very good. Paying a bit more to have a 2 bed apartment not us all crammed in one room. I have researched obsessively for this.

1. Honeymoon. 3500 total. I’m not justifying that - it’s a once in a lifetime thing. Just the two of us. Cartibean. All inclusive including activities - looks amazing and great value considering what you’re getting.

1. To be booked: one week self catering in UK. 3 bed place not on the beach but an easy drive to one and easy drive to other things for the DC to do. Mostly cooking in with a bit of eating out - approx £1200 for the 4 of us for a week all in including activities (ferry takes £150 of that!)

Apart from the honeymoon we can justify doing the other 3 holidays every year going forward I think. There’s been a lot of belt tightening to get through the nursery years but there is light at the end of the tunnel and I intend to enjoy it.

£1250 a head for 2 DC holidays and 3 for us is affordable to us.

I often use air bnb!

It's the environmental impact of the flights I find unjustifiable...

I am sure it must be a vegan also then..,

You not it. Not sure what happened there.

it's the environmental impact of the flights I find unjustifiable

I wonder what percentage of flights are holiday flights compared with cargo or business flights and also how the environmental impact of flying on holiday compares with that of meat production or plastic stuff, stuff in general or packaging.

If I had to give something up, it would be most stuff/plastic, packaging etc, meat and flying on holiday, in that order.

Air bnb. We've booked our honeymoon in a gorgeous cottage Lake District. £330 mon-Friday.
You can easily go away cheaply in the uk?

Absolutely blueskies. Passports and photos alone. Or just flights would cost that!

Uk you just don't get the weather or the holiday vibe or warmer sea temperatures

@mumto2boys i personally wouldn't want to leave heater on overnight although ours has a safety cut out in case it gets knocked over.

As for the toilet issues - yeah its a pain. I wont schlep across a campsite to the toilets. Nearest tree will suffice! I am considering a portable toilet.

We dont have a flash car either. We cant afford £££ for holidays. Some folk can. Thats fine

That is why I won’t go camping.

I have gone years without a holiday. I refused to go camping when dp offered. By the time we had bought a tent and other camping gear it would have cost too much.

We go abroad every year. I don't need to justify it to anyone! And I certainly don't feel guilty about it...

How can people afford and justify doing this every year?

I spend a lot more than that on a weeks holiday each year. I have nothing to justify to anyone especially the OP

A holiday is very important to me to get away from the daily routine and spend proper time as a family as DH works long hours running his own business.

I don't eat out, have take away coffees, but much clothes or make up and only buy from the sales. A holiday is more important to me.

I buy flights when they first come out. Last year it was £300 for flights to Turkey for 5 of us, other places we have been to are Cyprus for £500 flights and Dubai for £1000.

Then I book hotels either directly or compare a lot till I get the cheapest.