Help me find a summer holiday under £1000!

[lemonface]

Every year I think we might be a bit better off but we arent. I know we are lucky to have a holiday at all bit o struggle to find anything at this price. We usually camp but would like to try something else.
Anyone else do this regularly and fancy sharing places/ideas?

We are 4, me, DP and two DDs 11 and 9. We are quite adventurous and outdoorsy. Appreciate nice scenery beach, woods, mountains all good. Not into all inclusive type hotels.
Any ideas greatly received.

UK, some of the family rooms at YHA are great, you could do a road trip around Scotland or Wales to cover what you want to do.

For just over we did two weeks in Sweden. Cost about £1200 flying to Copenhagen then hired a car and had a cottage for two weeks followed by two nights in Copenhagen.

Went end of August flew with Ryanair from Luton to Copenhagen.

1200 included flights, car hire, two nights hotel and two weeks self catering cottage with a pool. 2 adults and 2 teenagers.

Somewhereovertherain that sounds right up our street! Would love to go to Copenhagen and also explore Sweden. Will look into flights. Would you mind saying how you found the cottage what sort of region it was in, was it warm?

Have you looked at Montenegro? You can get an apartment like this for 10 days inAugust for just over £700. www.homeaway.co.uk/p8014461
Easy jet fly from Gatwick and Liverpool to Tivat. It’s cheap when you’re out there. Lots of water sports and beautiful scenary. If you go out at Easter / half tees you can pick up apartments for under £300 a week.

Yes please show us the accomodation particularly @somewhereovertherain! I'd love to go to Scandinavia but can never find affordable accommodation.

We went last two weeks in August and booked through novosol cost us £600-700 for the fortnight.

Prices really drops then as the Swedish schools go back mid August.

We flew to Nuremberg last August and then drove about an hour to a lovely self catering place on a lake in Leuterhausen.
Including car hire it was about £900 in total for 4 of us

Landal Green Parks at end of August, hope the link comes up with dates but if not the prices I just got leaves enough for travel. Some of European centre parts might come in on budget too. Activities over there much cheaper than here.

We went to corsica last year. Beautiful beaches, mountains, scenery etc. We had a small, but perfectly adequate chalet, on a reasonable campsite, which was a good base for exploring the island. Accommodation, flights and car hire came to about £1050 for the last week of the summer hols. Flights from stanstead with air corsica were by far the cheapest.

I would definitely recommend it. We had a wonderful holiday.

We have booked flights from Gatwick to Innsbruck for about 560 pounds that was 2 adults and 3 children. That is midweek,
end of July to start of Aug.

There are loads of houses and flats on Airbnb and homeandaway. We booked a really nice 3 bed appartment in the Austrian Alps for about 750 for a week but there were lots of cheaper options if you go for a smalller more basic property. Car hire will be extra not sure how much that was.

I think the flights were a bit cheaper to Geneva.
For an outdoor family there seems loads to do. Most of the regions have summer passes which entitles you to free or reduced trips on the cable cars and outdoor pools and or activities. At the top of some of the mountains there are adventure parks for children.

Hello
I completely understand your dilemma and over the years have discovered a few tips which may be worth considering...

I think as children particularly like the idea of "boats" or "planes" to make it exciting, you could consider France - firstly it's not far! There are code discounts for example with Brittany Ferries (I'm happy to pass mine on) ....

Book early... Book a ferry early for best price and availability.
Rent a Gite. This will cut costs of high hotels and allow you to budget and plan and save up. Add extras from now into the basket and tuck away!! Take everything with you! Be organised and write a list so you don't forget anything and end up paying a fortune for arm bands or swimming costumes!

Don't go for an all singing dancing Gite with pool. Go for something central near facilities you can use for little cost. Personally our children/adolescents like being near things to do, a bit of independence.
Favourite place for us is Pyrenees but that's because we are outdoors people. Costs nothing in summer to pack picnic and go out up mountains, walking, swimming outside (obviously with caution and at recommended spots with adult supervision).
Definitely my biggest discovery is that some Gites are the price of hotels now. But some with everything but just more basic are still excellent quality and value.
Happy to tell you where we go in Pyrenees and post link. It's in Bagneres de Bigorre which is at the foot of the mountains but you have much on your doorstep the free too. I do realise you do have to add up ferry, petrol, gite etc but it is doable if you are super creative!! I have five children so I completely understand how you need to budget. France is quite expensive for food so take as much as you can and just buy fresh from markets.
Hope this helps a little! And Good Luck!!

We have done center parcs in Holland and Belgium for less than that - especially if you book ferry early. Lots of activities on site for kids and you can pick whichever area suits your interests to explore out of the park. We have stayed at sunparc (owned by center parcs) nr Dunkirk, easy daytrip to bruges, plus water park and theme park nr by and short cycle to beach. Also center parcs just south of Hook of Holland which was right by te beach for Waters ports. And one over nr German border nr toverland theme park which is fab

We had a fantastic time with 'Real Family Holidays' in 2016 with our then 11 and 13 year old.

www.real-family-holidays.org/

We had a week at Dale Fort in Pembrokeshire. It had the most stunning and spectacular beaches/coves I had ever seen (and I have been to Oz, Bali, Mexico, Thailand etc) which we walked to each day along the Pembrokeshire coastal path.

All meals were included and even coffee and homemade cake each afternoon.

We went out on a RIB boat, did watersports (available in the village of Dale) and visited St Davids and a nearby castle.

We had glorious sunshine all week which helped.

So if you are happy to stay in the UK, it might be an option.

We had a week in Stockholm a couple of years ago. Very cheap flights with Nowegian from Manchester. Booked this hotel hotelj.com/ through one of expedia/amoma/bookingcom. Family room for about £80 per night. Hotel was cheap as city empties of business in July as locals go to islands. Lots to see & do & family friendly e.g. children free on water taxis.

What about going to Lake Balaton in Hungary. They have spas nearby, and it’s very picturesque. They also have riding schools in the area.