Help me narrow down a holiday for our budget

[BrieAndChilli]

We have 3k and there is 2 adults and 3 kids age 8,11 and 12. We want to go mid August as only time DH can get off work.
I realise it’s a crap budget but it’s more than we’ve ever spent on a holiday thanks to a bonus. So I’m feeling pressure for it to be better than our normal camping trip or our £200 (+flights) euro camp holiday we did once.
I have no idea where to go or where would be doable on our budget. Most search sites need you to put in an exact destination and airport whereas I just want to say I have 3k where can I go!!
We aren’t really sit around a pool every day and drink all night type of family. But would like a pool for some down days. Would like lots of interesting places to go

Any ideas or should I just give up now?!

We flew to Venice on Easyjet, had a few days in the city, then took train to the Eugeni hills just beyond Padua and got air bnb for a week, pool, hill walking, bike riding, mad little villages. It's stunning there and not super developed.

We’re going to Valencia in July.

Airbnb is £1100 for the week, flights are £1000.

4 adults, 1 teenager and a baby.

I'd be giving the budget to an independent travel agent with some ideas of what you'd want to do and asking them to come up with some suggestions. If you're on FB search for Jo Allen Boden and ask her. She has brilliant bargains. But there will be local people who are independent promoting on selling sites etc.

Sarande may suit. Ksamil is a beautiful national park type place a few miles out of town with hotels etc. Easyjet should have a sale on next weekend, flights to corfu are usually a reasonable price. We landed and went straight to the ferry port, on the way back spent a couple of nights in corfu town, which is expensive for a holiday in august, but a last minute hotel without a pool shouldn't be expensive for a night or two. Sarande hotels can be expensive in august, but there are plenty of flats to rent with pools at reasonable prices. Food and drink prices are low and the people are friendly and helpful. The views are fantastic and the seawater is so clear.

Go on the Thomas cook website, you can leave all the search fields except date and number of passengers blank. That’ll give you a few ideas, then work from there.

Thanks. Will have a look at all these.
We went to the travel agent and got some brochures but it didn’t help us narrow it down at all!!
I liked at Croatia as people rave about it and it being cheap but it’s more expensive than lots of other places, I think the companies have got wise and put the prices up!

I realise it’s a crap budget

That is a hell of a lot more than we spend for 2 adults and 2 kids.

It's hard to advise without some more info about what you enjoy. If you are booking somewhere with a pool that limits the 'adventure' side and pushes up prices. You could still easily afford to do somewhere like Spain- stay in a resort, but near a big city (for example).

Most search sites need you to put in an exact destination and airport

Skyscanner don't. This search is from london, but you can amend.

www.skyscanner.net/transport/flights-from/lond/?adults=3&children=2&adultsv2=2&childrenv2=8%7c11%7c12&infants=0&cabinclass=economy&rtn=1&preferdirects=false&outboundaltsenabled=false&inboundaltsenabled=false&oym=1908&iym=1908&ref=home

I just want to say I have 3k where can I go!!

Is 3k what you have for the holiday or the whole budget. If that's just what you are willing to pay for flights and accommodation then you can be more adventurous (Thailand would be fab and might be doable).

Why not go to a travel agent for ideas, then research online to get it cheaper?

@donquixotedelamancha it’s easy more than we spend too, last holiday was £400 for 5 of us! But when I look on mumsnet and see people spending 10k on a holiday and also search and get things coming up 1-2k per person I realise my windfall amount of £3k doesn’t get us the ‘dream’ holiday we are expecting!!
Not including spending money in that. I did suggest Thailand as we spent 6 months backpacking there many moons ago but DH reckons August isn’t a good time to go weather wise. Maybe need to look into that a bit more as we prefer somewhere with culture rather than a identikit resort wher you could be anywhere.

DH ideal holiday is climbing in the mountains
DD wants beach and tropical
DS1 wants museums and places to look around
DS2 wants to dig for fossils in Utah!

I want pretty villages and markets to wander around, lunch on the beach, and reading.

I've never spent more than 1k on a holiday. I travelled around India for 4 months and only spent £300 the whole time I was there.

With 3k you can go almost anywhere in the world you like. Be adventurous, book flights and find cheap accommodation when you get there, or book Airbnb. I recommend Nepal. Don't bother with package holidays, they're almost always a rip off.

@NameChanger22
Was that £300 including flights and for 5 people? If so I am impressed!
5 flights tlonghaul would be most of our £3k gone.

Well that'smore to go on. Some thoughts:

1. What do you want to compromise on, accomodation or location? For your budget you can have a fancy holiday somewhere traditional or a cheap holiday somewhere adventurous.

1. Who will be happy not getting their first choice? You can probably please DD and DH or you and DS1. I am ignoring DS2 :-)

What about Belgrade ?

We went to the Bodensee in southern Germany for a week, flew to Stuttgart and hired a car, stayed in a lovely rental on the most gorgeous little island town (Lindau). It was excellent value, lots to do for kids that age, would totally recommend.

We are going to Norway and that might work for some of that list. Flights are with Ryanair to Oslo and very cheap - about £50 each return plus luggage. Then you would probably need car hire so that's maybe £1k for both those.

Accomodation via Airbnb would be very easy to get on rest of that budget - be around £1,500. We are doing Oppdal (moose safari, white water rafting, canyoning, also do Wilderness days incl family ax throwing!) and mountains there then we go over to Ulsteinvik to a beach house and have beach with giant rocks, seals, otters, odd whale / killer whale, rock climbing, bouldering, fjords etc then on to Oslo. Will visit Alesund. Bergen is lovely.

What about road trip round Italy? Lake Garda, Tuscany, Rome.

Or just use a site like last minute.com or travel republic

When you went to the travel agent did you say 'we have £3k, these are our requirements can yih suggest something' or did you just pick up brochures? I fine they're norm v helpful.
I do t agree with pp that you can go anywhere in the world, £3k for 5 people in August that's perhaps optimistic.

Try putting your requirements (date, party size, departure airports) into the deals section of [[https://www.jet2holidays.com/?ds_rl=1206481&gclid=Cj0KCQjw7YblBRDFARIsAKkK-dLWTb4X5JP-SdnwRXic3fOqiIiqNdf2W6ikKsIPV78Sod6_hOX6k64aAtzyEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds Jet2holidays. You can then sort by price to see if there is anything suitable for your budget.

Somewhere like the Costa del Sol might suit as there are museums in Malaga, a trip into the mountains is an option, plus beach, pool etc. However, it will be very hot in August. Northern Spain might be a better option - Costa Brava or Dorada. Or there's mountains and museums in Tenerife and Lanzarote and it shouldn't be as hot.

I would go self catering or B&B in an apart hotel, so then you're not tied to the hotel for food and don't have to worry about it not being to your taste. You can eat out once a day and then have easy food in the accomodation, pizza, barbecue, bread, cheese, ham, olives, crisps, etc.

I wouldn't take much notice of what others spend. Some have extremely exacting requirements and the budget to service it. Others seem to find an unbelievable amount of holiday for an impossibly small budget. I would like to see the latter in action, because I'm not sure if some of the claims can actually be turned into reality tbh.

Have you thought about the Azores?

Ryanair fly there now so fairly reasonable flights (I just looked at random dates in August and it was just over £200 pp return). Once there you can hire a car to explore the island (or islands if you want to ferry to another one).

If you went for an Air BnB I think it could come under budget. I spent about £500 on 7 nights on Sao Miguel. That was for a two bed villa, off peak but even so! I think for £1000 or so per week you’d get something decent.

It could give you some hiking for DH, beaches and almost tropical scenery for DD and museums for DS... I’m not sure about the fossils but it’s a bit Jurassic Park over there and with all the volcanic activity it’s pretty cool. Plus the whale and dolphin watching is amazing.

Also if this is a bit of a treat for you the Azores are definitely a bit different and special!

If you totally ignored the beach request, you could do Bavaria or Austria.

Lots of pretty towns, walking in mountains, could do sitting and reading by a lake instead of a beach, plus cultural things to do in Munich, or Vienna, Salzburg. Or King Ludwig's castles.

Italy fly to Naples then travel down towards the toe.
Pompei herculeum paestrum hard to beat them for history
Wonderful food beaches and wine
Lovely resorts
Or turkey?
Some time in Istanbul then a resort?Lovely thing to be planning

I dont recommend travel agents.

Search ryanair for flights or skyscanner for best deals.

I search all the accom websites like airbnb homeaway holidaylettings alpharooms travel republic (great as you can pay as you go)

Ive booked a month for 2 adults for €1600 staying in 3 different hotels. Two with breakfast included and one SC. Including flights!

Ill keep an eye out OP!

I’m interested in an Italian road trip for 5 too if anyone can advise!?

I'm going to Portugal mid August for £1300 for four of us. Apartment on a complex with 3 pools, near the beach etc. It is self catering, but we quite like that.