Do families who go on 'big' holidays usually rely on credit cards?

[tigermoth]

It's been years since we last went on a 'proper' holiday abroad. Those two weeks in Corsica cost us around £4,000+ (two children, two adults). We had the money at the time and it was a lovely holiay

Since then we have mainly stayed with dh's family in Devon, so we are used to virtually 'free' holidays.

We love Devon, but I know that both our boys have wonderful memories of Corsica. I know how much they would love to go abroad again somewhere similar. As would dh and I.

I also know how much such a holiday is likely to set us back - not necessarily another £4,000 but we'd have to fund the cost of accommodation and airfares (during the school holidays) and we are simply not used to doing this.

It might seem a stupid question, but how do people actually pay for those sort of package holidays? Is it common practice to pay in monthly installments? If so, for how many months can you pay the cost - ie £3,000 spread over 3 months is not a lot of good for us!

We don't have credit cards, so can't spread the payments that way. And with no credit card, we'd have no access to any emergency cash if we were abroad. This worries me. At home with dh's family we have backup if anything goes wrong.

dh and I are not keen on getting a credit card as we both doubt we would be disciplined enough with it. But is it a 'must' if we plan this sort of holiday?

Xenia, there is more to life than just money. By posting messages like that on a Saturday morning, it really makes you sound like a sad lonely unhappy woman with nothing but money to console her.
Now I know from your previous posts that is not the case (yes you have money but you sound happy) and I see the point you are trying to make, but it sounds a bit 'odd'

We have a savings account into which we pay a small amount each month. That is usually enough for a week away in the summer (on top of the week in Holland with my parents) as well as one or two weekend breaks throughout the year (for instance we are hoping to do a long weekend in Jersey in the spring) I would not put the whole holiday on the cc, but we do put meals out whilst on holiday on the cc.

We want to go abroad next year too, so we are going to put the deposit down then pay each month until paid off.

For spending money we have a tin which you put £1 coins in it holds £500 so we are filling it up You can only open it with a tin opener, we will then have extra on top of this of what dp would get paid that week & what we live on normally, this way we get a nice holiday.

I would seriously consider doing a homeswap. We have done loads, and they are great! There are downsides, but basically, you can get good accommodation for free. Also handy in that if you swap with another family, their house is set up for family and know about family orientated things in the area. For our international ones, we have tended to use a site called Intervac. It will be on google. Also this way you can choose if you want to stay in and cook or go out for meals (or do both!)

It's more about how you spend your money (or use credit) not just how much you earn, isn't it?

I know families with similar incomes and day to day lifestyle to ours who regularly go on 'big' holidays. They may not do this every year, but do so every few years.

Roisin, good point about the raised expectations. This is one reason why we keep going back to Devon. The weather has usually been kind to us and the beaches are fabulous. And we also get to see Devon friends and family. I dread spending thousands of pounds on a holiday abroad, only be disappointed when we get there.

We are going on a big holiday this year (at christmas + my 40th)
I paid for it on cc, then nearly collapsed when the first bill came in and I realised how much interest I was going to be paying per month. I got a much cheaper loan and repaid the credit card in full with it.

Forgot to say that this means I am stuck with my car for 2 years and won't be taking a holiday atall next year.

We tend to make our own arrangements for travel & accommodation as I think it works out cheaper overall than a package holiday. We pay it off the month we get back. I don't think we've ever had to spend more than £2000, though, perhaps because we buy the plane tickets in advance etc. This year we had our first holiday in the UK and it was paid in advance - a strange feeling not coming back to a huge credit card bill.

We have saving accounts where we put x amount a month, and holiday money comes out of that.

Right I'm off to become a top lawyer in a City firm, don't try and stop me. I need the money for a holiday.

Xenia - thanks for the top advice. Right, who wants to be a doctor? Tiger, you? Great. You're in. Who wants to work on the money markets? Maureen, I've put you down for that.

Definitely cheaper to book hotel and flights instead of a package - I don't rate expedia usually they don't seem to be the cheapest.

As an example, you can get 14 nights in this 2 bedroomed apartment in Limassol, Cyprus on 6th August 2008 for £541.73

Flights with Thomson from Gatwick to Larnaca are £1135.92 inc taxes.

I don't think £1677.65 is bad for 2 bedrooms in August! A taxi to and from the airport wouldn't be much either.

We always book everything seperately. I do it all on the net adnd it works out pretty esy and def cheaper.

But your daughters can make those choices when they're asking you for advice on careers - some children pick jobs because they liked teh face of the person talking about that job. They need guidance - job X which you might like as much as job Y means holidays in Bognor and hard to buy children's shoes. Job Y means Mark warner or safari in Africa is small change etc etc. Women have a big influence over children's careers both by the example they set their children in their work (if they work) and in helping them understand the implications of particular job choices.

And yes there's more to life than money, like nice holidays.

As someone said there's also the option of living on high male earnings if you can pick a rich man and keep him happy, but a lot of women find that morally repugnant.

For me a "nice" holiday is one where all the family are together, doing things we enjoy, going to places we love, and having loads of fun together. Decent weather helps (for me 20 degrees will do), but isn't essential. We've had one of our best holidays at Easter in Cornwall, and our recent one was pretty fab, camping in Cornwall for a fortnight - in fact we thought it was better than our holiday abroad earlier in the year.

Money gives you the opportunity to go abroad, but doesn't mean you have a "nice" holiday. Not IMO anyway.

Hi tigermoth

What is it you're looking for from a big holiday? Being abroad and somewhere different or going to a resort type place to stay on teh beach/by the pool? If it's just abroad, you can pick an area that's not as popular (but still beautiful) taht's close to more resorty type places. I've never booked a package (but I also doubt any of my holidays count as "big holidays" ) but, even as a single parent, I usually managed to get abroad. I accept that lots of teh UK is lovely but I want difference when I go on holiday as well.

I (now we) always book travel and accommodation separately.

Who is this mmj woman??? Police!

tigermoth, we went to Spain this year - in May/June, not high summer, we managed to get 2 weeks around the May half-term. Accommodation would be more expensive in summer, not sure about flights.

I booked the flights before Christmas - that was pay in full, c £400 for 4 of us - I used a credit card on-line but you can do it with a debit card just as easily (I assume you have one of those?)

The apartment we stayed in was approx 1/3 deposit, by cheque (this was direct with owner via holiday-rentals) and the balance 2 months before departure, again by cheque.

We took some cash with us and used a debit card to get cash out of ATMs over there, but did mostly use a credit card for purchases and you have to have a credit card to hire a car.

Either paying in instalments or opening a savings account for the money sounds like the best plan but you really do need a credit card abroad - just be v v v careful with it

HTH

What about camping overseas? We had a lovely holiday this year in France and Italy with a rental car, a tent, a camp stove, and a chiller box which plugged into the car. This meant we could self-cater while still seeing lots of lovely things and camping saved us a lot of money. We always save up for holidays in advance and give ourselves a budget. Much less stressful. Good luck with your holiday planning!

I don't have a credit card, but dh does, purely for buying holidays on line.

ds is too young for school, so we can access cheaper holidays at the moment. We try to go away every three months, but we have to be cost-conscious, obviously.

If we book a holiday on the 1st or 2nd of the month, it gives us nearly 60 days to pay for it. And then we pay for it in full so we don't incur interest charges.

Our budget for the three of us is well under £1000, and we don't go away for more than a week at a time.

primagravida - a few questions: Did you tour around a lot, or basically stay on one site for several days? Did you book the sites in advance? Did you fly and take all your own gear? Or did you hire the tent/stove/kit etc.? It sounds fantastic btw.

We caught a train from Manchester to London and then caught the Eurostar to Paris where we picked up our rental car. We took the tent, and chiller with us (bought off Ebay) and bought an air mattress and camp stove in Paris. We toured around and ended up staying in a different site every night except in Tours where we stayed two nights. We only booked the Eurostar and rental car in advance and just pulled over when we saw a campsite sign and it was dark. £400 for the car for two weeks with Eurocar, £110 for Eurostar, £100 Manchester to London (for the two of us, don't know how much for kid). Plus another £600 for food and fun. I was six months pregnant at the time and was great to have so much flexibility. We didn't have any children with us but all of the campsites were full of kids and were very kid friendly (baby baths, changing facilities, playgrounds, swimming pools etc.) Might cost less if you flew. It was a brilliant holiday. Let me know if you have any other questions.

We've generally made a holiday abroad a priority and gone some nice places but stayed in some pretty awful accommodation. Then we discovered booking accommodation and flights separately and found, particularly if you book with apartment owners, you get much nicer accommodation than you do when you book a package.

We have since then bought our own apartment as a bit of business but still need to arrange flights etc. We usually check Skyscanner for flights. Homelidays, HolidayLettings and Owners Direct are great places to look for individually owned property.