Afford something nice in the school holidays

[imdad]

Hi there,

I have spent weeks, literally, looking for a decent holiday during the summer school holidays (we’re both teachers). We have a budget of £3k. This isn’t much to some but it is to us. Two adults and two children.

The only hotels we can find are 3-star dumps to be honest. Prices have really shot up this year!

Are there any other locations that the mainstream are not aware of so much that can give us a little bit of luxury..... I have even looked at Eurocamp or the like but cooking and cleaning doesn’t seem much like a holiday if I’m honest.

Who would know finding holidays is so stressful? Sounds awful compared to the real problems out there in the world but oh well - this is my problem today...

Any help would be great. Thanks

@RippleEffects some amazing trips in your post!

Someone upthtead mentioned Sweden. Can definitely recommend. End of our summer holidays isn’t theirs as well so flights not expensive and much quieter! We do flights (for 4), car hire and air bnb for about £1100. We budget for a couple of attractions and a day in Stockholm but mostly the countryside is lovely - especially out in the archipelago. Avoid alcohol as it’s crazy expensive though.

Last year we went to italy for the last 2 weeks of august but drove so the 2 weeks cost us £2k for the 5 of us for Eurocamp for 1 week, 4 nights of hotels on the way there and back, eurotunnel, and petrol. Spending money was then on top.
We had a great time. I thought the driving was going to be a nightmare but we stopped quite often, spent the afternoon in Geneva, stopped at the battle of waterloo (on a whim) etc
The eurocamp was great, private access to the beach, amazing pools, onsite restaurants/takeaways/shop, activities etc etc
When on holiday we do a mix of meals/takeaways and if cooking in the accommodation we do 'easy' meals like BBQ some meat and eat with salad and bread or buy a ready made lasagne of something. so its still cooking but with minimal prep etc.

How are you getting on Imdad? I feel like this is my specialist subject as we are always snuffling about trying to get affordable holidays. I would love to be able to look at Tui andjust book something. Nothing so simple in this house!! but we have managed to have some crackers.

I think for future years you need to be much better organised. This is late. For example jet2 flights have just come out for summer 2021. If you go on there and do some comparisons you will see that the flights are much cheaper than they are for the same destinations this year.

My top tip is to go from Scotland (if this is possible for your location) in the last 2 weeks of English school holidays. Big savings to be had, and once you have your cheap flights, instead of hotels try looking at villas on airbnb or homeaway or even apartments with shared pools for maximum budget saving.

I regularly see inexpensive flights to Milan, Girona and Dubrovnik. Milan you could get out to the Lakes. Girona - so many lovely coastal places like Begur then combine with Barcelona or drive down to Salou. We flew to Dubrovnik and drove into Montenegro to stay in a gorgeous apartment with pool for the week. Eating out was cheap as chips. I am also interested in the Croatian islands. I would like to go to Korcula and have a fantastic apartment lined up there on Airbnb for only £730 for the week.

Malaga is another good one. We had a great week in a villa in Nerja and ended with 3 nights in an all inc iberostar. We like a bit of all inc but struggle with cost so have done that a few times - a posh ending or beginning!

Also half board is another money saver - and ten or twelve days instead of 14. Three stars don't have to be crappy. They can be amazing for food but you've got to research carefully.

The canaries seem to be very good value in the summer holidays, and there look to be some lovely all inc hotels in fuerteventura and lanzarote

We have also done short cruises and added on a few days on the end. This year we are driving and going to France and Germany via some theme parks for our teenagers. We've never spent £3k. But I do agree that it is getting to that point as prices are definitely going up. Sorry for enormous stream of consciousness!!!

Three stars don't have to be crappy. They can be amazing for food but you've got to research carefully

Agree with this. What I forgot to say in my first post is that people often forget that stars relate to facilities, not niceness, so it doesn't follow that a 4 star hotel will be nicer than a 3 star, just that there will be some facility that you might not even care about, like a business centre or 24 hour reception.

One of the nicest hotels we have stayed in, with the best food was a 3 star in a small town in Mallorca, it didn't do All Inclusive, which I think is a factor - with AI they have to account for lots of waste and people who eat/drink a lot, which obviously costs.

For the last couple of year we have found British Airways holidays to be the cheapest, you can book flight and accommodation together but need to then add on transfers, etc. They also have a holiday finder where you put in dates and it brings all destinations

3 star doesn't automatically mean dump! Base it on recent reviews and most recent photos rather than your first impressions. I took my dc to Alicante for 5 nights for less than £600 last summer and that included everything, even spending money and some treats at the airport and on the plane. Obviously you have more people but it can be done for far less than 3k so if you can spare that and do your research you will have an amazing holiday!

Have u tried Sunmaster? We booked for 2 Adults and 2 kids and was good value.
Also haven in uk great too, so much for kids to do on site.

We’ve just booked La Croix du Vieux Pont campsite in France for 6 people-1st week of the summer hols with two cars on the ferry for £1200. It’s obviously a self drive holiday but we’ve stayed here a couple of times and it’ll be a nice break for the kids (we go to Florida in October which is our main holiday). We booked through Thomson Al Fresco which has quite a lot of selection if you don’t mind a caravan in the sun.

Would you consider driving? With kids those ages I would recommend booking a mobilhome here

www.camping-lac-bleu.com/en/

Wonderful place/views/ pool and lake/ mountains/cycling. Restaurant on site and some activities but not ott kids club.

Spend a day in Annecy the town. Go up the mountains in a cable car or visit caves, or the glacier at Mont Blanc.

We’re going to Cyprus (to be exact to Paphos) for a week followed by 3 nights in Kyrenia. 2 bed apartment in Paphos was $400. To Kyrenia with transport fees is around $150. The lunch is included which is great no need to cook. Website where we rented www.cyprusvillas.com/
Can anyone recommend another travel destinations because I truly do not know where is safer to go with 2 kids

How about a British Isle cruise, lots of entertainment and activities are included and plenty for your DC to do? Your budget would get you a week long cruise.

Just realised this is an old thread.