How does anyone afford to go away during school holidays?

[NatalieH2220]

Just that really, my son starts school in September and been looking ahead at a family holiday abroad for next year but prices are ridiculous! I always knew they went up but not this much.

Does anyone have any tips? Are there certain times that are cheaper? Or is 2k for a week away in the summer (Spain for example) standard if you have children of school age?

Teacher here so very used to school holiday prices! Yes, they are significantly more expensive for every holiday I've ever looked at When I first started work I wondered how my other friends from university who weren't teachers could go on so many holidays until I compare their prices with mine! While your child is little think about taking them out of school for a few days at the end of term. Often just being able to fly out a few days before the main holidays makes a significant difference. In my experience it's quite rare that schools find for short periods of time, but obviously you need to see what happens at your child's school about this

2k for Spain is not bad going during the holidays. Is that for a week?

Yes, school holiday prices are more expensive but I prefer not to take my children out of school.

Check to see if your holidays differ in anyway. Some places in England have different Easter holidays which means you might be able to get it cheaper.

2k for a week in Spain is good!

I was looking yesterday and it was coming out around 1000 per person. So 5 grand for a holiday 😮.

Feel really envious of those that can manage it.

I usually take mine out for a few days before the school holidays to avoid the price increase

We generally go at Easter instead. It's cheaper then.

We earn average salaries (as in uk average, not MN average!!) and we rarely go abroad. 2k for Spain is really good for school holidays.
We either self cater in the uk(we normally budget 800-1k for a cottage for 4 - it was quite a lot more this year) or go camping or to a mobile home in France, going on the ferry or euro tunnel.

During primary school I took my children out for a week because it was just so expensive.

We just didn't go abroad until we'd got past the childcare stage. Then family finances became a bit easier.

I never felt we missed out though. TBH a Mediterranean beach/pool holiday seems like hard work with young children. We had some lovely UK holidays when they were small and splashed out on overseas adventure holidays when they were teens.

Holidays next year are around 20% more expensive than usual due to the travel industry needing to recoup some money and responding to demand.
2k is not bad at all actually.

That's a normal price for a week in Spain in summer holidays. I remember being very shocked at price increase. Cheaper times are sometimes very end of summer holiday, some countries in Europe are back at school then or Easter or October half term.

Ex teacher. Had hardly any holidays in the ten+ years of teaching because of the prices in school holidays. Now I'm out of teaching but dd1 is now school age!

I'm all for taking kids out of school for a weeks holiday. Unless they are in an exam year or are struggling with school (academically or socially) and will struggle to slot back in, having a week out really makes naff all difference to kids. I budget the fine into the cost of the holiday and just tell the school we are going on holiday.

I always check against the school calendar to make sure she won't miss any special events (sports day, Christmas concerts etc) or any scheduled assessments. And I don't ask the teachers to do anything to catch her up, so they aren't being asked to do extra work. If they're in the middle of a class reading book I'll make sure we have a copy and take it away with us, read a chapter or two a day so that she's not behind the class on that when she gets back.

even a family member put their cottage prices up in the school holidays, their way of making extra money

Having enough money?

It is messed up in one sense, that having children penalises you financially. OTOH, it is not like hospitality is making out like bandits. They need to rake in the money when they can, just to survive.

To put things into perspective, ‘foreign holidays’ for anyone other than the super rich are a relatively recent phenomenon historically,

When mine DC were school age we used to go away the final two weeks of the summer holiday as prices dropped then compared to the other weeks.

the best time is when they are in the last year of senior school, and finish early , so just after their gsces,
and in primary it is not so bad to take them out in term time ime

I'm a teacher so have always had this problem. I've known quite a few former colleagues to go away on multiple term time holidays as soon they retire.

Please don't take your dc away at the beginning of term or in the middle of a term because they will be missing out on important learning but see if starting the holiday a few days before the end of term will make a difference pricewise (just before Christmas or the summer - the only terms when not too much happens for the last few days).

Pre pandemic it was still possible to do it reasonably cheaply by booking flights as soon as they came out and finding independent accommodation. However nowadays I can understand the benefits of a package with the cover it provides, plus next year's flights mostly out already and expensive as people have moved forward 2021 and 2020 ones.

Jet2holidays is a good one.

What does £2k cover though - a family of 3? All inclusive? What standard of accommodation - location (how far from beach and restaurants). There are so many factors that affect price and standard of holiday. I find it really hard to comment on whether £2k for a weeks holiday is bad or not without any other info.

Second the Jet2holidays recommendation. Look for free child place offers. Also try later in August and possibly from a Scottish airport if you're based in northern England, as their schools are back by then.

Look at the deals and be flexible about dates, destinations, location and quality/facilities. There's some basic self catering accommodation in the Greek islands or Canaries which may be 2/3 star, not because it's grotty, but because there are fewer facilities and services and the decor might not be particularly modern.

But it is clean and sufficient as a base and gives you access to a hot weather beach holiday at a more affordable cost. You can eat out cheaply locally or buy in easy food to eat while relaxing on the terrace.

But £2k is probably standard or even at the lower end in the school holidays. They can pretty much charge what they like and people will still book.

People manage by having a lot of money available for holidays, prioritising over other spending (they may spend little or nothing in other discretionary areas) or not going abroad every year and alternating with cheaper UK breaks (although it's not always cheaper to stay in the UK).

I used to take mine April May half term wasn’t always as expensive as august. Unfortunately it is what it is some refuse to pay some of us suck it up . If you book 12 months advance and pay monthly cost doesn’t seem as bad .

There aren’t really many ways around it. DH is a teacher so we were stuck with school holidays long before we had DC. We have fewer and less luxurious holidays than we would otherwise.

Autumn half term can be better, particularly if you go somewhere not too popular with uk tourists. We went to Puglia in 2019 then and it wasn't expensive

Most Scottish schools don't get the May week off, so that's another good option, if it's not too far to travel. Canaries would be perfect at that time of year, Majorca less so ( went in June once and it was a bit chilly).

Holidays towards the end of August are usually cheaper as European schools start to open from the week around 21st August. Our hotel in Greece a few years ago was £300 per night cheaper that week than the week before.

City break holidays are also much cheaper than beach holidays as a lot of European businesses close down in August. Fewer people doing business trips (pre Covid of course) and more people at the beach means more hotel rooms available in city centres.

I second the idea of going in the October half term. A lot of places are still warm enough for swimming and sunbathing, particularly the Canaries.

I think the Med is massively overpriced in the summer and find it too hot 😂😂😂😂. A couple of years ago we went to Mauritius for two weeks all inclusive in a five star hotel for £5k for four of us in July. It is their winter - we had two days of rain. The other 12 were bright blue skies and temps of 27 degrees. Felt like I got so much more for my money!!!!!!!