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?

@Zodlebud Canaries are super expensive in October break as that's the best time to go. You can go to less southerly places - Portugal, Spain etc and hopefully get decent weather.
We went to Sorrento and Rome once during the October break and had amazing weather, but apparently that was a bit of a fluke.

Camping and Scotland, possibly in combination.
Easter too.

The only people I know who go abroad in school summer holidays don’t also pay for child care.

Occasionally we go back later than most schools (finish later), like this year but until 9 September, which would allow us to sneak a slightly cheaper week.

Definitely the last week of August. We quite often go to France then. We also sometimes house swap with friends in the UK- so they get a week long city break and we get a lovely week in the New Forest.

We've also done a couple of these places
www.theguardian.com/travel/2013/may/09/10-family-holidays-summer-school

See how your son settles in during the first few months and if all is ok I’d take him out for a week in June. We used to do this with ours in primary.

When they got older we went at the end of August as it seemed to be a bit cheaper.

we can bring a week in Europe in for four in for 1.5k, often by choosing less popular resorts, or even just by flying into the "wrong" airport and driving the extra distance. We saved over a grand once by flying into Madrid instead of Malaga and doing a long but easy drive to the cost. The 1k saving included extending the holiday by 2 days with a hotel in Madrid, to enjoy the city a bit, plus extra petrol and car hire. We always fly with budget airlines.

This year they are particularly expensive so we're having a holiday at home.

It would normally cost ds and I £1,000 for a week so instead, I've bought two sun loungers for the garden, quoits and hoopla. Nice ice cream in the freezer. Ds has done a 5 day swimming course, we've been to the beach, been clay shooting, pedalos on the local pond. Canoeing with friends, cycling, picnics. We had a Mediterranean week when I cooked all Spanish & Italian foods.

So far, 3 weeks has cost about £500. it just takes a bit of planning.

I just don't go. We had a 4 day holiday 2 years ago to a wet wooden tent/shack in Devon. Only one I've ever taken the kids on. I last had an actual holiday in 2005 (aged 15) - prices went up too much for the family to afford it after, either uk or abroad.

I could camp, but frankly, I view that as a punishment not a holiday. Due to start teacher training soon, so I imagine I will remain priced out of holidays due to the out of term hike up until the kids have left home realistically (single parent).

Fortunately, it's been so long since I've had a holiday, I've forgotten what I'm missing .

We used to go May half term. August was too hot and busy for us.

It was very rough but flights came in at £1.2k (2 adults, a 4yo and 1yo) so just rounded. Would likely be slightly more in reality for hotel/apartment not to mention spending money. Interesting that so many people say that's good, my expectations are obviously way off!

We are usually UK holiday people so maybe the jump to abroad plus the school holiday increase is why it seems so great.

Thanks all for the tips though, really helpful. I will definitely look into these too. Thank you!

We're in Scotland so only go abroad first 2 weeks in July or October half term which is earlier than England. Significantly cheaper.

£2K for a week in Spain in the summer sounds like a bargain tbh.

We used skyscanner and it usually meant flying in and out on non traditional route patterns. Eg fly out Wednesday come back a week Thursday. We then used booking.com and used the filters for our needs eg price range, with, pool beach nearby etc.
We saved £1000's over the years.
Also go to less popular holiday destinations, even inn Spain. We used to go to the beaches in Germany a lot the weather was always good. Sometimes we would drive there and have a day trip and overnight stay and make it part of the holiday.

I think flights in school holidays can be a large part of the cost. As a comparison, we usually pay around £150 pp for a return flight to Spain and have never paid more than £250 pp and that was including 3 hold bags for 2 people to take sports equipment. We've had out of season Canaries flights for £30 pp return, so maybe £100-120 for the two of us, once you include a hold bag to share.

The tip about driving and making it part of the holiday could be a good one, especially if you go to France or a European Center Parc type place.

I like Travel Republic for flight searching. You can do a general search from multiple airports then play with the filters to fine tune the options.

If you generally travel to airports by public transport/taxi, especially if you can use any of the London airports, don't discount flying out from one airport and returning to another.

We bought a touring caravan for school holiday trips. In 2019 we toured to south of france and intend to get the ferry to Spain next year. Currently away in it in Somerset. Love our van! Full central heating and a bathroom too. 2 weeks is costing us £500 plus food/days out.

Spain a bit more due to ferry but france (ferry to st malo followed by an overnight on way down) was about a grand for all.

When ours were little we took them out of school for the last 3 or 4 days (which lowers the cost a little) and all the work is completed 2 weeks before the end of term anyway. Then when they got older we booked a holiday let ourselves and booked our flights separately (although this may not work well in these covid times). Or if you live in the north of England fly mid August when Scottish kids have gone back to school, or if in Scotland fly from England at the start of the Scottish holidays, go camping, fly out on a Monday or Tuesday or maybe look at a 8 or 9 day holiday rather than 7 days as flights maybe cheaper.

We’ve had 10 years of amazing holidays via home exchange. Swapped with families in Spain France Italy and California plus the big cities Berlin Paris Madrid. . Swap house and car. Life changing. Our kids have visited so many places. We have nice house in tourist city though that others want to visit.

We save up but it’s worth it. £2K for a week sounds cheap!
Actually our Mediterranean holidays with pools have been fantastic, enjoyed by everybody

2k for Spain is pretty good. Our UK holiday last year for a week was £1600. I know what you mean though, we don't even live in a particularly affluent area but it seemed every kid in my dc class was off to Greece, Spain or Italy every summer holiday

I'm in Scotland so we try to plan the last week in June as a holiday so that the English schools are still in. We look at flying from as far as Manchester as even with the added costs of travel/hotel it often is still cheaper than flying from up here. We tend to book a package holiday and shop about. I find it all depends on what you want from a hotel, you can get really cheap deals if you don't mind it being a wee bit out the way. Under 3s are usually free on flights so remember to check that

£300 pp for flights is high - probably as a result of carry forward flights from the last couple of years.
Skyscanner is good for a play around with dates and locations.

Tbh, Spain and Greece are as cheap as chips compared to the UK. Two years ago I did a week in Spain (Holiday Inn hotels, easyJet flights) for about £500 for the journey and accommodation, including breakfast. Another £500 or so for food and extras there. Good meals in non chain places for about €20 a head. We went on 17th August.
That said, I book flights the day easyJet release them.

A friend booked flights for majorca the day they came out and they were over £300 each for may half term.

Yes id say £2k was low end for a week in summer holidays.

The cheapest holiday in August abroad we have been on was Bulgaria. And we loved it. Cheap when you get there too.

Our favourite was a week at centerparcs in Eindhoven. Half board with flights and b&b in the city on the day we flew in was £2k for 4.

@MsTSwift who do you do the home exchange through? Is there a website you sign up for? Have you ever had any issues?

Homelink

No major issues just niggles - usually car related. You need to not be “precious” about your house we have had people clutch pearls about how they could never do it strangers in your horse etc but frankly we’ve had a decade of awesome trips paying only our travel expenses and what we choose to spend there so who dares wins!