Where do you live please?

Forest of Dean is generally a great place for a UK holiday, it's not too expensive for anything and most places you go you're allowed to take your own if you want to. It's also really beautiful with lots to do. We love it. More popular places will always be more expensive, but there's usually ways to save a few pennies.

Just back from a weekend in Wales.it was very last minute as we were supposed to be in Budapest but flight got cancelled.

it was just ok. We had breakfast and dinner included for the first night in the hotel.
it was absolutely fine,- nothing to complain about.
On day two, we went out for breakfast. It was a local cafe, and we decided to give it our business rather than go to the usual chains.
we waited for ages to even get a menu. No hash browns left and no veggie sausages available.
we left and went to costa!
Out dinner experience was equally underwhelming and disappointing!
Not much choice of places to eat, but we settled on a ‘gastro pub’
Had two courses of very average food and a bottle of wine for £85.
Service was ok, a bit patchy but not awful.

Apart from Saturday the weather was shit.- cold and damp.
We used to enjoy the odd weekend away in the Uk, but don’t even want to do that any more 😞

Had a glorious week in Greece recently, and have re booked for Budapest. This trip has just confirmed why we have never taken our main holiday in the uk and will probably not even do weekends here now!

I couldn't find a hotdog for DS6 last week at an outdoor festival type thing in London for less than £9.75 and that was the basic option without any fillings.

It's got the point now where I don't even think about days out let alone holidays without a Tupperware of crackers and fruit from home.

It's ridiculous.

We did do this. However this was the arrival day 🙂

@JulyDreams - the point being you are in a different area with different things to see and do surely? Even self catering you can go down the easier routes that at home maybe

I think far too many on this thread are either a captive audience (at a festival or wanting fifth snd chips at the seaside) or they simply don’t check out where to go first. There are reasonable places to go and putting together a picnic seems to be a lost art. It’s really cheaper to do a picnic. Never eat anywhere where you cannot walk away and look elsewhere and outlets at festivals have paid for the pitches, so of course you pay more.

i suggest most of you should avoid Padstow and Rick Steins fish and chip shop. You would have a collective heart attack!!

Natural History Museum last week.

£9 for a sandwich.... £9 fucking quid.
£2.85 for a 60p can of Coke.

Like hell will we ever buy another thing from that restaurant. Great museum spoiled by robbing bastards.

@JulyDreams - of course it’s cheaper. It’s doesn’t cost £9 to make a sandwich at home.
A bbq at self catered accommodation with pre prepared supermarket sides, desert and drinks will still be miles cheaper.
You can buy a whole lemon tart from m and s for about £5, which is 8-10 portions. Instead of £6-9 per slice from a restaurant

Sounds like a different reality to we have been seeing. We've been to the New Forest in April Isle of Wight May and we have a holiday home in South Cornwall we've been to 5 or so times this year and all is as always no price hikes, no lack of staff or depravity. How weird.

Exactly, the OP will have picked one of the big hotels which are always expensive. I know Torquay well,we go frequently and lots of places don't charge that. Hotels charge a lot,shocker 🙄

You can't seriously be unaware that it's miles cheaper (I'd say about a quarter to a third of the price on average, usually for better quality food) to take a picnic when visiting attractions?

Do you not normally do grocery shopping or visit supermarkets

Even a supermarket meal deal at £3/4, while more expensive than making your own sandwiches and having multipack crisps, cakes and drinks will be significantly cheaper than buying similar food at/near attractions.

You say you 'can't bring yourself to pack food and go shopping', but many of us either can't bring ourselves or simply can't afford to pay the prices charged by some of these places, especially as the food is often crap and at the end of a long queue, as well as being very overpriced.

I once saw a family of 4 pay nearly £30 for a sandwich, crisps and drink each at the shop in a local country park.

They could have got supermarket meal deals of pretty much the same food, probably for £12 as these were widely £3 each at the time, or probably made it all at home for about a fiver.

I think it depends where you go. I haven’t been to Devon/Cornwall for several years but it always seems - from what friends etc say - very expensive, very booked up, very busy. There’s so many other places to visit in the UK that will be cheaper and calmer. Obviously still no guarantee of sun though….

I'd rather swing by a Tesco on the way somewhere and spend 5 mins getting meal deals than pay ridiculous food prices at attactions- we're not on a budget either, I'd just rather spend money on other things.

Never used to spend much money on food at attractions.
would maybe buy coffee and cake sometimes or ice cream, but usually we would buy something like a Tesco meal deal or similar.
it’s like when you see people at the cinema spending £££ on overpriced snacks and drinks that you can get way cheaper from any supermarket!

Recently went to a day festival on holiday, yes could have picked up a tesco meal deal but frankly didn't want to, I very much enjoyed my £8 jerk pork burger and £4 chips. Kids shared a £9 pizza. It wasn't the world's most exciting pizza but we were on holiday and sick of sarnies by then ( had had for lunch the day before).

Not strange at all and we are in no way wealthy!

We're just back from a weekend camping in the Lake District.

The pubs had noticeably put their prices up since last visit by £1-2 per dish and the quality of the food and service had gone down. One particular pub was running a QR ordering process but didn't tell customers on arrival and most things were sold out.

However we just adapted and thankfully the weather was good - so takeaway fish and chips from the van at £8 rather than £13.95 in the pub. The gastropub a bit further away interestingly hadn't put their prices up and do an amazing fish finger butty so we had lunch there, and a packed lunch rather than a cafe or pub visit another day.

We're also more price conscious than we used to be as less disposable income due to fuel and electricity increases. If you're camping though it's still miles cheaper than going abroad which we're doing later in the year.

@Metabigot Ah, festivals are different, especially music festivals. I buy all the food and the drink at a festival. It’s gotta be done😀

Now I'm too old to get wasted I get high on the food stalls!

We love UK holiday (hence the name!). We go away 3/4 times a year and stay in lodges. We take food for lunch and tea every day and have ice cream/hot drinks when out. We would rather pay more for accommodation/days out and take food with us than spend money eating out. I generally cook beforehand and then only need to take something out of the freezer before we head out for the day. We've had a week in Wales and one in the Yorkshire Dale's this year and both have been wonderful.

@Ukholidaylover
We have a holiday home in Cornwall and I’m happy cooking in the evening. Mostly pretty easy meals and sometimes pre prepared. I don’t need to eat out every day. We take pre prepared deli lunches and find farm shops useful. Many have cafes. You can keep costs down by being savvy!

@TizerorFizz Couldn't agree more! I don't understand why people find it an issue cooking on holiday. I don't spend more than 20 mins cooking in the evenings on holidays as i pre-plan our meals. It's much more enjoyable for us to have a busy day out with a picnic and come back to the lodge and have tea rather than then go out for a meal that evening.

We've only been to Cornwall once and loved it, you're very lucky to have a holiday home there.

@Ukholidaylover
Do come to Cornwall! I suggest May/June or September/Oct. Might not be perfect weather but we really like it when it’s not too busy. Our local restaurants at Nathan Outlaw so going out is mega expensive but we have found other less expensive options when we need them. We are pretty good at finding picnic locations with a view! In fact our house has a view to die for! No hardship eating there.