October half term holiday- £5k?! Am I too tight?

[mummyofthreeunder4]

We are looking at booking an October half term holiday- 2 adults, 3 DC being aged 4, 2 and 4 months.

We are looking at all inclusive, pool hotel type holiday, 4star or so. Ideally somewhere with a kids club and splash pool.

Tenerife most likely option, Portugal is our preference but too expensive. Ideally no more than 3-4 hours flight.

I have scoured the internet and most options (when independently booking flights and a hotel) are coming out at £4.5-5k.

I spoke to a travel agent yesterday and she said that I would be really pushing it to find something for 5k.

Is that right? A family holiday of 6-7nights in an all inclusive is now £5,000!?! How do people do it!?

Yes that’s about right for five people in the school holidays.

Are you looking at a week or two?
I've just booked 4* AI in Tenerife for 2 adults, 4 kids for £3.5k
We do get two free child places (although I'm always sceptical about these ACTUALLY being free) but £5k would get me an AMAZING hotel!
We are going on the Friday so kids miss a day of school

OP you have many, many years ahead of you where you will be tied to term time because one of your three kids is at an important stage at school. Don't go in half term and save yourself a grand at the outset.

Secondly there are far, far cheaper AI deals than that even if you were going peak time. Shop around!

We're in Turkey now. 5 star AI for 3 of us for 3 weeks for £4100 ish.

I've just looked for Boxing day for 1 week in the canaries - they start at £3k!!! Crazy!

jet2 I’m finding just over 3k this was the first that came up.

OP, I'm a reception teacher and never think anything of parents taking their children on holiday during term time. In fact, DC will be in reception this year and we've booked a 10 night holiday for June in term time as part of my DF's milestone birthday and the fact I'll be on maternity leave and it's my only chance of taking advantage of the lower prices.

Go during term time and save yourself some cash!

I'm a reception teacher too and if I could take my 4 yo out for a holiday, then I would! The problem is that I need to be in work!

Also for reference Dd is going into year 11, I have just booked flights to see her Spanish cousins (not seen since 2018) in October we are coming back on the morning of the 31st (£80 rather than £250 pp) I give absolutely no fucks after the pandemic. She will be in school on time on the morning of the 1st.

The canaries are always really expensive during October half term for anything decent.

Id take the oldest out of school for 3 days on one side as it will make it a lot cheaper. Look at Ras Al Khaimah, flying into Dubai. Around £3k for 6 nights. A little bit further but guaranteed weather plus the pools will be warmer and the resorts fully cater for children.

We always go during the half term break as I’m a teacher and have never paid anywhere near that, I also have 3 who are older now but the same age gap. We find it’s a great time for a break as the first term is long and September in particular often feels tiring as everyone readjusts to the school routine.

Have you tried Croatia? It’ll probably be pleasantly warm but not roasting and that time of year is very much off season there.

If you want to pay less I think you have 2 options:

1. wait it out and book a last minute deal
2. consider self-catering. We’ve always done Villa or apartment and pool - some apartments will have the kids’ clubs you mention.

We prefer our own place and own pool though, it’s so much more relaxing. We only tried AI once when our oldest was 6 months and it felt like such a waste of the extra money we’d paid for the food plus we were cramped in a room with noise from adjoining rooms - not ideal at a time when sleep is so precious!

With kids that age a holiday doesn’t always feel like a holiday, but with the money saved by going SC you can relax in your own space, not have to listen to other people’s kids round the pool or in the room next door and eat the food you actually like rather than what’s in the buffet. You don’t even need to cook that much - buy lovely fresh bread, cheese, veg etc. and have sandwiches etc for lunch most days, some takeaway pizzas, a couple of meals out, a couple of easy pasta dishes or chicken and chips etc which you cook yourself.

I just researched yesterday for family of four all inclusive tenerife Oct half term and it was coming up at 860 per person with jet 2. EasyJet holidays were roughly the same

Look on travel republic, they start at £2100

I wouldn’t pay £1K per small child for them to pick at a few chips, bread and cheese.

Get a villa.

2 nannies for a week for would be very expensive. Eating out in this country also very expensive aswell as places to take the kids. Would be way cheaper all inclusive abroad.

Jet 2 have some decent prices for Tenerife for October hols

We just did Centre Parce in France and it was like £300 for the week! We got the ferry over and it was such a good holiday! We stayed in Normandy

Just go the week before they break up so it becomes part of the school holidays for her. Won't make any difference to her at all !

That's way too much. You'd be better with B&B at half the price and go out to eat in the eve.

I was looking at sicily for 2400 for the 4 of us. Half board.

I'm easy too invested in this - probably because I want a holiday! I'd probably go for self catering but this all inclusive deal has a free child place and it's half what you've found so far. It only means missing 3 days of school (assuming you break up on 21st). https://www.jet2holidays.com/beach/canary-islands/tenerife/playa-paraiso/bahia-principe-sunlight-tenerife?holiday=60&duration=7&airport=3&date=19-10-2022&occupancy=r2c144_2&board=5&iflight=1049230&oflight=1049227&rooms=73475&gtmsearchtype=Free%20Child%20Place%20Finder#tab-facilities

‘Possible food poisoning’? Where does this poster holiday?

I'd definitely take your reception age child out of school for a few days. At that stage in reception they're still playing pretty much all the time, with the odd phonic. I took my DD out of reception in early July for a cheaper holiday a few years ago.

My parents just booked for a week all inclusive in Menorca in May next year for £800 for both of them! Including flights etc. We went to the same resort this year and coincidentally went into their hotel and it looks really nice. So I would say £5k is crazy expensive.

With such young kids I wouldn't go all inclusive. I'd book a self catering package with a 2-bedroom apartment. Try TUI or Jet2. Set breakfast and dinner times often aren't convenient with young children and you won't be able to take full advantage of the inclusive booze either!

You can still eat out whenever you want but at least you'll have the option of 7am cereal and toast in your apartment rather than all having to get dressed and ready then wait until 9am or whatever time the hotel breakfast buffet starts.

Personally I wouldn't take the 4yo out of school but that's your call.

Why on earth are you going in half term when the oldest will only be in reception?! Go during term time you silly thing!

I’m going to go against the grain slightly and say do go all inclusive. Yes, the kids won’t eat much and you can’t drink all day but the convenience of getting drinks, snacks and ice creams whenever you want counts for a lot. We had a week half board in Spain last month with our 4 and 1 year olds. Beforehand, I thought we’d go down to the beach a lot and wander into town for lunches but in reality, it was too hot for long walks and dds just wanted to be by the pool and playground at the hotel. We mainly did picnic type lunches on the balcony or by the pool but that involved someone going out to the shop/bakery every day. Dinner was a bit late for the kids (7.30 opening) but I enjoyed not only not cooking, but also not having to even think about what I wanted to eat from a menu. We said we’d like to do a week AI next but prices seem v high at the moment. Dd1 also starts school in Sep and I’m a teacher so we’re stuck with school holidays. We went with Jet2 and I highly recommend them.