Cost if living who booking holidays

[Jessica60]

With the cost of living crisis I am wondering who is booking holidays for next year. I have looked at the prices for going to Spain next year and the prices have more than doubled since July. I am just wondering why this is. Is it because there is less availability because people have booked already. Or have they put prices up because their overheads are increasing? Who can afford these new prices? Do you think these new high prices for hols are here to stay? All very depressing as I can't afford these new prices.

Should have said, flights are EasyJet.

Well obviously! Why would you not check what room you're booking?!

The hotel remains, the same hotel though, same food etc (again, check whether all inclusive or all inclusive plus or whatever!)

We've booked 3 holidays for next year (Spain/Croatia/South of France) all in school holidays. Booked them the day easyjet released the flights and for three people the most expensive was £418, I don't think we've ever paid less than that for school holiday flights. We then booked apartments for around £60 a night for the places we are staying in and will get local transport and cook some of our own meals.

Depends if you're given choices and full details though doesn't it? You have to second guess. If one tour operator says sea view room and the other doesn't specify, then you have to second guess that you'll probably end up at the back with a view of the car park.

Likewise if one tour op says air con, mini bar, etc etc., and the other doesn't, again you have to assume the worst.

But in my case with the Kenyan flea pit, there was nothing specified re room standards. Thomson didn't say "standard room" with Kuoni saying "superior room" - both just showed very similar pictures and mentioned similar facilities. There was no way of knowing that there'd be such a fundamental difference in the room standard until you actually got there and saw the difference in person.

Indeed, I never ever assume.

That's a shame and I would have absolutely complained, because you had no way of knowing, and that's not acceptable. They should be transparent.

I quite fancy that as I've 1.5 stones of lockdown flab to lose. 😁

I've just booked the same flat we've been to the last two years on the Isle of Wight
£650 last week of the school holidays which is about £75 more than this year

We've had two great holidays and still loads of things we haven't done

@Kazzyhoward
Exactly. Also who ranks these places? The holiday companies probably. We don’t stay in resort hotels but in cities 5 star should actually mean something luxurious with lots of facilities. Even less expensive rooms should be beautiful and perfectly formed with lovely bed linen and bathrooms. Preferably the hotels are actually reviewed by impartial reviewers as to their quality. I’ve stayed in few genuine 5 star hotels but often I don’t look at stars. I look at other things!

Often a 5 in Egypt will be maybe equivalent to 3. In the all inclusive resorts. I was staying somewhere else but taxi driver said it’s bedlam there at meal times. Massive queues and folk sitting down to dirty tables. I stayed somewhere (not all inclusive) that was what I’d consider a 5* and it was lovely. Food was great too.

When did you book it to get that price?

Inflation is really high in Spain and Greece.

Oh I'm a big fan of Easyjet.. don't be so snobbish!
I often use them and have the exact same experience as I'd have with TUI or any other tour operator!- but cheaper!

You can't think of anything worse? I certainly can... driving in the rain to work, paying £11 to bloody park there, doing the job, hugely understaffed and under resourced and then the ongoing shit show that is the uk right now!
And you know Delhi isn't in Egypt right? You won't get Delhi belly!
Different strokes for different folks an all that but holiday to nice hotel in Egypt sounds fab to me about now!

Having said that, flight prices were generally unrealistically low pre-covid anyway, and it's not a bad thing that we start discouraging mini breaks and other unnecessary flights for the sake of the environment. If higher pricing means fewer flights, then that's good for the sake of the planet.

Absolutely. We haven't travelled overseas for 15 years. Mostly because we can't afford to. Now we have DS we would need 3 passports and there's never enough funds to add this cost on to the holiday. So we have holiday'd in this country and have found it far less stressful. We have gone away in April or May and been very lucky with the weather. I hate the heat anyway. I reckon we'll never go abroad again which is a shame for DS as he may never experience it (although right now he says he's never going on a plane!), but good for the planet.

I never book anything this far in advance. I usually wait until a week or two before we go and book then. This summer we booked our flights that morning for the afternoon! So I will wait and see.

I'm not massively bothered about going abroad. I'm happy to stay in the uk if the weather is good and we had some great weather this year. But it's a gamble.

Because some people prioritise holidays over other stuff? We don't drink alcohol, smoke, eat out apart from celebrations or have takeaways. We both work. Holidays are our treat.

Everyone is suffering from a cost of living crisis but not everyone is on their knees.

Back in the summer booked a Bahamas cruise followed by a road trip around Florida for September 2023 thinking I have plenty of time to save for it. I have since worked out that I'd need to be saving £500 a month!

We had flights only booked with Tui but thankfully they have let us change it to a package holiday in Sorrento at no additional cost. We have unfortunately lost our cruise deposit though.

We enjoy lovely holidays every year but things have gone up so much, I have never had to cancel a trip before 😔

We have a lot booked for next year, we are newly retired and I have had a lot health stuff going on this year so next year is going to be a special holiday year.
We are going to Spain next week, Prague for new year, a few days in LA followed by a cruise to Mexico in February, a few places in Cambodia and Vietnam and a river cruise in March. In May we are going to a few places in Canada, a rail trip followed by an Alaskan cruise. Then Devon in June and I’m saving sorting out the rest of the year until early next year.
We have had our extremely lean years when the DC we’re young and want to make the most of the next few years or so before hopefully some grandchildren come along.

We will be going long haul- much better value than Europe.

We’ve 3 booked for next year, all booked before this summer to get availability & exactly what we want. We are tied to school holidays so that also limits us. We saved the holiday pot from 2020 & 2021 so spending that.

Why does the OP assume nobody has booked their holiday well inadance? Is this uncommon?

I've had 2 holidays this year booked last year though. I have a 2023 holiday booked it 8 months ago and I'm so glad

I'm waiting for TUI to release 2024 summer months.

@BooseysMom there's no comparison to watching your child play in good weather, the kids have a much happier time than UK when it's pissing it down. I can understand for those that don't like the heat much. But it's priceless having a cup of tea on your hotel balcony overlooking the scenery.

I did Butlins in lockdown but it wasn't cheap but we did get lucky with the weather though. Centre parcs was cancelled but again the activities add up. I did 1 week in Portugal £400pp all inclusive.

@Moon22 I really want to go to Egypt and for that price it would be cheaper than staying at home!

I was lucky. I'd booked all three of my holidays abroad for next year before August. So I'm now "spotting" 2024...

Nothing exciting here to report.

Hope to do a short seaside weekend away a hour away in south Devon a caravan site or perhaps premier inn around April / May time.

Went Greece in the summer very cheap holiday me and my ten year old 945 pound with TUI ! 😂 decided to wing it on a cheap deal as had just bought a house but wanted to get away for the week of annual leave in August (so yes it was my fault! )

Cutting a long story short .. Accommodation & resort was shocking but we still had a laugh together and made memories!

So if I do go abroad this year I will only do it if I have the money to spend out on something special as you get what you pay for!