Taking advantage of being near Scottish airports during English school holidays?

[muttimalzwei]

I'm looking at a family holiday last two weeks in August. ⁹Would like somewhere like France, Spain, Greece, Turkey but I'm trying to do it on the cheap. I'm looking at flying from Edinburgh or Glasgow but can't seem to work out where the best destinations are. I used to think the fact that the Scottish schools were back was an advantage. Can anyone offer advice please? I'm open to flight only then a Eurocamp or self catering. Obviously if a half board option comes up with Jet2 or Easy Jet hols so much the better.
Any help from those living in Northern England who've managed to get a cheapy holiday flying from Scotland would be v much appreciated

I’m not actually sure what you are asking? Scottish airports aren’t really different from English ones in terms of where you can fly to? Just type in Edinburgh or Glasgow in the from part of the search!

Scottish airports offer less choice of destinations and can be more expensive for flights in my experience

I don't really know what your looking for cheap flights or destinations. I think school holidays are school holidays airlines have cottoned to this.years ago we flew from Manchester to the US because it was cheaper but if its Europe you just need to check destinations.

You would be better imo look at booking a destination then see how cheap you can get it,

I’ve not found them cheaper to be honest either. DH wanted to fly from Glasgow once but by the time we paid petrol and getting to the airport from his parents it was a fortune compared to flying from Manchester, even saving on parking.
Personally I’ve found changing flights is the way often to bring the price of flights down.
When you say north do you mean east or west?

Last European break we had we flew from Prestwick and flew back to Edinburgh. You really need to troll through flights to see the deals.

Scottish people go to English airports because the flights are cheaper so not sure you'll pay less in Scotland.

Edinburgh is a fortune to travel out of even out of season when you compare to other airports - it's a supply and demand issue as its relatively small and has a lot less holiday type flights than it used to (certainly for the destination I need the most). You might have some luck with glasgow - just add it in to the search alongside your local airport and compare

Edinburgh will be super expensive in August with the international festival. Glasgow won't be much cheaper as schools don't go back until 24th August or around that time.

Thanks all. I'm going to look at Glasgow. We're North West/Scottish Borders but could also fly from Newcastle. Trying to avoid Manchester. It probably won't be cheaper after all then. I went cheap from Edinburgh to Carcassonne last year but everything just seems v expensive whatever you do.

You really need to do the groundwork yourself OP.

First check Scottish term dates, decide where you would like to go and what sort of holiday you want and think about what you might be prepared to compromise on or cut corners on and what you wouldn’t. Would you prefer the security of a package or happy to take the risk saving a few pounds by booking everything separately (prior to covid we would do this routinely now I don’t think we would).

Also spend a bit of time checking on say JET2 or TUI for flights to somewhere popular say Edinburgh or Glasgow to Faro or Majorca (the prices will reflect the dates the Scottish kids go back and the return flights will go up slightly a day or two before most English schools go back as demand is higher). As said above the Scottish airports do offer less choice in terms of destinations available and frequency of the number of flights going to particular destinations than say Manchester or Leeds etc

You can usually save money by going to a less popular destination (i.e. some maybe avoiding Turkey at the moment), flying unsociable hours (which may or may not be a consideration) or booking a package going out on less popular day of the week say a Tuesday or similar is likely to be cheaper than a Saturday or Sunday. Also its often cheaper to go for a more unusual number of days say 8, 9, 11 or 12 days rather than the more popular 7, 10 or 14 day holidays. Budget airlines first appear very cheap but by the time you have factored in all hidden charges are much less so than they first appear.

Over the years the travel industry has cottoned onto those in the North of England cashing in on the dates when the Scottish schools go back but those with non school age kids (pre school kids, the retired, students etc etc) also take advantage of the slight drop in prices so savings aren’t as generous these days as in previous years.

The cost of package holidays seems to have gone up massively but the price of UK holidays has also gone through the roof.

Scottish schools generally go back around 14th august so most people will be flying back around 12th at latest for school kids, but both glasgow and Edinburgh airports are about 100 miles from border so you need to factor in the extra fuel and time

however if you use a scottish travel agency like barrhead travel you might get a better deal last 2 weeks of August

UK holidays are ridiculous , we used togo to the same holiday park at once a year out of season we went to book for this year the same week has gone up £200 from last year !

Tbh it's often cheaper for me to fly from Manchester and I'm in Edinburgh. Newcastle is usually a bit cheaper too but flights tend to be at really inconvenient times

I once flew from Glasgow Prestwick instead of Manchester to save £200.

Once I’d factored in an overnight stay, a night on the lash in Glasgow and an hour on a coach at 5am I wish I’d paid the £200 😂

We live in Northumberland and often fly from Glasgow at October half term. Went to Spain last year and was £500 cheaper for a family of 4 than Newcastle just look at Glasgow and Edinburgh websites and destinations

We flew from Prestwick last year the holiday was booked through love holidays and it was really reasonable. It's just the 2 of us now so it wasn't anywhere near school holidays so it might not be helpful to the OP.

Flights from Edinburgh are £££ more expensive than anywhere else. Big tourist airport and loads of demand. EDI offers more business and city destinations than holiday airports like Malaga and Faro, so it depends where you are going. And few budget airline options. Glasgow is cheaper IMO.

For return flights with the same airline, and identical destination airport and dates in July, we saved £2,200 (yes, really) going from Birmingham instead of Edinburgh. We can leave the car with family in Solihull. About £120 in petrol we reckon. No contest.

@Cottagecheeseisnotcheese that's really helpful. Thank you. They are coming up cheapish x

@MadeInChorley Edinburgh is my local airport so I just did some comparisons and it’s not anymore expensive than anywhere else so I’m confused why you have said so. Not that I don’t believe you but I thought maybe I was paying over the odds and should try Glasgow or Newcastle but no difference for several different options.

EDI is my local airport too. And DH and I are frequent fliers from there for business and holidays. In this particular instance, for our family summer holidays, this destination is unavailable from Glasgow. Ditto Newcastle. Manchester possible but actually Birmingham worked better for us and the saving was huge.

If you go on Jet2 holidays, I'd look for the holiday you want and then when you get to the options section you can change airport. As others have said, Scotland really only cheaper once the school holidays have finished, from mid August onwards.

I've found them more expensive tbh. We fly from Manchester on Scottish holiday days which is more a less same travel time from mine to Edinburgh.