Holiday costs with school holidays

[SarahD19]

Hello everyone,

Now I’m restricted much more with school holidays, looking for tips and inspiration for great places to go with two young children - that won’t break the bank.

Generally we’ve done a combination of Center Parcs, Disneyland Paris, Lake District and Butlins. Also been looking on Hoseasons and other similar holiday sites for other trips.

I generally like to keep basic costs to under £3k a year. DH is tall and hates caravans or small b&bs etc, so this does mean some cheaper options are limited. Thanks in advance.

Would love to hear tips on where you go and what makes places special to you.

We are in the SE, save Tesco vouchers and use them to reduce cost of driving through the tunnel to France. Netherlands is amazing with young kids. There safe loads of websites with recommendations - we tend to book a lodge at Eurocamp - look at Beekse Bergen for example. Rotterdam and the Dutch centreparcs on the Dutch coast are also fun. You should be able to do this <£3k if you fully self cater and with advance planning eg in January to take advantage of early bird discounts at Eurocamp etc.

We love it because: Dutch people are absolutely lovely and very child-friendly. European Centreparcs are a lot cheaper than Uk. Our kids love being outdoors and there is soooo much to do. Dutch beaches are vast empty sandy stretches. Flat if your kids can cycle. Loads of hidden gems like Plaswijkpark and the maritime museum in Rotterdam - if you research there is so much for kids to do. Amsterdam is easy to reach by train from various places, good for a day trip. Good stop off options to break the journey overnight - eg Ghent or Antwerp.

@PotKettel really helpful tips. Thank you so much! So far haven’t felt brave enough to try driving across to France. We live in North Yorks and have flown so far. How do you find the drive? I also like the idea of Dutch holidays x

I highly recommend the Black Forest in Germany too, try europa parc as part of the longer trip, less busy than Disney. My tip is to take a 4pm ish ferry/train giving you the day to drive down to dover and book a hotel in northern france

Give us a few more details and we can see what’s available.

Rough location you are travelling from.
When you want to go (school holidays vary by up to a month throughout the UK.
Duration of trip.

I took so long to write that post between helping DD you have answered half!

Thanks @gogohmm I will look into this further!

@QuickNameChangeForMeToday we live in North Yorkshire, near York.

Whilst your kids are primary take your kids abroad in May. I find it's cheapest life is too short.

You could get the Newcastle to Amsterdam overnight Ferry?

A bit pricey compared to Dover-Calais, but does include accommodation for a night, so is one less night you need to pay for on the other side.

The Hull to Rotterdam ferry is overnight and a return for a family of four with a car is around £750. Port ZélandeZuid Holland is Centre parcs and 1hr drive from the port but lots of other good options available too for £2000/£2500 a week.

We usually go at Easter as it's cheaper. And aim to go the day before holidays start or come back a day after hols finish.
This year we've got teacher training day before so saved £400 (2 adults and 2 teens) and then check different flights (saved £200 and gained an extra few hours holiday). Total cost all inclusive so classed as 4 adults, 4 star in ibiza £2000.
Next year we've got a UK holiday at Easter again going day before. Holiday Park but with houses. 2 bedroom cottage, self catering less than £400. It has a pool and near a beach.

Really helpful to know. Are there good ways of booking this? When I’ve looked at P&O ferries page, I seems to get a lot of error messages…

@Redminionpenguin wow those sound like some good deals! I’ve booked a lodge in Shropshire on the Welsh border to try next Summer. Think it’s £400 for the 4 nights and has a hot tub. Haven’t tried it yet, but does seem to have good reviews…

I’m also thinking Ribby Hall looks good value if booked enough in advance. Looking forward to trying some new places - and any feedback from anyone here on what is good is really appreciated. Thank you.

Have you been to the quiet site?

@NorthernDrizzle have never heard of it before! Is it any good? Just googling now… My husband is quite fussy with accommodation not being small. So a lot of glamping and caravans etc are often not an option.

@QuickNameChangeForMeToday sorry forgot to tag your name in previous message… Really helpful to know. Are there good ways of booking this? When I’ve looked at P&O ferries page, I seems to get a lot of error messages…

Sorry no idea about the ferries, we have used P&O and DFS websites with no issues. Always worth trying random days of your annual leave allows such as leave on a Tuesday back a week on Wednesday etc.

Get the ferry from Hull to Rotterdam. Dutch people are really tall so your husband will be fine in Holland! It's a lovely place for family holidays, too. Some amazing holiday sites and great safe cycling.

I want to go here... I doubt it's cheap though!
https://www.duinrell.com/holiday-park/duingalows

This. Unless they’re at GCSE or A level stage it really isn’t worth worrying about.

Duinrell is great and you can get some good deals (sometimes last-minute) via Eurocamp or Canvas. We went about 5 years ago and our trip included the Hull-Rotterdamn ferry and was nowhere near the £750 another poster quoted - can't believe it's gone up that much 😱

The Dover-Calais ferry is generally the cheapest crossing so if time is on your side and your kids are old enough to make a road trip of it then that's usually quite a cheap way to get to mainland Europe. Newhaven-Dieppe can be reasonable too - it's the Brittany ones (Caen, St Malo, Cherbourg) that tend to be pricier.

If you want to fly somewhere then my advice is just to be open-minded about where you go, and take the cheapest flights you can! We used to base our hols around the cheapest flights we could find and then look for reasonable campsite accomm nearby, sometimes taking our tent in our backpacks (pre-kids) or booking statics post-kids.

Have a look at your school holiday dates compared to the country you are going to. We had a cheap French holiday at the end of august once, as the French schools had gone back then.
We’ve also had some cheap Easter holidays as our local authority always has the first two weeks of April off rather than the weeks either side of the Easter weekend.
As others have said though, whilst they still young you can get away with holidaying in the summer term. You may get a fine but even with this your holiday will be cheaper and more relaxed without the crowds.

Thank you so much everyone! Amazing tips!

@AnotherEmma that resort looks incredible. Definitely will have to look into these options more xx

We went to Duinrell in May half term last year thinking we could avoid European school holidays. First few nights were a NW European bank holiday and the park was rammed and very loud. Just some thing to look out for. Previous busy was last week of August which wasn’t too bad. Netherlands are great for a family holiday. We’re going again next year.

Previous visit was last week if August. Not sure where busy came from.

We're in the SW, but have booked a house in Skye through Sykes a couple of times. Not in summer though - the autumn half term. Obviously you're not going to get cloudless skies, but there are no midges then either, and the autumn colours are incredible.