With £4K to spend, would you have one lovely one or two separate breaks? Please help if you are ACE at holidays!

[flowergirl24]

My DH and I have been saving for a while for a holiday and finally have sorted a budget of £4K together.

Situation is this: we have 3DC aged between 3 and 9. We have two weeks off work - Feb half term and one week of Easter. We have to stick to school holidays which makes it pricey.

What should we do/ can we afford? Should we do 2 holidays or just one?

Please note that we have 3DC and therefore going anywhere in a hotel is often a no go as they state we need two rooms, so it’s twice as expensive.

I was thinking possibly of canaries at Feb half term and then maybe a UK trip at Easter. Or maybe our budget won’t stretch? Any ideas would be very welcome please…

Perhaps two UK trips would be more feasible cost wise.

Bump in case anyone is around now?

I only have one DC and I don't see how you're going to get two holidays abroad in school holidays for 4k for 5 people

I doubt you'll get two breaks unless you go camping in the UK or to France in the car or similar. Just run a basic search through the Tui app and you'll see....

Also with canaries don't write off hotels, there are lots with more apartment style with living and bedrooms with sleeping space

What do you all like? Any musts or absolute nots?

What about Edinburgh, Belfast, Glasgow or Dublin for a trip closer to home? Where would you fly from?

I don't know what you'd pay for Feb half term.

But 6 nights self-catering cottage in the UK would be roughly £1000 give our take a bit.
So that leaves 2-3k ... Eurocamp?

Obviously you need to budget for activities. I often just use my usual weekly shopping budget for self-catering. Plus a bit extra so we can have ready meals and maybe some takeaway.

Vianden? Valletta? Can get self-catering places for cheaper than a UK cottage in the 1st week of Easter hols. Check booking.com

I’m not sure you’d manage a holiday for 5 in the canaries for your budget but don’t discount hotels. There’s lots in Tenerife with interconnecting rooms. 3 year old with you and two older ones in room next door (adjoining door between rooms). Have a look at Iberostar hotels. I find Jet2 holidays is good to search and you can search for a free child place.

I would love to explore Edinburgh actually or the Lake District.

We’d fly from either Birmingham or Heathrow.

I think the main issue is that we can’t really go camping abroad as to drive to France and back within a week wouldn’t really seem worth it. I know we could stay North in Normandy or something but then weather wise we might as well be in Cornwall really.

We love being outside. Just really wanted a bit of sunshine as we haven’t been abroad for years.

Camping possibly too risky in UK with a 3 year old for Feb half term!!

I think it’s tight driving to Eurocamp and back if we’ve only got a week.

Family of 5 here. I'd put it towards a week abroad.

You can get some deals if you book early: eg a nice break in turkey can be as little as 2k for the week for 5 people. Look at what you can for all the holidays, not just feb half term / easter, and plan accordingly

I've just done a crude search on Booking.com ... not checked facilities, ratings, location ect and obviously excludes flights. But it seems possible 🤔

Those are the only 2 weeks off that we both have this year, so it’s got to be one of those weeks!

Where to go, when you give no clues as to where you like, and have 2 possible weeks? The world is your oyster! Jet2 alone has holidays for a family of 5 in half term all over the place (including Canaries) for about £2.5-3k including flights and apartment. Look hard enough with that budget and you can find anywhere, really. Hard to make a suggestion when you only give a week and a budget.

If you wanted to stay for a second trip in the UK, and like the outdoors, and want to keep it budget after spending the lion’s share on a warm holiday, don’t discount a youth hostel family room. You could go to the Peak District, Lakes, North Wales, etc. I can travel anywhere in the world cheaply and easily, but we chose to stay in the U.K. the last 2 autumn half terms and had a great time. One time in Scotland, in a cottage just relaxing, walking and playing games, the other time in Snowdonia doing adventure activities (giant zip, forest coaster, climbing Snowdon, etc.) We spent well under £1k each time, and that included petrol, accommodation, food and activities for 4 of us.