Family summer holiday with a budget of around 18k

[Linens]

Thinking ahead to 2026 summer.
DH and I, DS who will be 14.5 and DS who will be 10
I would like 2 weeks away somewhere. Looked at Mauritius/Maldives/Sri Lanka/Seychelles but seems it’s the wet season and maybe not ideal time to go?
I love European villa holidays but it’s just so so hot now and all the risk of wildfires….
Was thinking safari but I have been before and it’s not hugely relaxing, which we desperately need on our holidays.
We are doing Disney this year in October so probably won’t want to go again so soon. Going away in Easter is probably out as well as we will not be long back from Dis and October 2026 youngest will be sitting 11+ so it will be summer to go away.
I love going away in the UK and we will have a week away in UK at some point but the weather is unreliable for main summer holiday.
I did see a suggestion on another thread for Parnu in Estonia which I really fancied?
Anyone any bright ideas? I LOVE
holidays and booking them and planning and I’ve always got the next destination in mind but nothing is massively exciting me. I know 2026 is a long way off but I like to start thinking about things!

This is my dream! Also want to visit Martha's Vineyard, cos of Jaws 😄

I second/ third the Canada road trip idea . We did it 3 times with our DC, the first time when they were aged 10 & 12, and we all loved it.
Hire a lovely big RV, plan a few stops or make it up as you go along, which is what we did.
Obviously we went during school holidays, the weather was perfect, and there were plenty of camp sites so we never had a problem with availability.
British Colombia is wonderful - we did Vancouver Island separately, and Toronto/Niagara.

Indeed.

I was responding to the criticism of the OP for asking questions on MN rather than approaching a “high end” consultant. Whilst it’s a great budget and there are plenty of options available to the OP this isn’t a high end consultant job.

Buy a lovely young event horse for £16k (I know someone who'd be happy to ride it for you if you aren't keen) then Tenerife in September / October xx

Going away in September / October is not practical if you have school age children like the op does. You're basically left with a peak week at the very beginning of September which still picks up people off for the bank holiday, or the last week of October. I'm not going to comment on buying a horse instead of a holiday...

Most bonkers response so far 🤣

Strongly Disagree.

For me it’s that you have to be a billionaire to spend 18k on a holiday.

Best response so far!

I read it as £18K for everything including food/excursions,etc. For a family of 4 eating out at least 2 meals plus snacks over 2 weeks plus tickets to see/visit stuff, I don't think spending £6K is that farfetched if you included everything. You could definitely buy return flights to Spain far more reasonably than £800pp if you were organised and bought them early.

We did a DIY road trip of the Norwegian fjords last summer using these tours for inspiration. More hassle obviously but comes in far cheaper and better more spacious accommodation. Norwegian Air is having a sale right now so look for flights to Bergen from Gatwick (closer to fjords than Oslo).

Similarly, we looked at Exodus Costa Rica for inspiration but DIYed our holiday a few years ago at Christmas. It definitely saved us money even though we chose better/more expensive accommodation/hotels. It's rainy season in the summer though so if you're going to spend the money, you might as welI choose to go during the dry season - Christmas or Easter.

@sansou I also think of the budget for a holiday as being all-in. When I think of how much a holiday “cost”, for me, that’s all my food, drinks, attractions, spending money, souvenirs, local transportation etc included. If people are only counting their flights and accommodation then they will come up with a far lower figure than me for the same holiday for anything that’s not an AI fly and flop. Food, drinks, attractions, tours, transport etc for 4 people for 14 days can add up quite quickly if they aren’t covered by the up-front cost.

Thank you - I aim to please 😁
I'd be more likely to do that than spend £18k on a holiday, but well aware I'm in the minority

Thanks - I think so x

We did 18 days in Canada for under £6k for 4 of us and we stayed in a mixture of hotels and apartments.

How?

@grimupnorthnot that's super cheap! Did you go in the holidays? I think that's barely going to cover our (economy and weird multi-stop budget airline) flights!

IKOS - Kos Lovely hotel with an island to explore. Comes with a Tesla for a day per week.

Vancouver
Whistler
Rockies - Echo Valley Ranch was fun
Vancouver Island - Tolfino is an awesome spot
Also have a look at the Sonora Resort

If you want a chilled out restful holiday I would spend £6k maximum and save the money for a more sightseeing type holiday where the destination matters. If you just want to sit by a pool and chill (and why not) then I can't see why you'd pay to go long haul.

We did a chilled villa holiday last year in Spain during the school holidays - I've just priced it up again and without doing much bargain hunting I found flights - £200pp; villa with pool £2500 for 2 weeks and car hire £400 for 2 weeks. Even if you eat our every night and have a few 'big days out' you're going to struggle to spend more than £5k

Because sitting on a beach in the Maldives - while the staff come round and offer frozen watermelon and clean your sun glasses is not the same as sitting on the beach on the Costa del Sol with Gary and his beer belly.

For the States, we did a road trip from Denver to Yellowstone via Cheyenne (Frontier Rodeo - this is wild!), Casper, Thermopolis (Hot Springs) and Cody (river rafting). In Yellowstone, we stayed in the Canyon Village and Old Faithful need to book way in advance - we reserved 10 mths ahead and still couldn't string 3 nights in one base in the national park. We then stayed in Colter Bay Village for the Grand Tetons (horse ride and hiring a boat for the day besides all the hiking) before our last night in Jackson Hole and flying home from there.

And the rest of you stay inside parks and have your own guide.

Our first holiday post Covid, we did a road trip across Northern Spain. Again, we DIYed it but used this tour for research.

By picking the coast line, we avoided the heatwave at home and had coastal seabreeze. With that in mind, we did coastal Portugal the following summer from Porto to Lisbon via the Duoro Valley & Nazare.

@Linens i’d speak to Audley or Steppes travel. We tend to get them to sort our trips. We have stayed in some incredible places and had mixes of active and relaxing. Tanzania and Zanzibar, was incredible (but you might need to up the budget 😂) Peru (maybe a bit too active) Indonesia was a mix of active and RnR and we went to Borneo too, Iceland - not exactly sunny mind!
If you want RnR it’s a bit harder in some respects as flying long haul seems a bit of a waste to not get out and about.

I agree. What on earth would be the point of "showing off" on here? No-one knows who the hell OP is. And it could be a pack of lies for all we know. (I'm not suggesting that it is, OP!)

How do you show off on an anonymous forum? Genuinely no idea.

I DO have an idea about some of the replies. It can only be jealousy, because you don't know OP, you don't know their circumstances or background or their personality at all. All you know is that they like to spend a lot on holidays. The tone of the some of the replies suggests that they aren't asking out of interest how it's possible for them to afford such holidays, but instead that they are purely jealous and would like to be able to do that themselves. I mean, just own it, will you?