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!

Oooh @Pootle40 do you have a recommendation for a RV company? I can't find any that have consistently good reviews 😬

💯 I hate these distractions from original thread.

@3luckystars - why was she robbed? A £7500 villa is going to be nicer than a £2000 one- if she can afford it why not?
I'm looking at villas at the moment- I have certain criteria and am willing to pay for it.

I'm on a "Budget travel" FB group and most of the post seem to be about the definition of the word budget. It gets quite tedious.

TBF @carly2803 - the 'room' in this case is the OP's thread on the holiday board, so she's setting the discussion. And she's had plenty of replies from people who do have that kind of holiday. I wouldn't spend that much myself, but I'm well aware that there are plenty of people on here who do have those kind of earnings, it's all relative. I was originally thinking it seems odd starting with the budget rather than a particular wish to see somewhere but I suppose we all do that in a way, just with different budgets, be it £18k, £4k or a couple of £100.

Here are some options with decent weather in Jul/Aug, long haul:

Sri Lanka (some areas are wet but most not) - can easily add on a few days in Maldives (yes weather there is a gamble at that time, but increasingly this is true year-round anyway)
Singapore, Malaysia (east coast), Borneo
Canada
Most of USA
Tanzania/Kenya - as a pp says £18k won’t go far in the safari world, but you could do a shortish mid range safari and the rest beach/sightseeing.
Indonesia - Bali, Lombok, Gilis, Java (personally I would swerve Bali as hear it is very over touristed and trafficky, but haven’t been). Java and Lombok would make a good combination, or Lombok and Gilis for a higher % of beach and relaxing.

Thailand has terrible weather west coast at that time and ok ish weather on the east coast.

Europe of course has sunshine in July/August. Instead of long haul you could have a very special holiday in Europe - charter a yacht for example and go island hopping in Greece or Croatia. Although not sure £18k would cover two weeks of this tbh, but could do a week yacht and a week villa.

British Columbia would be awesome. Great Bear Lodge is somewhere I’ve always wanted to go

https://greatbeartours.com

Parallel world of Mumsnet.

In real life no-one spends eighteen grand on a two week family holiday, unless they're VERY wealthy/famous, or Royalty!

I reckon if you asked 5000 people out in public how much they're spending on their upcoming 2-week family holiday in 2025, not ONE would say eighteen grand! The vast majority would say less than half of that. (Most would be a quarter of that or less!)

But of course if you come on here to question it/say you can't understand it, you're 'feigning surprise,' and being 'snide' and 'goady.' 🙄

Most people don't spend eighteen grand on their family holiday, that is a FACT. And it's insulting to the intelligence of people posting on here, to say 'so what if the OP spends eighteen grand on a family holiday? People have varying incomes. It's not THAT unusual to spend that much.' Of course it fucking is!

See also the Style and Beauty page on here when someone asks about what handbag they can buy with a budget of £7,000. And various posters start acting like people are morons if they comes on and say 'how much?! THAT is a lot for a handbag!' You always get a few posters saying 'no it's not.' Again, of course it fucking is!

Nope same here

Yes I'd love this as well.

You could do Provincetown on the Cape, Martha's Vineyard, Newport etc.

I'd love to just rent a beach house and hire a car.

Belize?

In real life no-one spends eighteen grand on a two week family holiday, unless they're VERY wealthy/famous, or Royalty!

Yes they do! Just because you don't..,

I'm not wealthy; famous or royalty. Our household income was about £80k.

We were able to because a) we had no mortgage and b) saved up and skipped a year or two to be able to do a big trip.

blooding hell the average family of 4 the budget is under £1000

Budget is going to be different to everyone!

Oh how the other half live

(I'm just jealous - having 18k for a holiday would be insane!!!)

But no one has claimed it isn’t a lot of money. It’s clearly a lot of money, but the OP has it and presumably can afford it so has asked for ideas on how to spend it. Why on earth do you feel compelled to point out that it’s a lot of money for a holiday when OP is entitled to spend her money how she likes?

@SabreIsMyFave 2% of UK earners are on more than £100,000 - that's 1 in 50. That's before looking at those with large inheritances/family money/paid off mortgages. So surely it's not too hard to believe? Even a budget resort/economy flight trip to DisneyWorld can run to that in the holidays.

I grew up on 2 caravan holidays spread across my whole childhood. I now enjoy the odd Butlins/Haven with family, but am lucky enough to afford some of these 'bucket list' destinations and you can't really compare. There's a reason people pay this kind of money when they can afford to.

Exactly and there are many posts on that group saying that but they get particularly aggrieved about people with bigger budgets.

@SabreIsMyFave this is bonkers. I have just explained my nice but not massively luxury 2 weeks in the Balearics in school
hols cost about 17k. This is the sort of holiday lots of people go in every year. We are going to Disney for 2 weeks in October and it’s costing 16 without any spending money - we are staying 2 weeks and flying economy. Are you saying the only other people surrounding us at the hotel will be royalty?
Anyway, my budget is my budget. Lots of people have lovely holidays on much less and much more, but this thread is
about my family and my budget and I’ve had some brilliant ideas for which I am really grateful. I obvs don’t have to spend 18, would be delighted not to, but I meant this was my maximum.
Feel free to carry on the discussion about how much money it is or isn’t, but I’ll just be engaging with the holiday posts.

My Bil had to cancel a holiday last year as Sil was ill and he was very squeaky bum about the insurance paying out, turns out it was a £25k holiday for the 2 of them. They're not royalty or posh or anything, he was an accountant and she had a good job but nothing out of the ordinary. People have different priorities, we spend more on cars, so horses for courses.

I love the Rockies but the recent wildfires would put me off.
I second Cape Cod/Nantucket. Otherwise the US national parks could be good (albeit hot).
I can't believe how organised everyone is. We don't even have our 2024 Summer holiday sorted, nevermind 2026!!

@ALunchbox that’s given me palpitations! Not my style at all! Get it booked!

I'd never in a million years spend £700 on a handbag let alone £7000 but we can quite easily end spending £15k plus on a holiday whether it's Europe or further afield. A 2 week holiday in a Neilson beach club in August for. 4 can easily cost £15k etc. A nice , not extravagant, villa or hotel plus car hire, flights, food etc all add up.
Not mega rich, not royalty but lucky enough to have a high disposable income and we like to travel.

What about Vancouver Island, that would be good, combined with a bit of the Pacific North West and/or Alaska?

Hoping that's a typo and you mean 2025, otherwise you're probably a bit too late 😂