Cheap holiday august 25 me and two teen dds 2 weeks

[Newstartplease24]

Hi, I know if this was easy everyone would do it but… what can we do? I’m feeling a bit over camping sadly and my kids and I need a proper break. We like: outdoorsy stuff, sea, kayaks and SUPs, reading, relaxing, views, quiet nights for me and dd2 to sleep but very sociable dd1 would probably be up for some company. Any genius ideas, what’s the cheapest place I should be looking? Doesnt have to be the full 2 weeks but we really need to get away. Driving is fine, trains and planes are fine, anything I can afford

what can you do for a very low 4 figure sum?

Two weeks in August is a big as for a low budget. What about one week and fly somewhere cheap?

Yep, sounds good - any ideas?
I literally never do this. I have no idea what to look for - how not to end up in a place that’s all loud shouting on balconies or whatever - I don’t mind a bit rough and ready but I really want calm and quiet

I'd look at a eurocamp type holiday, though don't actually book through eurocamp, booking direct with the site is usually cheaper. It's not actually camping - usually basic chalets.
Look for somewhere in Nothern France or Holland where you can drive from the chunnel or Dover-Calais ferry as they are much cheaper than the Brittany ferries.
I did Eurocamp last year, was a lovely site in Brittany and cost for a week was about £700, though I won't recommend it for you because the plymouth-roscoff ferry alone was £600!

Put your dates into TUI or Jet2 website and leave destination blank. It'll bring up all your options. Pick a few you like and then ask on here for hotel recommendations if there's anything in your price range.

When you say low 4 figures what's your actual budget?

A cheap package deal will not be quiet and calm. It will be busy and full of holiday makers.

Getting the train to France is a good idea. Look for a gite somewhere. There kayaking on the rivers.

Maybe in the alps. There’s lots of outdoorsy stuff going on in the summer, biking etc

It's very dependent on your budget. I would say the cheapest might be somewhere like a self catering package in Bulgaria or at a push Greece but you then have to feed yourselves for two weeks.

This is the cheapest on easyjet from Manchester (obviously I have no idea where you're travelling from or the age of your children) Play around with dates and see what comes up.

I don’t think we can afford to go anywhere :(

You could look at travelling as foot passengers from Portsmouth to Saint Malo with Brittany Ferries and depending on public transport once there.

There are campsites with mobile home rentals in the Saint Malo / Dinard area - you could search on sites like Eurocampings
www.eurocampings.co.uk/

For instance there's Camping Touesse outside Dinard.
https://en.saint-malo-camping.com/233-mobil-homes-pitch/2241-our-mobiles-homes-2-bedrooms

An OPhea two bedroom mobile home from 23/08/2025 to 06/09/2025 would cost from* *854.00 €. But you would have to add travel, food and drink, and activities - and probably towel and bed linen hire if having to carry your own luggage.

Or for one week from 23/08/2025 to 30/08/2025 it would cost from 525.00 € and from 30/08/2025 to 06/09/2025 from 329.00 €

You would have to check what campsite facilities and outside activities are available at the tail end of the season.

There seem to be plenty of water activities in the area

https://www.saint-malo-tourisme.co.uk/explore-our-destination/nautical-inspirations/nautical-activities/

Do you mean leaving on the 25th August or August 2025?

I don't think I've been abroad with kids without spending at least £2,500 in recent times, but a cheaper holiday is doable depending on expectations to some extent. I can see places in the vicinity of Albufeira on booking . com that will fit 3 in a room and are in the ball park of £600-700/week. I don't imagine you get a pool for that price, but the beach is right there. There are not many options but there are some. You should be able to get flights for around £600 for all of you, if you are willing to fly mid-week more likely at an inconvenient time of day, probably have more options if you are in the vicinity of London airports. You may even find a flight bargain. Obviously though you still need to eat. Self catering will keep costs down if you can find something with a kitchen. You can offset increasing cost by going for say 5 nights, rather than 7, and spending the accomodation saving on food. I would think you could probably find some basic accomodation for a week in Bulgaria for less than these prices in Portugal.

What's your exact budget?

What's your general location and budget OP? I love searching for holidays.

What's your budget?

We did 12 nights in Austria (4 in Salzburg 8 in Zell am See) last summer for me + 2 teen DDs for £2400 (flights and accomodation). Hotel included a free summer card to use all the ski lifts, public transport, lidos, and several attractions.

Similar costs previous summer for 2 nights in Venice and 12 in Slovenia.

Would those fit your budget? Costs then kept down with picnics and self catering and a small number of meals out. Both UK prices for comparison.

What day do they return to school? This holiday is flying back Tuesday 2nd Sept if they happen to have any INSET days.

I stayed here last August for a budget holiday and it was fine. The food wasn't 100%, but we made do. Breakfast we were happy with eggs and toast and cereals, and they did fresh pancakes a few days (we got a jar of Nutella from the shop). We booked the hotel as a base and agreed that any food we did eat was just an added bonus, because we didn't find many self catering places within a similar price.

We asked to swap the evening meal to lunch which they were fine with. It really wasn't up to much to be honest, but we booked it knowing that and agreed that the price was low enough for us to be happy to eat out for lunch if we needed to. They did pasta and a tomato sauce every day which my kids were fine with. By the pool, they had a bar and they did pizzas for around €8 so we'd get two of those between us if we didn't like the lunch option.

Evening meals varied in price. One night we went to McDonalds, another night we did Burger King. If we'd not had pizza during the day, my kids were happy sharing a pizza at night with a bowl of chips. Some nights we went all out and had fillet steak! We just made it work to our budget.

The biggest saver for us money-wise was that we took our insulated water bottles with us. There was a shop across the road and my DP picked up 6x2 litre bottles (twice in the week). We kept them in the fridge and took small squirty bottles of juice with us so we had cold drinks throughout the day. We also bought some cans of pop to keep in the fridge. We still had some drinks from the bar but we definitely saved a lot money-wise.

Other ideas for saving money would be to take a travel kettle with you and some pot noodles for lunch in the room. You can take a pack of sandwich bags with you to put a few pastries in at breakfast to snack on through the day.

We spent around €700-750 for the week. That was eating out every night, and some lunches and buying ice creams etc throughout the day.

Try searching with one of the DD as an adult and one as a free child .Tui and jet2 may still have some free kids places left if you're not too fussy on destination. I did Turkey SC last year for 2 adults and one 14 year old for three weeks which came in at 2k (went 28th July so school hols)

A few questions Op
Which airports can you fly from?
What date are they back to school?
Age of children?

Oh and max budget