Interesting holidays for a family on a budget (not packages)

[popsickle555]

We have had one decent holiday this spring and will also be having another in January so budget for August holiday is limited this year.

Family of 4 (DCs are 13 and 11) and we have maximum £3000 for a week (or could be longer) to include everything. We are happy to stay in the UK (I will post in that thread too) but is there anywhere in Europe we could go for this budget that I should look at first? Obviously self catered is fine. But the budget needs to cover food, activities, accommodation and travel. The only reason I don't want UK is the weather.

We have done a lot of Greece, France and a bit of Italy before. Not sure where else to look that might be budget friendly in school hols or if we just give up and go to Wales and eat out every night! We don't really want a package hotel, more of a hotel / air b&b, car hire and self catering but I don't know where to look that might be budget friendly and interesting things to see and do?

The eurocamps look great and very reasonably priced. We’ve been eyeing up the ones in lake Garda, Italy.

Are you happy to get the ferry and drive? If so you can probably find a modest house or Appartment in a beautiful but not touristy part of France and come in under budget. In France but poss Benelux / Germany ?

Try Skyscanner for cheap flights, search price low to high (and i always tick 'direct only' , then airbnb any places you like the sound/ flight times of to see if it's relatively cheap to stay.
If it all works out then book then lot straight away.
We've been to places like Talinn (Estonia), Catania (Sicily), Pula (Croatia), Krakow and Budapest doing it this way and it's great to visit a slightly less "mainstream" city as they're often much cheaper once you get there.

Eurocamps are great - lots of tips here My Eurocamp family camping holiday with luxury - on a budget | Daily Echo

Jurmala near Riga would be nice or somewhere on the Curonian spit in Lithuania. Jurmala you can visit Riga from easily, there is a train line. Curonian Spit a car would be better. These are both on my to do list rather than somewhere I have actually been, but all these Eastern European countries will have cheapest accomodation options. We did Porto a couple of years ago which was surprisingly affordable, we stayed out on the coast at Espinho, for about £650 during the school holidays plus flights. Food costs were also reasonable.

Thank you - some good ideas here which I’ll go off and research!

If you did stay in the UK, you could do a lot on that budget in NI. I find attractions there are nowhere near as crowded as some other places in summer, possibly because they have a longer summer holiday so people are spreading their trips over a longer period iyswim.

The weather won't be remotely reliable, granted. But probably comparable to Wales.

Do you have bikes? The Velomaritime cycle route in France connects most of the channel ferry ports. https://en.normandie-tourisme.fr/sports-nature/cycling/cycling-routes/

We had a good trip last year when ours were a bit younger, but you could easily aim for about 20 miles a day.

We stayed self-catered or B&B & did a mix of bread & cheese ++ picnic lunches & meals at cheap restaurants.

Helps if your french is reasonable & the weather is good, but was more interesting than staying in one meh spot. Plenty of history along the Normandy beaches too, if that floats their boat?

You're missing a trick by not looking at packages as you can certainly book self catering as a package and it could be most cost effective at this stage as the flights will add a lot to the cost.

If you got a package for £2k that would give you £1k to pay for food, activities and perhaps a couple of days car hire to explore, but if you stayed somewhere central you could also use public transport.

Here are some options from Jet2holidays

https://www.jet2holidays.com/search/results?airport=3&date=21-08-2025&duration=7&occupancy=r2c13_11&destination=155_153_154_152_1679_1452_1497_122_125_145_2241_1773_151_150_149_2112_160_159_1584_156_1719_161_2053_157_2169_139_129_2191_8_7_1359_2119_2118_26&flexi=3&boardbasis=4&tripadvisor=4&sortorder=1&page=1

For around £2k there's quieter parts of Tenerife or Gran Canaria or Costa Teguise in Lanzarote, which isn't the prettiest resort but you can do things like visit the volcano park or lava tunnels, go to the water park etc. Public transport is good in the Canaries and eating out is good value. Tossa de Mar in Spain has a castle, local hikes and you could go to the Roman ruins at Empuries, Barcelona or Girona for the day.