Feel a bit sick at how much our one week trip cost

[smacke]

We had a one week trip over Christmas to Barbados. Never been away before at that time of year but for various reasons, DP and I wanted a week just us two.

We just finished paying our holiday credit card off and realise that on one week of food and reasonable excursions like museum tickets, we spent £2,000. We knew Barbados would be expensive and we didn’t eat out every day, but even mid range meals for two were coming back at £200+.

Our 7 night trip cost over £2,000 per person. Not staying anything luxury and flying economy!

Did you have fun, @smacke? Did you make nice memories? Did you take a lot of photos?

One thing I’ve learned after having a life-threatening experience, is that old adage really is true: You can’t take it with you.

Make memories.
Tell your loved ones that you love them.
Don’t waste a moment. ❤️

I would expect to pay that much for a week in Barbados.

If you enjoyed it, and presuming you aren’t in financial trouble, just be glad you had a great holiday.

I’m in my 20s so I haven’t saved for loads of years, and still have some big milestones I want to save towards. But you’re right - I do feel a bit guilty spending money towards a holiday!

I think £1kpp for return flights, luggage and accommodation over Christmas sounds pretty reasonable. If you then had to pay for all meals and drinks and entertainment for a week on top then im not sure another £1kpp is so extortionate.

As long as you enjoyed it and haven’t gone onto debt to pay for it, I’d say that sounds absolutely fine. Money spent on travel is never wasted in my opinion xx

Fair enough, but don’t miss out on things you love for things you want to achieve. Life is short. If you’re saving that much at a young age it sounds like you have a good job, so make the most of that.

Yep i agree. We went last February, mainly cos you can’t actually fly to many places long haul now from airports nearest us. It was a lovely holiday, but Barbados was by far the least pretty place we have been to.And pre kids we were lucky enough to go to some lovely long haul destinations including other Caribbean islands. There were traffic jams, everything a rip off. It does sound like you had some expensive meals, we managed to eat four of us for less, but it is a very expensive place. Food mediocre apart from a birthday treat meal at Champers which is to date the most expensive meal we ever had. Including a michelin-star restaurant or two in the Uk!

We had a wonderful time and am so grateful, but I wouldn’t go back. All that said I cherish the memories we made which is priceless.

Holidays are expensive; especially at Christmas. We spend between 10k to 20k a year, 3 to 5 holidays, sometimes longhaul to visit family, self catering, family of 4, mixed of eating out and cooking at home. Completely worthy and counting the days to the next one. It is what keeps me going living in the UK; especially in winter.

Don't let it, all inclusive resorts and posh tourist orientated restaurants are gonna be expensive anywhere compared to renting an apartment from a local and eating in the local eateries. There's a lot of exaggeration going on because too many people won't go near anything local. Plus Christmas will make a big difference - I have flights to Sri Lanka booked for the end of this month but if I had booked those same flights for Xmas period instead, the flights alone would have cost 4k more for my partner and I.

Blimey - that’s making my £130 a head for very lovely 3 course meal in a beautiful top end large , swanky, warm wine bar in Stockholm ( complete with paired wines with each course ) look an absolute bargain!

Wow that’s expensive. Thanks for the heads up as I was looking at Barbados for my family.
I was knocked back at the charge of £560 for the two of us at a holiday resort in Turkey just for the New Years Eve Gala. Jeeeezus! £560 for a few hours and some food at the hotel that we paid all inclusive for 😂😂😂.
Cheeky gits at the company reservations didn’t tell us that the charge for the gala was not included in the price offer.
It was worth it for the entertainment and the food was amazing. But I don’t pay that again.
abusive gone to New York and paid for the balcony to watch the Ball drop instead.

The problem is you posted that it was boring because all there is to do is sit on a sunbed and I didn't want people to think it was an island with sod all on it because you can spend days going to different places on the buses. And again the problem is also that the resorts make a mug out of people charging what they do! If I was ever in Barbados for NYE, I'd be down Oistins celebrating with the locals and other tourists and eating BBQ fish etc.
Barbados won't be as cheap as it used to be, the place struggled for a long time with COVID because the locals largely refused to get vaccinated and so the economical loss and restrictions went on years longer than other places. I haven't been since 2017. Been a few different places in the winters since, Rio, Buenos Aires, Grenada, Yucatan, Singapore & Vietnam and we don't ever bother with resorts because that would dramatically increase the cost of the holiday.

Who pissed on your chips?

But when you say food was mediocre, where did you eat? Lots of local places sell great home cooked food but too many tourists won't step away from the resorts and the surrounding restaurants that are geared up just for tourists and you don't get given the best quality food in places that know they'll get the people from the resorts in no matter what crap they serve! Ironically if you read reviews, you'll always find it's the restaurants geared up just for tourists that have poor reviews compared to the little west Indian restaurant shacks near the beaches.

Sorry I meant for going to Barbados it’s not extravagant because it’s known to be ridiculously expensive. Still a lot of money for a holiday but not for Barbados.

Gosh, you must have been very unlucky, I’ve had some amazing food in Barbados from the Cliff, Sandy Lane, the Fish Pot, Tides, down to cheap fish fry - all were fantastic!

it also sounds like you might have stayed down in the south of the island, which is busier and less typically “attractive” - if you’d visited the wilder East coast around Cattlewash, or Bathsheba or around St Lucy or ventured into the interior you would probably have had a better experience.

I always think this is a shame for those that come on a cruise - the capital isn’t picturesque at all and you’d get a very different island experience if you only came for a day trip.

But the nice thing is, if we all loved the same places, they’d be horribly over run so it’s good that we don’t!

I saw that, and it was mostly on mcdonalds/fast food restaurants! And they did a big weekly shop but then ate out for every meal

I could see how the debt came about in the 1st place 😂

4k for Barbados yes. 4k for Cornwall and mcdonalds, no.

I think that is a bargain? For a top end bar in a known expensive city?

New Year’s Eve too and the wine pairing was £45 of that - starter was veal carpaccio on brioche, main course was 2 big slabs of halibut , desert was citrus mousse and their was an amuse too - includes my 5% tip too ( totally optional as not a tipping culture)
here’s the link in case anyone finds themselves in Stockholm at new year - it’s kind of like a converted convent type place - just lovely

https://nofohotel.se/?gadsource=1&gadcampaignid=22802394230&gbraid=0AAAAAoa9VOqPlCizbAmCF4nFsJKPub1cv&gclid=Cj0KCQiAgvPKBhCxARIsAOlKEpxvOyz5Y-lQJy4gmO-BWKz6s-pMTCjraNAy6ejabDP8PgnjjycBAaAnzJEALwwcB

heres the menu for NYE

https://nofohotel.se/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/NYAR_MENU_ENG_WEBB.jpg

OP already said they didn't eat out every night

So long as you both enjoyed yourselves and didn't get into debt by going, try not to feel sick about it.
If you have the money, don't sweat it.
If I could afford to, I would and wouldn't regret it.

A 4k holiday to the Caribbean over Xmas sounds perfectly reasonable tbh

£4k for a week in the Caribbean over Christmas for 2 really doesn't sound that bad to me!

We did get out and about a lot, including fish fry (we stayed near Oistins). I love to see all off somewhere and not just the tourist traps. I am afraid I just thought other places were nicer (st lucia, grenada)

you are so right a out everyone liking different things, thank goodness 😊