Do you think people are taking more holidays these days? Are you?

[holidayQs26]

I remember when I was younger and reflecting on what I wanted to afford it was for one nice holiday (abroad) a year. This is what felt like the aspirational ideal growing up, not that we could afford it mind!

When budgeting since having a family of my own I have always saved for one holiday a year but it feels like more and more people I know are going on multiple holidays a year now. Some people I work with have some kind of break or holiday every period of annual leave they take.

Admittedly it’s probably just the fact I grew up poorer but now work in a firmly middle class field. But I do find myself feeling sad if a school holiday is coming up and we haven’t got a break planned! Even finding myself feel somewhat awkward when people ask!

Have you noticed this?

I’m not. One week abroad each year, and another week off at home and that’s it.

A lot more than when I was a kid, when we didn't get to go away every year and it was never abroad.

But there are mechanisms to do it so cheaply now. They're not always available to everyone but they're there. The Internet makes researching these things so much easier.

Lots of us mix things up too. I recently did a lovely weekend away at a caravan park by an area of natural beauty and it cost me £110 for 3 nights. Quite often spend something approaching that for ordinary weekend entertainment.

Definitely more holidays than a child, where I was lucky to get a week in Whitby, and only if my grandma was allowed to take my mum and I.

We holiday less now than we did pre covid. That's down to cost. I'm self employed and since the initial cost of living crisis, my income has plummeted, which has always paid for luxuries. DH is self employed too now and I have a new shop commitment, so we are just doing little UK breaks on bank holidays at the moment.

Well, in a sense yes: I've just got back from my first holiday abroad since 1999 and my first time on a plane since 1992.

I wouldn't care to hazard a guess about the Actual Statistics, but I know a lot of people like OP think they haven't had a "real holiday" if it didn't need a passport🙄

I do lots of ryanair trips, off peak and see most of europe this way, i go for about 3 or 4 days. never travel on school holidays and always pay around 40 ish return for my flights.

Yes, i holiday more now then say 10 years ago.

Its s combination of low cost airfares, DC getting older and prioritising time rather than 'things'. The death of my DF really reinforced this.

So far this year I've had two breaks away in Europe and have another three booked. Its a combination of holidays with my DC, DP and friends.

We've always gone away a lot, I don't think it's increased, but a significant portion of my income goes on holidays, but that keeps me sane and we are clearly in a privileged position with both of us earning well. We do generally go for a week or less, unless we are going long haul to see family, and gravitate to city breaks or multi stop (within a region) type trips. We don't tend to go to mainstream holiday destinations, so prices are not typically exorbitant in school holidays, but it's rare to find really cheap flights these days.
I'm curious about both the £350 cottage and the 12.5k holiday. I have 3 nights booked at the Premier Inn in Keswick in the summer and that is costing me £513. We often glamp instead but it costs roughly the same. Presumably 12.5k is either long haul, like Japan, or mega luxury Europe.

We definitely do! I got a huge promotion at work that trebled my salary so we had a lot
more disposable income and hit the sweet spot with DS being old enough to do more interesting things and not need to bring loads of equipment with us but aren’t yet constrained by exams.

I also lost my uncle very suddenly in his early sixties still working, he had planned and saved for holidays in retirement and I’m now very aware that we may not get the chance in twenty odd years so I’m seizing the opportunities now. That said, I like a bargain and hunt around for good deals and are happy in premier inn levels of accommodation rather than luxury.

I hate the faux wide eyed “where could you possibly be going that costs £12k” naivety on these threads. I’ve just spent that on a fortnight in the Caribbean for a family of four over Easter and will be spending more than that on two weeks at Walt Disney World next year.

We prioritise holidays because we can. We both work full time, earn upwards of £150k between us and live in a relatively inexpensive area of the country. We have no debt other than a small mortgage; our cars are paid for, we don’t have pets, we have healthy savings, investments and pensions so we are in a position to spend our disposable income going abroad 4 or 5 times a year.

@Cherrybomb00 I think this is why I’m feeling pressure on the amount of holidays we have because I don’t want to go on holidays that cost less than £10,000 🤣🤣 this then limits me to once a year lol.

@holidayQs26 nothing wrong with having expensive taste for hols! I’d genuinely rather stay at home than go to bloody Center Parcs 🤣

It depends on spare income & priorities,I know quite a few who can’t spend 10k plus on holidays as they have dc in private school.

I prefer cheaper breaks so I can have more holidays although granted my parents have a house in France which helps.

We go on more short breaks and less long holidays.
I do count trips to see family as holidays though. BIL lives 500 miles away, 2 ferry crossings and 12 hours in the car each way means we have to make it worthwhile.

Obviously there's lots of reasons why someone has or doesn't have a particular budget. Personally I think most interesting is how people choose to spend what they do have. Our family holiday spend this year will probably be about 8k, which feels like a looooot now I write it down!

We prefer to mix it up, not that I've ever actually tried an 8k holiday to see if I like it. I like deals.

I’d say it’s more modern people going away often or maybe just more people are doing it.

Grew up 80s/90s . We had u.k. breaks but not even yearly. We went abroad once when i was a teen. But my best mate at high school was away 3/4 times a year on a holiday to the sun with her parents. She was an only child tho. I had siblings.

We have no kids but only go abroad once a year. We do city breaks not two week sunshine/beach type hols. But we do several mini 2/3/4 day breaks in the u.k. too spread through the year.

Come on. I have spent 12k on a holiday for a family but equally cheaper holidays don’t mean Centreparc. It can be Airbnb in a nice European city or a European campsite with fancy cabins

Growing up it was one holiday a year, usually in the UK. Through my 20's and 30's it was usually one or two holidays a year, due to getting a house, having young children etc.

Now I try to book at least a few days away, this will be 5-6 times per year. Life is short, travelling makes me happy and I'm using some inheritance to fund it.

It's not just a rich-people thing. The cashier at my local supermarket mentioned last autumn that she was going on her 5th holiday abroad that year! Obviously I don't know her finances, but if she were rich she wouldn't be working on a till. She's late 50s with grandchildren, so she wouldn't necessarily be paying for a family to go abroad, but still.

When I was young, back in the 70s/80s, the vast majority of my friends had never been abroad except perhaps on a school exchange, and some never went on holiday at all. My family had a UK 2-week holiday every year, and 3 or 4 times we went to France, always driving, and staying with family friends.

We've had significantly less holidays since moving to a place we love. Nowhere else is as good, or at least we're not willing to pay that kind of price!

‘Staycation’ used to mean not going away - staying in your own home but organising some fun activities.

Now it means a holiday in the U.K.

So, yeah, you’re right OP.

I think many people who go on multiple holidays a year, aren't spending 10k+ on the holiday.

Even if you go abroad, if you're flexible with dates, go for shorter durations and you want a break where you spend most of the time outside the hotel, then you can find some great deals.

For example, you can often find budget return flights to Europe for less than £100 per person, and you can find a hotel/airbnb for less than £200 a night (and often closer to £100 a night for 2 adults). You can choose to eat out an nice restaurants every night. So, it's easy to see how a couple (with a small child) could do multiple of these per year, if they have a decent income.

This is very different to 4 x 2-week trips to Disney/Caribbean/etc for a family of 5.

We go abroad in spring and November. Then we go somewhere in this country during July or August.

I am not but i dont really care for holidays abroad.

My 2 children on the other hand. One is 18 and the other is 23. They have at least 3 good holidays per year. They are masters at it and get extremely good value out of it. They dont have to pay 'family tax' on holidays and are able to be flexible. They are not going to family hotspots either, think Dubai, Thailand type destinations.

They pay keep, save well etc etc. They work hard and play hard. When it comes to birthdays and christmas it usually involves a contribution towards their next trip.

@Neveranynamesleft Rhodes for 2 weeks AL in August, 2 adults 3 children. Only time we could go was August due to term dates for the kids and time off from my university 😢

I stopped teaching just 16 months ago and am really enjoying the novelty of not being restricted to school holidays.
On my own done then I’ ve done done 8 ski hols (of a week each), a Caribbean cruise, France.
Italy with a friend.
My boyfriend I met a year ago loves holidays, so we’ve done Spain twice, Greece, Scotland, Italy, France and a couple of canal boat trips.
I being to a FB group that does ‘ExtremeDayTrips’ so done a few of those.
Flights are very cheap now.
As a child, it was one week in summer in s caravan in Cornwall.