Holidays For Single parents

[roseyposeysmum]

I have just started to look at holidays for me and my 3 year old dd for next year, been looking at holidays villages in rhodes as we are going on our own and think i would feel safe with her there.

Went into travle agenst to be told that they would be charging me full adult price for 3 year old and they also tried to add supplement on because there would not be 3 people in the room. I was gobsmacked.

Is this right do all travel companies do this ? or are there copmpanies that deal with single parents and don't charge them the earth to want to do the normal things a family would want to do.

any help would be appreciated.

Yes, it's pretty standard to charge full adult price for a child, unless you can get a specific single parent deal. Some tour operators do single parent deals but only to certain hotels - when I was looking recently I noticed that a lot of hotels in Turkey offer SPDs. Think that was either with First Choice or Thomson so get some brochures and have a look (they'll state the SPD on the page), then ring the call centre and ask them - I was told by a travel agent that only the call centre can offer SPDs so you'll need to ring them direct. The single parent deal is usually that you pay full adult price, pay first child price for your child, plus the under occupancy supplement for only having one adult in the party, so in theory it should work out cheaper than paying for two adults. With regard to holiday villages, only the Holiday Village Costa Del Sol in Spain offers a single parent deal, so you could try getting quotes for there, otherwise it's a case of looking for ones where the prices are based on 2 people occupying the room so you at least won't get charged an under occupancy fee.

The other thing to do is shop around. As your DD is not of school age, go in term time and it'll be cheaper. Search all the websites you can think of and keep looking, so that when you spot a deal you'll know instantly and can buy it. The holiday villages are geared up for kids but so are lots of other hotels, so keep an open mind when looking. Last year I took my then 4yo DS to a Thomson family resort in Ibiza. We went in Sept so it was cheaper anyway, plus I booked via the Holiday Hypermarket website and saved £140 on what the travel agent had quoted me for exactly the same holiday. I also booked via a cash back website so ended up getting £34 cash back - not a fortune but it paid for the travel insurance! Never book via a travel agent without doing your research - while I was looking this year, every single holiday I was quoted for by a travel agent, without exception I could find the exact same holiday cheaper online.

Another thing you could consider is booking flights, transfers and accommodation separately. I was going to do that but left it too late and the flight prices rocketed.

This year (next week actually!) we're going to the Holiday village Flamingo Beach in Lanzarote. Before booking it I was looking for over a month - and when I say looking, I was literally browsing the websites every lunchtime at work and most evenings - then suddenly out of the blue, one day I was browsing Lanzarote hotels and it came up really cheap. Well not cheap, but very reasonably priced for a holiday village, iyswim. So I booked it - this was about 3 weeks ago, so I booked about a month before going. I checked the price online again last week and it's gone up by over £200 per person, so I got a bargain. I paid the same for 5yo DS as for me - as a single parent you just have to suck it up I'm afraid.

Give me a shout if I can be of any more help - I love looking for holidays!

softkittywarmkitty - can you find my holiday for me lol ! I don't know really where to look to be honest and thought if i booked it through a travel agents i might feel safer as it is our first holiday together and i am a bit nervous about it. Silly thoughts abouts kidnapping etc.

Will have a look at the holiday village in costa del sol though if it does single parent deals.

thanks

They aren't silly thoughts at all - before I took DS abroad for the first time last year that thought crossed my mind, as did 'how will I cope with two suitcases, two hand luggage and a tired child during the journey?' and 'what if we get ill?'. However in reality it was fine, and you just get on with things as you would if you were at home.

A HV will be pretty safe but so will most hotels geared up for kids, and HV are pretty expensive imo. Have a look at the place we went last year - Club Hotel San Miguel in Puerto San Miguel, Ibiza. It's a Thomson hotel and totally geared up for kids, plus it's in a really quiet resort (although a bit too quiet for my liking tbh). My DS loved the kids club and kids entertainment, and you'd probably get a deal during term time (I booked via Holiday Hypermarket website).

With the recent demise of yet another holiday company, to be on the safe side you'd be as well sticking to well known ATOL protected companies rather than smaller, independent websites. Check out Thomson, First Choice, Thomas Cook, Airtours, Holiay Hypermarket, Cosmos etc. Don't buy travel insurance from the travel agent, they rip you off. Instead check out MSE and do it yourself, and make sure you apply for an EHIC for the both of you before you go.

Alternatively if you want to give me the date(s) you can travel, departure airport and budget via a pm, I'll have a quick look for you.

There are holidays for single parents. Places like mangokids, Singlewithkids, smallfamilies etc. Just google single parent holidays and you'll see lots of options come up.

They are not cheap if you go abroad, but you do have the added bonus of adult company and lots of children for your dc to mix with. I wouldn't say it is any cheaper than booking a package with all the suppliments etc, but you are paying a bit more for the company iyswim. Only you can decide if it is worth it for you.

The only way to get a cheap deal is to book it all independantly. It's not that hard to do and, apart from the times we have been on a specific lone parent holiday, this is how I always book to go away. Definitely book outside of school holidays for a cheaper deal, but bear in mind that the kids clubs etc may not run outside school holidays so check before you book if that's important to you.