Holidays as a single mum.

[andthenthereweretwo]

Was wondering if anyone has any advice or any suggestions re holidaying abroad (myself and 7yr ds). For past 3 years have stayed in UK, Legoland/Center Parcs, usually 4 nights however this has worked out fairly expensive. Went into a couple of travel agents today and tbh the single parent discount doesnt really make a big difference. It seems to be that I will pay 2 adult prices, prob about £1,000 for 1 week in the sun. This seems a bit expensive to me but not sure if Im out of touch! Would appreciate other peoples thoughts :)

Hello I have done a few holidays with single with kids, I have only done the u.k ones but they have been brilliant. My dd and I had a great time.

I used to do it. Yes don't bother with single parent deals. Just look for 2 adult deals. Avoid hotels which are 'young and lively' and see if you can get into one with single parent deals so at least you might be able to meet up with similar people.
Or you could find another single mum to double up with? Or you could try 'women welcome women worldwide' or the women's holiday centre at Horton.

The sands in Cornwall has nice mixed family rooms and a good listening service so you could eat with or without kids etc?

Thank you for your replies, will set off to investigate. Cornwall sounds absolutely gorgeous but Im in Scotland and it always seems like a million miles away! :)

My ds is coming up to 7 - we have been going away (abroad)- just the two of us, since he was 2.5 (we have been away with others as well). We LOVE it - bad news is - yes - it is usually the same price for the `room' as two adults but some places with then offer the discount on the half board or AI if you book flights and hotel separate rather than a thomas cook package deal.
I find looking for the holiday and chatting through the (final ones I like lol) options with him is part of it all too - I tend to do a bit of research in advance on any trips/kids clubs as once he gets there he is full on into it. What is the £1k for board wise?
I tended to find AI is handy when it is just me and him but have moved on to HB and thinking maybe B&B next time but it depends on hotel location - as I don't like going out and about too late just me and him if its too far away from the hotel but that again may change as he gets older.
We did legoland this year - it is brilliant isn't it.

I went to Majorca last year with DS. I bought flights, transfers and apartment separately online rather than go through a travel agent. I can't for the life of me rememeber the name of the website I did it all through, but you can put it all together and just make a single payment. I paid about £700 for a week. That was flying from Scotland, and it wasn't the cheapest I could have got as I went for flights with really good times (no night time travel for me!) and an apartment right on the beach. Then again, it was self catering and outwith school holidays (September) so that brought the price down.
Personally I love self catering. Have what you want for breakfast whenever you please, fridge for drinks, put DS to bed and still have a separate room to sit, save money not eating out every day etc
I would definitely recommend you try shopping around online and cut the middle man.

Triple if you remember the name of that site please can you post it? I'm looking for something for next year but want to try and get a good deal.

I did Tunisia all inclusive this year with DS, which was nice but not for everyone, think it's a bit of a marmite destination.

It definitely doesn't work out much cheaper doing the hotels offering single parent discounts, travel agents have told me to just do the prices for 2 adults and see which places do the best prices that way.

Last year we did a coach holiday to disneyland paris, which was nice but exhausting!! .

I do agree that self catering can be good as you can suit yourselves budget wise and motivation - do you want to eat out or eat in. I did enjoy all inclusive this year though as it was soo nice to not have to cook or wash up for a whole week!

I've just come back from a PGL multi activity holiday with DD1 (9) which she said was the best holiday ever! There was a small single adult suppliment but not much. To be honest, most of the families there seemed to be single parents (or some had left Mum at home) which was good. Not the cheapest holiday, but probably the same price as centre parcs in the summer and included all food and activities - didn't spend anything while we were there.

I joined the Single Parents' Travel Club (£20 for life) where single parents organise trips together for comapny and to save costs. I haven't actually done anything with them yet, but there seems to be a lot going on.

sorry - notice you said abroid and the PGL I went on was this country although they do abroad too. Not everyone's cup of tea though!

erm... throw the tent, airbeds, coolbox and camping cooker in the car, strap the bikes on the back and head to a campsite?? My DD is 5 so we like campsites on farms or camping and caravanning club sites with a playground, near a beach. Total cost? under £100 for a week. Brill. Just us doing whatever we like, no hassle.
I did try a Canvas Holiday in Brittany with a friend and her kids. It had its moments, and we're still friends, but...

The best site for put it together holidays is Travel Republic.....and the further in advance you can book a holiday the better....because the flights are cheaper....so normally you would end up paying the total price for the flights and a percentage of the accommodation. The cheap airlines like Ryanair (boo) and Easyjet tend to release their flights about 6/9 months in advance.

I run a holiday meet up site for single parents and we are just back from Croatia which cost about £1150 for 14 nights but we were self catering in a one bedded apartments which slept up to 4 people and the price was therefore better for larger families. We tend to use allot of large villas which brings the price down ...we are off to Tuscany at HT and it worked out just under £200pp including flights but then car hire is sometimes necessary and not everyone is keen to drive abroad.........

There are some hotels that offer single parent discounts TRH Group are one of the larger chains and you could look to book the hotels directly....but its not always cheaper!

Have you looked at a company called Small Families. We have been on 3 of their hols abroad and they have been fabulous.

www.smallfamilies.co.uk/

Menorca 3 times with my 2. Chose a first choice hotel with kids club. It was great. They were 4 & 7 the first year I took them. I read lots of books

Bored just remembered, onthebeach.co.uk
All went very smoothly for me, I would use them again

I have 6 children and am on my own, living with 4 of them, the oldest 2 boys chose to stay with their dad. I have very little money and find the fact that the families with 2 parents round here jetting off all summer frankly depressing.
I took 5 of mine camping on my own at the beginning of the hols and was exhausted! I wish i could go abroad with them I feel so inadequate.

bigbuttons - you take 5 children on holiday on your own and you feel inadequate? Stop that now!

There are threads on here about people who can't go away at all this summer; you managed to budget so well that you could go away, pitch a tent, got 5 of them in the car, there, and back again. Good for you.

I can understand why it would be exhausting though. Any chance of their dads taking the children away to give you a bit of a break?

fireoverbabylon bless you that has really lifted my spirits.
No their father has NEVER been with us on holiday. He has never helped organise one, never helped pack for one, never helped unpack after one. He would usually make a point of telling me how much he needed the break from us all, no joke.
This summer he has not taken one of the kids out anywhere, at all. he's a useless father, that's one of the reasons I left him!

It's often cheaper to book independently rather than go with a package as most package deals won't give you a good child rate with only one adult. Also worth checking to make sure you are not being charged more as 1 adult and 1 child than if it was 2 adults - this happens if they offer discounts on the adult price only! My DS is 7 and we have been on many holidays as just the 2 of us. I often choose where to go based on which places I can get cheap flights to on budget airlines. At 7, I've found that my DS is happiest if there are other children around for him to play with so I do try to do things with friends.

Recently went on a summer holiday overseas with Single With Kids. Was a bit apprehensive but had a brilliant time. Was so good to have other kids to play with and gave me a bit of a break too as we took turns in looking out for one anothers' kids so you could go to the loo/back to your room and still leave the kids playing in the pool.

Hi andthenthereweretwo,

I'm also in Scotland too (North Ayrshire) - I joined the single parent travel club recently, but there wasn't a lot of interest from the Scottish folk, so I've now opted out of it sadly! I've got a little DD who is 3 years old - we went to Whinfell Forest, Centre Parcs in July, it was nice, but very expensive! Last year I took DD to Disneyland Paris and paid £2000 for one weeks holiday, which was just horrendous - I hated every single second of it and was miserable the whole time I was there, although DD had a ball :-)

I've been continually looking for threads for single parent travel clubs - but most of them are based down South. There was a few Scottish folk on the SPTC, but they were all very quiet / uninterested.

I know this will probably seem a bit bold of me, but if you ever need a holiday buddy, I'd appreciate you getting in touch - as it's always nice to travel with another adult for company.