Help please lovely MNetters - 5 live are interested to know your thoughts on family holidaying in the UK?

[JustineMumsnet]

Has the credit crunch and collapsing pound made the UK a preferable option for your holidays this year? Are you planning to stay put for a change and risk the UK weather? Is the UK up to scratch in what it can offer families? Or will you be scraping together as many anaemic pounds as you can and translating them into a pathetically small pile of Euros in search of warm sea and sunshine?

Essentially do you think the UK stacks up now as a family holiday destination now we're the poor men of Europe?

(It's for Victoria Derbyshire show - this friday am)

Thanks!

As neither DH or I are sun/heat lovers and don't ski, we don't feel the need to holiday abroad. We love holidaying in the UK, and really enjoying finding new places to go

We've holidayed in the UK since havng the DC.

So far we have been lucky with weather. However, this year is the first that we will be subject to the constraints of school holidays. Not looking forward to the crowds to be honest!

Last year we spent a fantastic week in Devon in June. It was fantastic, lots to see and do, beautiful beaches, really lovely. There are some amazing places in the UK.

We will still be going abroad
Weather/traffic/cost of accommodation in the UK puts us off
I don't want to spend hours driving to Cornwall, it's quicker to fly somewhere

due to finances we can only afford discounted UK holidays at the moment - so Haven with Sun offer or cheap travelodge, or if we can get a good hotel deal possible ryanair to Ireland. The collapsing pound has definitely influened me - even if we go to Ireland I would prefer the North rather than South.

In terms of what the UK offers to families - plenty of attractions but often rather overpriced. But you do get to avoid airports - and over the nearly 5 years since I've had DS, regional airport security has massively tightened, leading to more waiting around, which young kids are not very good at!

we have only ever taken our lot abroad twice.....once to a converted barn in france when we just had the two older girls, and once we drove to luxembourg to visit and stay with my best friend from school.....about 3yrs back now.

otherwise, we holiday in the UK, sometimes twice a year, definately once each year, and we love it, the children love it, and we don;t have to cope with the hell of making sure the passports are sorted and remembered, the currency is sorted, we have the right meds with us etc.

I would love to take ours somewhere exotic, but the thought of five on a plane, let alone the actual getting thru the airport and customs......

For the last few years we have chosen to holiday in the UK as not only was it easier with two small kids but also seemed to be a lot better quality than most of the European options.

We have a history pre-DC of taking very flash holidays but it absolutely galls me than know we are expected to pay the same as we paid for two weeks of Club Class luxury in the far east as for a two week holiday now in some shitty three star hotel with us all in the same room on the Costa del Sol just because it has a childrens club.

We now choose UK holidays because we have felt they have offered far better value for money, better quality of accommodation, they can be more child freindly in terms of facilities without costing the earth, and it's less hassle than airports/flights/transfers.

With one exception, we always holiday in the UK. Camping is great fun, even in wet weather! Funnily enough, this year we may actually be going abroad as a relative has offered us the use of his gite in France and another has offered us their place in Mustique. If we do go, it will be fun, but I suspect we'll have to do at least one camping trip in the UK as well, as otherwise it won't feel right!

We live in Devon so don't have to travel far to wonderful campsites in Wales, Cornwall and, well, Devon! We have only once packed up early and gone home. We have wetsuits so don't get too cold in the sea, and what does it matter if it's raining when you're in and out of the water anyway?

We live in Spain and will be taking a holiday in UK this year precisely because the pound is down! We'll be able to visit relatives as we usually would when visiting, but are also planning to extend our visit to have a bit of a family holiday. Our euros will go much further.

We had a week in Wales last summer, it was miserable. We pretended to have fun but we weren't really.

I have said never again.

We are going to france this year, driving and taking as much food as we can get in the car.(due to exchange rate)

IMO better to holiday in this country in the winter when you expect bracing winds and drizzle, long walks, open fires and red wine.

When you want to eat outside, have long lazy evenings with white wine and BBQ, I'm afraid you need to go abroad.

We have holidayed in the UK since our DD was born 9 years ago - only once have we been abroad, to Disneyland Paris.

We have been to different parts of Devon, to Wales and to Scotland. If you get lucky with the weather, its fantastic.

Its not reallyanything to do with money, more to do with wanting to be able to drive there in comfort, to be able to easily buy stuff we've forgotten to pack. We used to have a dog and that was a big factor as we didn't wnat to put him in Kennels.

The UK has a lot to offer and its a real shame that so many people run for the sun without looking to see what is on their doorstep.

We're holidaying in the UK this year - long weekend in Cornwall next month, and a week or two in Dorset later in the year.

We were going to go to the US in May but have just cancelled that - collapse of the pound against the dollar this week (which I'm reliably informed will get much worse) makes the cost ridiculous. We could afford to go but can't justify the extra £100s it would cost in terms of value for money.

Similarly the collapse of the pound/euro means we won't be doing our annual trip to France.

Tbh, I don't enjoy holidays with young children that much (tis just looking after them in a new location but without the conveniences of home) so I'm not prepared to spend silly money on them.

Very convenient to holiday in this country too - just load up the car with all the clutter and drive off.

we always holiday in the UK and camp and go by train too and think its great. Am not keen on too hot weather anyway adn dont think sitting by the beach is any decent type fo holiday anyway.

We went to Pevensey near Eastbourne last year at the beginnign of Sep and had a blast even tho the weather was a bit rubbish (Gale force winds nad lots of rain ). But who cares! As they say there is no such thing as bad weather only bad clothign and poor preperation. Dd had great fun running through the rain and puddles on the beach and buildign sandcastles etc. Found some fab fish and chip shops mmmm lots of great pubs which welcomed children and had friendly locals and loads of great cycle routes (tho cycling from Hasting back to Eastbourne AGAINST the wind was a bit fo a struggle). there is plenty to do in the UK nad the facilities are good if you know where to look. But then we arent ones to want crappy childrens entertainment and pleasure beaches and stuff like that.

Went to France the year before and was very unimpressed with the food and facilities which were IMO expensive and no better than the UK and in many cases worse.

we had two weeks in Wales (Tenby) last summer - it was fabulous, except when it rained which was about a third of the fortnight - and this in August! the whole deal cost around £2k - renting a house, all food, outings etc etc. In other words the same as a fortnight in Spain! which is what we are doing this year (Majorca)

We do love the UK and try to plough our hard earned money into it via the tourist route as often as we can afford. However as others have said for the guaranteed weather and general sun and fun and long evenings outdoors we will probably continue to go abroad.

We've been abroad once with the kids as well; to a Centerparcs in Belgium during the October holidays. A comfort villa for four was going to cast £1400 for the week in the UK, but we had an upgraded villa with a sauna, bread delivered fresh every morning, the cost of our overnight ferry (which added a couple of nights on the holiday and the DCs loved it), plus bike hire for the whole week and still had change from £1200. The accommodation in Belgium was only 750 euros for the week.

The cost of places like CP during the school holidays is atrocious and I think that's what puts people off. Fair enough charge more during peak times but be fair about it.

There are some beautiful places in the UK, and I'm happy to holiday here although I'll admit we mainly do it because of finances (camping's the only holiday we can afford atm) When we can afford things like flights, we visit DHs family in Cyprus and it is fun having the sunshine and beaches but I prefer visiting things and exploring to laying on a beach all day (bored within an hour!)

I noticed an advert on tv just yesterday with Thomson and also First Choice holidays broadcasting their ATOL membership - maybe the numbers of people booking foreign holdays are way down, I would think they were. I think a lot of small/independent travel companies are set to go bust, sadly.

we wanted to go all inclusive, to anywhere in europe.
But becasue of euro value, dh said no, we can't afford it.

we have so far found places in Europe [we drive] better value for money. even with the exchange rate worsening i suspect Europe is still better value for money. We had a winter holiday in Germany last year and went to Europa Park, very good value, good food, and ds loved it. Also visited Christmas markets and snowy mountains, all wonderful.

Been thinking about this again since I posted last night.

Over the past few years we have done some holidays in the UK:
A four-day weekend in Centre Parcs when DS1 was 2. The chalet cost us about 700 quid (at the end of September) and I remember we couldn't even manage to do lunch for less than £25, not to mention the costs of dinner. Even when we ate in it still ended up costing us money (hadn't really s/c before so ended up having to buy lots of condiments etc - next time would bring with). I was pregnant at the time which meant that a) our booze bill was significantly lower than it would have been otherwise and b) there were lots of things I would like to have done (which would have cost money) that I was unable to do. I think our final tally for the 4-day weekend for 2 adults and 1 toddler was about £1000, which quite frankly is ridiculous. The following year we had a week in Portugal for about the same price.
Likewise a week in Cornwall in a three-bed house in June cost us about 1500 rental IIRC.

So the moral is, if I am spending money, I would prefer to spend it abroad where at least there's a bit of a cultural experience and the likelihood of good weather. If we cannot afford to go on holiday then we will spend time at home, or we are in the fortunate position of having relatives with a holiday home down south, so will go stay there.
As mentioned by other posters, with young children holidays are often just the same old, but with fewer of your conveniences.

Uk is poor relation.
We crave sun. If you get it in the Uk, which is rare, then that makes it just about bearable.
But the UK is still very very expensive for what you get.
2nd rate . Really poor.

If the euro was better. once you get the sunshine. then if you get a decent place, with decent service. It makes it totally acceptable and it 'seems' so much better than it actually is, if that makes sense.

excuse typing and language. am bf and typing.

I really think holidaying in the UK is as expensive as going abroad. The weather is so unreliable that for children the ages of mine, 6,5,2 and 3 months there wouldn't be enough to do. I do love the UK and would like my children to see more of it but where and how could we stay anywhere?
With the credit crunch I have decided to spend the entire summer in China with my parents, my husband will join us for a week or two so I don't have to fly alone with the children twice!

good luck with that flight DI! You're a stronger woman than I.

Ruty, i know thsi is silly thing to type , suppose china is very long haul.
but it depends on the child. Ds1 has never been any trouble on a plane. florida, ibiza, balerics.
and i don't find airports stressful.
I wonder if I will say the same thing after this summers venture, if we do go abroad, with ds1 and ds2.
Maybe it was just easy before, becasue we only had one child.
Probably.
Answers own question

I have taken my ds' to America and all over in Europe. The annoying thing is that the holidays they love are Butlins and Centre parcs. They rave about them.
I also liked Centre Parcs but it is so expensive I think. I also liked the fact there was lots of families, is middle class and I didn't feel like a blob in my size 16 swimming costume unlike in the Canaries.