How does everyone seem to have holidays abroad???

[Matildathebrave]

We are both working though have a big mortgage and have never been able to afford to go abroad since having kids.

Our eldest is now 13.

We have holidays every year in the UK and to be honest have always had a great time. We pay up to £700 for the week for all of us and have days at the beach, days out etc.

I've looked at going abroad but it costs thousands.

Am I the only one? Seems like it round here.

And no DH won't go camping :.(

[Nomad86]

We go abroad for around £1500. We self cater, use public transport and Airbnb and stay in places that aren't as popular with Brits. We've had great holidays in the school holidays in places like Sweden, Sicily, Lisbon and France. It can be done, but they're not all inclusive, relaxing holidays.

[Angrymouse]

@mmelindor
I struggle at the 200 to 300 for flights:-(
Is that for a family or per person!!!
How long in advance do you book...
I am completely rubbish at getting good deals...

[thatmustbenigelwiththebrie]

Flexibility is key with UK holidays, although I confess that this isn't always possible for everyone.

I don't have kids so not limited to school holidays and can usually take leave without too much prior notice. So if I fancy a holiday I just wait until the forecast is good and go then. If you're not fussy about accommodation (and I am not as rarely in it) you can usually get something.

The worst times are when you commit to a week in Scotland and it's cold and wet. By doing my approach I've managed to have wall to wall sunshine in the Highlands every time I've gone!

[DefConOne]

We need plenty of space when on holiday so a hotel room wouldn’t work for us. Happy to camp or self cater. We have been to Duinrell in the Netherlands, Belgium, Brittany and near Paris self catering. One 4 night break to Spain in a glorious October half term. Our kids love theme parks, historic stuff, beaches and other kids. I love food shopping abroad and DH cooks.

We live in Devon and sometimes do Brittany ferries holidays via Plymouth-Roscoff. Last May half term about £500 for a chalet type thing on a lovely site for 5 nights including crossings. Great pool with slides walking distance to the beach.

We’ll have a hotel holiday when the kids have grown up. They are not fussed.

[scooter125]

Sometimes it's not always a question of cost. Try having a stepdaughter with a whole list of mental health issues and who can't be left on her own for fear of what she could do. If we tried to take her with us she'd try to ruin it by kicking off, can't even get to Asda let alone Alicante. Not been on holiday for years, and probably never will..

[PostNotInHaste]

When the DC we’re younger we used to do places in Europe , either self catering flat or title or a Landal Green Park or Centre Parc.

For example a week at Landal Het Vennenbos for 24th August this summer is 629 euros so a bit less in pounds. Tesco clubcard paid for Eurotunnel. Diesel about £80 so comes in a little bit under £700.

Other places we’ve stayed are Duinrell at Easter in a caravan that was less than £200, a farm in Germany with pool and lots of stuff to do for about £400, lovely gite in Northern France for around £300. These are going back a few years now but at one point I found it cheaper to find places abroad than in UK and that includes the time when the pound was worth not much more than the euro.

Looking early to have lots of choice is the key.

[User14789013]

We have a decent combined income. Like pp we have a relatively small mortgage, don’t spend loads on cars or clothes but we do about 4 overseas trips a year. It just depends on your income and how you prioritise your spending.

I love everything about holidays, even the airport. I don’t get much chance to sit around doing nothing at home. I find airports weirdly relaxing.

UK holidays can be great too but can cost more than going abroad! I agree with Hypatia that there’s so many things to see and do in the UK. However that’s also true for just about every country in the world and I want to show my children as much as I can.

[reluctantbrit]

We do it by not doing a foreign one each year. There is so much to discover in the UK, this year we go to the Forest of Dean but for me going abroad is more then just guaranteed sunshine and the pool.

In fact, I try my best to avoid said scenarios, I hate the heat so the med in August is a big no-no. If we go than it is May half-term or Easter.

Foreign holidays for us is about discovering another culture, visiting places like the Alhambra in Spain, Carcassone in France, Vatican in Rome and others. We like history and DD is being ferried around ever since she was a baby and loves museums and historic sites. But as she also loves the beach and water parks we try to accomodate it as well.

[HypatiaMoosey]

Um, why bother?! - So much variety & entertainment within this one island; on your own doorstep! I guess if you want the guaranteed heat, with the side-effects of aged burnt cancerous skin & novel diseases, you must struggle to follow the herd, accepting the hassle & expense, but it's really not necessary..!

[milkybarsrus]

We are a family of 5 and have just booked a 2 week holiday in June in lanzarote for £1200 self catering, it is not a package holiday, we put it together ourselves. The flights are easy jet, with cabin luggage only, the flight times are excellent day flights. We have 2 apartments booked next door to each other. Our two older children (20 and 17) are in that and we are with our 8 year old. Apartments booked through travel republic. We will eat out every other night and sc during the day, apart from the odd beer and ice cream when out and about. We save up to go on our holidays and with my husband whose job is six days a week, it's a very important relaxing way of being together. If we were at home, I'd start giving him DIY jobs to do! We don't have a big budget to blow on a holiday, it's small, but we enjoy it very much, more so than if we went in a cottage holiday for two weeks. But each to his own.

[mikey9]

Wow - some people can be so unimaginative about holidays - and comments about the UK being a "Waste of Time".....b$%^locks - grow up!

Living in the Highlands we are lucky as we can travel 2 hours west and have some of the greatest beaches in the UK. In 7 years doing this - and going north to Sheltand, Orkney, Western isles, Western Highlands - sleeping in camper van, tent, and now a cheap (£900) caravan - we have got wet, blown around - but mainly the sun has shone!!

Our boys have had experiences (walking through valleys and hills for picnics - cycling, paddling in boats, climbing over rocks fishing in rock pools) and have spent endless hours on beaches with distant observation by parents from caravan/camper/tent.
Fly kites, dig canals in the beach, build castles - float boats, have camp fires from driftwood, cook marshmallows, ride bikes, explore, go swimming in the sea (take wetsuits.....).
Kids play with other kids they find - or with each other - or with us.

There is typically no-where to buy stuff and limited stuff to buy - other than quality locally produced food - so self catering mostly with a treat meal out if we find somewhere good and worth it.

Typical cost is £20 per night, for all of us - we budget £250 for a week away - but then we own our cheap accomodation (which cost less than half of the cost of typical package week away in the Med) and we both muck in to cook (as at home).

We calculated the cost last year in Oct Half term (a friend was going and I was wondering....) - and came up with £2500 all in for a week in Majorca for the 4 of us, travel to Glas/Edin, Parking, flights and accom. I am sure you can do it cheaper but I reckon paying the morgage down by £2k is more imp to us - and we can get away 4 times a year during the various hols.

Hols with kids need some imagination - and some planning for wet weather however somewhere like Shetland - leisure centres everywhere - even in the smallest settlements - pools and jacussi to yourselves - people really plesed to see you.....;-) - The Highlands have over 20 pools too -

This year - we are touring England and Wales - hopefully for a Month (this is a one off big holiday to let the kids see some of things we did as kids) - will see if such a UK holiday is a "Waste of Time" too.
Yorkshire Dales, Tour de France, York, Leeds, Duxford, London, Hastings, Southampton, Pembrokeshire, Lakes and much more. Sounds grim for us and the kids......not. ;-)
(We already dismissed a £130 day out at Legoland - swapped for a Free day at the Science museum and sights of London.)

[tricot39]

when i was young we holidayed in the uk. sometimes we got very lucky with the weather. other times not but there are always things to do and see. we dont really do.sun lounger type holidays.

my husband's parents used to.holiday abroad and leave him & 2 brothers at home with granny.

so up to age 20 neither of us had been abroad more than a handful of times combined!

we decided that we cant be bothered travelling overseas while we are at the buggy stage so have been on cottage hols in the uk for the last few years. i really enjoy the uk seaside and that we get nice places because our budget is not eaten up by flights.

i prefer to pay down my mortgage than have fancy stuff or holidays. having less debt has made us happier in these uncertain times and that is worth a lot.

[tricot39]

when i was young we holidayed in the uk. sometimes we got very lucky with the weather. other times not but there are always things to do and see. we dont really do.sun lounger type holidays.

my husband's parents used to.holiday abroad and leave him & 2 brothers at home with granny.

so up to age 20 neither of us had been abroad more than a handful of times combined!

we decided that we cant be bothered travelling overseas while we are at the buggy stage so have been on cottage hols in the uk for the last few years. i really enjoy the uk seaside and that we get nice places because our budget is not eaten up by flights.

i prefer to pay down my mortgage than have fancy stuff or holidays. having less debt has made us happier in these uncertain times and that is worth a lot.

[Domus]

My boys are 10&12 and have never been abroad. I thought this was because we love the Lakes, UK beaches etc and like OP we usually spend £700ish on a SC place and have a lovely time.

Last year for a change I thought we'd go on a "cheapie" holiday in the med. When I tried to book, I really could not believe the cost. We didn't go, I really couldn't justify it to myself when I knew we could have a lovely holiday so much cheaper(although we could have scraped the money together).

[tricot39]

when i was young we holidayed in the uk. sometimes we got very lucky with the weather. other times not but there are always things to do and see. we dont really do.sun lounger type holidays.

my husband's parents used to.holiday abroad and leave him & 2 brothers at home with granny.

so up to age 20 neither of us had been abroad more than a handful of times combined!

we decided that we cant be bothered travelling overseas while we are at the buggy stage so have been on cottage hols in the uk for the last few years. i really enjoy the uk seaside and that we get nice places because our budget is not eaten up by flights.

i prefer to pay down my mortgage than have fancy stuff or holidays. having less debt has made us happier in these uncertain times and that is worth a lot.

[higgle]

The last UK holiday we had was in 2002. Cornish pubs were asking £6 for a baked potato and I decided never again.

[noramum]

We are Germans so going to Germany is more for the benefit of DD to practise her language skills and learn about the country. We normally don't combine it with family visits, I couldn't stand it.

We also do self-catering, I think it keeps control about your spending. I am a bit of an accommodation snob, I hate bad ones and would prefer going only every two years.

We don't have any expensive hobbies, actually DD does more than DH and I together. We don't go out a lot, we don't buy lots of stuff. We also don't do any other holidays during the year, just days out with picnic.

[ShoeWhore]

We manage by shopping around and doing it cheaply and prioritising holidays over a lot of other things. For example, one of our cars (we live rurally so desperately need 2 cars!) is 10 years old. We don't have Sky or get takeaways. Neither dh or I spend much on ourselves and our house is somewhat less than show home.

I also got a modest tax rebate the year before last which helped pay for that year's holiday - before that we hadn't been abroad for 4 or 5 years.

As someone else said, going outside school summer hols is much cheaper - I managed to get flights for 5 to Barcelona for less than £500 in the Easyjet sale. Could you take a holiday at Easter or one of the half terms? Or if you do go in summer hols, lots of places are a bit cheaper if you go in the last week or two.

Last year with no tax rebate to help us along we went to France as driving was so much cheaper than flying.

[laughalot]

We go abroad every year, I am a travel agent and do not get loads of discount as most people think. We have a average house and have considered moving but holidays are important to us. We do take the children out of school at the minute but when my eldest goes to comp that will change. Holidays are so very expensive we have to cut back on things to afford them but we do love abroad.

[dyslexicdespot]

Have you looked into booking flights and accommodation separately? Cheap off-peek flights and a rented flat with a kitchen would not cost very much.

Try:

//www.airbnb.co.uk/

[bakingaddict]

I never had holidays abroad when I was growing up and I don't think it's an absolute necessity the important point is that wherever you go it's the spending time together as a family be it in a tent or a 5 star resort.

I am quite thankful that I can mainly afford a holiday abroad and UK holiday each year but if I haven't saved enough to go abroad then I would postpone to the following year. I would absolutely not get into debt to go on holiday.

[Needmoredisneydollars]

We're in the same situation as chocotrekkie, our house is just about big enough but have decided to stay put rather than go for something bigger like all our friends have done.
I love taking my DC away, seeing different countries. We sacrifice for it though, unless you all a lot of money you just can't afford to have it all, so we choose to budget, budget, budget and have the wonderful hols.

[Needmoredisneydollars]

We have a very modest house, which everyone else thinks is too small for us, with a small mortgage. We drive a practical, cheap to run car that is 7 years old. We don't drink or smoke, shop carefully sticking to food budget for the month. Clothes are sold on eBay once outgrown, ditto any toys and we make use of hand me down clothes where we can.
We save as much as we can and have amazing holidays, we live for them but I know friends wonder how we afford them.

[DirtieBertie]

Tesco vouchers for a ferry crossing. We live about an hour's drive from a ferry crossing so it is cheaper in petrol to go to Northern Europe than Scotland or the Lake District, for example.

We camp and sites cost pretty much the same anywhere. I assume it is the same with other accommodation.