Holiday abroad – End of August - without breaking the bank!!

BLUis

We have the last 2 weeks of the summer hols off (18/08 - 02/09) and would really like to take our 9 year old son away for the first time. However, as its summer hols, its proving difficult to find a holiday that isn’t priced over the odds for the weeks we have booked.

We have the capacity to move these dates slightly, in that we can break up later and DS can go back to school a couple of days late, which seems to be better, the prices drop by £300 - £400 just for 3 days difference!

What I would like to ask is:

1. Where is an ideal place to go with a 9 yr old boy (who is sport mad and will get bored if there isn’t some kind of activity!!)

2. We don’t want to have a huge flight time, so we are probably looking at Spain – BUT I don’t want to go somewhere that is typically full of English bars and cafes when we get there!


3. We would love to go all inclusive, but are not averse to self catering or half board.

We have a budget of around £1000 but can stretch this if we find the ideal place.

Any recommendations would be gratefully received!!

Voyager2002

Spain is horribly hot in August: why not look at places in northern Europe, where the weather will be fine then (although cold for much of the year)?

My only experience of a cheap family holiday was a week in Switzerland (two adults, two teenagers) and the total cost was 800 pounds. Flights were a bargain (from BA); we rented an apartment large enough for all of us (from a web-based company called Interhome); we also bought rail passes and spent a lot of time sitting on trains exploring the country. This basic formula would work well with lots of different countries.

BLUis

Thanks for that. We really want to go somewhere where it will be quite hot, I am not averse to going somewhere other that Spain to be honest. I'm not comfortable with going 'independant' and would rather go through a travel agent to get the holiday booked.

mcfisco

You'd probably be better off just taking a late deal at the time
A lot of people get very anxious about doing that though - my wife won't do it any more but we never had any real horrors.
It was the only way we could afford hols when the kids came with us

karent_2

I managed to get Ryanair flights for 4(no luggage) for £360 from Glasgow to Majorca, 22-29 August. Similar fares are still available from East Midlands aswell.

I got an all inclusive 3 star hotel with pretty good reviews(Lagotel, Alcudia), for £870 for a week.We are 1adult, 2 nearly adults and one 7 year old. I know some activities were included, but didn't look closely as we just wanted to lounge by a pool and go to the beach.

Transfers were £68.

About £1300 in total for 4. So around £1000 for 3 should be doable.

Same hotel with similar flights on First Choice came to nearly £2500!!!

I realise this isn't exactly what you want, but shows it could be done in your budget. I doubt if a travel agent can get you anything much at that price except at the last minute.

Hope you find what you want. Took me ages to find what I wanted, when I wanted it, at a price I could afford!

BLUis

karent wrote: »

I managed to get Ryanair flights for 4(no luggage) for £360 from Glasgow to Majorca, 22-29 August. Similar fares are still available from East Midlands aswell.

I got an all inclusive 3 star hotel with pretty good reviews(Lagotel, Alcudia), for £870 for a week.We are 1adult, 2 nearly adults and one 7 year old. I know some activities were included, but didn't look closely as we just wanted to lounge by a pool and go to the beach.

Transfers were £68.

About £1300 in total for 4. So around £1000 for 3 should be doable.

Same hotel with similar flights on First Choice came to nearly £2500!!!

I realise this isn't exactly what you want, but shows it could be done in your budget. I doubt if a travel agent can get you anything much at that price except at the last minute.

Hope you find what you want. Took me ages to find what I wanted, when I wanted it, at a price I could afford!

No luggage?? How do you manage that??

I found one today on Thomson, the apartment was 355 for the 60 less doing it that way, but i hadnt included the cost of the transfers, so that would have put it over the price. I think we will wait until nearer the time. I have short listed some places and will just pick one that still has availibility. We will probably take DS out of school for 2 or 3 days, which although isnt ideal, is the only way we can afford it this year. Several children in his class have had 2 weeks out at a time this year and while I dont condone it, I can understand why!

Miss_J

I've booked a holiday with Easyjet holidays this year for £795 for a family of four. This includes flights and self catering accommodation. We're going to Spain on the last week of the holidays and the kids will miss 2 days of school. I haven't booked transfers with Easyjet as they costed over £100 and I've been to this area before and travelled on the train which only costs 5Euros, so we'll do this again.

karent_2

BLUis wrote: »

No luggage?? How do you manage that??

I found one today on Thomson, the apartment was 355 for the 60 less doing it that way, but i hadnt included the cost of the transfers, so that would have put it over the price. I think we will wait until nearer the time. I have short listed some places and will just pick one that still has availibility. We will probably take DS out of school for 2 or 3 days, which although isnt ideal, is the only way we can afford it this year. Several children in his class have had 2 weeks out at a time this year and while I dont condone it, I can understand why!

Will probably add on 1 or 2 cases, just wanted to get the flights booked. At £50 each, I wanted to consider how many I needed!

I considered going in July, taking my younger daughter out of school for a couple of days, but in the end these flights came up and there was no difference in price. I already took her out for 3 days to get a cheap Disneyland Paris break in March, so I didn't really want to do it again. Education's important, but so are family holidays.