How much do you budget/spend per year on holidays?

Anatidaephobia

£4000 for four people going away for four weeks of the year (all during school holidays) sounds pretty reasonable to me.

I also place a huge value on holidays and travel and would sacrifice other things in order to go away. It's your money and your decision on what is important to you. If you can budget and save up £4000 then get four family holidays out of it, I think that sounds pretty good!

taliwillow

We have a rough idea of where we want to go and having done some searching for the kind of cottages we would want and when we need to go (due to work and school holidays) I believe we can do 4 weeks of holidays for £3-4k and I was just wondering if that is the norm for families these days as I think maybe I am out of touch with what the usual spend on holidays these days. I suppose I just need someone to tell me that £4k is ok and I am not being extravagant as it sort of feels that way after the budget we have had in the past but then I try to tell myself that we work hard and in order for me to keep sane enough to continue working and not burn out (I have 9 jobs working from home so it gets a bit manic and quite stressful at times) so it is justified.

We are going away for Christmas this year to the Forest of Dean and we are so excited as it is one of the few places we truly relax. We usually find Christmas a bit of an anti climax so we thought we could combine the holiday with Christmas and therefore make Christmas a more pleasant time (we have no family around so find Christmas quite lonely so going away will make it feel like we are choosing to be on our own - and we are!). This year it has cost us £1100 including the dog which seemed an awful lot but having just priced up for next year, for exactly the same level of accommodation and the dog they want £1700 (and thats after my 15% discount) so I think we need to start looking for an alternative but just as relaxing Christmas holiday. If anyone has any suggestions it would be much appreciated.

Thanks for the replies,

Taliwillow

LilElvis

We booked our week in Menorca this year 3 weeks in advance for £2300. The exact same week for next year they currently want £1.2k more. Ignore the early booking discount, because the price will come down.

duchy

Why does it matter if it is normal or not ?

There is no normal
Some people holiday several times a year
Others once
Others never

Not always to do with money either -some people don't want to put dogs into kennels .......or like me wouldn't want Christmas away from home (a holiday home kitchen for cooking Christmas dinner would be my ideal of hell) or just have no interest in going on holiday.

Personally with your smallish budget I'd suggest you learn to turn your phone off and put email to away and not have to run away from home to have quality family time -and enjoy time together whether you are at home or away

enthusiasticsaver

How much we budget depends on where we want to go and what other things we have going on during the year - diy, home improvements, car changes, large gifts etc to family. This year we did 10 days in a 5 star hotel in Crete which cost us overall around £3500 including spending money for just 2 of us. We then spent a further £1500 on short breaks, weekends away etc so a total of £5k. As I tend to put £500 per month away for holidays that fell well within budget.


Next year will be cheaper hopefully as we have just spent a lot on changing my car, gifts to our daughters for various reasons and some new furniture for our conservatory and redecorating the kitchen. We are planning on a week in centre parcs with our daughters, son in law and granddaughter and then a week in Switzerland for just the two of us. That plus a long weekend to Potterworld to celebrate our elder daughters' 30th and a weekend break to the Cotswolds will probably still come in at around £5k but then there will be no large gifts given or car changing needed.

74jax

I think it totally depends on individuals.

Incoming/outgoings change how much we all would plan for holidays.

onlyroz

£4k will get you a fortnight in an all-inclusive resort in the med for a family of four in the summer holidays.

£1k will get you a week in a 3-bed Cornish cottage in August. If you go away at Easter you can do the same for about £600.

To get across the Atlantic with two adults and two children you would need about £2k for the flights alone (this is what it cost us for our recent trip to Florida).

You can probably go camping for a few hundred.

I personally think that holidays are worth spending the money on - the memories you get will last forever. However, a week in a caravan can be just as fun and memorable as a week in the Caribbean.

JIL

My children are all grown up now, we always had holidays, at least two per year. Usually two weeks abroad that overlapped the half term which reduced costs a little and two weeks in a caravan in the summer holidays. We never paid loads but its something they still talk about. My sister in law and bil didn't take their children instead they bought new kitchens and furniture.
It's all down to choice but you never get them times back.
We still love going on holiday now there's just the two of us, we don't spend loads, we recently returned from the Costa del sol ten nights for less than £800. I think we spend less than £2000 per year on two abroad holidays and a couple of short UK breaks per year for the two of us.

Lunar_Eclipse

I think your holiday plan sounds really good value.

It costs us more than £4000 for our two week Summer holiday in Europe, but that is all inclusive. It's nice, but not luxurious. The really nice 5* resorts are over £10k, which I personally feel is too much for that kind of holiday and our income, but I know several families who work to that budget for their Summer holiday, just for flights, hotel and probably food (but typically with a £2-3k resort bill on top.)

We have family in the U.S. (West Coast) and we're looking at £5000 just on our next flights. To visit more family on the other side of the world for Christmas, it's even more than this, all of which is a bit out of our comfort range of sensibility.

The important thing is your own budget, but I think your intentions are reasonable and really good value.

Lunar_Eclipse

onlyroz wrote: »

£4k will get you a fortnight in an all-inclusive resort in the med for a family of four in the summer holidays.

To get across the Atlantic with two adults and two children you would need about £2k for the flights alone (this is what it cost us for our recent trip to Florida).

Were those flight prices typical, or a good deal?

We fly to the West Coast, and have struggled to find sub £500 flights for years now, during peak travel periods (ie school holidays.)

Five years ago we did, but in that time they've doubled. We're now at £1000+ per person on Virgin/BA; the U.S. airlines are typically a bit less.

I think it's all getting a bit too expensive.