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

Alikay

£4k seems reasonable, depending on what your Christmas holiday is likely to be - a few days in a cottage in the Peak District will obviously fit the budget much better than a week in a 4* hotel in Tenerife with gala dinners.

onlyroz

Lunar_Eclipse wrote: »

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.

We went to Orlando for October half-term and the flights for two adults and two children came to around £1900, flying with American Airlines, which I think was an extremely good deal. We did not fly direct, which saved us quite a bit of money, but it did extend the journey time quite considerably.

Lunar_Eclipse

onlyroz wrote: »

We went to Orlando for October half-term and the flights for two adults and two children came to around £1900, flying with American Airlines, which I think was an extremely good deal. We did not fly direct, which saved us quite a bit of money, but it did extend the journey time quite considerably.

Agreed, that is good.

We have teenagers, so have been on 4 adult fares for a couple of years now.

And we know all about weighing up journey time vs cost... As I've got older, I find myself swinging like a pendulum between long journeys being hideous enough that what's another 8-20 hours (on 27) to save a fair amount of money, or them being so awful that I start to think Business Class is worth it! Pre-kids we took the cheapest route.

Indout96

For 2 of us we put away £600 a month to pay for holidays so £7,200 / year but add to that when we have spare money so anywhere between £7,200 and £10,000
That includes 95% of all our clothing shopping for the year though as we buy everything in US.
It got us 4 holidays this year Dominican Republic / Bridlington with Grandson / South of France / New York (in 2 weeks for Thanksgiving) Next year we are spending more time in Mexico so will only get 3 holidays as I cant get any more time off work.

onlyroz

Lunar_Eclipse wrote: »

Agreed, that is good.

We have teenagers, so have been on 4 adult fares for a couple of years now.

And we know all about weighing up journey time vs cost... As I've got older, I find myself swinging like a pendulum between long journeys being hideous enough that what's another 8-20 hours (on 27) to save a fair amount of money, or them being so awful that I start to think Business Class is worth it! Pre-kids we took the cheapest route.

What I did was to scour SkyScanner for the cheapest flights, and to check that those flights actually did exist at the stated price (because I think Skyscanner makes up quite a bit of its info). I then went into Flight Centre armed with a quote, and asked them if they could beat it. The man tried extremely hard, analysing a number of options, and eventually came up with our quote of £1900. He also advised us to allow for at least 3 hours at the connecting airport due to the lengthy US immigration proceedures.

As for cost vs. journey duration - for now, while there are four of us travelling - we will go for cost every time. When it's back to just the two of us I might feel differently.

skint_chick

I think £4k isn't that much for a family of 4 to go abroad. There's only 2 of us and we take budget holidays - short city breaks and then a eurocamp style holiday in June/Sept and would still spend around £2500-£3000 a year. Next year we're going away for 2 weeks all inclusive for £750 each but it's in May. You can price holidays online for next May already so before you set a budget you should probably have a look at some destinations and then consider food and activity costs. I think family holidays are important so spending £1,000 each is nothing in terms of spending time together and relaxing, and if you can afford it then you shouldn't feel like it's too much. If you don't spend it all you can always put it towards the following year or an additional long weekend somewhere

onomatopoeia99

It depends on what I decide to do.

One year I went to see a concert at the Carnegie Hall (that's in Manhattan, New York). While the ticket was $40, the hotel for four nights, flights, food etc made the whole lot something over £1,000.

Last year I did a long weekend in Bologna with a travel company (first "package holiday" ever), which came to about £800 including what I spent on food, drink and other ancilliaries.

This year and two years ago, £0, I didn't go on holiday.

Next year hopefully will be a two week stay in Italy: Milan, Firenze, Napoli, starting with the Italian GP. I'm looking at well over £2,000 for that one.

onlyroz

skint_chick wrote: »

I think £4k isn't that much for a family of 4 to go abroad. There's only 2 of us and we take budget holidays - short city breaks and then a eurocamp style holiday in June/Sept and would still spend around £2500-£3000 a year. Next year we're going away for 2 weeks all inclusive for £750 each but it's in May. You can price holidays online for next May already so before you set a budget you should probably have a look at some destinations and then consider food and activity costs. I think family holidays are important so spending £1,000 each is nothing in terms of spending time together and relaxing, and if you can afford it then you shouldn't feel like it's too much. If you don't spend it all you can always put it towards the following year or an additional long weekend somewhere

As an example, you can get two weeks all inclusive at these places for less than £4k in August, with two adults and two children:

http://www.firstchoice.co.uk/holiday/accommodation/overview/Sa-Coma/Hotel-Globales-Bouganvilla-057983

http://www.firstchoice.co.uk/holiday/accommodation/overview/Hersonissos/Hotel-Silva-Beach-046106

http://www.firstchoice.co.uk/holiday/accommodation/overview/Giardini-Naxos/Hotel-Caesar-Palace-013932

http://www.firstchoice.co.uk/holiday/accommodation/overview/Benidorm/Hotel-Flamingo-Oasis-009765

There are also a number of affordable "Cruise and Stay" options with Thomson for less than £4k.

TBagpuss

As others have said, it depnds an awful lot on your income and what other costs you have.
If you can afford £4K then great. In your position I would be looking at my over all finaces and making sure I had a comnfortable 'cushion' of savigns and was putting money away regualrly in pensions/retirement saivings / mortgage overpayments, so would only be sepnding £4K on holidays if I had already budgeted for those things (which I recignise you may already have done)

Lunar_Eclipse

onlyroz wrote: »

As an example, you can get two weeks all inclusive at these places for less than £4k in August, with two adults and two children:

http://www.firstchoice.co.uk/holiday/accommodation/overview/Sa-Coma/Hotel-Globales-Bouganvilla-057983

http://www.firstchoice.co.uk/holiday/accommodation/overview/Hersonissos/Hotel-Silva-Beach-046106

http://www.firstchoice.co.uk/holiday/accommodation/overview/Giardini-Naxos/Hotel-Caesar-Palace-013932

http://www.firstchoice.co.uk/holiday/accommodation/overview/Benidorm/Hotel-Flamingo-Oasis-009765

There are also a number of affordable "Cruise and Stay" options with Thomson for less than £4k.

I went to Benidorm as a teenager and didn't like it much then.

Have you been to any of these resorts or any like them? I'm envisaging 6am 'towels onto lounger' chaos, seriously noisy pool area (they're huge!) and long queues for drinks or food. Or are they actually quite civilised?