Budget Family Holiday Needed in Summer Holidays!

bellola

This may be impossible, as I am struggling and exhausting my options!

My husband is a school teacher so we are restricted to taking our holidays in the school holidays. We have 3 young children age 4, 3 and 1. I am not working as I stay at home to look after the children so we have very little spare cash. However, we are desperate for a little holiday.

I collected all the sun codes with the hope of getting something but there is nothing suitable for our dates. We live in Suffolk and would be happy to travel 2-3 hours for a 3/4 day break but could travel a bit further if we were staying a bit longer.

I have looked at places like Butlins, Haven in Norfolk etc and also at Airbnb. I am not sure where else to look that is budget and family friendly?

daveyjp

An idea of the budget you have may bring more responses.

PasturesNew

I've noticed that the week containing the August Bank Holiday Monday is cheaper than the previous 5 weeks in a lot of places.

thecoffeehouse204

Depending on your budget I think you may struggle, most places are cheap for a reason, we set ourselves a £500 budget for a 4 night stay and had to increase that as even the places that looked complete dumps were coming up more than that! I am really picky when it comes to holiday acommodation though as I don't see the point in leaving my lovely house to stay somewhere with ripped furniture smelling of urine and dogs!
Really wish something could be done about the ridiculous prices in the school holidays but it seems even worse this year since that dad lost his high court battle against the fines.
Hope you manage to find something, try the hoseasons website and you might get lucky x

CapricornLass

Oh dear, Bellola, done that and got the sweatshirt - my husband was a teacher, and still works in the education sector, and we had two boys as well.

I'm sorry, but I think you will find it virtually impossible to find a cheap budget holiday at most places during the school holidays. The only thing that might allow you to get away is to go camping - it was certainly the only option open to us for many a year. Its possible to pick up relatively cheap packages of camping equipment if you don't already have this, or can't borrow it from kindly friends and relatives - try Millets or Halfords. You will probably have to pay something in the order of £20 - 30 a night for your pitch as well. There are some very basic camps - water tap and a loo is as luxious as it gets, but there are others which have Facilities. The best advice I can give you is choose a tent that you and your husband can stand upright in (even it it does cost a bit more) as being bent double all the time does terrible things to the temper, and to make sure that the kit you take is as luxurious as you can make it in as compact a space as you can. Also, have a go at putting the tent up in the garden beforehand if you can, so you aren't faced with the problem of trying to fathom out how it goes up in the twilight with tired youngsters on your hands. It helps to write a list down of everything you want to take too, and tick it off as you add it to the pile.

This will be considerably cheaper than hiring a caravan during August, which down here on the South Coast will easily be £1000 a week and more. However, camping isn't everyone's cup of tea, and personally I can't think of anything more depressing than camping in the rain, or sharing a site with 499 other tents. If this isn't your sort of holiday, then I'm afraid that you will have save up your pennies and budget for taking a holiday every other year.

Good luck, and I hope you manage to get your little holiday.

jayII

I agree with camping being cheap and fun. We always went for small and pretty campsites when the children were young, rather than bigger sites with all the facilities such as bars, restaurants and games rooms. We found the small sites safer and more relaxing with little ones, but it's personal choice.

If you do go camping, http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/ is a useful site for reviews and information.

One of our favourite places to go was Mwnt in South Wales, you might find accomodation near there within your budget but it's a lot further than you wanted to drive.

greenface

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've noticed that the week containing the August Bank Holiday Monday is cheaper than the previous 5 weeks in a lot of places.

that's also the week when the kids go back to school after 26/8 - 02/09 . Its a week I always find difficult to shift as a holiday home owner as a full week and knock some money off just to clear it as a full week , ( we are north wales so a bit far for the op) my weeks in august went a while ago for 20% MORE THAN THAT LAST WEEK.

newtonflotman

Have a look at YHA, there's some pretty good ones around.
Canterbury, Kent has a 6 bed private room with ensuite, avail 28th Aug to 1 Sept Inc for £356. Nice town and not too far from beaches like Broadstairs. Play around with dates etc might find cheaper.
Sheringham in north Norfolk comes in cheaper at £236 for the same.

adviceforall

TRy booking with private owners of caravans at sites such as Haven, Park Dean and park resorts etc.

There is a good website for this at https://www.directholidayhomes.co.uk

You can save literally £100's off park prices.

suejb2

Have you looked on EBAY? Literally put Scarborough caravan August in to search and a few vacancies came up. Obviously put your own place in but I think you may get lucky.

Spendless

No good for this year but May half term tends to be cheaper than any of the summer holiday weeks. As previously mentioned the last week of August is cheaper than the others, if you're in an area where your husband isn't back at work until September.