How the hoo do you afford a family holiday abroad?

sarahevie1

Family of 5 £1100 gran canaria, a week, aug 17. Ryanair flights from leeds, £500, transfers £60, 2bed apartment for up to 6. £300. £200 spending money, no ating out. I sekf catered every meal. Ice creams were 99 cents for a ak of 4 from the supermarket. We even managed a day in angry bird land which was about £50. We are heading to alicante for a bit of winter sun, im not expecting it to be warm but will enjoy the change of scenery. feb half term £650 which was cheaper than uk.

Mr_Toad

consumers_revenge wrote: »

Like I have kids in different schools you mean? lol


You cant have your cake and eat it.




Look up /\ missed it again.

Actually you have to have your before you can eat it. What you can't do is eat your cake and have it. :rotfl:

pearl123

Get a tent and go camping. Kids will love it.

DevilsAdvocate1

We're a family of 5 and manage a holiday most years. My husband earns a good salary and I'm self employed. Over the years our outstanding mortgage has reduced massively, so this helps. Also, we now have very little on credit - at one time we had loads of furniture items on credit.

I never, ever, ever book via a travel agents. Even going back to the mid 1990s before the internet could be easily used, I tended to ring places and book each part of the trip separately. This is so much cheaper.

For this coming summer I've booked a villa which sleeps 6 for 14 nights fro £650. We will do the Dover to Calais ferry crossing which cost less than £100 last time that we did it. As we live in the northeast we might have a couple of nighs enroute to the ferry if we can afford it.

I will cook while we are away. Sometimes we eat in supermarket cafes as that can be a cheap way to go.

My family want to go to Florida in 2018 and I recently priced it up at a travel agents - they wanted nearly £12K for the 4 of us (our eldest won't be coming). I reckon that it will be nearer to £6K if I do it myself (on a like for like basis and including all the park tickets).

FBaby

I have many fond memories though - family holidays are what you make of them, not where you are.

I grew up with divorced parents. With my dad and step-mum, we tended to go the same place in the country by the sea. Yes, I do have some good memories, but they are nothing like the memories I have of going to exotic places with my mum, not as often of course. I loved the sense of adventure, of tasting totally new food, seeing different architecture, different landscape, people, animals.

Memories are not just about spending good times with your family but also experiencing something totally different to your normality.

Maybe it's about personality because I'm still the same as an adult and love discovering yet more new adventures, and it's more for me that I do it than my kids, probably as it was for my mum!

FBaby

Totally agree about avoiding travel agents and being 'creative' about where to go. Our most amazing trip was to an island very close to a very popular exotic place with stereotypical white beaches that cost a fortune.

Instead, I did some research, found an island in the same area that is not a big touristy area (no flight direct from the UK) and then did a lot of reading to pick where we stayed. Flights bought separately and took travel insurance right away.

We had the most amazing holiday, stunning scenery, found the locals incredibly welcoming and helpful, and the whole trip costs less than 1/2 what we would have paid going to the popular destination.

Years ago, I went on a trip to Cape Verde when no-one had heard of it and got a very cheap holiday. The same holiday at the same place same time of the year is now three times more expensive.

You do have to be prepared to do a lot of research though to avoid a bad experience or worse a dangerous one.

maman

Tabbytabitha wrote: »

Even in the UK, there can be large difference between taking the first week of the Easter holiday off (i.e. coming back on Easter Saturday) compared with starting the holiday on that date.

You're right except that, depending when Easter falls, some LAs break up the day before Good Friday.

Spendless wrote: »

Yes, I was since it was about the cost of the holiday cottage charge and no mention was given of having to take flight costs into account.

That's why I suggested looking up Brittany Ferry holidays as then the cost of the ferry, often including an overnight cabin, is considerably cheaper than doing it all separately.

Gloomendoom wrote: »

My parents were big on culture and sightseeing. Perfectly good holidays ruined by enforced visits to gardens or state monuments etc. Now, my worst nightmare is getting a National Trust season ticket for Christmas. My wife had the same problem, with the same result.

It's all about horses for courses. My worst nightmare is when people tell me they've been on an AI holiday and not stepped outside the hotel precincts. I enjoy reading on a sun lounger as much as the next person but would much prefer to intersperse that with visiting sights and eating in local restaurants. Then there's the assumption that it has to be a sunshine holiday. Schools have 13 weeks holiday a year so there's plenty of options. I love city breaks although probably not the best with small children. As a child we loved a seaside caravan with all the traditional entertainments like sandcastles and board games and fish and chips!

motorguy

Gloomendoom wrote: »

We tend to do it the other way around. No point in having Sunday to Sunday accommodation if the only available flights are Saturday and Wednesday.

Yes - in fairness we too would confirm the flight days first.

That would be common sense.

Spendless

maman wrote: »

Schools have 13 weeks holiday a year so there's plenty of options.

This is a bugbear of mine, just because schools are shut for 13 weeks doesn't mean that all 13 weeks are available for holidaying in for the parents.

In the case of the OP they have a child in yr11. When my eldest went into yr11, Feb half term, Easter hols and especially May half term, the school was open part of the time and the kids expected to attend revision classes. My sister found exactly the same thing this year when her kids sat their GCSEs. For us, there was actually less opportunity to go away that year than any other, going as soon as last exam was finished wasn't an option due to younger child and needed to be at home for GCSE results day, as enrolment at college for sixth form took place on the following days.

bspm

DevilsAdvocate1 wrote: »

We're a family of 5 and manage a holiday most years. My husband earns a good salary and I'm self employed. Over the years our outstanding mortgage has reduced massively, so this helps. Also, we now have very little on credit - at one time we had loads of furniture items on credit.

I never, ever, ever book via a travel agents. Even going back to the mid 1990s before the internet could be easily used, I tended to ring places and book each part of the trip separately. This is so much cheaper.

For this coming summer I've booked a villa which sleeps 6 for 14 nights fro £650. We will do the Dover to Calais ferry crossing which cost less than £100 last time that we did it. As we live in the northeast we might have a couple of nighs enroute to the ferry if we can afford it.

I will cook while we are away. Sometimes we eat in supermarket cafes as that can be a cheap way to go.

My family want to go to Florida in 2018 and I recently priced it up at a travel agents - they wanted nearly £12K for the 4 of us (our eldest won't be coming). I reckon that it will be nearer to £6K if I do it myself (on a like for like basis and including all the park tickets).

Good luck with that.