Holiday costs - school holidays vs term time 27 September 2020 at 11:36AM in Overseas Holidays & Travel Planning 8 replies 312 views

AJC211

Does anyone know of any research or study that gives a rough estimate of how much more holidays cost during school holidays vs. term time? 
I am trying to budget for life as a single parent. I currently home educate our child, so we take holidays cheaper, out of school holidays. If my son goes to school, I need to know how much more (e.g. 25% more?) the equivalent holiday would cost if it were taken during, say, August instead of June. Any suggestions?
In case it affects answer, I have made a no-fly pledge for the environment, so it will be UK/Europe-only holidays, so package holidays abroad are not included. TIA!

daveyjp

It will depend on what sort of holiday.  5 star deluxe hotel in the south of France or rough camping in Scotland?

annabanana82

Why don't you take a look at the type of holidays you'd like and play around with dates.
For my family and I do fly it's around double the price if we use package holidays comparing June and August. 
We have done city breaks by Eurostar and we found that really quite reasonable, I think the key is to avoid what the masses are doing as its largely the demand that pushes up prices.
I find Premier inn don't have much fluctuation due to school holidays. 

jonesMUFCforever

The post above is spot on!
July and August prices will be very high - but you may get a bargain - depending on where or what you want and how fussy you are.

maman

For holidays in this country, if you want to, for example, rent a cottage then the cottage will be cheaper off season but the travel will stay much the same all year round compared with air travel. 

I've used Brittany Ferries holidays and they are cheaper off season too. I had a very reasonable holiday in a cottage in Brittany in May a few years ago. 

It really depends on your budget and the sort of holiday you want. For a sunshine holiday then June or early September is definitely cheaper than July and August but you'd need to go well south to be sure. If you want to do a European (or UK) city break and visit museums and galleries then you can dress up warmly and go in low season. I had a great holiday in Holland last November. 

lea2012

In the UK you can still find good deals in school holidays but you may need to alter your standards or requirements rather than budget? 
We've been to Edinburgh, Leeds, Chester, York, Birmingham etc during school holidays and still managed to get Premier Inns for less than £40 a night for a family room and even London we got for £55 a night staying by Waterloo. We've also found reasonably priced 2 bedroom cottages in Derbyshire, Yorkshire and the Lakes for  £80-90 a night during summer months by booking well in advance and shopping around. 

Again shop around for Europe, Ibis offer good prices as does Campanile on the cheaper end. Roan Camping, Luxe Camping and Al Fresco always seem reasonable for mobile homes and safari tents etc if you don't go for a big fancy site and also consider Airbnb or Novasol for apartments and cottages too. 

Spendless

As a generalisation May half term is usually cheaper than any of the summer holiday weeks. The last week of the summer hols is usually cheaper than the others. Though also look at the area you are in, there's an area in England that breaks up 1 week earlier than the rest in summer and goes back late August rather than early September. Some areas have 2 weeks October half term whilst others have one. Some areas have 'set' Easter hols, others are off the weeks the Easter bank hols fall into. All this can make a difference to pricing. Learn where you have an 'advantage'

zagfles

Loads of threads on this here. Depends when you go, if you go somewhere where the locals are back in school then it's a lot cheaper, for instance second half of August a lot of Europe are back in school. Easter holidays vary across the country, so if you go at a time when other schools are still in it will be cheaper. And if you avoid booking packages, and/or go somewhere not a typical holiday destination, it can be similar price to term time.

Kynthia

Lots of Europe doesn't have a May half term so it can be good value to go to Europe on a family holiday then.

Holidays homes and places like Centre Parcs in the UK seem to be up to 3 times the price of off peaks weeks.