Budget Family Holidays: How to Cut the Cost Without Cutting the Trip

A family holiday is not one expense. It is four, and they are wildly unequal: getting there, sleeping, eating, and doing things. Most people try to save money by choosing a cheaper destination, which is the least effective lever available. The money is somewhere else.

1. Travel: the date matters more than the place

The same trip can vary in price by a factor of three depending on when you book it and when you go. If you are tied to school holidays, you are stuck with the season — but not with the day. Flying midweek, and specifically avoiding the first and last weekend of a school break, is often the single biggest saving available to a family.

• Check the day either side of your chosen date. It is frequently a difference of hundreds.
• Price a nearby alternative airport, including the cost of getting there.
• For driving trips, an early-morning departure saves fuel, tolls in some regions, and a great deal of sanity.
• Book flights early for school-holiday travel. This is the one time the "wait for a deal" strategy reliably loses.

2. Accommodation: buy a kitchen, not a view

A room with a kitchen is not a luxury for a family; it is the mechanism by which the food budget stops being catastrophic. Two adults and two children eating three restaurant meals a day will spend more on food in a week than on the flights. A flat where you can do breakfast and a couple of dinners changes the shape of the entire trip.

Also consider: a place slightly outside the centre with good public transport. You are paying a premium for the last kilometre, and with children you will be in the room by eight anyway.

3. Food: eat the big meal at lunch

In most of the world, the same restaurant serves a very similar menu at lunchtime for considerably less than at dinner. Eat properly at one o'clock, then have a simple evening meal at the flat. Children are also far better company at lunch than at nine in the evening, which is a saving of a different kind.

4. Activities: one paid thing per day, maximum

Ask any child what the best part of a holiday was, and it is a coin toss whether they name the expensive attraction or the swimming pool at the flat. Budget for one paid activity per day and fill the rest with beaches, parks, markets, playgrounds and walking. Not to be austere — because a schedule packed with paid attractions is exhausting and produces worse holidays.

• Look for free museum days and city tourist cards before you go.
• Many cities have excellent free public playgrounds and lidos. They are worth finding.
• Book anything with timed entry in advance; the walk-up price is almost always higher.

The saving nobody talks about

Go somewhere for a week rather than two places for four days each. Every relocation costs money, a day of travel, and roughly one meltdown per child. A slower holiday is cheaper, and people almost always report enjoying it more.