Cheap family holidays that don't feel cheap

Family holidays are expensive for one reason: you can only travel when the schools are shut, and the entire market knows it.

The same apartment in the same town costs roughly twice as much in mid-August as in early September, for identical weather.

So this guide is about the four things that get round that, rather than about finding a deal.

The four decisions

1. Take the shoulder week of the holiday, not the middle.

The middle two weeks of any school holiday period are the peak. The first and last weeks are consistently cheaper for the same weather, and in the northern summer the drop from the last week of August into the first of September is the single biggest in the year. The school calendars are staggered right across Europe, which is why a destination can be at peak for one country's families and shoulder for another's.

If your school allows it, the last week is the one. Our September guide explains why that week is also better weather in the Mediterranean.

2. Self-cater.

Four people eating out three times a day is the largest line in most family budgets. An apartment with a kitchen removes breakfast and usually one other meal, and nobody feels deprived by having cereal in a flat.

It also solves the clock problem. In Spain, Portugal, Greece and Italy restaurants serve dinner from nine, which does not suit small children, and a kitchen means you eat at six and go out for the evening instead.

3. Go somewhere eating out is cheap anyway.

This is where destination choice does the work. In Portugal, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Malaysia or Vietnam, a family meal out is inexpensive enough that the self-catering saving matters less and you eat better.

In France, Italy, the Nordics or the Alps it is not, and the same trip costs substantially more for the same experience.

4. Move less.

Every change of base costs a transfer, a day and a set of check-in and check-out logistics. Two weeks in one place with day trips is cheaper and, with children, better. Our road trip guide makes the same argument for driving holidays.

Where the money actually goes

For a family of four on a two-week trip, roughly:

• Accommodation, about 40 per cent. The biggest lever, and the one where

moving from a hotel to an apartment changes the number most.

• Flights, about 25 per cent. Fixed by your dates more than by your

destination.

• Food, about 20 per cent. Halved by a kitchen.
• Everything else, about 15 per cent. Activities, transfers, the tourist tax.

The tourist tax is the one nobody budgets, and for a family it depends entirely on how the destination charges. Amsterdam charges on the room, so a family takes one hit. Barcelona charges per person per night, though under-16s are generally exempt in Catalonia. Our Amsterdam and Barcelona family guides have both.

The destinations that work

Short-haul from Europe:

The Algarve, and specifically the east around Tavira, where the barrier-island beaches are shallow and calm and the town is real rather than a resort. Our Algarve guide picks the base and Portugal with kids has the family detail.

Bulgaria's Black Sea coast, which is the cheapest family beach in the European Union and is genuinely fine.

Turkey's Aegean and Mediterranean coasts, where the all-inclusive market is the best value in the category by a distance.

The Greek mainland and the less famous islands. Our Greece with kids guide argues for one island rather than three, and for the Peloponnese if you would rather not take a ferry at all.

Longer haul:

Malaysia and Vietnam are excellent value for a longer family trip, with cheap eating out and short internal distances.

From Australia and New Zealand, Bali, Fiji and Vietnam are the equivalents, and the school holidays that move those prices are the southern ones, which fall at different times from the northern.

What never to cut

The location. A cheaper place twenty minutes further out costs two extra journeys a day with tired children, and on a two-week trip that is more than the saving in both money and patience.

The travel insurance. The one line where the downside is unbounded, and check what it says about medical cover for children specifically.

The direct flight, if there is one and the connection is tight. A missed connection with children is a category of bad day that a saving does not cover.

The first day. Do not book a 6am flight to save on the fare. The transfer at 4am eats the saving and the first day of the holiday.

The all-inclusive question

All-inclusive is a pricing model rather than a quality level, and it earns its place in some destinations and not others.

It usually wins in Turkey, Egypt and the Canaries in peak season. It usually loses in Greece, Portugal, Spain and Southeast Asia, where the restaurants are two minutes away and cheap.

Price the alternative honestly before assuming. Our all-inclusive guide has the seven questions to ask and the arithmetic that decides it.

The one that surprises people

A domestic holiday, done well, beats a bad foreign one.

No flights, no transfers, no tourist tax, no insurance question, no passports, and the saving goes into a better house rather than into getting there.

It is not a consolation prize and it is worth pricing properly against the alternative before assuming the flight is the holiday.

Before you book

Family holidays on a budget has the wider numbers, and how to plan a family trip has the method.

All-inclusive family resorts covers the model, and the family packing list has the kit.

September is the month that saves a family budget the most, and prices in our guides are quoted in each destination's own currency with the converter doing the rest.

Seasonal pricing patterns checked September 2026 against Eurostat's tourism statistics and national tourism boards including Visit Portugal. School holiday dates are set regionally and differ between and within countries, which is why the shoulder week that works for one family does not always work for another. Here is how we research and re-check guides.