subject: Be Travel Savvy Challenge: The Secluded School Holiday Break [print this page] Getting away during the school holidays can be a nightmare, especially if you leave it too late to book: flights are expensive, resorts and airports crowded and the selection of available properties is limited. It's the dilemma facing many families as as May Half Term approaches and the reason Be Travel Savvy blog reader Nicola got in touch with the blog's resident experts.
"We were going to wait until the main summer break to go on holiday, but we've had enough and would like to try to get away in the Half Term week at the end of May! The prices we have seen so far are sky-high. There are two of us and we have two children, aged 7 and 9. We would like to go self-catering in the Med. Naturally, we're looking for something child friendly, but our worst nightmare would be an all-singing, all-dancing family complex. We'd like to go somewhere secluded (perhaps a rural villa) and we're open to the idea of hiring a car. We need to fly from the South East and we have a budget of 1500 can you [BeTravelSavvy] help?!"
BeTravelSavvy then responded with real, honest and human advice...
The Half Term break is a fortnight away now, meaning that the fares to popular family destinations are very expensive. Contrary to popular belief, waiting until the last minute rarely yields these days, especially when you're travelling during a peak week like this one. Villa holidays are a lovely idea, but they're rarely available last minute and only work out good value-for-money if you can pck in at least six paying adults. Return seats to places like Majorca are on sale for as much as 450, with the only real deals to be had in Scotland and Ireland, where the children aren't off school. We [at BeTravelSavvy] decided to look at fares to less obvious destinations, and managed to find you some reasonable tickets to Venice. OK, you're not going to want to spend seven nights in central Venice with two young children in tow (apart from anything else, that would cost a small fortune) but you might consider staying on the outskirts...
