No worries, Wheels, I see it’s gone, I didn’t report it but someone must have. The mods have also taken the first sentence off my reply.

I understand your frustration, I’ve been there. My solution back in the day was a one-way £10 booze cruise ticket, hitch hiking or biking and wild camping/sleepin out around Europe. You could still eat well out of the big bins and skips outside supermarkets back then too.

It’s still possible to have a really cheap holiday anywhere if you don’t mind sleeping out. When I walk the Compostelle routes there are pilgrims who just sleep out rough. In Spain you can legally sleep out pretty much anywhere public so long as you don’t put a tent up. I cycled from Paris to Berlin with Madame and junior aged 7 and wild camped more than on paid sites. Washing was at any tap with the other person holding up a towel for discretion. In France communal woodland is a good bet – we never take cooking equipment so can’t be accused of being a fire risk. In the Pyrenees it’s just not an issue, just lie down and fall asleep, if it rains head down and find a church porch.

How cheap you go depends on how much discomfort you are happy with. Plane, train, bus, hitch hike, bike, walk… . A flat, an hotel room, a B&B, a dormitory in a hostel, a tent on a campsite, a tent, no tent… . A restaurant, a bar, a takeaway, a delicatessen, a supermarket, a rubbish bin… . I’m familiar with them all and very often a holiday these days includes a mix of them all – except eating out of supermarket rubbish bins, mainly because they are locked away these days.

How cheap you go depends on how much discomfort you are happy with.

Exactly. And how much the kids hate you once you’ve got home. 😀

lol @ a delicatessen!

Fact is that accomodation is so much cheaper once you cross the channel that a foreign holiday using busses or trains can be cheaper.

This is true.

I remember taking the kids for a night at ‘The Hilton’ in Blackpool. They moaned about the place not being that good (having stayed at Chester Doubletree). I said, well this is about the best you get in Blackpool !

I was thinking of booking a couple of nights at a B&B for the ‘Lights’ sometime in Autumn, but some of the Booking.com/trip adviser comments on some of the B&B’s are shocking !!

The other trick we have done is to not head directly to the obvious places for holiday. Some research can pay dividends.

Example:
UK:
Staying on Ullswater campsites or cottages in the Lakes = £spendy. Stay in Eden valley campsites / cottages only 10 miles away = noticeably cheaper.
Aviemore = pricey, Kingussie = cheaper for only a few miles…
Scottish Islands – cottage in countryside = costly, house in the village or town but no view = bargain relatively.

Seeing as we are out and about each day, as long as accommodation is clean, comfy and warm, what more do we need?

South / West Wales road trip. Love it.

If anyone needs a cheap / basic campsite in Dorset pm me.

This is the site we use for finding camp sites, it’s never failed us yet:

https://www.camping.info/fr/recherche-carte?area=-31.77246,61.333539,52.602539,37.996163&zl=5

Oops, wrong window/thread, sorry.

Exactly. And how much the kids hate you once you’ve got home. 😀

Ha! I will say though that mine always seem to enjoy camping. Loads of freedom and they usually make friends with other kids on the site.

Chatting with someone walking through Wales who we met today. He said that the cheapest camping he had found so far was £5.00 for a night in a field with a tap. Public toilet #properstinky just down the road. Llanthony Priory. @Welshfarmer, is it your place?

Better not be, charged me a tenner 😂 And he has a loo.

Exactly. And how much the kids hate you once you’ve got home. 😀

They promised Disney World and I got Android instead of Apple that’s why I turned to a life of crime.

Ambrose wrote:

Chatting with someone walking through Wales who we met today. He said that the cheapest camping he had found so far was £5.00 for a night in a field with a tap. Public toilet #properstinky just down the road. Llanthony Priory. @Welshfarmer, is it your place?

That is my next-door neighbour up the valley. The one down the valley also does camping for £5 a night, as does the next farm after that!! I have toyed with putting in a tidy campsite with proper loos and showers but the competition here is so strong and the other sites so cheap I don’t think I can make it work.

We have 2 weeks off coming up soon. My partner is going to Italy and I will be hopefully bikepacking, camping and doing a multiday walk.

I just don’t want the hassle of the airports and travel chaos, I am just waiting for the summer holidays to end and the kids go back to school.

So my holiday funds will be spent mostly on food and nice things!

Fact is that accommodation is so much cheaper once you cross the channel that a foreign holiday using busses or trains can be cheaper.

Yep this is certainly true.
We’re off to Italy tomorrow (driving) we got a free channel crossing by using our Tesco vouchers with Euro Tunnel and our campsite accommodation is considerably cheaper than the UK like-for-like.

I think domestic breaks are more about making the countryside more accessible to city dwellers who don’t have access to cars.

Something the politicians never grasped is that there’s a large amount of people who will never move upwards socioeconomically and/ or own a car. No matter how hard they work, they’re going to be stuck.
And then there’s a lot of fundamentalist environmentalists who would never lower themselves to car ownership.

Cities like Glasgow, Edinburgh, Sheffield, Leeds and Bradford are at the foot of big hills, it’s just a question of attaining the necessary elevation.

That means attaining elevation quickly without having to navigate around the existing infrastructure.

Cable cars, and funiculars may be the solution.

Nationally, we need to move the economic resources, squandered on moving people around by car when they should be walking, and massively increase investment in footpaths, visitor centres and outdoor education.

It’s unfortunate that the drinks lobby has such leverage on restaurants. Hypothetically giving people an hour hiking or brushing up on their map skills in Edinburghs Pentlands (accessed by cable car) and by the time they return to the city centre, they’ll be famished. Quids-in for anyone selling food.

With an ageing population, we’ll need some means to keep ourselves occupied, whilst rejuvenating our cities.

You could try WWOOF or WorkAway for nearly free holiday in exchange for your labour. Pick an area of the country and see what’s available. I’ve worked on vineyards and solar panel projects for a range of diversity. Lots of weeding positions if you don’t have practical skills but affordable chance to see a different lifestyle and a new place.

Last 3 years we have been in the UK for holidays, this was the first year we went abroad.

It certainly is not cheaper to have a holiday in the UK compared with going abroad.

Was listening to a Radio 4 programme yesterday with a lady from the Lakes saying that visitor numbers for a week are well down this year compared on last and the norm.

Of course they are, the price of accommodation in the lakes this summer was ridiculous !

The trick with providing cable cars, etc is to write in “all profits go to the local childrens hospital” at the planning stage.
Guaranteed turnover.