Hi Jay . Yes around here in Essex the children are breaking up either on the 28th march or 4th april . its a mess with many families with children in different schools finishing on different dates . feb half term seems to be a mess as well they just get the 4 days at Easter then go back to school . the tour operators seem to have covered all their bases though with prices high for 3/4 weeks. We are going to nuweiba on good friday 21st for a week and im taking the boys out of school for 4 days . My hubby and eldest son have the easter week off as do many in the construction industry so it gave us a difficult choice to make . the holiday won

Hi Lynn,Ive noticed the prices are high until 10th April then go down quite a lot.His birthday is the 10th which is midweek so there maybe some deals around.

down here in sussex i'm having similar problems for next year, except i'm trying to go when the kids are actually at school!
here the easter holidays are only over the easter weekend 20-25 march, then they get the spring holiday from 4-21 april then another long weekend over mayday weekend.
looks like i'm going to be struggling this year for a kid free break

Different parts of the country are having their Easter 2008 school holidays at different times - here in Manchester my kids finish school on Thu 20 March (the day before Good Friday) and go back on Mon 7 April; and we're off to Tenerife for those two weeks

same here in the lakes, my daughter finishes school on the 20th for two weeks, and we fly to tenerife on the 18th of march, may see you there , cyberspacecadette !
we booked the flights in june for a good price and have noticed they have now gone up by £200 ! so it does pay to book early.

here in warwickshire my daughter finishes on the 19th, we are off on holiday on the 21st for a week. its strange some schools break up for easter after good friday !! we booked our flights in aug and got good prices but ive noticed they have gone up £100 each now

I'm also from Essex and my Daughter breaks up on the 28th March, we will be off to Thailand for Easter

Get a late deal, there is always availability in Easter.
Saves you a lot of money! I Dont mean book the day before as that is more expensive, but if you book a late between 8 to 2 weeks before departure you should get really good prices.

It's been chaos this year!
I live in a small LEA and a lot of our teachers live in the larger LEA accross the border, there are problems with different holiday dates but never anything like this!
Some authorities are allowing the two weeks actually at Easter giving 2 four week half terms as opposed to the usual 6 week half terms but some are sticking to the traditional term lengths just allowing the bank holidays for Easter then having the 2 week break in April, this also means they have to make up those 2 bank holidays elsewhere in the term.

If it's any consellation, this early easter will not happen again for at least another 100 years!

It's good to know that the Travel companies haven't lost out and just shoved the holiday supplement on the whole month!

Isn't this a good argument for stopping this unfair practise?

Our council moved over to the schools being off for a fortnight from the first Monday in April in 2005 and that year Easter didn't fall within the fortnight. Our oldest was still in preschool so we went away on Easter Sunday for a week in the in-laws cabin, leaving them the full fortnight of the school holiday to use it (mother-in-law was a teacher). The problem this year is a combination of Easter being early and April 1st being a Tuesday so the fortnight off starts very late.

The first principles of Economics are Supply & Demand. Peak Times are July, August, Easter, Christmas, Mid-Terms for which a captive audience is largely available. Holiday companies can charge what they like during these periods. Unfortunately, some of the Low-Cost Airlines increase their prices also.

But, all is not doom and gloom. There are Holiday Home Owners (with some exceptions though) who will settle for 'off-peak-rental' during Christmas, Easter and Mid-Terms. All you got to do is approach them. Get rental price, cost of airport transfer (or car rental) + cost of flight. Holiday Home Owners who rent their properties do not want to spend loads on advertising, protection etc. A Holiday Home rented out = Free Ad for future + property protection + employment for those caring for the place. In other words a Win/Win situation.

. . . and it might not be as difficult as you think ! ! !

We decided to go it alone this Easter and I was surprised at the number of private villas that weren't showing availability for Easter, it was only after we booked a villa and flights (that incidentally fluctuated madly) that we realised that school Easter Holidays were different throughout the country!
Some villa owners that, like me, weren't aware of the difference will have lost out on Easter Holiday bookings for the earlier dates.

We actually did very well out of this, we got two weeks villa + flights for less than £250 pp for a party of 6 adults! There's no way we'd have got anything like this for the price in a brochure.

Ah well, 25 days and counting

Our schools in Carmarthenshire break for easter on Thursday 20th March. When we found this out we looked for a reasonably priced flight to Spain (work in a school). We didn't think we'd have a hope as it was Easter but surprisingly we had a great price with easyjet. At the time we wondered whether the company realized it was Easter week. I've priced up the flights now and they are almost double!!! We had a real bargain and are counting down the days now.

Shirley, I presume you are flying with Easyjet from Bristol airport. If so, the reason they were probably cheap at Easter is because in the Bristol area, schools aren't breaking up for the Easter holidays until the 4th April so more people would be booking seats for those two weeks in April than the real Easter period.

A good example of this regional price difference is that my sister-in-law and her family who live in Hertfordshire usually fly from Bristol airport to Spain with Easyjet for their February half term holiday every year because the half term in their area is the week before the Bristol schools half term and to fly from her local Luton airport, the flights would have cost her over £300 more.

we are on our hols over the easter weekend, we booked 12 months in advance online with portland for a departure date of 12/3/08 for 14 nights,and i am sure they were not aware of the easter dates then as within a week of booking, the price per person had gone up £300 each!

I booked for 11th to 18th April 2008 in January 2007. Again I don't think the travel company, were aware of all the different school holidays then, and the prices jumped up quite a bit later. Not often, that you beat them at their own game!!!