We had to holiday during the English holidays this summer and I was shocked at how much more it cost us. The campsite cost more, we paid high season rates on the ferries and we lost out on the incentives that the travel company offers to the Scots and Irish (north and south) to holiday at the end of June/beginning of July. I emailed my boss from holiday to secure the start of the Scottish holidays for 2018.

wise move Elaine!

One of my daughters has decided to take her kids out of school to go in June to Greece. The villa they are staying in, is over £2000 more during the school Summer holiday period - as the kids are 4 and 7 the education "loss" is negligible!

It's ridiculous

Couldn't agree more. Being from Scotland, I notice the prices from Glasgow, shoot up considerably.Not fair. Greedy tour operators know when the school holidays are, so bump up prices, knowing that parents who want to take their children on holiday have no choice but pay the price.

It's not a case of the tour operators being greedy; it's simply supply and demand. The prices are lower outwith school holidays to encourage those who have the choice to take their holidays at quieter times.

I am just glad I can go early September and May for mine.

What are the dates of the holidays in Scotland, just out of curiosity?

Don't the prices rise during the Scottish school holidays as I'm sure in the past I've heard of folks finding it cheaper to travel from say Manchester/Newcastle during your holidays & vise versa for the northern English? It would take us, for instance, 3 hrs to drive to Edinburgh. Our nearest airports are an hour away (Newcastle or Leeds) Manchester 2hrs.

It's been like this for years. It's not a new thing.
I don't believe it's a supply and demand thing, more like the TO's cashing in as they jolly well know most families can only holiday in tern time.

Another thing that gets my goat is when your searching for a holiday on Tui, Jet2 etc and you filter the results by price low to high, all the cheap holidays are to resorts that cater for the club 18-30 crowd. Why?

Hi Glynis, most of the Scottish schools finish for the summer on the last Friday in June and at the latest will finish by the first Friday in July depending on how those days fall in the calendar. So for Scottish families they usually have a 3 week window in July when they can save a considerable amount by going from an airport in the north of England at that time.

They go back correspondingly early 6 weeks later, usually either the 2nd or at most the 3rd Monday in August. The latest I can ever remember my local schools going back is 15th August. So for English families living in the north of England where schools don't usually go back until the 1st Monday in September they could also save a great deal by flying from Glasgow or Edinburgh in the 2nd half of August.

It can be the same at Easter because in most of Scotland apart from the Glasgow area, neither Good Friday nor Easter Monday are public holidays and so most council areas take the same 2 weeks in April each year regardless of when the Easter weekend falls. So for example in my part of the east coast Scotland all the schools always take the 1st 2 weeks in April and south of the Tay and in Edinburgh area they usually take the 2 middle weeks. So because most English schools take the week before and the week after the Easter weekend then it's possible to make good savings at that time of year as well.

But big savings can be made in the Autumn half term for families living bith sides of the border because the Scottish school year is essentially organised round 4 not 3 terms and most schools close for 2 not 1 week in October. By me it is always the 1st 2 weeks in October so they are back before any of the English schools take their half term break and many families will take their main sunshine holiday then, flying out from places like Manchester or Newcastle the Canaries nd the like. And of course if they only want to go for a week they are able to book the even cheaper mid-week to mid-week packages or flights. Conversely, given that most English schools take either the 3rd or 4th weeks in October then families in the north of could save a great deal by departing from either Glasgow or Edinburgh and taking advantage of the fact that by then most Scottish kids will be back at school.

I've now lived up here for nearly 30 years and my brother never has got the hang of the different rhythm to the school year. He would usually come up to visit in late August with his daughters around the last week of their school holidays and every year we would have the same conversation if it was a nice day we were spending down on one of the local beaches, when he would remark that he was surprised that we had the beach almost to ourselves and why were none of the local kids playing out on it. And every year I would reply that it was because they were in school and it was now the 2nd week of term!

Sma
We go back on the 20th August next summer. Really late on for us, and with that and my husband's offshore rota we have never gone away so late in the summer holidays.

Heavens! That really is late - in my local schools the staff will start back on Monday 13th and the kids on Tuesday 14th August. I can't ever remember it being as late as the following week.

Some of the prices now during term time is nothing short of a disgrace. My daughter simply cannot afford to get away and she only has one child. Last year was one step too far where they booked with Thomas cook and ended up paying nearlly 3k for a week in Ibiza b and b during august at a 3star accomodation.

😔

My suggestion for your daughter Goddard, is to look at say Booking.com for accommodation offering free cancellation. Then tell her to wait until approx 6 weeks before her dates for the flight prices to drop. Or, just keep checking until the flights reach a suitable price. That's what I would do in her circumstances.

Her choice of accommodation is likely to be higher if she wants lots of children's entertainment but if she's willing to stay somewhere with less facilities for kids then she may, at least, get away.

Hope she gets something this year 👍

I agree SMa, if I had children of school age I'd look at flying from Edinburgh. Probably travelling up the day before & booking an airport hotel overnight.

A few weeks ago when we had the snow, I was flying from Newcastle on the Tuesday. Rather than risk the roads early the next morning, I booked into an airport hotel Monday night, was lucky & got a bargain at £29.50 B&B & could see the departure entrance from my window 👍 It was worth it for peace of mind.

For many years, Glynis, colleagues of mine would book their holidays flying out of Newcastle at the beginning of July and would do as you say - even after taking account of the cost of booking a family room at the airport they reckoned they saved anything up to £1,000 on booking a holiday for 2 adults and 2 kids. The family with 4 children reckoned they saved even more, especially since they usually booked for 3 adults and 3 children because even while all 4 children were still under 16 that worked out as the cheapest way to get 2 rooms!

I'm in South Lanarkshire and our schools finish on 28/6/18 and go back on 16/8/18. We drive to France every year.

OK I am an OAP and enjoy cheap holidays as I can go away when the schools are open. But I do have sympathy - not a lot - but some. I have the T shirt from when my kids were at school.

I also remember when I was working and had the same problem the TOs have. When I ran a car hire operation there were times when business was slow and I discounted my rates whilst at others (holiday weeks and bank holidays) I charged top dollar as they say. People do tend to think it only applies to us but I am sure that people in France, Germany, Holland etc have exactly the same gripe.