UK is as you say a rip off , i dont know how you would afford to feed a family every day in somehwre like st ives , unless you went self catering , even then youre looking at 400-500 per week for a chalet....

we ALWAYS have UK breaks out of season , the price differences are outrageous

sloop inn stives , pint in january - £1.90-2.10

pint in july £2.90

disgusting

I think UK hols need a shake up. I refuse to pay £600/£700/£800 for accommodation in this country and put up with overpriced rubbishy food (in general) Most UK seaside resorts seem cheap and nasty and accommodation is not that great unless you research well beforehand.

Thats how I see it anyway, I'm sure there are nice places to go and although I have been to places in Devon and Cornwall I'm not in a rush to go back.

I've just had 11 days in the Med all in except food for £1500, flights, 11 days car hire and accomodation in a 4* hotel. My mate has just come back from 5 days at Butlins in Skegness where he paid over £700 self catering and he said the place was disgusting. Cardboard and chips for a meal one night on site!! I know where I'll spend my money on holidays in future. He researched many holidays before he booked and for Centre Parcs, Haven, Caravan sites etc, he was looking at prices of nearly a grand for a week. Is it suprising that the tourist board are complaining of vanishing tourists??!!

yes me aswell i doubt i will ever go on holiday in the uk ever again .after going abroad its just not appealing not even for a day trip.

i totally agree with what everyone has said, especially if you can pick up a bargain, we are going to icmeler in oct and for 3 of us its only a grand total of £312 for a week lol, i would pay more than that for a caravan in the uk , then it would most likely rain for the week and also the expenses of eating and drinking out uk has got so expensive, we are actually considering moving to turkey next year

We always go to Icmeler in June and Sept last year we went June had a great time as usual but decided to try a log cabin in Mid Wales for September as a change. It cost around £300 for 3 nights (2 adults and a dog) breakfast and dinner were included, but it was like being on a school camp you had to be in for breakfast at 8.30 and dinner at 7.30 and no choice of food just vegetarian or not. The weather was awful so we could either sit in a small chalet or go out to a visitors centre or such the prices were ridiculous we paid and went into a bird of prey place it was a waste of time no birds showed up for feeding, I couldnt wait to go home. For the money we spent in 3 days plus our fuel driving there we could easily have had our week in Turkey wont be doing it again booked Turkey for 7 Sept.

hi i live in devon so i wont knock it to much , but although its a lovely area to visit and live your right everyware has got to expensive , in our local seaside resort it would be over £3 a pint and very expensive to eat in a restaurant , also i dont like the fact that all the shops ,ice cream kiosks want to shut at about 5 they dont seem to want to put in the hours like in turkey,like i said i love living here but give me my fortnight in marmaris anyday

for about 740 pound i have booked 5 rooms for 9 people in turkey for 2 weeks in july 08

2 caravans in devon/cornwall would be about a grand.

and our flights were only 70 pound each.

so for under 1400 pound i have got a 2 week holiday for 9 in marmaris with fab weather, food, drink and people.

last yr i booked with airtours and paid 2100 for 5 of us

pam xx

In Feb this year we said we would treat our son and family to a short break in Wales. When we priced it up, staying in 2 mobile homes, entertainment passes, all food, spending money etc etc etc, it came to over £1000. I joked we could go to Turkey for a week for not much more - well we did go to Turkey, OK it did cost a bit more, but it was first time our grandchildren had been abroad and boy did they enjoy themselves!!!!! Only trouble is our son said he would pay us back their share - of course we are still waiting!!! But then we would have paid a fortune to see our grandson's faces (aged 6 and 4) when our plane took off, they were so excited!!

Regards Denny

Hi,
Quite a while ago now we used to have 1 holiday in May around skegvegas / ingoldmells area in a caravan, And the main holiday abroad in September, If memory serves the caravan was about £350 a week then, by the time we had finished with spending money etc etc it cost a small fortune, we decided then that we might as well go to tr for a week instead. Of course once there we decided that what we had paid for the flight we might as well have been there for 2 weeks, the extra price for the accomadation was'nt / is'nt that much more, so the rest is history, now it's 2 weeks in May and 2 weeks in September, You can keep the English weather and the rip off prices for me, thankyou very much.

Kev

thats the problem with the uk its not only a rip off im just looking out the patio door at the rain and its august, don't get me wrong its a beautiful countrybut its not what i want from a holiday, i live near southend in essex and you can't get a nice evenings meal and a chill out there belive me
the place stinks of fish chips and beer, so turkey is now my second home and love it

Hi,

For donkey's years now we've been having a fortnight abroad in May (Turkey for the last few years)! and then a week at Center Parcs either Xmas or New Year. Have finally come to the conclusion that CP is way too expensive though. The week for the 5 of us costs around £1100 - and that's just the accommodation plus swimming, no other activities or food. By the time we've finished we've spent best part of £2000!

Been shopping around & can go all inclusive to Turkey next October for about £1500. Think we'll be swapping our Xmas break for October half-term from now on & this'll be our last year at CP!

Turkey twice next year sounding good to me.

Julesx

It says something about the country in general when you read that migration is at a record high of 385,000 and that is in the year to July 2006. Our next door but one neighbours have sold up and are off to Portugal. A person I know through work in my daily journeying retires in four weeks and he is selling up and going to Spain. A lot of people we know are contemplating retiring abroad and that includes ourselves with Turkey very high on the agenda. Another reason for us visiting different resorts, not only to check on the prices but to see if we like the area. Seven holidays in six years to Turkey, what more can I say.

Like you good people who have written before me, I totally agree with you about this country being a rip off place. As many of you have so rightly pointed out, for what you pay for a week in the UK you can get two weeks abroad for the same money and that, in our case, is Bed & Breakfast in Kalkan !! Okay, the weather out in Turkey at the moment
is a little extreme but i'm sure that many of us would rather fry than be blown away like the people in Mexico.

Les

So interesting to see the replies to my opening thread on this subject,although this is not a political thread i feel that another big "RIP OFF" is health issues,i heard on radio that a man is going to have to sell his house in U.K. and move abroad (don't know where)so as to finance life saving drugs as the health service wont supply them to him... so sad, what is this place coming to?)

Going back to my earlier post, I have to say that if standards of accommodation in this country were improved without the massive price tags I would definitely take a break in this country. Its nice to not have to fly somewhere, but even then the roads are busy here.

We do go camping as there are some beautiful places to visit in the UK, but we hardly ever go to coastal resorts. The reason we bought a tent in the first place was down to a really bad caravan we stayed in years ago.

My son, his wife and the two little ones paid £800 for a caravan at berwick they spent £1000 while they were there and have said never again will they holiday in this country. I have not had a holiday here in years for exactly the same reason it`s cheaper to go to turkey and the turkish people really do all they can to help you enjoy it.

I totally agree with all the previous posts but another major problem I find with holidays in the UK, is that except in "Butlins-type" holiday camps you cannot take children out with you into bars and even where you can take them for a meal they have to be out by 9 or 10pm. I would love to take my little boy (9) to somewhere where we could have a meal, a drink and see some entertainment.

The last time I had a holiday in the UK was 1980 and it cost £130 a week for a caravan on the Isle of Wight.I own a static in the Yorkshire dales but as its home from home I dont consider it a holiday.My daughter has just been to Jersey for 2 nights b&b and it cost her £100 more just for the hotel(excluding flights) than I paid for a fab 5star AI in Turkey in June with everything included.There is just no comparison between here and abroad especially for me the late deal addict!

Hi

Yes i have to agree about the prices in the UK.

I have priced up butlins before and its has worked out more expensive to stay in a self catering chalet/caravan at butlins, so of course you still have to find the money for your meals too, than it is to go abroad and stay in a 4* star all inclusive so no prizes for guessing which i would choose!! also there is the added bonus of (almost) guaranteed sunshine.

My mum thinks we spend alot on holidays and she and my dad go and stay in a caravan or b&b in the lakes or peak district for a week every summer - i got a shock when i priced it up for them this year and when you had added on the money they would need for food and spending money - not to mention the diesel they would use getting up there in the car and travelling around - it worked out to be just under the same amount we would pay for 2 weeks all inclusive!!