keitha
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Post by keitha on Mar 14, 2024 12:14:31 GMT
just booked a holiday with my OH.
She's insisted we pay an extra £350 ( £50 a night ) for a sea rather than inland view. which given the amount of time we'd spend in the room seems exorbitant.
One of her friend has suggested that at about £1,000 each for a week ( B&B in hotel ) we are being cheapskate, she works to a budget of £2,000 a person a week.
I'm looking at around £80 for the 2 of us for evening meals, again this friend is saying we should be looking at £125, and £60 for lunch.
Am I being stingy looking at £1,500 each a week ( excluding trips) or should I really be looking at £3,000 ?
yes I can run to £3,000 but that in all honesty represents about 6 weeks income and that feels a lot, especially given we will have at least 1 more foreign trip this year and a couple at home
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Post by Ace on Mar 14, 2024 12:32:15 GMT
We're off to paphos next week. £750 each in a good hotel including full sea view and breakfast. I would expect about £80 for evening meals for 2 in local restaurants, but we're not big drinkers. Our lunches will mostly be sarnies, picked up from local deli and eaten on top of a mountain or on a coastal outcrop. So £20 should cover that.
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adrianc
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Post by adrianc on Mar 14, 2024 12:32:56 GMT
How shallow does somebody have to be to think that anything under £570 for a double room PER NIGHT is "cheapskate"? Even your budget sounds bloody high to me.
We did three weeks travelling round France last summer, and I don't think we once paid more than about €65-70/night or so for accommodation for the pair of us - including a chalet 1300m up in the Ardeche, a St Emilion Grand Cru vineyard, and a lovely apartment in the centre of the wonderful Roman town of Vienne.
In the middle of May, we're having a weekend in what looks to be a lovely, characterful AirBnB room in the centre of Bristol for £50/night for the pair of us, 20min walk from the Arnolfini and M Shed. We balked at £100/room/night for the centre of Oxford.
Start with what you actually want and like. If you can't afford (or justify!) it, adjust your expectations.
Pretty sure we'd actually struggle to get through £90/day/head on eating out... and we LOVE good food and a drink... One of the pubs near us has just changed hands - and people are saying the food is exquisite, but muttering gently about the prices. Dinner menu starters are all £8ish and of the mains only the Brill with Trout Mousseline is (just) over £20.
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iRobot
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Post by iRobot on Mar 14, 2024 13:12:07 GMT
I guess it boils down to the individual's assessment of the cost .v. value. £50 extra for a sea view... What's the location? Is there a balcony? Would you be able to have breakfast on your balcony and enjoy the sunrise? Or dinner and enjoy the sunset? If you're active and able to get around to more remote parts of the coast (or other attractions) then you might argue that paying extra for a sea view isn't a great value proposition; you're able to explore and generate your own views. If you'd likely spend a good deal of time in the hotel (eg: less mobile and have booked full-board) then it might seem great value. Then there's also the 'value' associated with letting SHMBO have what she wants and allow any other considerations to pale into insignificance...   |
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Greenwood2
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Post by Greenwood2 on Mar 14, 2024 13:47:26 GMT
Also sometimes sea view or nice view equals the old part of the hotel with the bars and restaurants so the whole experience is nicer and it isn't a hike to the bar. The cheaper non-view rooms are found round the back in the modern motel style accommodation, which is fine, but nothing like the picture.
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keitha
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Post by keitha on Mar 14, 2024 16:16:02 GMT
given it's B&B unlikely we will be sitting on balcony eating, unless its lunch or a glass of wine watching the sun go down.
I suppose the big issue on money for me is :-
A) I love Greece and there were plenty of restaurants where €40 was expensive for 2 for a meal
B) like many I've not been to holiday places since 2019 and prices will have changed
C) We do a few conferences abroad, and usually evening meals are organised, last year I looked up average meals in advance and they reckoned around €60 for 2, we paid €60 per person for the organised 2 meals plus wine, then on the last night a few of us went out together and had a much nicer meal for just over €35 including drinks.
D) I don't care about rooms, for me it's somewhere to store clothes and sleep, so the extra £50 a day feels steep
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IFISAcava
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Post by IFISAcava on Mar 14, 2024 16:44:11 GMT
Depending on where it is in Greece (e.g. big difference if you go to Mykonos/Santorini type places and you will just get fleeced everywhere unless you are v careful/lucky)
- if you eat in a traditional taverna, and drink house carafe wine, you should be ok with 25 Euros a head, even after recent price rises.
- if you go to a fancier/modern place, and drink bottled wine, that can be doubled, as it gets closer to mainstream European prices.
The house wine is usually absolutely fine (ask to taste it first).
And there is a huge variation in room/hotel prices (50-500 Euros a night), though generally prices are going rapidly up because Northern Europeans are willing/able to pay more. Greeks are being priced out of their own islands. By way of example, in 2020 we could rent a 2 bedroom apartment for 65 Euros a night (albeit that was reduced due to pandemic, and same apartment was 100 Euros in 2021), but last year a smaller two room studio (sleeps family of 4 comfortably, has a lovely sea view) was 130 Euros in July, 140 Euros in August. Many others were paying 200-300 a night, but you could also get single rooms without a sea view for 60-70 Euros.
Gone are the days of easily finding a comfortable room for 20 Euros in Greece!
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keitha
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Post by keitha on Mar 14, 2024 17:08:03 GMT
I'd love to go back to Greece but SWMBO decided we should look elsewhere ( and was grumpy when I took Santorini off the list )
final few were Sardinia, Corsica, and the Algarve, with the Algarve winning, I've not been to Portugal so feeling a little nervous
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adrianc
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Post by adrianc on Mar 14, 2024 22:05:33 GMT
I'd love to go back to Greece but SWMBO decided we should look elsewhere ( and was grumpy when I took Santorini off the list ) final few were Sardinia, Corsica, and the Algarve, with the Algarve winning, I've not been to Portugal so feeling a little nervous Portugal's lovely. I'm not sure the Algarve counts as Portugal. It's all golf courses and could-be-anywhere resorts.
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keitha
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Post by keitha on Mar 15, 2024 12:02:01 GMT
I'd love to go back to Greece but SWMBO decided we should look elsewhere ( and was grumpy when I took Santorini off the list ) final few were Sardinia, Corsica, and the Algarve, with the Algarve winning, I've not been to Portugal so feeling a little nervous Portugal's lovely. I'm not sure the Algarve counts as Portugal. It's all golf courses and could-be-anywhere resorts. that's an issue I went to Laganas on Zante 30 years ago and it was nice, pretty clean, and family friendly, went back 6 years ago and the main drag was nearly all all you can eat restaurants, Maccy D's etc and strip clubs, it ruined memories of a couple of great holidays. For anyone going to the Parga area, I really recommend a trip to Meteora one of the most stunning places I've ever been to
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adrianc
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Post by adrianc on Mar 15, 2024 12:20:04 GMT
For anyone going to the Parga area, I really recommend a trip to Meteora one of the most stunning places I've ever been to Meteora, as in the monastery slap bang in the middle of mainland Greece? We stopped there on the way across Greece, after getting the ferry to Igoumenitsa. Truly stunning, but it's not exactly local to those west coast resorts...! Google reckons nearly a 400km, 5hr round trip.
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keitha
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Post by keitha on Mar 15, 2024 13:50:24 GMT
well a collection of monasteries, and i'm sure it was only a couple of hours on a coach
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keitha
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Post by keitha on Mar 15, 2024 16:32:11 GMT
Whoop,
had been having a decent Cheltenham had a couple of winners today.
then on the last race backed the winner at 17/2 with £4.40 each way, silly amount but it rounded my account down and I got a little over £53 back,
total winnings on the week just under £200 that should get us a couple of nice meals out
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agent69
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Post by agent69 on Mar 15, 2024 17:04:11 GMT
Whoop, had been having a decent Cheltenham had a couple of winners today. then on the last race backed the winner at 17/2 with £4.40 each way, silly amount but it rounded my account down and I got a little over £53 back, total winnings on the week just under £200 that should get us a couple of nice meals out Last of the big spenders? That's not going far against a £2k hotel bill.
As an aside, I am a big fan of holidays in SE Asia, but find the time difference / jet lag more taxing as you get older (3 bed villa in Bali is < £150 a night with olympic sized private pool, but also olympic sized mosquitos). Was thinking of visiting Africa, maybe split between Kenya and Tanzania (good price business class flights from CDG to DAR with QR). However, I see that in Kenya both the president and especially the vice-president are alleged to be non drinking religious zealots who are persuing many new anti-alcohol decisions, as they say they don't want to rule a nation of drunkards.
Well that's not going to encourage tourists.
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keitha
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Post by keitha on Mar 15, 2024 17:09:37 GMT
Whoop, had been having a decent Cheltenham had a couple of winners today. then on the last race backed the winner at 17/2 with £4.40 each way, silly amount but it rounded my account down and I got a little over £53 back, total winnings on the week just under £200 that should get us a couple of nice meals out Last of the big spenders? That's not going far against a £2k hotel bill.
As an aside, I am a big fan of holidays in SE Asia, but find the time difference / jet lag more taxing as you get older (3 bed villa in Bali is < £150 a night with olympic sized private pool, but also olympic sized mosquitos). Was thinking of visiting Africa, maybe split between Kenya and Tanzania (good price business class flights from CDG to DAR with QR). However, I see that in Kenya both the president and especially the vice-president are alleged to be non drinking religious zealots who are persuing many new anti-alcohol decisions, as they say they don't want to rule a nation of drunkards.
Well that's not going to encourage tourists.
American don't either that's why their beer is like making love in a canoe on a more serious point one of the reasons I don't like all inclusive is the Brits abroad, Have a friend ( sadly deceased ) who would go AI fry up for breakfast with a pint, then 3 or 4 more then a kip till lunchtime, more food and beer another kip, tea and then drink till midnight. I like to see something of places I visit other than the hotel and the coach to and from the Airport
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