Cheap Family Holidays: 12 Ranked by Real Week Costs
What a week actually costs a family of four, scored on the five lines that break holiday budgets.
Quick Answer
The Algarve is the cheapest of the 22 European beach resorts the Post Office prices, and the numbers are public.
- The cheapest package week tracked this summer is Turkey's Dalaman coast at £808 per person, so four full fares come to about £3,232 (as of July 2026, source: Which?). A free child place takes a fare off that, but operators allow only one per room, so a family of four cannot halve it.
- Once you land, the Algarve runs a family of four about £347 for the barometer basket plus a week of children's beach extras, against £455 in Majorca (as of July 2026, source: Post Office Travel Money).
- Families budget an average of £770.72 for resort spending and 85 percent blow it, by £380 on average (as of July 2026, source: Post Office Travel Money).
- Add the two and four full fares to Dalaman plus resort spending is roughly 4,000 to £4,400 for the week. Every lever that brings it down is a booking decision, not luck.
- Turkey is the value story of the year despite local prices rising, the tension our Turkey and Greece comparison unpicks.
Two things below change the shortlist: the resort where one waterpark day costs more than the family's evening meal, and the asterisk on every free child place ad.
Page one for this search is wall to wall lead in prices. Holidays from £99. Deposits from £19 per person. Free child places, asterisk. None of it is a lie. None of it is what you pay.
Here's the number that reframes it: in Tenerife one waterpark visit for a family of four costs £146.79, more than that family's three course evening meal anywhere in the top ten (as of July 2026, source: Post Office Travel Money). The ranking scores that line and four others across twelve resorts.
How we scored each resort
Every price comes from the Post Office Travel Money Family Holiday Report 2026, the 18th edition, produced with TUI, the only annual dataset that prices the same shopping list for the same family of four across 22 European resorts. We split it into five lines that don't overlap and scored each from 0 to 5, so twenty five is a perfect week. We're calling it the Real Week Score, and after this it's just the score.
- The family dinner. Three courses with drinks for four, the biggest line in the barometer. Five points under £80, one at 110 and over.
- Lunch and snacks. Two course lunch for two adults plus two children's snacks. Five points under £35, one at 53 and over.
- Drinks and sun kit. Coffee, beer, cola, wine, water, suncream, insect repellent. The line you can flatten by packing.
- The waterpark day. One visit. Five points under £88, one at 121 and over.
- Kids' kit and treats. Buckets, lilos, snorkel sets, fourteen ice creams and two pedalo rides, over a week.
The first three add up to the barometer basket, the last two to the Children's Beach Barometer, which the Post Office frames as a week's cost for a family of four. Nothing is counted twice. Ties go to the cheaper total, and flights sit outside the score.
The three picks worth booking
1. Algarve, Portugal
The Algarve tops the barometer with no weak line: £77.76 for the family dinner, £34.51 for lunch and snacks, £111.74 for a week of kids' kit, Albufeira prices down 2.7 percent year on year (as of July 2026, source: Post Office Travel Money). The catch is the airfare: at £1,100 per person it is the dearest week in the package table below. It's also where Which? found prices falling furthest, from £1,313 in March (as of July 2026, source: Which?). Check current Algarve hotel prices.
2. Menorca, Balearic Islands
New to the barometer, Menorca lands fourth cheapest of 22 resorts on everyday costs, the cheapest waterpark day of the twelve at £79.51 and a family dinner of £76.41 (as of July 2026, source: Post Office Travel Money). Calm coves and short transfers do the rest. Our Majorca and Menorca comparison weighs the whole trip, car hire included. On the ground alone, the barometer puts Majorca about £85 a week dearer.
3. Marmaris, Turkey
Marmaris has the cheapest children's week of the twelve at £200.27 and the cheapest kids' kit line of all 22 resorts at £97.26, roughly £75 under Sunny Beach for the same buckets and ice creams (as of July 2026, source: Post Office Travel Money). It carries the loudest warning label too: barometer costs rose 22.7 percent even as the lira fell almost 12 percent, dropping it from first to seventh. Turkey is still cheap. Less cheap than it was.
The full ranking
| Rank | Destination | Family dinner | Lunch and snacks | Drinks and sun kit | Waterpark day | Kids' kit and treats | Score | Week on the ground |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Algarve, Portugal | 5£77.76 | 5£34.51 | 4£27.38 | 4£96.11 | 5£111.74 | 23 | £347.50 |
| 2 | Menorca, Balearic Islands | 5£76.41 | 4£39.32 | 2£35.55 | 5£79.51 | 3£139.78 | 19 | £370.57 |
| 3 | Marmaris, Turkey | 4£83.17 | 3£46.16 | 3£29.00 | 3£103.01 | 5£97.26 | 18 | £358.60 |
| 4 | Lanzarote, Canary Islands | 3£89.99 | 5£26.21 | 3£31.22 | 5£87.37 | 2£150.30 | 18 | £385.09 |
| 5 | Paphos, Cyprus | 2£107.91 | 3£45.44 | 5£23.83 | 4£97.86 | 4£120.30 | 18 | £395.34 |
| 6 | Sunny Beach, Bulgaria | 5£73.04 | 4£37.57 | 3£31.55 | 4£97.51 | 1£172.44 | 17 | £412.11 |
| 7 | Costa del Sol, Spain | 4£81.26 | 2£51.55 | 3£30.36 | 3£100.48 | 4£129.08 | 16 | £392.73 |
| 8 | Tenerife, Canary Islands | 3£88.24 | 3£43.69 | 4£26.38 | 1£146.79 | 4£124.06 | 15 | £429.16 |
| 9 | Costa Brava, Spain | 4£86.73 | 3£42.81 | 5£25.48 | 2£113.59 | 1£163.16 | 15 | £431.77 |
| 10 | Sliema, Malta | 3£88.24 | 1£59.41 | 2£33.56 | 5£85.63 | 2£159.16 | 13 | £426.00 |
| 11 | Costa Blanca, Spain | 3£92.60 | 2£48.92 | 3£31.89 | 1£129.31 | 2£147.68 | 11 | £450.40 |
| 12 | Majorca, Balearic Islands | 1£119.26 | 1£59.41 | 1£40.98 | 2£116.87 | 4£118.70 | 9 | £455.22 |
Sources: every figure is from the Post Office Travel Money Family Holiday Report 2026, July 2026, produced with TUI across 22 European resorts, prices researched by TUI and named tourist offices and converted at July 2026 rates. The final column is the barometer basket plus the Children's Beach Barometer week for a family of four, excluding flights and accommodation.
What the flights and the hotel actually cost
The barometer covers what a week costs once you land, not getting there. For that, the cleanest UK number is from Which?, which priced 8,794 packages, more than 17,000 prices in all, from easyJet holidays, Jet2holidays and TUI in March and July 2026 across the 71 European destinations it tracks, and found prices down in 53 of them. Each figure is per person, seven nights with flights, departing around 2 August 2026, two sharing a standard double or twin room (as of July 2026, source: Which?).
| Destination | Average week, per person | Change since March 2026 | Family of four, our arithmetic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dalaman coast, Turkey | £808 | down 14 percent | £1,616 to £3,232 |
| Kefalonia, Greece | £829 | down 11 percent | £1,658 to £3,316 |
| Costa Dorada, Spain | £832 | down 9 percent | £1,664 to £3,328 |
| Gran Canaria | £851 | down 14 percent | £1,702 to £3,404 |
| Costa Blanca, Spain | £859 | down 6 percent | £1,718 to £3,436 |
| Tenerife | £866 | down 10 percent | £1,732 to £3,464 |
| Malta | £869 | down 6 percent | £1,738 to £3,476 |
| Costa Brava, Spain | £878 | down 6 percent | £1,756 to £3,512 |
| Peloponnese, Greece | £903 | down 16 percent | £1,806 to £3,612 |
| Campania, Italy | £916 | not published | £1,832 to £3,664 |
| Algarve, Portugal | £1,100 | £1,313 in March | £2,200 to £4,400 |
Sources: Which? package holiday price tracking, published 17 July 2026, methodology as above. Rows one to ten are Which?'s own published list of the ten cheapest destinations; the Algarve is a separate callout from the same study, the region where prices had fallen furthest. The right hand column is that per person figure doubled and quadrupled by us, not separate quotes. The quadrupled figure is four full fares, the conversion Which? itself uses to cost a family of four. The doubled figure is an arithmetic floor and nothing more: it assumes two children fly free, while the per person rate assumes two people in a double or twin and operators allow only one free child place per room, so no family of four can book it.
The Algarve wins the resort barometer and loses the flight. Turkey loses the barometer on the year and wins the flight by a distance. And who counts as a full fare moves more money than the destination does: one free child place takes the lowest priced fare off a Dalaman week, while the ten cheapest tracked destinations span 808 to £916 per person. How you book matters more than where you go.
Free child places, decoded
A free child place means the operator charges nothing for one child's flight seat, bed and transfer when enough of the room pays full price. Jet2holidays advertises them as "available across all destinations, all seasons and all months" and takes a £60 per person deposit, and easyJet holidays advertises the same £60 per person deposit (as of August 2026, source: Jet2holidays and easyJet holidays published pages). Deposits have collapsed too: On the Beach and loveholidays advertise from £19 per person.
So why doesn't every family get one? The asterisk carries it. Jet2holidays publishes the conditions, and they bite harder than the ad copy: the free place applies only to selected accommodation, dates, departure points, room types and board basis; it needs at least two passengers paying full price, who need not both be adults; the child's age on the return date must not exceed the hotel's limit; and there is only one free place per room (as of August 2026, source: Jet2holidays terms and conditions, clause 6). That last line is the one that catches families of four. Chris Logan, Commercial Director of TUI UK and Ireland, told the Post Office report that families can still secure a great deal, including free kids' places, in Cyprus and Turkey (as of July 2026, source: Post Office Travel Money). So run the same week twice, once as two adults and two children, once as two adults only, and compare.
Half term, and why these August prices don't apply
Every price here is an August price, the top of the market. The autumn half term in England runs Monday 26 October to Friday 30 October 2026, inside a term that starts Wednesday 2 September and ends Friday 18 December (as of August 2026, source: Ealing Council term dates for the 2026/27 academic year). Academies set their own dates, so check your school first.
One number is missing, and it's the one you came for. We looked for a published half term against term time price gap for 2026 and found none we would stand behind, so there is no premium figure here and no half term factor in the score. We'd rather say that than estimate it.
Two sourced signals read together. The tracked August prices above fell 6 to 16 percent between March and July, so the peak softens as it approaches rather than hardening. And UK cottage bookings for October were up 11 percent year on year, January up 12 percent, which the Sykes Staycation Index 2026 puts down to Brits avoiding peak prices and crowds. If your dates are locked to the school calendar, work the levers you control: which airport you fly from, whether that's Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow or Gatwick, the day of the week, and how early the deposit goes down. Our guide to UK school holidays and what each break really costs goes break by break, and when to book by month covers timing.
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Which one's right for your family?
You want the cheapest possible week and you'll fly anywhere
Turkey. The Dalaman coast is the cheapest tracked package in Europe and Marmaris the cheapest children's week of the twelve. Read our Turkey and Greece comparison first.
Your kids are small and the waterpark decides everything
Menorca or Lanzarote. Menorca has the cheapest waterpark day of the twelve at £79.51; Lanzarote is third at £87.37, just behind Sliema at 85.63. All three come in under £90 against £146.79 in Tenerife. The Canary Islands family guide covers which island suits which age.
You want winter sun rather than a summer week
The Canaries. Tenerife scored well on everyday costs, badly on the waterpark, and packages ran 10 percent cheaper in July than March. See live Tenerife prices for your dates.
You're staying in the UK this year
Cornwall, Devon and the Lakes aren't automatically cheaper. Sykes puts actual spend on a main UK trip at £1,171, with UK holidaymakers planning £1,292 for a main summer break (as of August 2026, source: Sykes Staycation Index 2026). Set that against Dalaman for four: about £3,232 in full fares, or £2,424 if you land a free child place, before a single meal. Our Cornwall and Devon comparison and Lake District and Peak District comparison price the UK side.
Our take
Book Turkey if the budget is the constraint and the Algarve if the week itself is. Turkey's Dalaman coast is the cheapest tracked package week in Europe at £808 per person, and Marmaris the cheapest children's week of the twelve at £200.27 (as of July 2026, sources: Which? and Post Office Travel Money). The Algarve costs more to reach and less to live in, and it's the only resort that scored well on all five lines.
The bigger point is what the two studies say together. The spread between destinations on the ground is about £108 a week. One free child place removes the lowest priced fare in the room, and operators cap it at one per room, so landing that place is the biggest lever a family of four has. Spend your energy there, then check your own dates, because 85 percent of families bust their budget by £380 on average. Six of the twelve come in under £400 for the week on the ground, before flights.
Frequently Asked Questions
How this was researched
One dataset drives the ranking, split into five lines that don't overlap. The scoring bands are our editorial judgement, not the Post Office's, and every cell prints the underlying figure so you can check the sums. Package prices come from a second study because no single source prices both legs. No destination is ranked unless the Post Office surveyed it. More on how we work is in our methodology.
Data Sources and Verification
Resort and children's beach costs plus family spending behaviour: Post Office Travel Money Family Holiday Report 2026, 18th edition with TUI, July 2026, plus Yonder research among 2,080 UK adults of whom 503 holiday with children, 12 to 14 June 2026. The spending figures (£770.72 budgeted, 85 percent overspending by 380, and the 359, 164.70 and £147 lines) rest on a smaller unweighted base: 357 adults who took a family holiday excluding all inclusive overseas trips in the last five years. Package prices: Which?, 17 July 2026, more than 17,000 prices across the 71 European destinations Which? tracks, of which 53 got cheaper, two sharing a standard double or twin room for seven nights departing around 2 August 2026. UK trip spending: Sykes Staycation Index 2026, 25,000 properties plus an OnePoll survey of 2,000 UK adults, April 2026. Term dates: Ealing Council, 2026/27. Deposits and free child places: published copy from Jet2holidays (family holidays page and terms clause 6), easyJet holidays, On the Beach and loveholidays, captured 30 July to 2 August 2026. Verified August 2026. Prices move, so treat every number as a benchmark, not a quote.