If you've looked at the price of a family holiday abroad this summer, you already know. Flights in school holidays, a decent hotel, transfers, food, it adds up fast. A week abroad for a family of four easily hits £3,500 or more once you factor in everything, and that's before anyone's bought an ice cream.
The UK is the obvious alternative. The problem is that "UK staycation" has become one of those phrases that sounds cheaper than it actually is. Cornwall in August costs a fortune. The Lake District in peak summer is rammed. Center Parcs is great but you're looking at over a grand for a few nights in a cabin.
So here are five places that actually work for families on a budget this summer. Not the obvious ones that everyone fights over, but destinations where the beaches are just as good, there's plenty to do with kids of all ages, and the prices haven't gone completely mad. Yet.
1. North Norfolk
North Norfolk is the kind of place that families go back to every year because nothing about it tries too hard. The coastline runs from Hunstanton in the west to Cromer in the east, with long sandy beaches, salt marshes, and traditional seaside towns strung along it. Everything is about 20 minutes from everything else, which matters when you've got kids in the car.
Holkham Beach is the standout. It's vast, backed by pine woods, and even in August you can find space. Wells-next-the-Sea has the colourful beach huts, crabbing on the quay, and fish and chips by the harbour. Cromer has a Victorian pier and some of the best crab in the country. Hunstanton has striped cliffs, rock pools, and the kind of old-school amusement arcades that kids love and parents tolerate.
For days when the weather turns, BeWILDerwood near Wroxham is an outdoor adventure park with treehouses, zip wires, and marsh walks that keeps kids busy for a full day. Entry is around £22 for adults and £19 for children. The Broads are right there too, and hiring a day boat for the family costs from about £50 to £100 depending on the size. Blakeney Point boat trips to see the seal colony run from about £15 per adult and £10 per child.
Accommodation is where Norfolk really earns its place on this list. Holiday park caravans through Haven or Parkdean start from around £300 to £500 for a week in summer, depending on the park and dates. Camping pitches across Norfolk go from £15 to £35 a night. Self-catering cottages are available but book early because Norfolk is popular with families who know the area.
Getting there is easy from most of England. It's about three hours from London, two and a half from the Midlands, and shorter from anywhere in the east. Much closer than the five-hour crawl to Cornwall.
2. Pembrokeshire, Wales
Pembrokeshire is home to the UK's only coastal national park and has some of the best beaches in Britain. Not "best beaches for the UK" with a quiet caveat, but genuinely excellent beaches that regularly appear on international lists. The water is cold, obviously, but the sand and scenery are hard to beat.
Barafundle Bay is often rated as one of the best beaches in the world and is free to visit. You reach it via a short walk from the car park at Stackpole, which keeps it quieter than most. Tenby is the main family town, with three beaches, a harbour, pastel-coloured houses, and enough ice cream shops and fish and chip places to keep everyone happy. Freshwater West is wilder and better for older kids and surfers. Saundersfoot has a family-friendly sandy beach with rock pools.
Folly Farm near Tenby is brilliant for younger children. It's part zoo, part vintage fairground, part farm, and it works for a full day. Entry is around £18 to £22 per person. Oakwood Theme Park is the bigger ride option for older kids and teenagers, with tickets from around £25 online. Boat trips to Skomer Island to see the puffin colonies run from Martin's Haven and cost around £25 per adult and £15 per child. The coastal path is free and spectacular, and you can do manageable chunks of it with children without committing to a full hike.
The Pembrokeshire coast is lined with campsites. A basic pitch in summer runs from about £20 to £40 a night for a family. Bluestone Wales, a Center Parcs-style resort near Narberth, is a step up in price but is car-free, has a water park, and runs free activity programmes for young kids. Haven's Kiln Park in Tenby is another solid holiday park option with direct beach access. Self-catering cottages through Sykes or Cottages.com are worth looking at if you're splitting costs with another family.
From the Midlands, Pembrokeshire is about a four-hour drive. From the north of England, it's a longer trek, but the M4 and M48 make it manageable. There are also direct trains to Tenby from London Paddington, which takes around four and a half hours.
3. Yorkshire Coast and Dales
Yorkshire is two holidays in one. You've got the coast on one side and the Dales on the other, and they're close enough that you can do both in a week without spending half your time in the car.
Whitby is the headline town on the coast. The 199 steps up to the abbey, the harbour, the fish and chips (Whitby's are famous for a reason), and the Dracula connection for older kids who think they're too cool for sandcastles. Robin Hood's Bay, just down the coast, is a car-free village with rock pools and a steep cobbled street that feels like stepping back in time. Scarborough has the bigger beach and more traditional seaside infrastructure, the arcades, the mini golf, the donkey rides.
Inland, the Yorkshire Dales are genuinely stunning and mostly free to enjoy. Aysgarth Falls, Malham Cove (where they filmed Harry Potter), and Ingleton Waterfalls Trail are all great for families. The Ingleton trail has an entry fee of about £8 for adults and £4 for children. The steam railways are worth a trip, both the North Yorkshire Moors Railway from Pickering to Whitby (about £38 for adults return, children from £19) and the Wensleydale Railway which is cheaper and quieter.
York itself is brilliant for a day or two. The Shambles, the city walls, York Minster, and the Jorvik Viking Centre (about £16 for adults, £11 for children) are all worth the stop. York Dungeons if the kids want something a bit scarier.
Camping in Yorkshire is some of the cheapest in the country. Farm campsites in the Dales start from around £10 to £15 a night for a basic pitch. Holiday parks on the coast are a step up but still reasonable, with caravans available from around £250 to £500 for a week depending on the site and dates. There are YHA hostels at Whitby and several locations in the Dales that offer family rooms from around £50 to £80 a night.
Yorkshire is well connected by road from pretty much anywhere in the north and Midlands. The A1(M) runs right past it. Trains to York from London take about two hours, and from there you can get local services to the coast.
4. Dorset
Dorset is the quieter, cheaper alternative to Devon and Cornwall, and in many ways it's better for families with younger children because the beaches are more sheltered and the distances are shorter. The Jurassic Coast is a UNESCO World Heritage Site running through the county, which sounds impressive and is, but more importantly it means fossil hunting, which is an entire free day out that kids of all ages find genuinely exciting.
Charmouth Beach is the best spot for fossil hunting. You can just turn up and start looking, or join a guided walk run by the Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre (usually around £8 to £10 per person). Children regularly find real ammonites, which is the kind of thing they remember for years. Lulworth Cove and Durdle Door are dramatic and photogenic. The walk between the two is short enough for most children and the swimming at Lulworth is good in calm weather.
Swanage is a proper family seaside town with a sandy beach, a pier, and a steam railway that runs to Corfe Castle. The castle itself is a National Trust site and is the kind of ruin that kids can actually explore and clamber around, which makes it far more interesting than most. Brownsea Island, a short ferry from Poole, has red squirrels and a Scouts heritage trail.
Monkey World near Wool is great for a full day out with kids (about £16 for adults, £12 for children). The Tank Museum at Bovington is nearby and is better than it sounds, especially for slightly older children. Entry is about £17 for adults and free for under-fives.
Dorset has a good range of campsites, from basic farm pitches at £15 to £20 a night to sites with pools and facilities for £30 to £50. Holiday parks along the coast offer caravans from around £300 for a week outside of the very peak dates. Weymouth and Swanage both have a decent range of self-catering options.
From London, Dorset is about two to three hours depending on where you're heading. From the Midlands, it's a similar distance. Crucially, you avoid the M5 bottleneck that makes getting to Devon and Cornwall so painful in summer.
5. Northumberland
Northumberland is the one that barely anyone outside the north of England thinks of for a family holiday, which is exactly why it works. The beaches are long, clean, and empty even in August. The castles are spectacular. And the prices are noticeably lower than anywhere in the south of England.
Bamburgh Beach sits below Bamburgh Castle and is regularly voted one of the best beaches in the UK. The castle dominates the coastline and costs about £17 for adults and £9 for children to visit, but honestly the view from the beach is almost as good. Alnmouth and Beadnell are quieter beach villages with good swimming. The Farne Islands, accessible by boat from Seahouses (about £20 to £25 per person), have huge puffin and seal colonies. Between April and July, the puffins are nesting and you can get remarkably close.
Alnwick Castle is the big paid attraction, famous as a Harry Potter filming location. Entry is about £19 for adults and £10 for children. Alnwick Garden next door is included and has a poison garden tour that older kids find brilliant. Hadrian's Wall runs through the south of the county and is free to walk along, with Roman forts and museums dotted along it.
The Holy Island of Lindisfarne is accessible by a tidal causeway at low tide, which is an adventure in itself. Check the tide times, drive across, explore the priory and castle, and drive back before the water comes in. It's free apart from the heritage site entry fees, and it feels genuinely different from anywhere else in England.
Camping in Northumberland is excellent value. Sites along the coast range from £10 to £25 a night for a family pitch. There are fewer big holiday parks than in other parts of the country, but there are good independent sites near Bamburgh, Seahouses, and Beadnell. Self-catering cottages are available and tend to be cheaper than equivalent properties in Cornwall or the Lake District.
Northumberland is easy to reach from anywhere in the north of England and southern Scotland. From the Midlands it's about three to four hours. From London it's a longer drive, but direct trains to Alnmouth from London King's Cross take about three and a half hours, which is quicker than driving to Cornwall.
A Few Things That Save Money Everywhere
Camping is the biggest money saver across all five destinations. A week's camping for a family of four can cost as little as £100 to £250 depending on the site, compared to £500 or more for a caravan or over £1,000 for a self-catering cottage in peak summer. If you already own a tent, the only ongoing cost is the pitch fee.
A Family and Friends Railcard costs £35 for a year and gives you a third off adult fares and 60 per cent off children's fares. If you're using trains at all, it pays for itself on the first trip. The average saving is about £122 per year.
Timing helps even within the school holidays. The last week of August is often cheaper than the first two weeks because some families have already been and the demand drops slightly. If you can go in the final week before schools go back, you'll usually find better availability and lower prices.
Pack a cool bag and buy food from a supermarket rather than eating out for every meal. That sounds obvious but it's the single thing that makes the biggest difference to the daily spend. A family lunch from a supermarket costs about £10. The same family eating out costs £40 or more. Over a week, that's a £200 difference on lunches alone.
And if all else fails and the British weather does its thing, every single one of these destinations has enough indoor options to fill a rainy day without spending a fortune. That's the real test of a good family holiday destination, and they all pass it.