Our Interstate Holiday for Six - Under $2500!

Now that the boys are getting older, planning family holidays is getting harder and harder.  This time we had six out of the seven of us and Matthew was definitely missed :( It was six days of beautiful Gold Coast weather (of course it rained on the last day) which was a lovely escape for the Melbourne chill.

Being forever budget conscious, I enjoy taking time to plan holidays and looking for deals to get the best price possible.  I booked our flights last year with Jetstar, making use of their price guarantee. Total cost for 6 return flights from Melbourne to the Gold Coast  $323.52.

I had a great time researching accommodation. I kept looking at deals online that would accommodate the 6 of us.  So many deals look really good until you read that they are only for two adults and two children which does not translate into any kind of deal for five adults and one child! I’m signed up for all of the “deal” emails – Groupon, Scoopon, Spreets/OurDeal etc and OurDeal is where I found our accommodation. We stayed at the Gold Coast Holiday Park in one of their beautiful two bedroom luxury villas for six nights. Included in the deal was four kid’s breakfasts, which Jacob enjoyed down by the pool each morning, four x pedal car and kayak hires and two hours hire of their tennis court.  They also put on a pancake breakfast for guests on Sunday mornings and a sausage sizzle of Tuesday nights! Total cost for the six of us $848.

Getting around on a holiday involves a people mover for us which excludes us from getting “upgrade” deals so I had to hunt around for a deals that involved extra time.  I was pretty happy with the deal I got at Budget. A Hyundai iMax for the week set me back $488.40.  Got to say, I loved driving it and it had sooooo much room!!

Of course what is a trip to the Gold Coast without a theme park visit.  We decided on Dreamworld even though we had been there before we knew that we wouldn’t have to worry about height restrictions on the rides for Jacob.  The tickets we bought are valid until November, which is good since two of the boys look like heading back up later on in the year and that’s money they won’t need to spend.  Our tickets gave us entry to Dreamworld, Whitewater World and the Skypoint Observation Deck.  Total entertainment cost $574.89

An unexpected saving was finding out I could prepay for my airport parking at Tullamarine Airport.  The cost for leaving my car parked for a week $53.86 opposed to nearly $80 if I had simply paid on the way out!

I had set myself a budget of $2500 for this holiday and ended up under budget at $2288.67 so I was pretty proud of myself. Now to look for the next deal…………….