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…………….

A Secret Holiday

In September 2012, I booked flights for us to go to Queensland. Today, we finally headed off on our holiday. While my older boys knew that we were going, we kept it a secret from 8 year old Jacob. At first it was to simply save us from the constant "how much longer???" questions that none of us were willing to listen to for months on end. After a while, we decided that it would be fun to surprise him with the holiday.

He has talked about the last time we went to Queensland a lot over the last few years and reminds us in great detail about just how much fun he had and that he would love to go back. So, this morning, which was a miserable, cold Melbourne day, we headed off on what he thought was a special day trip since Zac had come home from Uni for a few days.

To see his reaction watch the video below :)

Our Holiday on the Bellarine Peninsula

Jeff, Jacob, Christian and I are currently having a fantastic time staying at the Big4 Bellarine.  We leisurely headed up on Friday, stopping for lunch, and the boys have had a great time playing on the playground, jumping pillows (which Jacob calls the bouncy blobs lol!!), swimming in the pool, riding go-carts, etc…..

We spent Saturday driving to Torquay for a play at the beach and lunch, the heading to Amaze N’ Games for a round of Mini Golf and a bit of competitive mazing!



There are any pictures of us in the maze, because Christian and I were running around like mad people trying to beat Jeff and Jacob to the four flags and exit - which we did by about 5 minutes!
Of course, when we arrived back at our cabin, the first thing the boys wanted to do was head back to the pool!

Speaking of the cabins, they are amazing! And after sleeping in this…..

I don’t think we are looking at replacing our old double bed with a queen anymore – King-size all the way baby!! Honestly, I wouldn’t have even know anyone else was in the bed there was so much room :)
We are hoping the weather holds up tomorrow as we are planning on visiting the Werribee open Range Zoo on the way hope! Cross fingers :)