Beach Holiday Essentials May Bust Your Budget

The Sun travel section today has released a very interesting article which points out that "Pester Power" can add £200 per child to a beach break!  This figure has been estimated based on all the little things you end up buying your little ones on holiday from a pair of Jelly Shoes and a bucket and spade to ice creams and sun lounger hire. 

The cost seems to vary between holiday destinations for these daily holiday essentials with Vendee in France proving most expensive out of the resorts compared.  Sunny Beach in Bulgaria was the cheapest followed closely by Alcudia in Majorca.  Middle of the road destinations in terms of expense on beach items included Corfu in Greece, Portugal in the Algarve and Marmaris in Turkey.  Sun lounger prices seemed to vary the most with loungers costing 4 times as much to hire in Croatia and France when compared to Turkey and Cyprus.

It just goes to show that no matter how much you shop around for holiday deals you may end up busting your budget on items you had not accounted for when you get there.  These beach holiday items do not even include things like eating out which is something most of us budget for.  These are just extras which are part and parcel of your holiday once you get there.

More than one in 20 families spend more than £200 per child by giving in to demands for beach toys, ice creams and activities.

And on average parents admitted forking out almost £80 per child on beach holiday extras they hadn't budgeted for.