We came to the conclusion recently that there might not be any such thing as a thrifty holiday any more.

Out of curiosity we were looking at places we had staid at in previous years for about fifty pounds a night for a family of four - largely booked through Expedia (http://www.expedia.co.uk/), apart from a lovely Swiss-Family-Robinson style log cabin in France, from a company called Huttopia (http://www.huttopia.com/)

We were a bit shocked to find that everything had pretty much doubled in price, which is perhaps not all that surprising given the state of the pound.

When it came to Easter (2009) we were very pleased to find that our assumption regarding the end of thrifty holidays was wrong. We had been thinking of visiting friends in Sunderland, but they told us they were going camping in the Lake District and asked whether we'd like to come too.

When we arrived at our destination, near Keswick, we found that both official campsites were full and so we ended up camping in a farmer's field (albeit with toilet facilities) for £10 per night (for a family of four). 

The weather was glorious and the scenery breathtaking (although the temperature did fall to below zero one night which led to slightly chilly conditions in the tent!) No doubt luck played a part in the first of the above, but we've got the pictures to prove it.

All our food was prepared courtesy of Camping Gaz and therefore cost no more than it would have at home. So along with a few pints of beer, some Kendal mint cake, and the fuel to get to Keswick and back, a three day holiday ended up costing less than £100.

Proof of sunshine at Easter in the Lake District:

For the summer holidays we'll probably end up doing what we've done for the last couple of years which is camping in France, taking the ferry from Dover to Calais. If you book an early morning ferry it's not that expensive even near the date of travel. We've also found that they'll let you on pretty much any ferry on the way back if you pay an extra £10 (even though there might have been an enormous difference in fares depending on sailing time when booking on the website.) The kids far prefer camping to a hotel, as they're able to run around with hordes of other kids the whole time. And with a decent camping stove, or even better a campsite with barbecue facilities, you're under no pressure to eat out, which is what makes holidays really expensive.

It's then a compromise between how far you feel like driving and the likelihood of getting soaked, although we did find one year that the South of France can have torrential storms (which led to an early retreat to our favourite hotel near Lille: http://www.olivarius.com/ )

We found last year that l'Ile de Ré near La Rochelle is great for camping and cycling, as the island is covered in cycle paths and everyone cycles everywhere. We don't tend to go back to the same place twice (the family view being that holidays are about discovering new places) but we met families who liked l'Ile de Ré so much that they'd been going back to the same campsite for ten years and more. L'Antioche campsite (http://www.antioche.com/) was both stunningly clean and very family friendly.

l'Ile de Ré:

If you'd prefer a campsite in the UK, Beach Campsites UK has information on some of the best places on the coast to pitch a tent.

For short breaks we've always liked Belgium (or the originally Flemish part of France - hence the favourite hotel near Lille). It's quite cheap to get to, given that it's just down the road from Calais, but staying there might be a bit pricey now unless the pound makes a spectacular recovery.

I've never understood why people make out that Belgium is boring, given that it has some of the most beautiful cities, and most delicious food (and beer) in Europe. (Perhaps that will change after the recent film "In Bruges".) Ghent is our favourite place, as it is both very beautiful but also has a real town feel to it. Bruges might be even more beautiful than Ghent but can be deluged with tourists, whilst Leuven is also very beautiful and combines being a university town with a very large brewery. Antwerp is a bit grittier round the edges as you'd expect from a large city, but also has a beautiful medieval centre as well as a very good zoo.

Antwerp: