Wondering how much a family holiday to Cornwall in October costs for four people? I’ll reveal exactly how much we spent in October 2019 on our Cornish beach holiday for seven days.
We recently spent the October half term in Cornwall staying at Pentewan Sands 5-star holiday resort. We tried to be careful with what we spent, but we had a few treats. I was always mindful of what we were spending and kept a holiday spending diary so we could keep track of our budget. Read on to see how much we spent.
Breakdown of costs for Cornwall beach holiday as a family of four
Of course a holiday can cost as much or as little as you want/need it to. I like to share how much our holidays cost as a rough guide to those who might be thinking of doing something similar to us or who might not be from the UK and are unsure of costs.
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Accommodation £388
We had booked a three-bed holiday home at Pentewan Sands back in January, so 10 months before our holiday! I’m pretty sure booking so early can sometimes save money, but at Pentewan they have a set price list each year. I was really surprised at this price for four people for seven nights. I think it’s really good considering the resort is on the beach and has a lot of facilities like a soft play, indoor pool and entertainment for the kids during the school holidays.
The only other time I tried to book accommodation on the beach in Cornwall was in the summer holidays and prices, for another holiday resort, were in the thousands!
My uncle has stayed here three times and that’s what made me look at their website. When I saw this price for the October half term I snapped it up!
Our accommodation could also sleep eight people, so there’s a possibility to get even more value or spread the cost between more people. For four of us we had plenty of space.
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Fuel £107
We drove to our holiday and visited nearby places each day. It took around three hours each way from Gloucester to Pentewan in our Mazda Bongo. We didn’t drive too far once there as we wanted to explore nearby places and keep the fuel costs low. Our plan was to see as many new places as possible and we were lucky to have so many beaches only a short drive away from Pentewan.
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Supermarket food £200
Eating out all the time and not having to do the normal food shops, cooking or cleaning is the dream when on holiday, but we were holidaying on a budget and couldn’t justify the expense of feeding four people in a restaurant three times per day. We knew we would mostly go to the supermarket and make our own food each day in our holiday home. We did go a little wild and chose lots of Tesco’s new plant based ready meals to save on totally cooking from scratch. Ben also had some beer and we chose some treats each day, so we spent way more in the supermarket than we would at home for a week. Still, it was a lot less than buying restaurant meals every day for us all. We definitely could have reduced this cost and could if we needed to in the future when holidaying.
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Takeaway food £70
Another cost that can be avoided, but we had some vegan sausage rolls from Greggs at the services when travelling, two evenings of food from the chip shop on the holiday resort, a pasty in Mevagissey and a few hot drinks at the bar on-site.
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Car ferry £5
We crossed the River Fowey by the car ferry for £5 to shave some time off one of our journeys. We drove the long way back, but this was a fun thing to do with the kids!
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Parking £5
We only had to pay for parking once when in Polperro. There’s a large car park so you don’t have to drive into the village. It’s a short walk from the carpark.
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Kids pocket money £20
We gave the kids £10 holiday spending money each. Bella spent hers in the gift shop on-site on several crystals for her collection and a fishing net for exploring the rock pools. Reuben bought himself a spade to dig on the beach and a race car toy from a shop in Mevagissey.
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WiFi £25
The WiFi at Pentewan Sands is only free in the restaurant/cafe, so if you want access in the holiday home then it’s paid for. We paid the full £25 for seven days access across four devices. This allowed me to work, us to plan our day trips and for the kids to play as usual on their iPads. I always work when away, if we are away week days, so I always have to buy the WiFi! We had no phone signal or 3G at the resort.
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Restaurant meal £30
On the last day, just before driving home, we met some family friends for lunch at Heligan Gardens. It was delicious and our only meal out for the whole holiday, so a real treat on the last day.
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Grand total £850
That’s it! Seven days in Cornwall with travel, accommodation, food and a few treats for the grand total of £850 for four people. Not too bad and we definitely could have cut back in places to make it even cheaper if we’d wanted to.
If you missed my Cornwall holiday series then catch up on what we go up to following these links:
Cornwall with kids: West Portholland
Cornwall with kids: Hemmick Beach
Cornwall with kids: walking the coast path to Mevagissey
Cornwall with kids: Pentewan Sands Beach
Very interesting, thank you! It sounds like pretty good value for four people for a whole week.