Stay in UAE or head abroad? Holiday strategies for cherished memories

Nima Abu Wardeh weighs up the costs of her European holiday against how much she would be spending if she had taken a staycation in the UAE.

Illustration by Gary Clement for The National

For my holiday this year I decided to have a mixed bag of experiences – including the dreaded all-inclusive resort, where my girth increased as my level of fitness plummeted. This is an issue I am attempting to address with much adventure in the Dolomites – today we biked to Austria and back (sounds more impressive than it really was – our starting point gave us a big advantage – then again, one of our troop had to walk most of the last 4 kilometres back as his legs, and other bits, could no longer cope with being in the saddle).

In a few days we will be visiting a friend, who lives near Nice for an afternoon art workshop and dinner chez him. He is a well-known artist and kindly suggested he spends an afternoon drawing and creating illustrations with my son – whose biggest ambition is to be a comic book illustrator; our host had a similar ambition at the start of his career. Then we go on to the UK.

Week three into the sojourn, and so far all I have mustered is booking flights. I lie, I have also booked tickets to a festival in the UK and the accommodation for its duration (a tent – with a real mattress. Sheer luxury). My theory is that, as long as I have my logistics sorted (ie where we are going and when, including which flights), and a firm starting point where accommodation is known, then the rest can be addressed as I go along – giving me the benefit of taking into account how I feel at certain points in the trip while, in theory, taking advantage of last minute price reductions.

The latter didn’t quite work out for where we’re currently staying – paying top price for a self-catering flat. But it meant that I chose very well; we’re in the best place possible for our needs and wants – the extra time I had while at the resort was used to do much surfing of the web and looking at ratings and reviews – things I rarely have time to do.

And it has definitely paid off with key decisions made – including ditching the idea of staying in a wonderful Medieval (and therefore very expensive I found out) village close to Nice, in favour of a basic place in the centre of town from which we’ll walk to various family-friendly attractions. This means less time in transit between places, less money spent as we can now catch a train from the airport, plus, having been holed up in a resort and chill beach clubs (not my scene but great for children and meant copious amount of bonding time between friends) I want my city fix.

Sounds like I’m spending a pretty penny – well, yes I am spending – but I’m offsetting various costs against what I would be forking out for utilities in the UAE (more than the costs of our flights) and things for my son to do – a great sports camp that I liked the sound of would be a smidgen under Dh1,000 a week.

This is how I did it: I booked a multi-destination holiday on Emirates that got us to Turkey – our starting point, returning from the UK. The bits in between have been booked on no-frills airlines. Not only does this mean that flights are less expensive as we are flying within Europe on European tariffs, it also means that I am committed to having less than 20kg in each travel bag – the upper weight limit per passenger for some of the airlines chosen. This is liberating – it means I will be able to navigate train stations without a tonne in tow. The first round of packing was a challenge with the need to have the full spectrum of beach, nice, sporty, rain, cold weather clothing – including wellington and hiking boots – as well as some gluten-free food for places where we could cook, but wouldn’t find what we wanted. But I did it.

And the beauty is that the load is getting lighter as we go along (not withstanding donations of various items of clothing and electronic chargers – sigh).

Staycations in the UAE – with its summer temperature and humidity levels – tend to be a far cry from the findings of a survey out at the start of the year by Australia’s Tourism and Transport Forum that found that the average Australian family is expected to spend A$1,400 (Dh3,800) on their main summer holiday this year – with the vast majority staying in the country.

Of course, travelling at peak season means that money doesn’t go as far as it could if it were during term time, but sometimes a family’s got to do what a family’s got to do. In my case I still work while I’m on the road – but at a much reduced level – and so theoretically can justify some of the spending as I am still earning as I go along. But more importantly, these holidays are a chance to experience things with my son and build up ties that I hope will last a long, long time. Now that’s something worth investing in.

Nima Abu Wardeh is the founder of the personal finance website cashy.me. You can reach her at [e-mail].

Follow us on Twitter @TheNationalPF