Last fact-checked: October 26, 2026 · Next review: January 26, 2027
Reviewed by the Family Miles Guide editorial team.
The kitchen table was covered with two browser tabs, a half-term calendar and a scribbled note that read “Faro, four nights, two adults, two children.” Maya, nine, had already packed her armbands; her parents were still stuck on the same line they had been circling for an hour: book a hotel with breakfast, or a self-catering flat and handle the food themselves. The flight price from Gatwick had just refreshed, and the accommodation numbers had moved again. For an October half-term trip from London Gatwick to Faro, a self-catering stay can beat a hotel on the accommodation line and gives you more control over the meal line, but the saving is conditional: it widens sharply if you can hold the lower stay figure and shift breakfast and lunch out of menu prices, and narrows at the typical rate if a hotel breakfast and a supervised pool matter more than the nightly discount. Everyone wanted a simple answer, but the honest answer depended on which price they could actually hold. This guide turns that late-night comparison into a per-family, per-night decision, using live-checked Algarve stay and Gatwick–Faro flight figures.
The figures cover one Algarve stay unit per night and one London Gatwick–Faro return flight seat per person, so any family total depends on nights, party size and how many seats you actually book.
What does the live price gap actually look like?
The starting comparison is less about self-catering versus hotel and more about the gap between the floor of the market and the rate most families will actually see. The Algarve stay figure runs from from £41.89 · typical ~£88.21¹. The London Gatwick–Faro flight seat runs from from £200 · typical ~£289².
| Item | Quoted figure | What it means for a family |
|---|---|---|
| Algarve stay | from £41.89 · typical ~£88.21¹ | One stay unit per night; the floor usually needs flexible dates, while the typical figure reflects wider availability. |
| London Gatwick–Faro flight | from £200 · typical ~£289² | One return seat; quoted per person, so a family total multiplies quickly. |
Notice how wide the spread is inside each figure. The stay line moves from floor to typical, and the flight line does the same. For a family budget, that spread is a planning margin rather than a rounding error. A family that can shift by one or two nights is testing the floor; a family locked to a specific half-term week is more likely to meet the typical figure.
What would a four-night October half-term trip cost?
Put the two quotes into a realistic UK half-term shape: four nights, two adults and two children, flying from Gatwick to Faro. easyJet and other carriers serve that route, but half-term seats rarely sit still for long.
Take that family of four travelling for four nights. At the typical stay end of the Algarve figure, four nights are about £352.84³; if the floor rate is available, the same four nights drop to about £167.56⁴. Four return seats on the London Gatwick–Faro leg land near £1,156⁵ at the typical fare, or £800⁶ at the floor. The accommodation line therefore ranges from roughly a sixth to a third of the flight line for this trip size.
Two conclusions fall out of that arithmetic. First, flights can be the dominant line for a family of four. Second, the stay decision is worth making only after the flight total is known, because a cheaper accommodation choice cannot rescue a trip if the flight total has already consumed the budget.
When does self-catering win for a family?
Self-catering tends to win on two fronts: the nightly rate at the floor and the food routine. The lower quoted stay figure is the clearest advantage. If the floor rate is available for the required dates, a family can hold more of the trip budget for flights, transfers and days out instead of handing it all to the accommodation line.
The second advantage is control. A flat with a fridge and a working kitchen moves breakfast out of the hotel buffet queue and puts lunch into a beach bag rather than a restaurant bill. That matters most for families with picky eaters, food allergies, or children who need a second breakfast at an unpredictable hour. It also matters for longer stays: the more nights a family is in the Algarve, the more the food routine compounds, and the more a washing machine becomes useful rather than optional.
Self-catering is not a magic saving, though. The floor price has to actually be available on the dates the family can travel, and the unit has to sleep four without forcing two children onto a sofa bed that unravels the holiday mood by night two.
When does a hotel win despite the price?
A hotel is rarely the cheapest option on the accommodation line, but it can win on total holiday brain space. Breakfast is already handled, the room is serviced, and nobody has to remember to buy washing-up liquid on the first afternoon. For a short trip, that convenience can be worth more than the nightly discount of a self-catering unit.
Hotels also suit families travelling with very young children. When naps are short and routines are fragile, a hotel that puts breakfast, a pool and the room in one building reduces the number of moving parts. A family arriving late on a half-term evening may prefer to hand over a suitcase and start the holiday, rather than find a key box, check the cot is assembled and queue at a supermarket before bed.
The hotel case strengthens when the self-catering quote sits near its typical figure and the hotel quote is competitive for the same dates. In that situation, the accommodation gap narrows and the hotel’s included breakfast becomes the deciding value rather than an afterthought.
Which option costs less once meals are counted?
No housing type has a built-in food price. The fair way to compare the two options is to keep food as a separate lever:
Total committed cost = (nightly stay × nights) + (flight seats × people) + (food × people × days).
Self-catering lowers the food coefficient for breakfast and lunch but adds a grocery run and a few home-cooked dinners. A hotel lowers the effort but moves breakfast and most snacks back to menu prices. The family that wins with self-catering is the one that is already happy to shop for food on holiday. The family that wins with a hotel is the one that would otherwise buy breakfast out every day and treat the kitchen as wasted space.
This review does not attach a fixed family meal price to either choice, because groceries and restaurant menus vary too much by town and appetite. The practical test is simple: if the family would buy the same breakfast and lunch from a shop in either scenario, the self-catering stay lets that habit count as a saving. If the family would otherwise eat out, the hotel breakfast is the cheaper default.
How should the booking sequence work?
Lock the flight first, then re-run the stay comparison for the exact dates. The Gatwick–Faro leg is the line that moves fastest during October half-term, and a family of four multiplies every fare change by four. Once the seats are held, the remaining accommodation budget is a fixed number, and the choice between hotel and self-catering becomes easier.
Compare the final stay total before paying, not the headline nightly rate. A self-catering quote can change once cleaning, a cot, a high chair and any end-of-stay charge are added. A hotel quote can change once breakfast is removed or an extra bed is added. Running both options through to the final total is the only way to see which choice is actually cheaper for the same four nights.
How do you pressure-test the gap before booking?
Open the hotel and the self-catering unit for the same four nights in two tabs, then ask four questions. Is breakfast included, or is it a paid add-on? Is the cleaning charge separate or already in the nightly figure? Does the hotel room sleep four, or does it require a second room? What is the cancellation window if a better fare appears?
The families who choose well are not the ones who find the lowest single number. They are the ones who compare the same nights, the same party size and the same food assumptions, then accept that one option wins on money while the other wins on ease.
Which family profile fits your Algarve choice?
The self-catering budget controller Best fit: a family staying five nights or more, comfortable with a grocery run, and willing to shift dates to find the floor stay figure. Self-catering puts the accommodation line to work while the family keeps breakfast and lunch spending low.
The hotel breakfast simplifier Best fit: a short three- or four-night trip with young children, a late arrival and a low tolerance for cooking. The hotel is less likely to be the cheapest line, but it removes the daily food decision and keeps the holiday simple.
The half-term flight-locked family Best fit: a household that must travel on fixed school-holiday dates and cannot avoid the typical fare. Once the flight total is locked, the cheaper accommodation option becomes the only real lever left, and self-catering often becomes the default.
The kitchen table can stay open a little longer. Once the parents know the flight total they can hold and compare the two stay prices on the same four nights, Maya’s armbands become the only packing problem left.
Price footnotes
Algarve stay figure, live-checked: from £41.89 · typical ~£88.21.
London Gatwick–Faro flight figure, live-checked: from £200 · typical ~£289.
Calculated: £88.21 × 4 nights ≈ £352.84.
Calculated: £41.89 × 4 nights ≈ £167.56.
Calculated: £289 × 4 return seats = £1,156.
Calculated: £200 × 4 return seats = £800.
Frequently asked questions
Is self-catering always cheaper than a hotel in the Algarve?
No. It depends on the rate you can hold, the number of nights and how you handle food. The quoted stay figure runs from a floor to a typical level, so the saving is conditional rather than automatic.
Does the quoted flight price include bags?
The published figure covers one London Gatwick–Faro return seat. Family bags, seat selection and transfers sit on top, so the final flight total for four people is usually higher than four times the headline seat.
What is the best way to find the lower stay figure?
Check flexible dates, midweek arrivals and slightly longer stays. The floor figure is most useful if the family can move by a day or two rather than being locked to a single half-term week.
Do self-catering prices include cleaning?
Some do and some do not. The final booking screen is the place to check for an end-of-stay cleaning charge, a cot fee and any high chair or resort fee before comparing against a hotel total.
Can a family of four usually fit in one hotel room?
Check the occupancy details before booking. Some family rooms sleep four, but others require an extra bed or a second room, which changes the comparison quickly.
How we built this
This comparison uses two live-checked figures and converts them into a four-night, family-of-four scenario for a UK October half-term trip. Family meal averages were not available in the price set used for this review, so the meal line is discussed as a control lever rather than quoted as a fixed cost.
| Figure | Quoted value | Unit | Source label | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Algarve stay | from £41.89 · typical ~£88.21 | one stay unit per night | live-checked | 2026-10-26 |
| London Gatwick–Faro flight | from £200 · typical ~£289 | one return seat | live-checked | 2026-10-26 |
All quoted figures are in GBP.
Sources / Prices checked
Prices checked 2026-10-26 via Apify live feed (Skyscanner/Booking.com). Confidence: High. All figures in GBP.
