About Inset Offset
I’m James Cook. I’m a parent in Bristol, and I built Inset Offset to answer one question: can a school’s inset days make a family holiday cheaper? So I checked.
Why it exists
Money’s tight for a lot of families right now, and holidays are one of the biggest things we spend on. They’re also what the children remember: the half-term week in a lodge, the first time on a plane, the beach in the rain.
But the moment schools break up, prices jump. Book a few days earlier and it can cost a lot less. Book it in term time, though, and you risk a fine and an awkward conversation with your school. I didn’t want to pick between a holiday we could afford and staying on good terms with school. Inset days are the way round it.
- PRICESHoliday prices jump as soon as the school holidays start, often for the same lodge, the same flight, the same week.
- FINESTaking children out in term time can mean a fine in England, and it puts parents and schools on opposite sides.
- INSET DAYSInset days are already days off. Most parents never plan around them, but they can move a trip off the busiest dates, with no absence request needed.
Inset Offset is here to help you save as much as you can on the holidays that matter, while keeping on good terms with your school.
Booking around your inset days could cost up to 66% less than the usual holiday dates. How we check →
How we check
- 01
Prices, checked by hand
On the operators’ own sites, for 2 adults and 2 children. The same booking is priced on the usual holiday dates and on the inset-day dates.
Last checked October 2026
- 02
Bands, not raw prices
We show percentage bands and rounded findings, never raw prices, and only for the trip patterns we actually priced. Where we didn’t find a saving, we say so.
- 03
Term dates from councils only
From each council’s official website or PDF. Every council page shows the date we checked it.
150 councils covered
- 04
Our own research
Like the Bristol inset-day survey, where we read every school’s published dates and counted which days they chose.
Our findings →
How the site makes money
- Inset Offset is free.
- In future some links may be affiliate links. If you book through one, we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.
- Any affiliate link will be labelled right next to the link.
- Affiliate status never changes which options we show or their order. Some operators we show have no affiliate scheme and appear exactly the same.
Right now, none of the links on Inset Offset are affiliate links.
Your privacy
The dates you enter stay in your browser. We don’t ask for an email address, and nothing you type is sent to us.
Privacy →Independence and corrections
Inset Offset is independent. It isn’t connected to any council, school, the Department for Education or any holiday company.
If a date or figure looks wrong, email [email protected] and I’ll check it and fix it. The council’s own page is always the final word on term dates.
Page updated
Press and contact
Data available to journalists on request.