Families with school-age children often find the choice made for them: a weekend fits into a long weekend without needing time off work, while a full week usually means using proper holiday allowance and lines up best with the summer break. Retired couples or those without school-term constraints have more freedom to choose either, Norfolk Broads holidays depending on mood and the time of year.

For any family with children still at school, the calendar rules the holiday plan long before anyone opens a brochure. Term dates fix the weeks you can actually travel, and those same weeks are the busiest on every UK holiday park's booking sheet. The six-week summer break, the week around half-term in October and February, and the fortnight either side of Easter all draw the same crowd at the same time, which means the popular pitches and the best-value weeks go first.

February half-term is the depth of winter, and the coast reflects that. Days are short, the weather is unpredictable, and the emphasis shifts indoors: board games, a good film, a warm cafe rather than a beach day. It suits families who want a change of scene without expecting summer conditions, and it's often one of the cheaper weeks of the year to book, since demand outside the big summer weeks is lower.

Both half-terms fill up faster than an ordinary week because every school in the country breaks up at roughly the same time, so the whole country's families are looking at the same seven days. Booking two to three months ahead gives the best choice of pitch and accommodation type; leaving it to the fortnight before means taking whatever's left, if anything is.

The practical question worth asking before booking either is simple: how much time is actually free, how far is the travel, and what does the trip need to achieve. A couple chasing a reset and a family building their main holiday of the year are rarely solving the same problem, even when they're looking at the same park.

The practical advice is the same whichever May date is the target: check the actual calendar for the year in question, since bank holiday dates move, confirm it against your children's specific half-term dates if that's part of the plan, and book earlier than feels necessary. May fills up quietly and then, in the specific weeks that carry a bank holiday, fills up fast.