You want to go on holiday with friends or the family, you want to take the dog, you want to experience the coast, the countryside, maybe some history, but most of all you don’t want it to cost the earth.

The question being … is there such a holiday? Four Shropshire friends have been set the challenge and this week will find out.

Simon and Rhea Alton, Tom and Vickie Warren, and collie cross Norman have set off on a motorhome trip across the UK in an attempt to enjoy a ‘holiday on a shoestring’ to see if it is possible to can enjoy a luxury all-inclusive week-long holiday for a budget of £1,250.

The motley crew will begin their trip by heading to the Basingstoke Canal for some walking and countryside before driving to Eastbourne to make use of the coast, on to Bognor Regis for some seaside fun and finally to historic Oxford for some sight-seeing before returning to the county.

Rhea said: “I couldn’t believe it when, after speaking to a number of families in the county, I realised the expense of a family of five to go on holiday in the UK. One mum told me it cost £1,500 for their family holiday – before they even started thinking about money to spend on food and everything else while they were away.

“A motorhome holiday is thought of as a great summer trip as you can travel to different places and see lots of sites as well as having the luxury of electricity and a proper bed to sleep in at the end of a busy day.

“Our aim is to try and have a week’s holiday and spend only £1,250 on food accommodation, entertainment and anything else we may need along the way. With a family of five taking the trip that would mean a cost of £250 per person all inclusive, which appears to be an absolute bargain.”

The five-sleeper motorhome, from Horizon Motorhomes on the Shropshire border in Chirk, costs £625 to hire for a week, leaving £625 spending money for the trip.

“The total cost of the campsites for the week is £120 and we estimate we will use £150 in petrol so that leaves us £355 for food and entertainment, so we shall see how it goes,” added Rhea.

“The hope is that as we are able to travel around and enjoy the entertainment of the different places we are able to get to we won’t actually have to spend that much on entertainment, but we won’t know the reality of it until we actually experience it.”

To make sure the group do not scrimp and save too much they have set themselves a number of challenges which will be undertaken during their trip.

Tom and Vickie will celebrate their first wedding anniversary during the holiday, meaning the pair will eat out that night and that must be included in the budget – drinks and all.

The group also want to make use of any local farm shops they come across so the daily bread, milk and cheese should be bought from nearby farms wherever possible.

“Although the research we have done shows £1,250 is a lot less than families would usually pay for an all-inclusive holiday, it is too much to pay for a holiday where you just sit inside a motorhome and don’t go out because you don’t want to blow the budget,” said Rhea.

“Of course, if you are a family of four the motorhome would be cheaper and you could lower the budget, and many people wouldn’t decree a fifth bed for the dog, although many people haven’t met our dog!

“The idea is that it is a luxury holiday and we aim to do as much as we can along the way and use the benefits of the fact we are in a motorhome to the maximum.

“The first site we are staying on has no electric hook-up so is cheaper than the others but we have made sure we paid extra for electric on all of the three remaining campsites partly so we live up to the ‘luxury’ title of the trip and partly because Vickie couldn’t possibly survive without being able to plug the hair straighteners in for that long!

“One of the bonuses of the motorhome is that the cooker, microwave and hob set up is much like any kitchen so we are buying ingredients to cook proper meals in the evening. Obviously one night will be the obligatory barbecue but we plan to cook up a home-made curry, risotto and some fresh vegetable pasta dishes while we are away.”

• The four friends, and Norman the dog, will be keeping the Shropshire Star updated on their travels and whether they can stay within their budget for the week. To see how they are doing visit Shropshirestar.com every day.