Can you take a carer on holiday with you?

A relative or friend who already helps with day to day care can often be persuaded to come along, and for many families that is the natural choice. They know your parent's habits and what a good day looks like, so little needs explaining before you leave. The trade off is that the holiday becomes their job too, and if your parent has a bad night or a fall, there is nobody else there to hand over to.

A paid carer offers something different. If your parent already has a carer they see regularly through PrimeCarers, ask them directly whether they would consider coming away for the days you need. Many will, for their normal rate plus their own travel and a room, agreed in writing before you book. It stays a private arrangement between you and the carer, the same as any other booking on PrimeCarers.

If your usual carer cannot come, you can search for one near the destination instead, checked the same way as any booking on PrimeCarers: an identity check, a right to work check, an enhanced DBS check on the Update Service, and an online interview. Find a carer covers how to search and message somebody before you commit.

A council will not usually fund the leisure side of a holiday: the flights, the hotel or the days out. But if your relative already has a direct payment for care that has been assessed as needed, that funding does not stop the moment they leave home. Government guidance under the Care Act allows a council to agree extra hours to cover a holiday as part of the care and support plan, so it is worth asking before you book. How local authority funding works.

Attendance Allowance is a more reliable starting point for most families, because it is paid in cash with no rule about how it is spent. At £77 or £115 a week in 2026/27, it can go towards a carer's fee on holiday as easily as at home. Attendance Allowance: who qualifies and how to claim.

A small number of charities give grants towards a break rather than care itself. Revitalise, which used to run its own accessible holiday centres, now gives respite grants that disabled adults and family carers can put towards a trip they arrange themselves.

The list below is what tends to change once a carer's visits move to a different address, and what stays exactly the same as it is at home.

Agree the whole list with the carer before you book. A destination is easy to change; a room and a rate agreed after everyone has arrived is not.

Start with the physical side of the trip. A cottage up a flight of stairs, or a coach tour with an hour on the bus each morning, asks more of somebody than a bungalow with the car parked outside the door. Check what medical care is nearby too: a pharmacy, a GP practice that will register a temporary patient, and how far the nearest hospital is.

If your relative has dementia, a familiar routine usually matters more than a new view, and a sudden change of surroundings can unsettle rather than refresh. Should people with dementia go on holiday? and dementia-friendly holidays go through what tends to work.

For a physical disability rather than a memory condition, where can I go on holiday as a disabled person? and where to take an older person on holiday in the UK list places with step-free access.

Once the destination is settled, write the routine down the way you would for a new carer at home: what time your parent gets up, their medication, what upsets them and what calms them down. A carer with your relative from breakfast to bedtime all week needs breaks built into each day, so plan for a few hours when you or another family member takes over.

If your relative would find the travel itself too much, or simply does not want to go, respite care lets them stay in familiar surroundings while a carer covers the days you are away. If it is you who needs the break rather than your relative, the same idea works the other way round: shorter cover at home means you can go away without worrying about what happens while you are gone.