The short answer
- Cover the whole day, not only the visitsWhile you are in the house you fill the gaps between visits without noticing. Book cover for a week and those hours have to be paid for or accounted for.
- One live-in carer usually costs less than visits plus nightsThree visits a day with a carer sleeping in comes to £1,288 to £1,540 a week. A live-in carer starts at £1,050 and it is one person rather than several.
- Book early enough to meet the carer firstA phone call and a visit before you go means your relative is not managing a stranger and your absence in the same week.
- Changing the dates once they are booked has a costA booking the client cancels is payable in full, apart from unplanned hospitalisation, illness, or another reason the carer agrees to. PrimeCarers charges nothing itself to cancel.
Figures are what families pay on PrimeCarers, with our fee included. Hourly visits run from £18 to £25 an hour, against £28 to £35 at an agency.
What a week of cover looks like
Three ways to cover a week away, and what each one leaves uncovered
Start with the parts of the day rather than with the names of the services. A week away has to hold the mornings, the long stretch in the middle of the day, the evenings and the nights, and the three arrangements below reach different amounts of it.
Daily visits
£378 to £525 a week
One or more hourly carers, coming and going
Morning
7am to 10am
A carer is booked
Daytime
10am to 5pm
Nobody booked
Evening
5pm to 10pm
A carer is booked
Night
10pm to 7am
Nobody booked
Three one-hour visits a day for seven days is 21 hours. It covers getting up, a hot meal at midday and settling at night, and it suits a relative who is safe on their own in between. Nobody is booked for the night, so this only works if the nights are already going well.
Daily visits with a carer overnight
£1,288 to £1,540 a week
Hourly carers by day, a separate carer at night
Morning
7am to 10am
A carer is booked
Daytime
10am to 5pm
Nobody booked
Evening
5pm to 10pm
A carer is booked
Night
10pm to 7am
A carer is booked
The same 21 hours of visits with a sleeping night added on top, at £130 to £145 a night. The nights are covered, the long afternoon usually is not, and your relative sees more than one person over the week.
One live-in carer
From £1,050 a week
The same carer in the house for the whole booking
Morning
7am to 10am
A carer is booked
Daytime
10am to 5pm
A carer is booked
Evening
5pm to 10pm
A carer is booked
Night
10pm to 7am
A carer is booked
A carer moves in for the dates you are away, so there is somebody in the house at every hour of the day. A typical week is £1,120, and it needs a spare room and a bed of their own.
Costs are what families pay on PrimeCarers with our fee included, September 2026. A live-in carer sleeps at night and takes breaks in the day, so live-in cover means somebody in the house rather than somebody awake around the clock. Where a relative needs help several times a night, that is a waking night and it is charged separately, from £150 a night.
Which of these fits depends on one question: how long your relative can be on their own without anybody in the house. If they manage the afternoons and sleep through the night, daily visits will cover the week and cost the least. If the nights are already the difficult part, or if they get up and wander, visits alone leave the riskiest hours with nobody there, and overnight care or a live-in carer is the safer arrangement. How many visits a week does my parent need? works out the visits from the tasks if you have never had to put a number on it.
For a week or a fortnight, a live-in carer is a short booking rather than a change of arrangement, and you do not need an existing package to make one: can I hire a live-in carer temporarily? covers how a fixed-dates booking works, and how does live-in care work? covers the day itself. Two other options are worth knowing about. Your relative can come with you, with a carer travelling too, which can I take a live-in carer on holiday with me? explains. Or they can go into a care home for a short stay, which suits some families and unsettles others, and which what is respite care? sets alongside every other way of getting a break.
What it costs
What a week and a fortnight cost
These are the figures for booking a carer directly on PrimeCarers, with our fee included. The cost of a holiday week is the cover itself; there is no separate charge from us for a short booking rather than an ongoing one.
£378 to £525
A week of daily visits
21 hours: an hour in the morning, at midday and in the evening, seven days. The nights are not covered.
£1,288 to £1,540
A week of visits with the nights covered
The same visits with a carer sleeping in, at £130 to £145 a night.
£1,050+
A week with a live-in carer
A typical week is £1,120. Agencies charge from £1,400 for the same week.
£2,100+
A fortnight with a live-in carer
Two weeks at the same weekly rate. A care home short stay runs from about £1,100 a week.
PrimeCarers rates, September 2026, with our fee included. The care home figure is the lower end of the weekly range for a care home place; ask the home directly whether it takes short-term bookings and what it charges for them.
Two things move these numbers. The first is the level of help your relative needs: a carer supporting somebody with advanced dementia, or with a hoist and two-person handling written into the care plan, charges more, and live-in work of that kind starts nearer £1,260 a week. The second is the calendar, because bank holidays and Christmas Day are charged at a higher rate under the contract you and the carer are working to. Current rates and the cost of care pages carry the full picture across every type of visit.
Booking the dates
What you are agreeing to when you book a week
The agreement for the week is between you and the carer. PrimeCarers introduces you and handles the payments, and is not a party to the arrangement or to the care itself. These are the terms that matter most when the booking has fixed dates and a flight at the end of it.
| What the contract says | What that means for a week away | |
|---|---|---|
| If you cancel the booking | A booking the client cancels is payable in full, apart from unplanned hospitalisation, illness, or another reason agreed with the carer. | Speak to the carer before you change anything. A carer may waive part or all of it at their own discretion, and PrimeCarers charges nothing itself to cancel, but we do not set the terms between you and the carer. |
| Ending the arrangement early | Either side can end it on 48 hours notice for hourly care. For live-in care the notice period becomes seven days once the carer has been present for 168 hours, and is 48 hours before that point. | For a single week of live-in cover the 48 hour period covers almost the whole booking, because 168 hours is only reached on day seven. For a fortnight, the longer notice applies from the second week. |
| Bank holidays and Christmas | A bank holiday is charged at one and a half times the carer's rate, and Christmas Day at twice the rate. | Check your dates against the bank holiday list before you book rather than after. A late August week in England contains one, and so does the week around Easter. |
| Travel costs | Travel is not charged unless it is agreed in advance between you and the carer, in writing, with the rate and the circumstances set out. | Worth settling before you confirm the dates if the carer is coming a distance, which is common for live-in work. |
| If the carer cannot come | A carer may send a substitute they arrange and pay for themselves, and you can raise a reasonable objection to that person. | Ask what the carer would do if they were ill the day before you travel, and agree it in writing while you are still at home rather than from an airport. |
If you cancel the booking
- What the contract says
- A booking the client cancels is payable in full, apart from unplanned hospitalisation, illness, or another reason agreed with the carer.
- What that means for a week away
- Speak to the carer before you change anything. A carer may waive part or all of it at their own discretion, and PrimeCarers charges nothing itself to cancel, but we do not set the terms between you and the carer.
Ending the arrangement early
- What the contract says
- Either side can end it on 48 hours notice for hourly care. For live-in care the notice period becomes seven days once the carer has been present for 168 hours, and is 48 hours before that point.
- What that means for a week away
- For a single week of live-in cover the 48 hour period covers almost the whole booking, because 168 hours is only reached on day seven. For a fortnight, the longer notice applies from the second week.
Bank holidays and Christmas
- What the contract says
- A bank holiday is charged at one and a half times the carer's rate, and Christmas Day at twice the rate.
- What that means for a week away
- Check your dates against the bank holiday list before you book rather than after. A late August week in England contains one, and so does the week around Easter.
Travel costs
- What the contract says
- Travel is not charged unless it is agreed in advance between you and the carer, in writing, with the rate and the circumstances set out.
- What that means for a week away
- Worth settling before you confirm the dates if the carer is coming a distance, which is common for live-in work.
If the carer cannot come
- What the contract says
- A carer may send a substitute they arrange and pay for themselves, and you can raise a reasonable objection to that person.
- What that means for a week away
- Ask what the carer would do if they were ill the day before you travel, and agree it in writing while you are still at home rather than from an airport.
From the client and carer contract for visits from 8 December 2025. The dates, hours and prices you agree are held on the platform and form part of that agreement.
It is worth reading these terms before you fix the dates rather than afterwards, so that you and the carer have already agreed what happens if either of you has to change them. Cancelled and late visits goes through the cancellation terms in full, weekend, evening and bank holiday rates covers the higher rates, and the dates themselves are published on GOV.UK. The whole agreement is on the site as the client and carer contract if you would rather read it than a summary of it.
Before you go
What to write down and leave behind
Whoever is covering has to run a day they have never run before, in a house they do not know, without being able to ask you. Writing it down is what makes that possible, and it is also what stops a small thing, such as a repeat prescription running out, turning into a phone call to your hotel. Work through this list the week before you travel.
The handover list
0 of 10 ticked
The day itself
Health and medication
The house
Who to call
Most of this can be written once and kept, so the second break takes an evening rather than a week. If your relative already has a care plan, add the holiday details to it rather than writing something separate. The complete guide to care plans sets out what a good one contains. The NHS guide to carers' breaks and respite care also suggests keeping an emergency contact who has keys and knows what care is needed, which is worth having in place whether you are away or not.
How to arrange it
From today to the day you go
Give yourself at least two weeks if you can, and longer for school holidays and the fortnight around Christmas, when fewer carers are free. The order below works whether you are booking a live-in carer or a week of visits.
- 1
Fix the dates, including the travel days
As soon as you book the tripCover normally has to start the evening before you leave and end the evening you get back, because the day you travel is not a day you are there. Booking a night at each end is cheaper than a change of plan later. - 2
Look at carers who are free for those dates
Free to searchSearch by postcode on find a carer and read the profiles. Every carer has had an identity check, a right to work check and an enhanced DBS on the Update Service, and has been interviewed online. Qualifications, training and references sit on the profile for you to go through with the carer yourself. Carers are insured while they work. - 3
Talk to two or three, then meet the one you choose
Two to six weeks beforeSend them the dates and a short description of the week. Ask what they would do on a difficult night and how they would handle a fall. How should I interview live-in carers? has the questions worth asking for a live-in booking, and what does a live-in carer need? covers the room and the practicalities you should settle first. - 4
Arrange a visit before the booking starts
The week beforeAn hour together while you are still there is the difference between a carer arriving as a stranger and arriving as somebody your relative has met. Book it as a paid hourly visit and use it to walk through the house and the routine. - 5
Hand over and tell everyone involved
The day you leaveLeave the written handover on the kitchen table, tell the GP surgery and anybody else involved that you are away, and agree how often you want to hear from the carer. Some families want a message each evening and some want none, and either is fine as long as it is agreed.
Questions
Questions families ask about holiday cover
Yes. There is no minimum booking length on PrimeCarers, and no extra charge from us for a short arrangement rather than an ongoing one. You agree the dates directly with the carer, pay for the days you have booked, and the arrangement ends when the booking does. Can I hire a live-in carer temporarily? covers a fixed-dates live-in booking in more detail.
It depends on how long your relative can be alone in the house. Daily visits cost less, at £378 to £525 for three visits a day across a week, and they suit somebody who is safe on their own in between and sleeps through the night. Once you add a carer overnight the week comes to £1,288 to £1,540, which is more than a live-in carer at £1,050 and involves several different people rather than one.
A live-in carer for a fortnight starts at about £2,100, with a typical fortnight at £2,240, on PrimeCarers with our fee included. An agency would charge from about £2,800 for the same two weeks. A short stay in a care home instead runs from around £1,100 a week. See current rates.
Give yourself at least two weeks where you can, and longer for school holidays and the fortnight around Christmas, when fewer carers are free and a bank holiday is charged at a higher rate. Booking ahead also leaves room for a paid visit before you go, so the carer is not arriving as a stranger on the morning you travel.
Not for a week or a fortnight. GOV.UK asks you to report it if you stop caring for more than 28 days, or if you or the person you care for will be in hospital, a care home or respite care for more than 12 weeks, and the person you care for has to keep receiving their disability benefit throughout. Tell the Carer’s Allowance Unit if you are unsure whether your break crosses either line. Carer’s Allowance explained covers the benefit in full.
Speak to the carer as soon as you know. Under the contract a booking the client cancels is payable in full, apart from unplanned hospitalisation, illness, or another reason the carer agrees to, and a carer may choose to waive part or all of it. PrimeCarers charges nothing itself when a booking is cancelled, and does not decide the outcome between you and the carer. Cancelled and late visits sets out the terms in full.
In their own room, with a bed of their own, in the house where the care is happening. That is agreed before you book rather than on the day they arrive, and it is one of the first things to check if you are thinking about live-in cover for a week. What does a live-in carer need? covers the room, the food and the rest of the practical side.