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The 6 types of holidays to experience at least once in your life
I save my pennies so that I can holiday somewhere nice. In the last year, we’ve been to Spain and Mauritius. I believe that with some careful planning, a great holiday is achievable for us all, and a getaway can be beneficial for both your mental and physical health.
However, rather than settling for the same old holiday every year, visit a new destination to enjoy a completely different experience.
To ensure you experience many unique getaways throughout the years, which will allow you to look back on life with a big smile on your face, take a look at the six types of holidays to enjoy at least once in your life.
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A Luxurious Family Beach Holiday
Almost everyone will need to immerse themselves in a little peace and relaxation at some point in …
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New app for booking bargain holiday homes
In the third of my last minute travel ideas for the summer holidays, I thought I’d take a look at holidays from a holiday home owner’s point of view, and see how they can offer discounts direct to consumers.
If you own a holiday home, you’ll surely hate to see it empty, particularly during the peak summer months. Many are more than happy to offer huge last minute discounts in order to fill up their calendar.
Snaptrip is a new marketplace that helps owners to offers discounts of up to 50% on the largest collection of self-catered properties in the UK. Which is great for spontaneous holidaymakers!
By partnering with both individual owners and some of the biggest property management agencies in the country, Snaptrip has made searching for your dream cottage a quick and …
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8 money saving tips for a great-value family getaway
With the arrival of a new tax year, it’s a time to take stock and tighten up household budgets to spend on treats like summer holidays. The folks at Villas Direct have pulled together some top tips for holiday bookings to prove that you don’t need to miss out on life’s luxuries whilst saving pennies – just be a savvy spender!
The current state of the Euro means holiday bookers are feeling confident of a deal to be done, but perhaps not sure how to go about getting one. Bagging a great price for your family holiday means you can focus on treating the kids with a generous ice cream fund, a real priority of course! Nico and Elkie Nicholas, the husband and wife team behind VillasDirect.com, have put together their top tips to …
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New app – reduce currency exchange costs – WeSwap
I use the Post Office and M&S for currency exchange, but am always open to new ideas. Sometimes when my Dutch or French friends come over, I swap Pounds for Euros, and that got me thinking – is there a formal service for this?
I found an app called WeSwap and here’s the skinny on what it is if you want to cut down currency exchange costs.
What is WeSwap?
WeSwap provides travellers with “very competitive” rates on their foreign currency. This is achieved by enabling travellers across the world to swap currency directly with each other. WeSwap cuts out the need for expensive banks and bureau de change kiosks in the holiday money market.
Who is it for?
WeSwap can be used by anyone who is planning on travelling abroad, who needs money to …
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How many everyday things do you need to give up to get a flight?
Check out this ‘Holiday Sacrifice Calculator’ which has worked out how many popular every day items to give up to get a return flight to a destination (i.e sacrificing your morning mocha for just two and half weeks and you could be drinking espressos in Italy!).
We gave up takeaway pizza earlier this year and have saved over £500 – we do have the odd cheeky take out once in a while, or it would have been more – so I know that giving up just one thing can save some serious cash. By the looks of it, I could have flown to Italy most weekends this year!
Some samples of what you could save are here and I’ve managed to snag an interesting infographic below too:
1. Sacrificing eighteen takeaway coffees = drinking espresso …
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Holiday home rentals vs hotel rooms
I like staying in hotels, but am considering a holiday apartment this year. I have done some digging and found a comparison of holiday apartment prices vs hotel room prices.
Dubrovnik, Cannes and Palma de Mallorca offer the biggest savings per night, with a one-bed apartment in Dubrovnik being on average £79 cheaper than a typical hotel room.
Apartments are appealing as they are bigger than hotel rooms, often come with kitchens and laundry facilities, have a separate room for kids and you can bring pets sometimes. However, the other side of me is saying, I can head down to the restaurant, there is room service and someone will clean my bathroom every day in a hotel. It’s a tough choice.
To help my decision making I’m using this holiday apartment Price Index that a …
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More ideas for budget things to do in the school holidays
Are you like me and not going away this summer or going on holiday at the end of August? Well don’t despair, Mrs Bargain Hunter is here ;-). Here are some more ideas for you to fill the summer days.
Turn your living room into a cinema
Everyone loves a trip to the cinema on a rainy day, but let’s face it, the cost of a family ticket plus food isn’t exactly cheap! So why not try your hand at recreating the magic of the pictures at home with your loved ones this summer? Try blacking out your windows, grab some microwaveable popcorn and ice-cream, and spend the afternoon holding your own personal movie marathon!
Check what summer events your council is holding
People often forget that local council websites are handy for more than …
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3 great tips to save money on school holiday flights
Last night’s Watch Dog revealed three awesome tips to save money when buying flights for family holidays, and avoiding the price hike that comes with school breaks, so I thought I’d share:
1. Take advantage of Scotland or England’s different school holiday times
Scottish and English school holidays often differ. For example, in Scotland in the summer most schools break up at the end of June and pupils go back in the third week of August. This means that if you are Scottish, you could make your way down to English airports such as Manchester and Newcastle when English kids are still at school and save in flight costs. The same applies in reverse, English people can travel north for cheaper flights. According to Watch Dog, the savings offset any petrol and parking costs.
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15 tips to help you save money while on holiday
You’ve booked the flight and hotel and are expecting to splash out, but with a few tips, you can spend the money on some nice gifts or day trips, and save on the essentials. Here are some of my handy holiday tips for you.
1. Get a Post Office credit card
We only use this card when abroad. It doesn’t charge foreign exchange charges, which most credit cards do.
2. Read Tripadvisor
Ideally you should so this before you book, but if you have already sorted your holiday, make sure that you know where the restaurants and bars near to your hotel are. Armed with this information, you can share the wisdom of people who have already stayed at your accommodation. Useful information could be where the 7/11 is to which direction to walk for …
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Sleep Park Fly – cheap hotel and airport parking
We try to fly from Midlands airports whenever we can. We can get cabs or trains to a couple of airports and that is a lot less stressful than flying from London airports or Manchester.
But sometimes, you get more choice from the other airports in terms of where to fly, that’s when we discovered Sleep Park Fly for a very early flight from Heathrow last year.
We arrived the night before, had our dinner and went to sleep in a comfy family room. We got up at 3 am to board shuttle bus that took us to the airport. We left our car in the Premier Inn’s secure car park.
Today, I booked my second Sleep, Park, Fly stay. We need to be at the airport at 5.30 am, so would have to leave …
