With inflation rocketing (Bank of England governor Mervyn King has been forced to write another letter to the Treasury after the Consumer Price Index rose at an annual rate of 3.3% in May) it’s no surprise that we’re all starting to feel the pinch. A full 46% of people are wondering how they’ll “make ends meet” this year, according to a recent poll by YouGov.
So, what can we do? We could start by cutting back on what some commentators label “luxuries” – swapping the daily latte for an instant coffee at home, for example. However, a less painful way to make a much more sizeable saving is to cut down on one of our biggest annual blow-outs – our holidays. But don’t worry – this doesn’t have to mean sacrificing a sunny fortnight overseas for a damp week in Bognor Regis. Here are a few tips on how to save money on holiday without spoiling your fun.
Cheap holidays: pick a cheap destination
According to a Post Office ranking of countries by the price of a basket of ten things a couple would buy on holiday – coffee, an evening meal, suncream and so on – the cheapest destinations for Brits are Thailand, South Africa and Egypt.
For example, the ten items will set you back £28.50 in Thailand versus a whopping £73.40 in Italy – that’s a difference of around £45 per day for just two people (let alone a whole family), or around £630 spread over a fortnight. Sure, you’ll need to factor in the extra cost of travel – but even if you stay within Europe it’s worth knowing that the cheapest countries are Bulgaria (£50) and Turkey (£52.28).
Cheap holidays: pick a cheap month and day of travel
Thanks to the constraints imposed by school holidays, many families take their biggest break during July and August. Obviously if you can avoid these months then so much the better. Last time I was in Corsica for example, prices in a typical three-star hotel in mid-August were more than four times the price you would pay just one month later.
If you are forced to go in peak season you can still save a fortune on flights by not leaving and returning on a Saturday or Sunday, the days favoured by package operators. For example, a quick search on easyjet.co.uk reveals that a morning flight to Faro, Portugal can be bought for around half the price on Monday 11th August that you would pay to leave two days earlier. If you must go on Saturday 9th, fly early – the 6.10am flight is 55% cheaper than the 8.15am.
Cheap holidays: consider staying a night near the airport
Perhaps the biggest risk with a 6.10am flight is missing it. So why not drive the day before and book a combined single night hotel and parking deal close to the airport? For example, on sites such as parking4less.co.uk and holidayextras.co.uk, a single night in a hotel near Gatwick, including transfers and 15 nights parking, costs just £3 more in August than the “summer special” onsite airport carpark. And out of peak season the hotel and parking deals often come to much less.
Cheap holidays: don’t pay for expensive hotels
Why pay for impersonal service and overpriced rooms when there are alternatives? For the hardy, there’s camping. A four person tent can be had from Millets for example from just £90 and at a typically picturesque campsite such as Exmoor’s Cloud Farm a pitch is £7.50 per adult and £5.50 for kids aged 5+.
One step up from camping, in most, but arguably not all, cases are Youth Hostels. The YHA is investing £13m in upgrades this year which should raise standards at lagging hostels. They are dotted all over the country – a four bed family room at the grand Hartington Hall in the Peak District can be had for just £71.
One step up again is the house swap, if you are game enough to let someone else use your home while you are away and vice versa. With 13,000 properties to choose from located all over the world, including destinations such as Oman, Japan and Vietnam, for a joining fee of £115, homelink.org.uk is a good place to start hunting. Smaller but cheaper is homebase-hols.com.
Cheap holidays: don’t forget to switch your mobile phone tariff
When shopping around to save money on the usual holiday extras such as insurance and currency, it’s easy to forget how badly you can be fleeced for using your mobile phone abroad both to make (typically about 35p per minute back to the UK from Europe) and receive (18p a minute) calls. So, for short hops always ask your provider to switch you over to their “international” or, for Orange customers, “frequent traveller” tariff which halves the cost per call for one month.
For phone addicts making longer or regular trips – say visiting relatives in Australia – it can work out cheaper still to spend half an hour in a phone shop setting up an additional overseas mobile phone contract. Choose a cheap, basic prepay handset which you will just use whilst on holiday and then pay local, rather than international, call rates for all your overseas calls.