A good holiday getaway is always a welcome idea for most people. Whether looking for an undisturbed break in the UK or wish to seek some sunshine abroad, a getaway is an excellent way to avoid the daily stresses of life, and get to interact with nature.
Planning for a family getaway can, however, be a pricey affair which needs proper planning and budgeting. The budget part almost always makes many people shy away from getaways.
This, however, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get a holiday treat once in a while. All you need is a good plan, research on an exciting destination and available offers, and do your homework on how to get cheap and affordable bookings for a holiday. Discussed below are a few tips and tricks on how to save money for your holiday.
1- Make Use of Supermarket Rewards and Other Reward Programs
The supermarket rewards you have been accumulating on your Nectar or Clubcard can be redeemed against flight purchases, hotel bookings, and free money as well. Don’t let all the accumulated points collect dust in the drawer or purse when they can be turned into some money.
You could also use the points earned to pay for extra expenses such as airport parking among others. You also earn more points each time you make a holiday purchase. These points can come in handy when shopping for food after getting back from the holiday destination.
2 – Avoid Using the Credit Card
While having an airline credit card may help you save some money for the getaway, it wouldn’t be advisable to use the card each time you need to make a booking. This is because some credit card companies will charge up to 2% for the amount spend with the card.
Avoid making any reservations with your credit card unless absolutely necessary.
Spending regularly with these cards can, however, earn you some air miles, which makes discounted flights, cheap upgrades, or even a freebie ride at your disposal. Proper planning is therefore needed when paying using these cards.
3 – Make Perfect Timings
Timing matters a lot when booking a holiday. According to research, making your holiday bookings on Tuesday, for example, gives you an opportunity to land an affordable deal or a discounted flight for that matter.
According to insider experts, most airline operators release last-minute deals on Tuesday. Having a perfect timing could land you a good deal on this day.
Should you miss any of these deals, Tuesday is still the cheapest day to fly on. You can save a great deal of money if you avoid making bookings for Friday or weekend flights. Most airlines hike their prices for Friday and Saturday flights. Be sure to book an afternoon flight instead of an evening one to save a penny or two.
If already decided on the holiday destination, consider making an advance booking for the same. Doing this gives you more time to pay for the trip, but also attracts other perks such as exclusive free child places during the holiday.
Some of these offers apply to anywhere the kid goes and is included in the package. Most people are always on the lookout for these deals be quick to grab one as soon as it is available.
For those patient enough, waiting for last-minute deals can save you lots of money in ticket prices. Airlines will offer great deals on these to fill up unoccupied seats, giving you a chance to pay almost half the price for a ticket.
4 – Research
Researching exhaustively on possible destinations and available offers can pay off pretty well. You, however, need to know just where to look when looking for these offers. Start by checking out whether your holiday will be cheaper if flights, meals, and hotels are paid separately or jointly.
In most situations, an all-inclusive package will be relatively less expensive than paying for each service independently. Be sure to consider airport transfers to and from the hotel in these packages as well. Some holiday packages do not have this included, a factor that can put a dent in your budget. Sometimes it’s better to look for a deal in websites that will provide voucher code for hotel booking, flight booking & other travel essentials.
Be keen to research on the destination before making any bookings. It would be advisable to be on the lookout for public holidays when planning a getaway. Travelling during public holidays can be quite expensive as airports, and tourist attraction sites will be crowded on these days. Avoid public holidays to be on the safe side.
Direct flights and return tickets can be a little more expensive than indirect flights. While connecting flights and catching indirect flights might be time-consuming and tricky at times, you could save hundreds of shillings if you try these.
Comparison sites such as Skiplagged and Skyscanner can come in handy when looking for indirect flights to your destination. All you need to do is enter the ideal destination, and travel date, then let the site’s algorithms search for cheap and available flight options.
5 – TopCashBack & Freebie Sites
You can make some savings each time you use TopCashBack when making bookings. You get up to £10 cashback for £10 spend on the site. This makes it easy to save money on accommodation, transport, and any holiday extras.
Such savings don’t come often on big-name companies such as lastminute.com, Experia.co.uk, or Hotels.com. Although it may not seem like much, you can spend the cash rewards on your kids for ice-cream and cocktails for your other half. You can also use freebie sites such as wowfreestuff.co.uk, to get great toiletry freebies as well as deals on holidays.
