Cant find summer holiday because of such high costs....
Discussion
Where are the 'bargain' holidays? They dont seem to exist, and in fact, every thing seems so much more expensive this year. two weeks in turkey for £4000+ (family of three, August) seems rediculous to me. Two years ago this holiday was £1800..... Three years ago you cold go to the Carribean for this kind of money. We had 22 weeks all inclusive for three in Antigua for £2800, yet now that would be north of £6k.....
Anyone got any hints and tips for finding a reasonably priced holiday in July/August? Me, missus and 14 year old...
Anyone got any hints and tips for finding a reasonably priced holiday in July/August? Me, missus and 14 year old...
Are you going through a Travel Agent? I've only booked flights and accommodation online for many years, having realised how much more the same holiday was via a 'brochure'!
My Travel Agent ex was of the same opinion - people basically paid her to spend most of the day browsing the net putting together a package for them!
My Travel Agent ex was of the same opinion - people basically paid her to spend most of the day browsing the net putting together a package for them!
I have this wallet pain these days - having to pay double just because it's a school holiday..
The first thing is to find a cheap airline. For example, from Cardiff, Vueling do cheap flights to Barcelona - for 5 of us in August it would have been 800 Euros before baggage. They do Mallorca for a reasonable price though are uncompetitive to Alicante to where Thomson are cheaper (though Thomson fleece you paying by credit card with a fee).
Other airlines worth looking at are Flybe and BMIBaby but you do have to hunt down the cheaper routes. Murcia, for example, can be cheap and that also has cheaper accommodation.
Once you have the flights sussed, you can look at a villa or an apartment and these can be expensive if you want your own pool, cheaper with a shared pool and cheaper again with no pool if you don't mind driving to the beach.
What I have found is that renting can be a PITA because in high season, besides the rental cost, many want a security deposit when you arrive which is "dead money" until it's returned at the end of the holiday. There are sites, however, like www.villarenters.co.uk which not only give you instant conformation but allow you to pay by credit card (no fee and you get the credit card protection) but also charge you a £20-25 insurance premium instead of the security deposit lowering the outlay.
The downside of this is the research and planning can become mind-numbing because many villas have been booked already though you will still find plenty on the Costa Blanca (which is why my plans started with Barcelona, moved to Palma and ended up in Alicante).
To give you some idea, I have just booked 2 weeks in Spain and we booked two villas at £1100 and £900 roughly, the car hire for TWO weeks works out around £350 (we use Centauro or Economy Car Hire as they have a nil excess unlike some who have 700 Euro excesses) but again, with only 3 of you, a smaller and cheaper car will suffice. Our flights to Alicante FOR FIVE panned out around £1700 with Thomson so look at that pro-rata. ALSO look at the times of the flights - Thomson were much better in this respect so almost worth the extra cost to avoid early morning dashes for the airport.
I was somewhat aghast at the price of 2 weeks for a Spanish holiday but bear in mind we had to have a 3 bedroom villa whiuch shoved the price up and we went for private pools also shoving the price up. If you wanted to do it cheaply, I would recommend flying Vueling to Barcelona, renting a car and driving down to Peniscola (134 miles) and renting an apartment in somewhere like the Nerea complex with a nice shared pool for about £600 a week. That was my original plan but I couldn't get the villa I wanted.
The first thing is to find a cheap airline. For example, from Cardiff, Vueling do cheap flights to Barcelona - for 5 of us in August it would have been 800 Euros before baggage. They do Mallorca for a reasonable price though are uncompetitive to Alicante to where Thomson are cheaper (though Thomson fleece you paying by credit card with a fee).
Other airlines worth looking at are Flybe and BMIBaby but you do have to hunt down the cheaper routes. Murcia, for example, can be cheap and that also has cheaper accommodation.
Once you have the flights sussed, you can look at a villa or an apartment and these can be expensive if you want your own pool, cheaper with a shared pool and cheaper again with no pool if you don't mind driving to the beach.
What I have found is that renting can be a PITA because in high season, besides the rental cost, many want a security deposit when you arrive which is "dead money" until it's returned at the end of the holiday. There are sites, however, like www.villarenters.co.uk which not only give you instant conformation but allow you to pay by credit card (no fee and you get the credit card protection) but also charge you a £20-25 insurance premium instead of the security deposit lowering the outlay.
The downside of this is the research and planning can become mind-numbing because many villas have been booked already though you will still find plenty on the Costa Blanca (which is why my plans started with Barcelona, moved to Palma and ended up in Alicante).
To give you some idea, I have just booked 2 weeks in Spain and we booked two villas at £1100 and £900 roughly, the car hire for TWO weeks works out around £350 (we use Centauro or Economy Car Hire as they have a nil excess unlike some who have 700 Euro excesses) but again, with only 3 of you, a smaller and cheaper car will suffice. Our flights to Alicante FOR FIVE panned out around £1700 with Thomson so look at that pro-rata. ALSO look at the times of the flights - Thomson were much better in this respect so almost worth the extra cost to avoid early morning dashes for the airport.
I was somewhat aghast at the price of 2 weeks for a Spanish holiday but bear in mind we had to have a 3 bedroom villa whiuch shoved the price up and we went for private pools also shoving the price up. If you wanted to do it cheaply, I would recommend flying Vueling to Barcelona, renting a car and driving down to Peniscola (134 miles) and renting an apartment in somewhere like the Nerea complex with a nice shared pool for about £600 a week. That was my original plan but I couldn't get the villa I wanted.
Edited by LuS1fer on Sunday 1st April 20:20
I also used to use the travel agents. What I do now is use them to find a nice place to go and a nice hotel. I then book the flights and hotel direct. I even book a taxi to get me at the airport. I'm heading to Lanzarote at the end of April and saved £400 for two of us and saved £900 for 4 of us in August.
If you want to book everything yourself, try travel republic, you can pick your flights then which hotel you want then use either carhire 3000 or economy car hire and the jobs a good'un!
We booked 3 weeks ago to portugalfor the 27th april, 4 night 4* hotel with breakfast, car hire and return flights from our local airport for £300 for the 2 of us.
Matt
We booked 3 weeks ago to portugalfor the 27th april, 4 night 4* hotel with breakfast, car hire and return flights from our local airport for £300 for the 2 of us.
Matt
This is the true cost of holidays. Most travel companies are only working on about 5% margins.
Years ago there was huge overcacity in the travel industry and loads of travel companies were flogging cheap holidays usually at a loss but they've all gone bust.
All the remaining companies are the amalgamation and mergers of the companies that were profitable.
Capacity is now hugely reduced in the travel sector.
Years ago there was huge overcacity in the travel industry and loads of travel companies were flogging cheap holidays usually at a loss but they've all gone bust.
All the remaining companies are the amalgamation and mergers of the companies that were profitable.
Capacity is now hugely reduced in the travel sector.
For car hire, make sure you join the Avis Preferred scheme. You register for free online. They send you a card and membership number.
You then get your cars at reduced price and a free upgrade. Also you just walk past the huge queue's and go to the preferred section and get your car straight away. Some airports just leave your key in the car and you just walk steaight to the car.
My Audi A4 last year was going to be £1300 for two weeks in spain. After joining preferred I cancelled the order and rehired at a cost of £600 with free all inclusive insurance. The glares I was getting when I just bypassed the 30-40 minute queue at Malaga was well worth it aswell
You then get your cars at reduced price and a free upgrade. Also you just walk past the huge queue's and go to the preferred section and get your car straight away. Some airports just leave your key in the car and you just walk steaight to the car.
My Audi A4 last year was going to be £1300 for two weeks in spain. After joining preferred I cancelled the order and rehired at a cost of £600 with free all inclusive insurance. The glares I was getting when I just bypassed the 30-40 minute queue at Malaga was well worth it aswell
Zaxxon said:
For car hire, make sure you join the Avis Preferred scheme. You register for free online. They send you a card and membership number.
You then get your cars at reduced price and a free upgrade. Also you just walk past the huge queue's and go to the preferred section and get your car straight away. Some airports just leave your key in the car and you just walk steaight to the car.
My Audi A4 last year was going to be £1300 for two weeks in spain. After joining preferred I cancelled the order and rehired at a cost of £600 with free all inclusive insurance. The glares I was getting when I just bypassed the 30-40 minute queue at Malaga was well worth it aswell
Just booked with Centauro. They offer an express collection for 9 Euros. A Focus for two weeks in August was under 350 Euros and it was around 42 Euros for a child seat. That's pretty good value.You then get your cars at reduced price and a free upgrade. Also you just walk past the huge queue's and go to the preferred section and get your car straight away. Some airports just leave your key in the car and you just walk steaight to the car.
My Audi A4 last year was going to be £1300 for two weeks in spain. After joining preferred I cancelled the order and rehired at a cost of £600 with free all inclusive insurance. The glares I was getting when I just bypassed the 30-40 minute queue at Malaga was well worth it aswell
Not the most exotic of offers but might be worth a look:
www.icelolly.co.uk. If that doesn't work just google icelolly.
www.icelolly.co.uk. If that doesn't work just google icelolly.
TBH, if you're looking at waxing 4K to go to Turkey for a fortnight, investing in an apartment (or a decent Timeshare deal for similar outlay to the holiday) doesn't seem like a bad idea at all!...
As for not wanting to be stuck in one place, both can usually be 'traded' (let out, accomodation swap with someone else or timeshare 'points' systems) to see a different parts of the world!
As for not wanting to be stuck in one place, both can usually be 'traded' (let out, accomodation swap with someone else or timeshare 'points' systems) to see a different parts of the world!
Ultuous said:
TBH, if you're looking at waxing 4K to go to Turkey for a fortnight, investing in an apartment (or a decent Timeshare deal for similar outlay to the holiday) doesn't seem like a bad idea at all!...
As for not wanting to be stuck in one place, both can usually be 'traded' (let out, accomodation swap with someone else or timeshare 'points' systems) to see a different parts of the world!
You still have to pay for flights and the great thing about choice is that you can find flights cheap to various destinations at different times.As for not wanting to be stuck in one place, both can usually be 'traded' (let out, accomodation swap with someone else or timeshare 'points' systems) to see a different parts of the world!
We fleetingly glimpsed an opportunity to buy an apartment in Roquetas de Mar, Almeria in 2002 for £52k but I'm glad we didn't as the income generated on apartments without a pool is fairly small, even in season, and you still have to try and rent it out of season. Many people who bought now have liabilities. Add to that management fees and maintenance fees and the economics are not that great.
A good villa with a pool near the coast that will rent easily is going to be north of £350k in Spain at least.
The other thing I find is that because it's not your villa, you can enjoy it and not be tempted to get bogged down with the same need to maintain it you get with your own property.
I CAN understand why some people do it when they find their perfect place. I met a girl on a plane once who was going to Mallorca for the 23rd time in as many years and while I love Mallorca, I couldn't help thinking she ought to see other places.
therealpigdog said:
CARAVAN 
Best holiday 'investment' I've ever made.
Personally I'm a bit more minimalist though
Portsmouth-Cherbourg is about £50 for a motorbike
Campsites are generally less than £10
I can do well over 200 miles on a 20 litre tank of fuel
Did about 3000 miles though France, Italy, Austria and Germany last summer on some of the best roads I've ever seen. Bit more expensive for car drivers but it's a great way for a petrol head to spend a fortnight.
Alternatively go a bit out of season. Not got kids but the girlfiend is a teach so we're limited to holiday, went to Iceland last september in half term and it probably cost us around 2/3 what it would have cost in peak season, at the expense of it being a bit chillier.
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