Top tips for booking a bargain holiday

You don’t need to spend thousands of pounds to have the holiday of a life time, let me show you how…

In the past I have had holidays completely free, less than £150, on a budget and I have pushed the boat out and paid OTT for an all inclusive foreign holiday – and my favourite holidays were always the cheaper ones!

My husband and I went on our honeymoon and paid over £2500 for a 7 day, all inclusive holiday. While it was a lovely location and we had a great time, I will admit that it was not my favourite holiday. I remember thinking ”This is lovely and I’m with the person I love but it was not worth £2500.”

So I vowed from that moment on I would never book a holiday that expensive ever again.

The holidays that followed were fantastic and I have never spent more than £500. Follow my tips and you can save money whilst having the best holidays…

If you’re looking for a holiday abroad it can often be cheaper to fly from an airport that isn’t your local. When doing some research I found that I could book flights for my family £700 less from our second closest airport. It would have cost us £50 to get there but it would still save us £650.
Scotland and England have different school holidays, so if you’re planning a holiday during the school holidays in England why not check if Scotland schools are currently in term? The flights will be cheaper from Scotland – and vise versa.
Although Teletext holidays are no longer on our TV, there are still some great deals on their website.
If you’re looking to book a package holiday then play the travel agents off against each other. Get a price from all travel agencies and ask if they can beat each others price.
Don’t forget British Airways. I have done so much research into foreign holidays and British Airways have always came out cheapest – some deals even included free car hire and were £1000 cheaper!
The Sun holidays – I LOVE Sun holidays. I collect the codes and post them on my website so you don’t have to buy the newspapers. You can then choose a holiday park in the UK and even further afield such as Spain and France! I love Butlins and my family and I went here a couple of year ago with the Sun holidays, it cost less than £150 for a family of 5 for 5 days. The Sun holidays also have a price guarantee so you know you will get the cheapest price possible or you will be refunded the difference plus £10.
Buy in advance. Buy beach towels, sun cream, summer clothing etc during the winter clearance sales. This can save you around £150 depending on how many people are traveling and this is a great way to get the holiday spends started.
Don’t pay over the top in the airport for food. At a fast food joint in an airport would have cost us just over £50 for a family of 5, however we headed to the airport lounge instead and it cost us around the same. For the money we got a comfortable seating area to wait for our flight plus unlimited food and drink whilst we were in their – perfect if your kids want a drink every two minutes.
Shop around for the best money exchange rate – do not purchase the first one you see.
Sky Scanner and Expedia compare the prices of flights and a great way to knock hundreds off your DIY holiday. Give them both a try incase the prices differ slightly.
Use Trivago to compare the prices of hotels. This is the website I used when I was on CH4’s Sun, Sea and Supersavers.
Call the hotel and ask for a further discount. Again, I done this on CH4’s Sun, Sea and Supersavers and although they wouldn’t give me a further discount they did give me a free room upgrade to a sea-view room.
ALWAYS get travel insurance – no excuses or avoiding this tip. Your holiday could end up costing your thousands and thousands of pounds if you unfortunately have an accident without travel insurance.
Is there a group of you traveling together? Or even another family you know wanting to go to the same destination as you? Why not get book a villa rather than a hotel and you can all split the cost. You don’t need to spend all your holiday together but it is a great way to bring down the price of you accommodation.
When should you book your holiday to get the best deal? I am often asked that question. I would say book as early as possible, the more often holidays are searched and priced the price goes up with the demand, or book late. Booking late gives you a great deal as the agents will want to sell the rest of the empty seats on their aircrafts and fill the hotel rooms.

Is there any tips you would add? Let us know in the comments…

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday, Ashleigh x