Which is the cheapest way to go on holiday this year? Is it cheaper to take a package, or to arrange your own flights, accomodation and taxi to your resort? There's only one way to find out and that's by visiting the sites that can provide all the components of your holiday and comparing these with the package tour operators.
The essential components of any holiday are:
- Flights (or ferry or train) travel to your chosesn destination.
- A way of getting from the airport or train station to your accomodation
- Accommodation itself
- A way of getting back to your airport or station for the trip home
- Insurance to cover you and your party
Optional extras may include
- Car hire at your holiday resort
- UK Hotel accommodation before or after your flight depending on the time of travel.
One of the things that puts off a lot of potential independant travellers, especially those with children who can't afford to be left hanging around a hot airport for hours on end is the fact that upon arriving at their destination country they then need to make their way to their resort/accommodation. If you haven't booked a package or hired a car at your destination then you may be left having to deal with random local taxi drivers who may not be inclined to cut you a good deal on a two hour drive across their country. Finally however there is a solution for UK travellers who want to go abroad without hiring a car at their destination airport. Now you can book a taxi from the UK to meet you at your holiday airport who will take you to your accommodation. A UK company is offering this brilliant service so if you would like to book your hotel and flights seperately but are worried about getting stuck at the airport, check out:
who should be able to arrange for you to be picked up at the airport and taken to your holiday accommodation (and back again at the end of your holiday). No hassle, no worry. Now that the worry of the transfer from the airport to your holiday resort has been taken care of, you might want to take a look for some cheap flights and accomodation to see if the sums add up. For some destinations, doing it seperately can save you money. For others, where the resorts are dominated by the big package tour operators, it may actually be much cheaper to bite the bullet and get a full package.
LowCostHolidays.com are superb for both flights and accommodation, and you can choose to book either or both through them. They are much cheaper than the "big" tour operators. If you don't believe us, then try them and see what they come up with. If you find something you like the look and price of, you can go through to book directly with the tour operator, saving you money.
Get a free flight from airmiles
Oh, and make sure you're collecting Airmiles. There's a 1500 airmiles bonus for new Lloyds TSB airmiles card accounts opened before June 2009 which is enough for a free return flight to Paris (full terms and conditions on the airmiles website)! This is a dual card offer whereby you get an Airmiles Amex and Mastercard (because not everyone accepts Amex as it costs retailers more to process). The cards have an APR of 15.9% APR . Just use these whenever you buy anything, and the Airmiles will really start to rack up, plus you can also convert Tesco clubcard vouchers to airmiles too, in fact you can collect airmiles in loads of ways, for example:
Collect miles on:
- Groceries
- Petrol
- Credit card spend
- Mortgages
- Travel shopping
- Online shopping
In other words, you do NOT need to apply for the credit cards in order to collect airmiles, there are plenty of others ways to collect them. Airmiles aren't just for flights either these days. You can use them to get all sorts of things including free tickets to London Zoo, free tickets to Alton Towers, free cases of wine, free activity days, plus if you don't want to use up all your miles in one hit, you can use part miles, part cash for many holidays and flights, including holidays to Disneyland Paris. If you haven't seen what they offer these days then you should, because they're no longer "just" for getting free flights. Use miles for
- Worldwide flights in 7 easy zones
- Thousands of worldwide hotels
- Brochure holidays from the UK’s leading companies
- Specialist getaways – like cruise, ski and snow
- UK days out and activities
- Even wine cases
OK I think we've covered most aspects of your holiday, and many of the possible angles you can explore to make it as cheap as possible, but there's a couple more things you might want to consider before we're finished.
Save money on travel insurance!
Firstly, and very importantly, you will need insurance, and holiday company own-brand insurance doesn't tend to be very competitive. Therefore you should arrange your own holiday insurance cover and one of the best with single trip cover from £4 and annual cover from £30, yet also the cheapest travel insurance companies is Columbus Direct Travel insurance.
And finally, just in case you did want to hire a car, you might want to investigate Holiday Autos
because they can arrange car hire wherever you are going. It will certainly make exploring your holiday destination that much easier.
Wherever you end up, I hope you have a great time, and that we've shown you how you can save some money, however you choose to travel.
