Yay, after a week of searching, we've finally booked our Winter getaway and the countdown is on!
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| Malaga, December 2022 |
Another holiday? People often ask, How on earth do you afford it? Yes, travel can be expensive but, if you do your research, don't have stick to public/school holidays and aren't too high maintenance, you don't have to spend a fortune. We've paid less than £450 for our return flights and seven nights accommodation in a Mediterranean coastal town, packed with ancient ruins, museums, great places to eat and numerous Blue Flag beaches.
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| Fuerteventura, February 2024 |
I thought I'd share a few tips on how we manage to travel well on a budget.
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| Thirassia, September 2023 |
1. Location
Be open minded and don't set your heart on a specific destination. Despite being sworn off the Canary Islands following a lacklustre trip to Lanzarote in the 1990s, after finding return flights to Gran Canaria for £38 in January, 2023 we couldn't resist.
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| Gran Canaria, January 2022 |
We start off by searching Jet2 and Tui which allow us to an input our choice of airport and approximate travel dates and come up with a list of suggestions.
At this time of year we're after a bit of sunshine, not necessarily beach weather, it just needs to be warm enough to walk around without a coat so, once we've got a few ideas, we'll have a look at the Met Office app & check out the weather history for the period we're planning to visit. Anything below an average of 20°C gets ruled out.
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| Tenerife, December 2024 |
We don't do purpose built tourist resorts full of Brits, we want culture, history & local flavour, so we'll search the relevant Trip Advisor forums for recommendations from fellow travellers. We'll research any places that sound interesting, hunting for blogs written by real people (as opposed to influencers or travel company affiliates), articles by respected & self-financed travel journalists like Simon Calder and we'll watching YouTube videos which are brilliant for letting you see exactly what places look like. Whatever your thoughts on Facebook, joining the relevant groups for the places you're interested in is a fantastic way of getting up-to-date information.
Another consideration is the availability of public transport at your chosen destination and always worth a search on the TripAdvisor forums. Once we disembark our flight we want to jump on a bus and get to our destination as quickly and cheaply as possible, be able to visit other places and to get back to the airport at the end of our trip without any hassle. A regular and reliable bus service can be a deal-breaker.
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| Kerkyra, July 2022 |
Once we've narrowed down a few likely destinations we'll have a general search for rooms on Booking.com. We had been considering giving Lanzarote a second chance, whilst the flight prices were great, the accommodation in our preferred location was prohibitive. Maybe next year!
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| Alicante, March 2022 |
Once we're happy with our choice of destination we'll check the flight prices on the Ryanair & EasyJet websites just to make sure we're getting the best deal. As Ryanair restrict carry-on to a pitiful 40cm x 20cm x 25cm (the equivalent of a small tote bag) you'll need to factor in an additional £30 -45 per person per flight if you want to take a change of clothes with you.
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| Santorini, September 2023 |
Another cost worth considering are the flight times. Although they can be a little more expensive, we prefer daytime flights so that we can catch the train to the airport. At £2.90 return it's a fraction of the price of a taxi, paying for a mate's fuel or airport parking!
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| Kefalonia, May 2024 It's also worth checking Jet2 and Tui's Last Minute Deals as occasionally it can be cheaper to book a package. In 2023 our week in Polychrono in Halkidiki cost us £189 per person and last year seven days in Skala on Kefalonia was just £220, with both deals including flights, transfers and self catering rooms (and a whopping 22kg each of luggage - not that we bothered with that!). |
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| Halkidiki, May 2023 |
For this trip we've booked our flights with Jet2 via their app which reduced the cost by 5% and, as we'd travelled with them last year, we'd been rewarded with loyalty vouchers which shaved another 5% off the bill.
To keep costs down we never select our seats. Sitting together on costs on average £11 per person, per flight - that's £44 we can put to better use elsewhere. Occasionally we're able to swap seats once the flight has taken off but if not we'll have headphones to hand just in case one of us ends up sitting next to a prize bore!
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| Kos Town, July 2024 |
Needless to say, we won't be upgrading our flight to include check-in baggage. A carry-on is more than enough.
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| Fuerteventura, February 2024 |
3. Accommodation
Once we've booked our flights we'll take a proper look at the accommodation in the area we've earmarked. As always we use Booking.com and as we always leave property reviews, we're awarded Genius Points which give us discounts and special deals. If you use their App they'll often have lunchtime deals and exclusive offers.
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| Chania, April 2023 |
I add a few filters to my accommodation search - a private bathroom, a terrace or balcony and in a location 1km or less from our chosen part of town. I always search prices from low to high and always read the blurb carefully just to make sure that there's a kitchenette so we can prepare our fruit & yogurt breakfast and keep our beer cold.
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| Puerto de la Cruz, December 2023 |
I read all the negative reviews as places are often marked down for silly reasons. The property we've chosen is awarded 7.6 out of 10 and the negatives are really silly ones - no lid for the saucepan, the tree outside is too big and the internet was slow. Someone even took exception to the owner of the property bringing them a welcome beer! People are very strange!
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| Athens, February 2023 |
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