How to Get a Deal on a Family Holiday

Family holidays are only good idea in theory. The thought of jetting away to a fun filled resort in some sunnier Mediterranean clime is filled with promise and adventure. In practise, spending a fortnight crammed in to a tiny box like room with your family and no air-conditioning in a built up concrete resort for Brits abroad, never quite meets your high expectations. Sadly, as these events are most frequently a year apart, we forget the reality in time to book a similar experience each year, when a much better idea would be to head off by yourself, with a good book and your swimmers!

On the High Street

If you still book your family holiday in the conventional way, on the high street, you’ll need to get in there early to really bag a bargain. Package holiday prices are much lower when less booked up, which means that if at all possible, book your holiday up to a year in advance!

Package holiday companies offer great incentives to early bird bookers, apart from reduced prices. Children under ages up to 16 may be able to travel for free with two full fee paying adults and could receive free kids club membership for the length of your stay abroad!

Online

If you really want to shred pounds from your family holiday, last minute bookings are a recent but very attractive new option. If you aren’t worried about exactly where you travel to, but just want to get a bargain holiday in the sun, online websites offer the chance to book un-sold (and consequently very cheap) package trips, up to 24 hours before flying. This is really great for families who are relatively flexible (especially on location) and there are almost always great options being sold-off cheap every day!

Families who are less flexible can, and should, still use websites to compare package prices and may find good travel offers this way, which they can book in advance. To really reduce costs families should collect air miles together, to accrue a large and valuable stock to spend on their holiday.

Parents can easily get the same credit card as each other (which may even result in extra points being awarded) and collect air miles through credit card purchases. Some websites offer customers the chance to switch other points (such as reward points) over to air miles, which could see your air miles stock, rapidly increasing!

Think Locally

In this time of increasing environmental awareness and increasing global emissions, you may like to consider not taking a conventional holiday this year. Why not save money, travelling time and cut pollution by visiting somewhere more local? The North and West of England all offer many cultural attractions and the South-West offers great adventure sports, such as surfing and good nightlife for the young ones.

Companies like Butlins are re-introducing and re-branding themselves right now to appeal to UK traveller’s conscious of the threat of pollution to the world and offer a lot more activities than they used to! A week’s trip to a holiday resort in the UK is also significantly cheaper than a trip to another country and if you really want to save cash rather than spend, a UK holiday is definitely something to consider.

Of course, the very cheapest holiday would be a weekend break at home. Rather than paying out a lot of money for an argument filled experience abroad, an unusual break at your own house could offer peace and quiet with absolutely no overheads! Definitely something for the money conscious!