Another 10 Tips for Affording a Yearly Holiday/Vacation

Further to my first post on this topic. I’m adding another installment of my top tips for being able to have a yearly holiday even when you are on a tight budget. I recently used several of these and have bagged myself a week by the sea all meals included, in a 4* hotel for under £300 = $600, regular price £800 = $1600!!!

1. Look for hotels that have recently been renovated and ask if they have any unrenovated rooms at a lower price. Often hotels do renovations over several years, taking a wing or floor at a time. The unrenovated rooms are good quality rooms, but not with the most modern interior. I’ve found several hotels that have top class facilities, but with a wing of “traditional” rooms among several wings of “contemporary rooms”. The traditional rooms are 50% less than the modern rooms and yet have all the same facilities.

2. Piggy back vacations onto business trip. Granted you may not get yearly business trips to Australia or the Caribbean (I wish!) but, I do like a main holiday (at least a week) and a mini break (3-5 days) each year. So, let’s say you had a business trip to Edinburgh or even New York. Your employer would pay for your travel and accomodation (& meals) for the nights you are required to be there. Imagine your business trip ends on Thursday. You could ask your employer (before you book) if you could fly back on the Sunday instead of the Thursday (generally the flight won’t increase in price, could even decrease if the route is a business travel route) and then have a cheap weekend away. You could book an extra 2 nights accommodation – many hotels will allow you to use the business rate your employer receives and will continue to throw in luxuries – like free newspapers, breakfasts, use of the executive media suite etc.  With careful planning you can have that weekend away at very little cost.

3. House swap! Honestly, it sounds odd, but especially for families it is significantly cheaper! Ring your local Universities to see if any of their visiting Professors are looking for a house swap, ask around at work to see if anyone has family members that would be interested, or join an organization dedicated to helping house swappers find each other. Generally speaking you pay a small yearly fee, and get to swap houses for free. If you happen to live in an area that is a tourism hot spot, this can work very nicely in your favour! Even if you don’t, often people want to visit family without staying with them and don’t want the expense of a hotel.

4. Look to Universities during student holiday time for cheap accomodation. In 2000, I wanted to visit Oxford for 3 nights and the hotels were asking for about £70 = $150 a night. I found that one of the Universities let out rooms for about £18 = $36 a night and it included a room cleaning service and reasonable breakfast!

5. Do a charity holiday! There is nothing more invigorating than giving back, doing something you are passionate about, having a new experience and saving money! Many national organizations offer charity breaks beyond the popular treks people know about. You can help count whales, you can clean up beaches, you can plant trees among thousands of other opportunities. Accommodation is usually clean, reasonable and basic, but you often meet interesting new people and have a wonderful experience. Remember there is nothing stopping you from booking a night or two at the end of the trip in more glamorous surroundings, again as it’s only a night or two, it won’t add too much to your holiday budget! Check out some wonderful opportunities here

6. Find your hobbies and make them into holidays! As a child I visited a wonderful all ages music residential summer camp at a local University and had a great time. These great opportuinities are a lot of fun and still exist today. You can learn how to bake, cook, improve your musical abilities among many other things.

7. Know what experience you want but not where you want to go. As my major holiday is in October, I knew I’d need a mini break this summer, especially with the stress of moving and a new job as a not so distant memory. I was flexible about dates (but knew I wanted to go away in between summer half term finishing and the beginning of the summer holidays – this means good weather, but no school holiday prices), and location. I know I wanted a UK beach break – hotel on the beach. I looked at the map and decided I would focus my search on Norfolk, Devon or Cornwall. I used all the tips from my first post as well as the ones in this post. I looked at hotels recently refurbished, hotels with package deals, counted up the travel costs and looked at whether my AA memebership would get me a discount. Being flexible about where allowed me to grab a real bargin. Had I been stuck on wanting to go to Devon, instead of wanting a beach holiday, I would of ended up paying another £300 = $600 for the same deal!

8. Meal plans – sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. Many times the cost depend on the time of your holiday. The hotel I booked, had a choice of 1/2 board, I orignially looked at the first week in July and found it was going to cost an additional £120 for 5 days, I then tried 2 other dates for the same number of nights and got my half board for 5 days for £10 = $20. What a massive saving!!!

9. Solo Holidays – Whether you’re single or coupled a solo holiday can be a wonderful experience. I took my first solo holiday in 2002 (when I was in a relationship!) and have been a convert ever since! The only problem with solo holidays is the supplement. You can ask travel agents to look for no single supplement deals, although they tend to be restrictive. With so many singles who enjoy travelling, there are also some great travel companies dedicated to the single traveller! As they buy in bulk, they can get great discounts. I’ve seen holidays advertised here, where directly through the oppertaors you would pay an additional £200-£300 pounds!

10. Get past the idea that sleeping = a bed! I’ll admit, I’m not so into camping, but since I’ve started looking into caravans, retro campers and yurts, to name but a few, I’ve found great savings on holidays! A week in a yurt in Cornwall, is about £400 =$800 cheaper than even a modest hotel. Some camper sights have great ammenities including showers and cooking faciliites. Many even offer discounted or free excursions.

There are so many more tips, I’m sure I’ll do another 10 tips in another post soon!