January is the month when every family feels the cost of all those presents
under the tree, and when the credit card bills hit the floor with the
loudest thump. Such cruelty coincides with weather which is wild and wet,
and Seasonal Adjustment Disorder which is craving the promise of sunshine
and time off for good behaviour.
The very act of booking a holiday gives most of us a longed for lift, but
paying for it? Well, that’s a whole other sensation. Fortunately for the
financially incontinent, there are many ways you can save for summer in
winter. And reading this online is a good way to start.
Social networking sites, which share information between punters, are slowly
transforming travel, and they are a good source of insider bargains. While
many sites are geared towards the footloose independent traveller, rather
than the encumbered family, some such as Travel
Intelligence have zoomed in to offer families an at-a-glance list of
recommended boutique and luxury hotels all over the world, all costed per
room per night.
Nobody’s trying to sell you anything, and if you want to delve deeper then
other sites such as World Reviewer
or Travel Mag will tell you
everything from how hot it will be when you touch down on the tarmac to the
best local sights and restaurants.
If bargains are your bag, my Times colleague Mark Bridge offers families a few
ideas in this
Saturdays’s article on travelling cheap. My favourite tip is to
post your home on a property website
such as Home Link from around £30
per year, and then have other members all over the world contact you for a
rent-free exchange.
Currently homes in Europe, the US, South Africa and New Zealand are among the
best represented, and many swaps include renting out the family car, so only
flights need to be costed.
His advice on stocking up on airmiles through Nectar www.nectar.com or
Airmiles www.airmiles.co.uk makes particular sense for families, too. For
example, spend of £85 per week in Tesco nets 1,000 airmiles each year - more
than a return flight to Paris with BA, costing only 750 airmiles.
Top Five Tips to Save Money on the Big Family Holiday
1. Book Early. We may all have slipped into the www.lastminute.com way of
living, but when it comes to family holidays – the bargains are definitely
to be had at the beginning of the year. January is the month when tour
operators offer the best deals, including free children’s places and often a
nil – or small - deposit to pay.
Independent Financial
Advisor Martin Bamford, who won the Gold Standard for Independent
Financial Advice in 2007, says: “The last minute deal often proves to be a
false economy. Paying in one lump sum often leads to the use of credit
cards…if you book early, you will have a greater choice of destination and
can pay for the holiday in instalments – saving yourself a fortune in credit
card charges.”
2. Book Online. Even if your evenings are spent poring over brochures from the
travel agents, book your holiday online – prices for the exact same holidays
are often hundreds of pounds cheaper.
A survey by Holiday
Which last year proved that there was around £250 difference between the
least and most expensive brochure price, based on the cost of a two-week
holiday to Mallorca in late July for an adult couple with one child.
3. Take Advice from Other Families. There is no longer any reason to turn up
at a resort to find the beach covered in rubbish and the hotel half built.
Many good travel forums such as Trip
Advisor have family areas where you can pose questions about a specific
holiday destination and ask for feedback.
For those travelling on a budget in months outside the school holidays,
Mumsnet has just posted a Travel
Calendar with recommendations, including low-budget ones, for 2008 on
every month of the year.
4. Look Daily for Bargains. This is the time of year when tour operators
change their early-bird booking initiatives on a daily basis to lure you in,
so keep checking as often as possible.
Don’t necessarily plump for the obvious big names - Holiday Which’s latest
report on 10 January listed the top
10 independent Tour operators which showed some of the biggest names,
such as Thomas Cook, languishing at the bottom for overall satisfaction from
holidaymakers.
5. Fly from a Regional Airport. Families caught up in the school holiday crush
of the big airports are inviting stress, expensive transfer fees, petrol,
parking and sometimes hotel rooms, when their local airport may well provide
a much better alternative. Birmingham
International Airport, for example, flies to 70 worldwide destinations,
and has just added Montego Bay in Jamaica to their roll call. As I’ve said
in the past, just say no to Gatwick
and Heathrow.
Got a question any tips or questions about good family holiday deals? Email
our experts Emma Mahony and Jane Owen at yoursay@timesonline.co.uk
All very well but I don't see any advice here as to how to by-pass the holiday operator and airline 'sharks'. This is about Family Holidays but the one thing that really sticks in the throats of parents is the penalty for being parents! I mean of course; the disgusting practice of doubling -and in some cases -trebling the air and accommodation fares on the day kids break-up for a school holiday. Surely this is a form of unfair discrimination and a breach of the equal rights laws? I live in Madeira. Recently Easyjet started a new daily service here from the UK. Since all my grandchildren live in the UK I thought this would be a boon and I would be able to afford to fund their travel to and from here on school holidays - I had to think again! Easyjet - like all the rest have jumped on the band waggon an boosted their fares to cream-off the parents yet again. Is there no way to curb these greedy pirates?
Jim Currie - Funchal
Jim Curie, Funchal, Madeira
Shop at Tescos, using their Spend and Save card to accumulate points. Convert the points to BA miles.
Get the British Airways American Express card which gives a free redemption ticket if you spend £10000 in a year.
Use the BA Amex to pay for everything, especially the weekly shop at Tesco...
Have an RCI points timeshare, £1500 for 50 years. For the cost of the yearly maintence fees (around £350 per year), a membership fee (works out at around £70 per year) and a swap fee (£70), you get 2 weeks accomodation in a 2 bed high quality apartment anywhere in the world.
Combine this with the free BA flight, the other flight on BA miles, and you get a cheap 2 weeks every year.
Dave, Basingstoke, UK