How To Book an Awesome Inexpensive Beach Holiday

We love travelling. Well, to be honest I don’t know a person who doesn’t. We are young and we have travelled a lot and therefore we would like to share some of our experience with you and help you book a great holiday for a reasonable price.

Firstly, I want to say that this article is mostly dedicated to people whose primary purpose of travelling is leisure. We work a lot therefore from time to time we need a relaxing beach holiday rather than the one were you wonder around a city full of tourists with your camera and tick the places you visited so far. However, don’t stop reading this if you are not up to for a beach holiday, I am certain there is some useful information for you as well.

Turn your holiday Location into surprise

What you don’t want to do is to choose the definite location. To get a great deal you need to be open to the offers and plan your trip at least couple of months (if possible) in advance. The more flexible you are, the better deal you will be able to obtain. Since we are talking about beach holiday and since we’re price conscious, you have all Mediterranean coast to choose from (Greece, Turkey, Croatia, Bulgaria, Italy, Portugal, Malta, Spain (with all of its islands – Mallorca, Ibiza, Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, etc.)) also including South North African countries (Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt). Quite a hell of a choice ha?

Airport

Choose the airports you prefer to travel from. Be flexible as much as possible. For example, if you live in Glasgow consider Edinburgh airport as your option or if you live in Southampton check out flights from London. Obviously sometimes it will not be worth the difference since you need to consider the price of the internal travel within the UK but other times it might mean a big saving. The most importantly: check the times! Can you get to the airport at least 2 hours prior to the departure? How easy will it be to come back home after you return?

Budget

Think about budget. Remember to add everything: hotel, flights, transfer to  hotel and money for your cocktails, souvenirs or even food if it is not included in your hotel package. If you want to travel in late spring, summer or early autumn and you have around £400-500 per person you should be able to get a great deal in a 4* hotel with half board option or even all inclusive. Yes, you read it right. If you cannot find such option you haven’t looked enough. We have never paid more and got great deals for our holidays in great hotels with great service.

Getting your perfect option

Obviously you need to dedicate some time for this. The more time you spend doing research, the cheaper you will pay and the better deal you will get for the same amount of money. So here is what you need to do to get the best holiday deal:

STEP 1 – Check out the flights. Check out the holiday destinations from your local and other easy accessible airports. Go through all websites for the airlines operating within the UK, look for the cheapest fares for your planned dates and write them down.

STEP 2 – Check out holiday packages. Check reliable websites for holiday packages, and these are my favourites:

• Lowcostholidays.com
• Lastminute.com
• Jet2holidays.com
• easyJetHolidays.com
• Expedia.co.uk
• BudgetAir.com
• ebookers.com

First, try the hotel only (as you already checked the flights in STEP1) deals. Make a note of the best hotels you find which match your flight times. Later, check out the package deals as well as separate flight + hotel + transfer searches since these come up with different prices sometimes for the same thing. Do not forget to check below for active voucher codes and save even more money!

Travel Voucher codes

STEP 3 – Check out the hotels. After you have cheapest flights and cheapest package deals on your list, it is time to check out the hotels separately. If you can – match the destination and cheap flight with the 4* hotel for the best holiday experience. Don’t make a mistake, don’t just check one website and say to yourself wow that’s a good deal. There is 9 in 10 chance you will find better. So here is the list of the websites where I double check the price for the hotels:

• Hotels.com
• HotelClub.com
• Accorhotels.com - this is a hotel group so the assortment is limited but with them you can more or less be certain you are making a good choice.
• Apexhotels.com

STEP 4 – Do TripAdvisor check. When you choose the hotels offering the best deals you need to dig into them so that you will not be disappointed. A hotel in Tunisia with 4* rating and hotel in Spain with the same rating can offer very different quality and service so watch out. All you need to check is the TripAdvisor.  Go through your hotel shortlist you created and analyse every single one of them. The higher rating in the area for the hotel it offers and the higher percentage of people recommends the better your option is. Most importantly, read the most recent reviews! Some hotels were excellent 5 years ago and received excellent reviews, however the service could go down during time (or up), so it is important to see what is the current state of it.

STEP 5 – Bargain. Now if you still have time and patience you can go and bargain. Sort out your list for the best deals and go to Thomas Cook and Thomson travel agents. They are greatly reliable and internationally recognised companies offering the travel services worldwide. You will always prefer to travel with them, they will make your flight comfortable and your stay very pleasant. After you make a list of your best choices, they still might offer you great discounts and even better deals if you visit them in their offices. Don’t be shy! You have nothing to be ashamed of. After doing so much research you will definitely know what you want and what you’re looking for. So give it a go.

Otherwise, since the Step 5 is optional and entirely up to you, make a final decision, pack your bags and go and enjoy the sunshine!