TRY ALL-INCLUSIVE
With all-inclusive, you’ll know what the total cost of your holiday will be before you leave home, so you can budget in advance. If you want to get away in winter, check out the various Sandals Caribbean resorts in St Lucia, Jamaica, Barbados, Grenada and The Bahamas (sandals.co.uk). In summer, Tui has several options on the Med and elsewhere (tui.co.uk). Or, if you are looking for lots of sporty action, a Mediterranean beach club may be just the ticket – Neilson has seven in Greece, two in Italy and one in Spain (neilson.co.uk).
If money is tight, trim the length of your holiday rather than just go without. A long weekend, in a city (one where the recorded cases of coronavirus no longer appear threatening) or at a seaside resort close to an airport, will seem far longer and much more fulfilling than the equivalent time spent at home. Find a good choice of short-break packages with easyjet to around 100 destinations, from Montenegro and Mykonos to Tel Aviv and Tallinn (easyjet.com/en/holidays).
Cruising along one of Europe’s rivers allows easy access from the UK to the various departure ports and also the option of taking a shorter, less expensive holiday. Avalon Waterways has nine different itineraries, with 27 departure dates this autumn and winter, lasting four, five and six nights. Prices start from £556pp for four nights on the Danube, travelling from Budapest to Vienna; flights extra. Avalon Waterways also has lots of offers for solo travellers with no added single supplement (avalonwaterways.co.uk).
LAND A GOOD DEAL
Normally, the best package deals occur either early in the year – usually billed as ‘early bird’ discounts – or just prior to departure when hotels find they have empty beds to fill and/or tour operators have unsold seats on their pre-paid charters. But because of coronavirus, these normal patterns are less predictable. Several companies may not even manage to have weathered the crisis, which means capacity will be down and prices could well go up. So, if you know what you want, book it now, but do travel with an Atol-bonded company so your money will be safe should the firm not survive. One general rule will always apply: you’ll get a better deal if you can remain flexible with both place and time.
There is a consensus among aviation experts that, once we are free to travel, there will be a rash of bargain airfares in the short term, as the airlines try to grab some quick revenue. If you see these offers, bag them, as airfares are predicted to shoot up above normal levels soon.
GET MORE BANG FOR YOUR BUCK
Costs of living vary greatly according to the destination, which is partly down to exchange rates but also reflects the local economy. In Europe, Turkey, Bulgaria and Portugal rank among the least expensive for visitors compared with, for example, Italy, Switzerland, Scandinavia and France. According to the Post Office’s annual survey of daily costs, based on meals, drinks and other tourist staples, you’d spend twice as much in Sorrento in Italy as you would in Marmaris in Turkey, for example. Further afield, day-to-day living is much more affordable in Vietnam or even Japan than the Seychelles or Dubai.
Most of the old Eastern Bloc countries are far easier on the pocket than those in Western Europe. In Ukraine, where you’d be hard pushed to find a meal for more than £10, a one-week trip with Regent, divided between Kiev and Lviv, two former handsome cities of the Austro-hungarian Empire, costs from £755pp, B&B, including transfers, flights and an overnight train between the two (regent-holidays.co.uk).
Regions within a country also range in their average daily living costs. So, think Calabria or the Marche in Italy rather than Tuscany or Umbria; the Greek Peloponnese rather than Mykonos or Santorini; and Extremadura or in Spain rather than Catalonia or Andalusia.