Holidays for less than a grand?

From cheap car hire to cost-free house swaps and half-price campsites, you give us your tips on affordable holidays

Contact the campsite you would like to visit directly through its own website and email address. The owners of these sites can often rent you a caravan or tent at a much lower rate than if you booked through a holiday company, sometimes half the price. You can still enjoy all the facilities of the campsite in the happy knowledge that you have paid a lot less than some others. And in most cases, the owners will be happy to take your booking in English if your French is not quite up to scratch. PENNY WATT

Car hire tips

When hiring a car abroad, it’s easy to save money. To avoid extortionate excess insurance, I buy an annual policy with icarhireinsurance.com, which pays out should we have an accident abroad. This costs £30 a year (for European hire) and means I don’t have to pay around £5 a day for top-up insurance when abroad. In addition, packing your own satnav and car seat saves money better spent on days out. JULIE SQUIRE

House-swap winners

Another way of having a family holiday for less than £1,000 is a house or flat swap. It does not have to be like for like. We exchanged a city-centre flat for a house in a Swiss rural area. We exchanged

The value of Lviv

Lviv has the familiar flavour of Middle Europe, and is very good value. No direct flights might be off-putting but a no-frills flight to Krakow and the overnight sleeper train is a cheaper alternative.

Once here, the pound goes a long way. This Unesco World Heritage city has changed country more than once but is now the proud centre of western Ukraine. Its cars as well. Our exchange car was obligingly parked in the long-stay car park for our arrival.

All we had to pay was flights, avoiding the hassle of driving overland or car hire. A local family has inside knowledge of sightseeing, amenities and economical places to shop and eat. They may well broaden your horizons, too, churches, coffee houses and trams recall Vienna. The late 19th-century Opera House is pure Ringstrasse architecture.

Lviv’s baroque facades may be crumbly but this is a city of style. People still dress for the opera, but it’s only £10 for the best seats. Afterwards, a meal for two at the renowned Amadeus restaurant costs less than £50.

Quaintness is all around – a whiff of Cheltenham as ours did, with their music and book selection. GWEN KINGHORN

Gaining currency

The secret of a good cheap holiday is to find a nice country that has just devalued its currency! We visited Mexico in 1985 when their peso had hit rock bottom and we had a lovely about the Svobody ornamental gardens. There are enviable views from the nearby hostels and the well-reviewed Old City Hostel offers rooms from £4.15 a night. The conflict with Russia is comfortably hundreds of miles to the east and while the future may be uncertain, for now the city lingers in a charming and cheap time warp. DAVID KENNY WINS A £250 RAILBOOKERS VOUCHER holiday near Acapulco for practically nothing. Then the four of us went to South Africa for Christmas and New Year last year when you could get 24 rand for one pound. We stayed in a b&b on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast for about £50 a night for the four of us and dined out in a restaurant for about £30, including wine. MARK MILBANK