The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
Three ways to save £1,200 on your next holiday
WHERE TO BOOK
You want a villa with a pool. Who doesn’t? It makes for one of the best kinds of holiday. You have space and flexibility. You can eat in or eat out, relax or party. And the pool and sun loungers are always there for you – and only you. Private villas don’t come cheap, of course, but the price is hugely dependent on the destination you choose. If you are used to taking your summer break in Provence, say, you will be able to reduce the cost sharply by trying a less expensive destination – without sacrificing the comfort or quality of the villa.
I asked Vintage Travel (vintagetravel. co.uk) for an example from its own selection that would deliver a £1,200 saving for a week’s rental in peak season. It pointed me to the Villa des Artistes, which is a three-bedroom, three-bathroom house in the hilly hinterland north of Vence in the south of France. It has a 31 x 11ft pool and terraced gardens – and a week’s rental costs £3,298 from July 16.
But if you were to try instead Galicia, in northern Spain, you could rent La Pintoresca, a similar size house set in secluded gardens. It has a slightly smaller pool (23 x 10ft) and only two bathrooms, but it comes with the huge advantage of being only two minutes’ walk from the lovely white-sand beach of Limens. The cost? £1,990 for the same July week. That is a saving of £1,308 over the south of France option. And if you enjoy eating out, you will find that the – generally excellent – Galician restaurants are a lot cheaper than their French counterparts.
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Spain and Portugal generally offer the best value and the biggest choice of villas with pools – compared with, say, France, Italy and Greece. And generally, airfares and car hire are cheaper too
WHEN TO GO
We all know that prices are affected by peak demand. And if you have flexibility as to when you can travel, you will always be able to cherry-pick the best times to make the most of the lower costs – both for fights and for hotels and villas. For families, who are most likely to be hit by the £1,200 hike in living costs and who are restricted to the school holidays, it is much harder.
But it can be done. I did some research on prices for family holidays being offered by Tui (tui.co.uk) this year. Take the example of a two-week stay in the four-star Hotel Miramar in the lovely family resort of Puerto Pollensa in northern Mallorca. It’s perfect for a classic, family sun and sand holiday and during the main school sum
Free to roam?
Not necessarily. Charges are being introduced for some UK customers who use their phones in Europe. Check before you go mer holidays a two-week stay will cost you a total of £4,691 for a family of four staying in two rooms, including B&B and flights from London.
However, you can slice a big chunk off that price by making a decision to travel in the Easter holidays instead. For the same holiday departing on April 2 – the first Saturday after most schools break up – the price is £2,652. That’s a saving of £2,039 on the peak summer rate.
Of course, weather-wise, Mallorca in April is not the same as Mallorca in July. You will find average daily highs of about 18C rather than 28C. But there is still lots of sunshine – seven hours a day – and the lower temperatures might actually be something of a relief if you have younger children. Active families, who don’t restrict themselves to the beach, will also find that the milder temperatures are great for getting out and exploring the island on foot or by bike.
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If you want to travel during the school summer holidays, prices are usually lower towards the end of August than they are when the schools first break up in late July. It will be hard to save £1,200, but you might be able to knock a few hundred off the bill
NEW WAYS TO DO IT
The biggest element of most holidays is the cost of accommodation. Erase that and you will save your £1,200 easily, probably even in a single week in summer. And to do so, you don’t have to swap a hotel or a holiday cottage for a tent in a field. You just have to swap your own house. Several agencies offer websites allowing you to make matches with like-minded owners in other countries. There is always a fee – from about £80 to £120 a year – for the introductions. You will have to be flexible to match both dates and destinations – and it works best, obviously, if you own a nice house in a desirable area.
Home-swapping is not for everyone, however. You may not want to let your house out to strangers and you may not want to stay in a private home (as opposed to one specifically designed for holidays). But if you find something that works, it’s an extremely good-value option. Be sure to use a reputable agency and talk to your house insurer before going ahead.
Sites to try include Home Exchange (homeexchange.com), Homebase (homebase-hols.com), HomeLink (homelink.org.uk) and Intervac (gb. intervac-homeexchange.com).
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You can save even more by agreeing to exchange your car during the swap – insurance permitting
RENT BETTER
Car rental costs have risen significantly since the Covid crisis as companies have reduced their fleets. But the high cost of additional charges – especially insurance – which are made on pick-up continue to be an issue. Research carefully, book in advance, compare bottom-line rather than headline prices, check what insurance is included and consider booking cheaper cover from a separate agent such as icarhireinsurance.com, insurance4carhire.com, questor-insurance.co.uk and worldwideinsure.com.
SAVE: £10s
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PLAY YOUR CARDS RIGHT Now that most people pay for things by card rather than cash, make sure you are getting the best value when you use your bank card abroad. I have just invested in opening a Nationwide Flex Plus account, which offers a debit card with no fees for overseas usage (nationwide.co.uk). There is a monthly charge for the account but it also includes annual travel insurance and other extras. I also have a Monzo card (monzo.com) which allows you to take out up to £200 in cash every 30 days from ATMs in most of Europe without paying fees.
SAVE: £10s
If you have flexibility, cherrypick the best times to make the most of the lower costs
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INVEST IN INSURANCE
Even the most basic price comparison exercise is likely to save you money on travel insurance. But buy the wrong policy and it may cost you more if you have to claim. Check our guide first (telegraph.co.uk/ tt-insurance) and take out the insurance as soon as you book the travel – or you lose out on free cover. Annual policies save money for many who do more than three trips a year.
SAVE: Potentially £100s on claims
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GET A GHIC
If you are travelling in Europe, a free UK Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC) may well save you money if you need emergency medical treatment (telegraph.co.uk/ travel/advice/ghic-does-differ-ehic). It works in a similar way to the old EHIC and means you will get treatment on the same basis and cost as local people. That may save you making a medical insurance claim altogether, or it may save you paying the excess on your travel insurance policy.
SAVE: £10s
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ROAM FREE
Brexit means charges are being introduced by this summer for UK customers who use their phones in Europe. Virgin Media O2 is the only major network to continue to offer free roaming. Check that you know when and if you will be affected and how much it will now cost you to use your phone on holiday.
SAVE: £10s