Words About Things

Here are 10 useful tips for keeping the cost of your annual holiday down. There is no point having an expensive holiday and having to worry even more about money when you get back! Saving a bit of money doesn’t necessarily mean making huge compromises (don’t worry I won’t be recommending a trip to Milton Keynes) just a bit of forward planning.

1. Book Early. I know this is a bit of an obvious one but it is worth repeating. Train travel, hotel rooms, car rental and Flights are often cheaper if you book as far in advance as possible.

2. How about staying with friends or taking part in a house swap? Just make sure you organize it well so you don’t end up returning home to find people in your house who expect to stay another night (true story!) [Guardian Home Exchange]

3. Buy your holiday from ebay. I had no idea but apparently people sell holidays they can no longer take via online auctions. This might be a bit of a last minute technique but look on the positive side, you benefit from someone else’s misfortune! [ebay.co.uk travel section]

4. Avoid paying ridiculous ATM fees Phone your bank before you go and find out the best way to reduce cost before you get there!

5. A Camping Barn is a minimally furnished self catering alternative to caravanning and camping. The cost from as little as £7 per person per night and are great for large families. [campingbarn.com]

6. Complain. If your holiday is not up to scratch or your airline sells your seat to someone else then you could get compensation. Sometimes it is necessary to hire someone else to chase a refund but the main thing is not to give up after one reply!

7. look online for discount voucher codes. For example enter FLIPFLOPS as a pro code on the easycar.com site for a summer discount. [vouchercodes.co.uk]

8. Avoid paying ridiculous mobile phone fees. Phone your operator before you go and find out the best way to reduce cost before you get there!

9. Compare prices online to make sure you’re not paying over the odds for your flight or hotel room. [travelsupermarket.com]

10. For those who don’t work hard enough outside of holiday time (how many people work in your office? About half of them, arf arf!) how about a working holiday. [workingholidayinfo.com]

Some of the best movies of all time (and some not-so-good ones) have featured road trips: Easy Rider, À Bout De Souffle, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and of course SpongeBob SquarePants The Movie. The possibilities of the open road mean that anything can happen, the constant travel propels the story forwards and the characters always arrive home a different person.

“We were all delighted, we all realized we were leaving confusion and nonsense behind and performing our one noble function of the time, move.”

Jack Kerouac – On The Road

That might be slightly more than most of us want from a holiday but you get the idea: take to the open road and see what happens. You can’t do this in a Mondeo though, you need a Cadillac or something similarly retro. At the very least car hire is necessary so that you can get something big enough to pick up hitchhikers or sleep in the back if you can’t find anywhere to stay. You also need a video camera to record your adventure, a budget one such as a Flip will do and leaves more money free for car rental. Good Luck!

You are bound to have heard of a staycation, it’s one of those annoying buzzwords created by smashing words together and seeing what sticks. A staycation is what you do if you cant afford to go on holiday, some use it to mean staying at home but it could also mean holidaying within your home country.

I haven’t been on a holiday outside of the country since i was 18 so I guess that makes me a staycation expert. This year I have an overseas holiday booked at Easter time (to Florida). I’m also thinking about going somewhere in the summer if I have any money left. Unless I find a great deal on a flight it will probably have to be within the UK so I’m hoping that we might actually have some kind of a summer this year. If we are really lucky we might even get two consecutive days of sunshine (although I doubt it).

As I’m in the South West it quite easy to take a trip to the beach or find somewhere to camp quite cheaply. I’ve been looking at vans for sale but most that I find are working vans like a used Caddy. I would love a split screen VW van but they are a bit too popular to be in my price range.

Whilst searching I discovered a blog post about vw van hire which seems like a more realistic prospect. I bet the demand is a bit higher in the summer than during the freezing rain of January.