I’ve had a fair bit of press of recent (brag, brag, brag) but I bloody loved this piece that Tom from Save The Student did with me – he even managed to eke out a few extra tips that haven’t made their way into any video yet!
You can see the full article here.
Matt and Tom, off of the YouTubez, invited me onto their Park Bench series to talk all things travel for which I was MORE THAN WILLING.
Due to their well deserved popularity, I also smashed through 1,000 subscribers on my own channel (WHOOP WHOOP) so it’s official, it’s not just my Mum watching (hi Mum, I know you’ll be reading this and yes, I am very grateful for your loyal, unwavering support and no, I can’t make it home for Mother’s Day sorry).
The video features loads of travel tips (with a load I’d never heard of before – WHODATHUNKIT?) so give it a watch and make sure you subscribe to the wonders that are Matt and Tom as well.
Lovely.
So yes, yes, I went on loads of holidays last year however, I realised today that I’ve actually yet to post all of them, along with their costs, in one easy-to-find place.
Remember the rules?
I had £1709 (half the price the average Brit spends in a year) to go on:
The holidays
1) Valencia, Spain
easyJet flights – £62pp
1 night – Bloc Hotel Gatwick – £32.72pp
2 nights – Hotel Balandret – £75pp
Total – £169.72pp
2) Dubai, UAE
Qantas/Emirates flights – £279.83pp
4 nights – Princess Tower Apartments (similar) – £184pp
Total – £463.83pp
3) Aarhus, Denmark
Ryanair flights – £43.33pp
2 nights – friend’s apartment – free!
Total – £43.33pp
4) Dublin, Ireland
Stena Line ferry & petrol – £14pp
2 nights – Mec Hostel, Dublin – £65pp
Total – £79pp
5) Benidorm, Spain
British Airways Business Class – £216pp
3 nights – Pierre & Vacances Benidorm Levante – £72pp
Total – £288pp
6) Margate, UK
Southeastern train – £13.30pp
2 nights – Airbnb – £25pp
Total – £38.30pp
7) Paris, France
Eurostar snap – £50pp
14 nights – Nomador catsit – free!
Total = £50pp
8) Gdańsk, Poland
Ryanair flight – £16pp
2 nights – Little Home – Prestige – £33pp
Total = £49pp
9) Timisoara, Romania
Ryanair flight – £20pp
2 nights – NH Timisoara – £35pp
Total = £55pp
British Airways return flights – £358pp
2 nights – New York apartment – £45pp
Frontier flights to Miami – £32pp
3 nights – Miami Homestay – £40pp
2 nights – Miami Airbnb – £40pp
1 night – Shelborne South Beach – £66pp
Total = £581pp
Overall total = £1817.18
Cashback = £112.73
Final total = £1704.45
As I can’t quite get away with booking another 10 holidays this year I’ve decided to flex my booking skills for others instead – give his girl the Nobel Peace prize or summit riiiiight?
I’ll then post my findings on here each week so that we can all be tempted to book the shit out of some cheap (but lushhhhh) getaways.
So, how to get in touch? Send me a message to chelsea@howmanyholidays.com and answer the following:
In general, I’ll only find you well rated and nice looking accommodation so also point out if you’re willing to slum it a little if it means you get the best price out there.
Right, let’s see what comes of this, eh?!!
Whilst the Northern Lights may be tucked away until early September (tours stop running at the end of April), there’s still plenty more to do in Reykjavik in May, including a trip to the gorgeous Blue Lagoon thermal spa.
And with these cheap deals that land over the weekend, what’s not to love?
Wed 16th May – Sun 20th May – £41
Fri 18th May – Sun 20th May – £55
I AM TEMPTED, ARE YOU?!!
My holiday withdrawals are too much.
So, to take the edge off, I’ve decided to do a monthly round up of some of the great getaways on offer in the coming months.
We’re talking weekend breaks (1 day off maximum) with decent flight times and well rated accommodation.
All prices will be based on two people sharing a room and I’ll tend to recommend hotels just so that you have a place to store your luggage before and after check in.
I’ll also be flinging in some NON-LONDON (😱) options every single month.
Right! Let’s kick things off with April.
FROM LONDON
Where?
Copenhagen – the capital of Denmark
When?
Saturday 21st April – Monday 23rd April
*Note that you’ll fly from Stansted and come back to Luton.
How much?
£36 with Go To Gate via Momondo, or you can buy directly with Ryanair for £44. Remember to use a private browser!
Where should I stay?
Total cost
£149 per person
Why Copenhagen?
Great food, great architecture and bloody lovely people. I recommend checking out Torvehallerne food market, Kanal Cafeen for smørrebrød and Tivoli for the world’s most aesthetically pleasing amusement park!
FROM LIVERPOOL
Where?
Ibiza – Spain’s party island (before the party kicks off!)
When?
Sat 21st – Mon 23rd April (also available the weekend before for £2 more)
How much?
£38 with Go To Gate via Momondo, or you can buy directly with Ryanair for £40.
Where should I stay?
Total cost
£137 per person
Why Ibiza?
Ibiza’s clubs don’t open until May so if that’s what you’re after, hold off. However, spring is an amazing time to visit as the island is blooming into life. There’s plenty of restaurants still open if you base yourself near a main town and you’ll be blessed with near empty beaches when you go exploring. What’s more, with an average temperature of 18°C, it’s a great place to reacquaint yourself with a little bit of sunshine!
FROM GLASGOW
Where?
Olhão – a small fishing town that’s just an 18 minute taxi journey from the airport
When?
Fri 20th April – Sun 22nd April
How much?
£90 – I found the rate on Skyscanner, but you could also book direct with Ryanair
Where should I stay?
Worth a mention also is Real Marina Hotel & Spa which would send you a whopping £7 over your budget – but it comes with breakfast and is a 5 star spa hotel 💅🏻
Total cost
£148 per person
Why Olhão?
Before going to Olhão for the first time, a Portuguese friend laughed and said ‘why on earth are you going there?’. Unlike its neighbouring Algarve towns, Olhão is not a tourist hotspot. Instead, you get a small fishing town that’s full of character and great, fresh food. Make sure you check out the local fruit and fish markets and take the ferry out to Culatra, a large sand bar island with a charming small village vibe. If you’re after loads to do, this isn’t the place for you, but if you’re after a chill in the sunshine (average temps are around 22°C by this point), then I’d definitely recommend it.
As well as booking holidays, I also LOVE hearing about them, so make sure to let me know where you end up heading this April!
We had a good run for a few yeas, but Booking.com have shut down the whole scheme!
If you are a UK resident looking to spend over £10, you can get either £10 or £20 back by booking travel through Quidco between now and 31st March 2020.
As well as Booking.com, Quidco has loads of other major hotel sites such as Expedia, Hotels.com and over 500 other travel sites.
You need to be a new user, or signed out of your Quidco account to see all the terms and conditions.
👉 Spend £100 on travel and get £20 back 👈
👉Spend £10 on anything and get £10 back 👈
What’s more, you’ll also get cashback on top of it.
Full details here!
Hope that helps soothe the Booking.com pain!
Come tell me where you’ve booked and find more money saving tips over on Instagram. I do a free weekly hotline where I find a cheap holiday just for you!
Even if you have booked with Booking.com before, you are still eligible to get this cashback! However, if you have made more than one booking using a referral link (with this one or anyone else’s), you will only be rewarded once. No rewards will be issued for other bookings.
To gain this reward, you must use the referral link to book your accommodation.
You need to have a Booking.com account. You have to add and register your credit card details for receiving rewards. You will be prompted to do this when booking, however you can also check this by going into ‘Settings’ and checking ‘use this card for my reward payments’.
After you return from your stay, Booking.com will put the cash reward on your card. If you don’t have a Booking.com account, you can sign up for one with the same email address you used to book your reservation.
You need to have a Booking.com account. The email address in your account should match the one you used to book. After you return from your stay, Booking.com will add the reward amount to your Wallet.
Once you have returned from your trip, Booking.com will verify the reward and you will receive an email on how to claim it. It can take between 30 and 60 business days for you to receive the reward payment.
Once you have returned from your trip, Booking.com will start the verification process. You will receive an email with more information about the next steps. It can take between 30 and 60 business days for you to receive the reward payment.
Check your reward status or click on ‘My Rewards’ in the dropdown menu.
Then you’ll be able to see how your rewards are processing!
The link does not expire and it can be used at any time. However, Booking.com has the right to cancel the scheme at any time.
It’s no problem. You can use a Visa or MasterCard debit card instead and claim in the same way as a credit card.
You can read the full terms and conditions here.
That sucks!! Unfortunately, I’m unable to access this information so you’ll need to go directly to Booking.com’s Customer Services to raise this issue with them.
What I will say is that tens of thousands of people have used these links successfully, and so as long as you follow all the terms and conditions, you should be fine.
Good luck!
It’s also worth saying that Booking.com isn’t just about hotels, I actually booked our amazing Gdańsk apartment through it as well (though pssst, that link won’t get you the money off!)
You can also see it in the flesh here!
So, I think you all know how much I like booking cheap holidays by now and after completing 10 trips away in 2017, what would I say were my top tips for getting away for a good price?
Use search engines to find the cheapest dates to fly
Forget hitting search and hoping for the best prices on the dates you’ve searched for, websites like Skyscanner, Kayak, Momondo and Google Flights allow you to see when it’s cheapest to fly to your desired destination.
I particularly like Skyscanner’s ‘cheapest month’ option.
Be flexible with your location
If you’re not too sure where to go, Skyscanner and Kayak also allow you to see what locations are the cheapest for your timeframe.
You can do this by typing in ‘Everywhere’ for the destination on Skyscanner, or by clicking the ‘explore’ function on Kayak.
Always check comparison sites before booking your hotel
Trivago is a great option for checking you’ve got the best price for your hotel. My extra tip here is to always click on ‘More Deals’ and don’t just settle for the collection of prices they offer you. Whilst you’ll find prices from a variety of lesser known hotels, I recently saved an extra £20 by booking through them!
Ask for an upgrade!
You know what they say – if you don’t ask, you don’t get. I ALWAYS email the hotel once when booking and again a few days before arriving to tell them how excited I am to stay and to let them know it’s a special occasion. Don’t feel comfortable with lying? You’re not. A holiday IS a special occasion and don’t you ever forget that! In the last year this trick has worked 3 times, the best being upgraded on a work trip from the smallest room in the hotel to a suite!
Don’t stay in a hotel
Airbnb has been around long enough that most of us know the huge savings that can be made from staying in someone’s home when abroad, however there are plenty of other option to check out as well. My favourites are windmu, ownersdirect, holidaylettings and homestay.
Hometogo is a great site that searches several of these for you in one go!
Sign up for cashback
I always say to not book just because of a good cashback deal (sometimes they don’t come through and you’re left feeling cheated) but you should definitely buy through cashback sites to earn a little bonus on all of your holiday booking. And don’t just stop at hotels and flights – you can save on travel insurance, car hire and a whole host of different areas as well. I use TopCashback and in the last year, I’ve earned more than £100 by doing absolutely nothing extra.
Winner.
Check for codes before booking
Always check to see if there are any voucher codes floating around the internet. For example, if you were booking through hotels.com I’d search ‘hotels.com voucher codes’ and ‘hotels.com promo code’ on both Google and Twitter. It doesn’t always pay off but when it does, it sure feels sweet! Also, if you’ve never used Airbnb before you can usually get around £25 off your first stay if a friend refers you.
Get yourself free accommodation
What better way than to keep costs down than by getting your accommodation for free! Yes, free. Home and pet sitting means that owners have someone looking after their house and animals whilst they’re away and you get totally free accommodation (albeit with a sprinkle of responsibility thrown in there). I used a site called nomador to stay in a beautiful house in Paris for 14 days this summer, looking after a sweet cat called Biscotte. I loved it!
Hit the road
What happens when holidaymakers do a road trip from one place to another? A lonely campervan is left miles away from its home with no way of getting back. And that’s where you come in! Wickedcampers and Spaceship Rentals are amongst the companies that offer relocation deals where you could bag a vehicle from just £1 a day as long as you return it back to where it belongs. Heading to the US or Australia? Try imoova or jucy.
Sign up for error flight updates
An error flight is when some wally who works for head office/computer cocks up and posts a flight for a whole lot cheaper than it’s supposed to be. Airlines can refuse the flight and refund you your money but now and again they will honour them. Now, just happening on one of these bad boys is a bit like finding a needble in a haystack so instead websites such as Secret Flying, Jack’s Flight Club and Holiday Pirates are all on it – I’d recommend signing up to their facebook pages for updates and other holiday bargains in your social feeds.
Plan to be spontaneous
I know it sounds a tad hypocritical but if you see a great deal, you often don’t have much time to leap on it. Therefore, it definitely won’t hurt you to know who you’d like to go away with, know when they’re able to get time off, have their passport details to hand and know how you’re going to pay so that you can jump on a deal when it comes your way.
So there’s my top tips – I hope they bring you as much holiday booking luck as they have for me!
Best accommodation I’ve ever stayed in.
That’s all I need to say.
It’s here! The final one!
I said it was going to be epic and boy it is. The only issue is that darned budget… WHY DIDN’T I JUST MAKE LIFE EASY FOR MYSELF BY GOING ON A 5 NIGHT BREAK TO MOROCCO OR SOMETHING?!! I could have had cash to spare…
But alas, if you’re going to do something, do it properly.
I’m also going to be posting a video a day between now and Christmas (when we arrive home!) so you can find out if we bring it all in for the £1709 limit.
I’ll be honest, right now, it’s looking very, very close… Mostly because I haven’t even booked the last night’s accommodation yet… BUT I’M SURE IT WILL ALL BE FINE (breathe Chelsea breathe).
Tomorrow sees us taking to the city in the search for locals’ recommendations… Should be fun!
how many holidays 