Since I’m full on obsessed with cheap holidays, I see a lot of deals from the numerous newsletters, facebook groups and whatsapp groups I’m signed up to. However, since I can’t be on holiday 24/7 (alas!), many of these brilliant buys are totally lost on me.
Therefore, I’ve decided to collate the best deals I’ve seen in the hope that it may tickle the fancy of one of you lot instead.
Here’s today’s batch of fresh holiday talent:
UK to Orlando, USA for £219
Many UK cities to Orlando, Florida for only £219 roundtrip via Secret Flying Departing: London/Manchester/Birmingham/Newcastle
Airline: TUI
Dates: Availability in June 2018
UK to Dublin, Ireland for £19
Fly to Dublin for £19 return from 10 UK airports via HolidayPirates Departing: Birmingham, Bristol, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London and Newcastle Airline: Ryanair Dates: Availability in June 2018
Europe to Dubai for £55
Fly from European cities to Dubai for £55 if you’re a Wizz Air member via Secret Flying Departing: Cluj, Bucharest, Sofia, Katowice and Budapest Airline: Wizz Air Dates: Availability from June to August 2018
Wizz Air membership is €29.99 for a member + one companion and €59.99 for a member + five companions.
Without the discount of being a member, you can still find return flights for around £82.
Dubai will be hottttt in summer but remember, it’s a great place to fly to Thailand, Sri Lanka and beyond from!
This is pretty UK centric at the moment but leave a comment if you’re interested in flights from elsewhere.
And lastly, share the deals you’ve spotted with me on either @howmanyholidays or @chchchchelsea and I’ll make sure to give you a shout out on here!
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.
Now that’s a cracking good question, and one I sought to find out after a friend announced that he’d like to celebrate turning the big 3-0 with a trip to Dubai.
I’m not gonna lie, the place has never been on my wishlist (I mean, I have a degree in Ancient History. I like OLD SHIT, y’know?) but I couldn’t bear the thought of being sat at home and seeing pictures of my mates driving around in gold lambos and getting diamonds encrusted in their incisors (okay, okay so I wasn’t 100% on what went down in Doobz at this point).
“Surely you’re not counting it in your holiday challenge?” many have asked but crikey, if I’ve got to squeeze in 10 trips this year I can hardly take a sly trip to Dubai ‘just for the lols’.
Yet the cost. Good lord and gracious heavens above, that place is expensive.
They have a gold ATM, FGS.
When it came to accommodation, I quickly realised that the housemate and I weren’t going to be able to afford an apartment at the Marriott Hotel and Suites where our mates were staying, so I set out to find somewhere as close as I could.
Fortunately, Dubai is overrun with apartments (I swear twelve blocks went up whilst I was there) so actually, there was a lot of choice and we found a one bedroom place just two buildings down from the Marriott.
I found it on booking.com by using the map search and it came in at a sweet £184 each for 4 nights. (Edit: this apartment is no longer available so I’ve linked something similar!)
It was by no means luxury but it was clean, spacious and in a great location. Though if you like a soft bed, this is not the place for you… GOOD FOR THE BACK THO, INNIT.
It also had a nice pool area and as it was in The Princess Tower, the 2nd tallest building in Dubai, the views from its 102nd floor residents lounge are pretty special (and a hell of a lot cheaper than going up the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa).
As for the flights, they were cheaper than what I was expecting considering we didn’t have any flexibility on our dates.
The flight was… Well, I won’t lie, the flight out was AWFUL but that may have something to do with the 5 gins and 2 proseccos I’d necked before the flight (our mate has a MAGIC BANK CARD that got us into one of the lounges for ZERO PENNIES).
It also didn’t help that Qantas really crammed us in there – we’re talking a Ryanair amount of space here, lads – and I had a classic Chelsea I’m-dehydrated-in-a-small-space meltdown.
However, the flight back (after 0 gins, may I add) was much better. Emirates = more space, better food and better service in general.
I managed to book our flights for £279.83 using BudgetAir via Skyscanner but, as these were booked before I decided to be a holiday-going-heretic, we definitely could have flown for cheaper – I remember seeing one stop flights with Turkish Airlines for a sweet £200.
Here’s a quick example of the kind of prices you can get at the moment, using Thursday 21st Sep – Monday 25th Sep as an example:
London Gatwick – £224
Manchester – £252
London Heathrow – £255
But enough about your potential shenanigans, how are the numbers looking for me?
The total cost of my trip to Dubai was £463.83.
Yes, it’s a lot, but don’t you think it makes this whole thing more interesting/ohmygodwhathaveidoneeahhhhhhhh
*slaps self in face with a wet haddock*
It leaves me with £1,075.45 for the remaining 8 holidays which when you break it down, is £134.43 a pop.
Doable. Right?
Well, until I remember that it needs to include a business class flight…
how many holidays 