Still thinking about a holiday?

With the current exchange rate on the Euro, it may be better to avoid the Costa's altogether this year, in fact, avoid anywhere which has the Euro as its currency.

According to GMTV this morning, on average, a family of 4 will be paying £40 for lunch in Benidorm as opposed to £22 in Bournemouth! but the opposite was true of alcohol, where Benidorm came out cheaper. So do you think you will give up a holiday abroad for one closer to home, without the guaranteed sunshine?

The travel correspondent on TV this morning, also said that cheap flights are becoming harder to find, but I am afraid I disagree. Firstly I checked out www.moneysavingexpert.com where they have a flight checker and I was very disappointed with the outcome, (I still love you Martin) as I was able to go to certain websites and find flights that were not listed at all, on the flight checker. Now lets take Malaga for instance, going to www.flymonarch.com you can find flights for a family of 4, 26th Aug - 2 Sept for £483.32 and get back just in time for the kids to return to school! The same dates with www.ba.com were coming out at £662.80. Now if you are going to book a hotel direct or rent out a villa or apartment via www.ownersdirect.co.uk you are still looking at a reasonably priced family holiday, even in the Recession! In fact with Monarch Airlines you can fly from Gatwick to Malaga (one way) for £10.49 (excluding charges) on Aug 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 30 and Sept 1, 2. Obviously you can get better deals if you don't have kids and can go outside the traditional summer holiday dates.

So if Europe is still your destination of choice, then doing a bit of research can still see you getting a good priced holiday and as I have mentioned in previous posts, if using a High Street Travel Agent, do go to more than one and ask what discounts they can give you, or ask them to match a price you may have found elsewhere.
Another Option for Europe would be to go All Inclusive or Full Board to cut down the need for spending money, as that is where you are going to suffer the effects of this exchange rate fiasco.

Looking for a more Luxurious Destination? BA currently have a sale on and are offering Dubai for £799, but the dates are before the kids summer holidays and need to be booked this week. They also had an advert in The Times saying they had St.Lucia for £599 but I couldn't find this on their website, so could be a bit misleading, would have to ring them and quote the advert if interested in that destination and price.

A Recessionista's other holiday advice

Don't leave holidays essentials to the last minute

In my single days, I like to think I was a bit of a jetsetter, I went on many holidays and always went out and bought everything from antisceptic cream to toothpaste and bikini's in one foul swoop! It used to cost an absolute fortune even then and I am going back some years! So make the purchases less of a burden on the purse strings by getting one thing at a time and adding to the weekly shop, a bottle of shampoo here, suntan lotion there, and you really won't notice it! Otherwise you can do it all in one go, via Boots online and earn 3% cashback on your purchases when going via a cashback site.

Same goes for holiday clothing. We will soon be getting last years summer wardrobe out, so you can access your needs and buy gradually. Summer sales have got earlier each year and now start around June time, so you will benefit from some great Sale bargains if going away from July onwards.
Mid season sales are currently on in many shops and all your swimwear needs can be met at www.Figleaves.com where there is a 50% sale on. You can get 2% cash back with Figleaves via Quidco and Topcashback and 1% when purchasing through Paypal offers (remember retailer must be entered via cashback/paypal site).