Plan your own independent holiday

1024 683 Great Deals Made Easy

Holidays are great aren’t they, but can sting the wallet a bit. I recently came back from some winter sun in the volcanic Lanzarote, Canary Islands, just off North West Africa, in January. I saved £100s by creating my own independent holiday and it was actually easy to plan and didn’t take long. I’ve listed some ideas below to save money online by following these simple tips:

When is the ideal time to go on independent holiday?

I went in January to Lanzarote off-peak as it is usually the cheapest time to travel, as families are back at work. The rule of thumb is, if you don’t have any children; go when the children are not on holiday breaks. If you do, you can still use the tips below to save money.

How did I get to Lanzarote

I used Skyscanner to compare flights and managed to get a return for £80 to Lanzarote Tip: Avoid the weekend and go earlier in the week (it’s usually a lot cheaper). According to experts on Mashable Tuesday and Sunday are usually the cheapest flight days.

Travel Insurance

I bought Admiral insurance (Admiral.co.uk) for the year at £23.29 as I had planned a few trips (this saves me time and money for the next trip). I bought the insurance through Quidco Compare travel insurance and benefited from an additional £2.79 cashback.

Accommodation

I used Booking.com (a hotel comparison site) to narrow down hotels based on location, deals of the week and good reviews. I managed to grab some good bargains, often averaging only £50/night with a pool. Later on in the trip, I wanted the unique/cultural experience of staying in a local’s own accommodation, so I used Airbnb (a comparison site for homes) to find some even better deals. You need to usually stay 3 nights minimum, but often the prices were £30/night, so I went with that and stayed at a really nice place with a view of the beach.

Getting around there

Always look at wikitravel.com before you go to a new place. In Lanzarote, it was actually cheaper to hire a car for a few days than get a return taxi to the airport, from doing 5 minutes of research. It crazily only cost £10 a day to hire a car in Lanzarote. I recommend booking beforehand on Europcar.com to get the best rate.

Overall by spending a small amount of time on the tips above, I had more freedom and more money to spend on the actual holiday – surfing lessons in my case!

*If you want to make money from Airbnb, please read a top article here.
*Want to make money from renting spare space, read a top article here
*Want to know how to rent a car out abroad, read an article here

Any holiday tips you have, please share below. Please tell us about a reasonably priced holiday.

William Pointing

I enjoy watching comedy, learning about new digital marketing trends, helping people generally (including saving money) and completing sport challenges (This year I plan on cycling to Paris from London).

All stories by:William Pointing
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William Pointing

I enjoy watching comedy, learning about new digital marketing trends, helping people generally (including saving money) and completing sport challenges (This year I plan on cycling to Paris from London).

All stories by:William Pointing
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