Booking a holiday should be one of the more enjoyable jobs of the year.
Sadly, the truth is that prices can vary wildly depending on when you book, what you click on, and where you look, and that’s incredibly stressful. With holiday costs climbing again this year, knowing a few clever tricks can save you hundreds of pounds without sacrificing any of the fun. Whether you’re after sunshine, a city break or a family adventure, here’s a full lowdown of the smartest ways to keep your holiday spend under control.
The best day to actually book your trip
Believe it or not, the day of the week you book your holiday makes a measurable difference to what you pay. Recent data from one of the biggest holiday booking sites shows that booking on a Sunday tends to save you around 2 per cent compared with booking on a Tuesday, which is consistently the most expensive day. It’s a small saving, but on a £2,000 family holiday, that’s a meal out paid for.
The same data shows that Friday is the cheapest day to fly, saving around 18 per cent compared with travelling on a Saturday. June also comes out as the most affordable month to travel, with flights up to 68 per cent cheaper than they are in December. Even if your dates aren’t flexible, knowing this can help you make smart calls when booking your outbound and return legs.
How far in advance to book
How far ahead you should book depends on the kind of holiday you’re going on. For school holiday family trips and popular luxury resorts, nine to twelve months in advance gives you the best choice of flight times, cabin classes and room types, particularly for suites or rooms big enough for a family.
For European summer trips, six to nine months ahead tends to strike the right balance between price and availability. For city breaks or trips during quieter periods of the year, you’ve got far more flexibility, but the most popular hotels and flight times still tend to sell out first. The big takeaway is that very last-minute deals are rarer than they used to be, so booking early is usually the smart move.
Why your phone might bag you a better deal
Most people instinctively reach for their laptop when booking a holiday, since spending hundreds or thousands of pounds feels like a “proper computer” job. But plenty of holiday sites, including the major hotel and flight platforms, offer mobile-only discounts that you can only access through their app or mobile site.
A recent survey found that only around 18 per cent of people would make a big purchase on their phone, with most people still defaulting to the desktop. Basically, you’re missing out if you don’t check both. Open the booking on your phone, then on your laptop, and compare prices. The difference can be surprisingly significant, sometimes 5 to 10 per cent off the same room or flight.
The free cancellation trick that pays for itself
Free cancellation might feel like an unnecessary extra when you’re booking a hotel or hire car, but it can save you a lot of money. Once you’ve booked, keep an eye on the prices. If a cheaper deal pops up later for the same hotel or vehicle, cancel your original booking, get a full refund, and rebook at the lower rate.
Most major hotel booking sites and car hire companies allow free cancellation right up to a few days before your stay. Setting up a Google price tracking alert on the hotel you’ve booked, or popping into Skyscanner, Kayak and Trivago every few days to spot price drops, is worth it. Plenty of travellers have saved £50 to £100 or more on a single trip just by checking back and rebooking.
Is all-inclusive actually worth it?
The big debate every summer is whether all-inclusive is worth the cost. The honest answer is that it depends entirely on how you travel. If you’re a family that likes to spend most of your time around the pool, taking advantage of buffets, included kids’ clubs and free entertainment, then all-inclusive often works out brilliantly. The upfront price covers a huge amount of what you’d otherwise spend.
If you’d rather wander into town for local meals, explore independent cafés or skip lunch entirely on busy sightseeing days, all-inclusive can be a waste of money. A bed and breakfast or half board deal often works out better, leaves more budget for restaurant dinners, and keeps more of your spend going to local businesses rather than the hotel chain. Work out what your food and drink costs would realistically be, then compare before booking.
What to actually check in an all-inclusive package
Even within all-inclusive deals, the small print can cost you. Some packages don’t include airport transfers, which can add a serious chunk to your trip. Others charge extra for things you’d genuinely assume are included, like snacks between meals, cocktails, branded beers and spirits, or even bottled water.
Recent surveys of all-inclusive guests found that one in ten had to pay extra for snacks, 15 per cent paid extra for cocktails, and a whopping 44 per cent paid extra for branded beers and spirits. Before booking, make sure you understand exactly what’s covered, what’s branded as “premium,” and whether your favourite drink is on the included list or not. A few minutes of reading the fine print saves a holiday full of small surprise costs.
The case for shoulder season
Shoulder season, which is the slightly quieter window just before and after peak summer, is one of the best-kept secrets of cheap travel. The weather is usually still gorgeous, the crowds are smaller, and prices are noticeably lower. In Europe, shoulder season runs roughly from April to May and again from September to October.
The difference can be significant. A week at the same all-inclusive resort in the Algarve can cost £1,912 per person in August, but drop to £1,546 per person just a month later in September. For families locked into school holiday dates, this isn’t always possible, but for couples, retirees, or anyone with flexible plans, shoulder season is a no-brainer.
How to actually save on flights
Once you’ve decided on a destination, your flights are where the biggest savings often live. The best place to start is setting up a price alert on a flight comparison site like Skyscanner or Google Flights. Flights are rarely cheapest the moment they’re released, and prices tend to drop and rise in waves over the months that follow.
Skyscanner’s “best time to book” tool can show you the price patterns for specific routes over the past 18 months, which helps you spot the sweet spot for booking. For example, a flight from London to Alicante in April is usually cheapest about nine weeks in advance. Following the alerts and booking at the right moment can save you a couple of hundred pounds on the same seats.
The clever seat selection trick
Most people don’t realise that paying to pick your seat isn’t always the cheapest option. The most budget-friendly choice is usually to let the airline assign you a free seat at check-in. Modern airline algorithms tend to seat solo travellers together where possible, and families are usually grouped without you having to pay extra.
If you do want to choose your seats in advance, prices vary enormously depending on which row you pick. Seats with extra legroom or near the front of the plane often cost a premium. A clever workaround is that some planes used by major airlines like Ryanair and easyJet have an extra inch of legroom on one side of the aircraft, usually the right-hand side. Sitting there gets you a slightly more comfortable flight without paying the legroom upgrade fee.
Smart packing that avoids extra fees
Packing wisely is one of the easiest ways to dodge unnecessary baggage fees, which can quickly add up. Most budget airlines charge serious money for hold luggage, oversized cabin bags or anything beyond the strict allowance, so packing efficiently is definitely worthwhile.
Roll your clothes rather than folding them to save space, and wear your heaviest items, like jeans, jumpers, boots and coats, on the plane. Use packing cubes if you find them helpful, though some travellers swear they don’t make a huge difference. Pop a duty-free bag carrier in your hand luggage so you can transfer heavier items into it once you’re through security, taking advantage of the free duty-free allowance most airlines offer on top of your cabin bag.
How to get holiday money without losing out
Airport exchange counters usually offer the worst rates going. By the time you’ve spotted the bright yellow sign and walked over with your stack of twenties, the rate they’re offering means you’ll get noticeably less foreign currency than you would elsewhere. They make their money on the convenience, but it’s an avoidable cost.
The best approach is to use a specialist travel card or a credit or debit card with no foreign transaction fees, and withdraw cash from a local ATM once you arrive. When you pay by card abroad, always choose to be charged in the local currency rather than in pounds. If you pick pounds, the local retailer’s bank sets the exchange rate, which is almost always worse than your own UK bank’s rate. It’s a tiny choice on the card machine that can save you a few quid on every purchase.
Why hotel stars don’t always mean quality
One of the biggest mistakes holidaymakers make is assuming that hotel stars equal quality. They actually measure facilities, not the overall standard of food, service, or experience. A three-star hotel can have a brilliant chef, beautifully decorated rooms and warm, attentive staff, while some five-star hotels can be dated, overpriced and disappointingly samey.
The smarter approach is to read recent reviews thoroughly, look at guest photos rather than the official ones, and pay close attention to the details that genuinely matter to you, like room size, breakfast quality and proximity to what you want to see. A small boutique three-star can often beat a major five-star resort for atmosphere, charm and even comfort, often for a fraction of the price.
The case for using a travel agent
Booking everything yourself isn’t always the cheapest option, even though it feels like it should be. Good travel agents have access to negotiated hotel rates, exclusive packages and added perks that don’t usually appear online, like room upgrades, free breakfasts or hotel credit thrown into the price.
A travel agent can also help you avoid expensive mistakes, like booking a flight with a tight connection that’s likely to be missed, or a hotel that looks brilliant online but turns out to be next to a building site. If you’re going on a big family trip, a complicated multi-stop holiday or a once-in-a-lifetime trip, the small cost of using a travel agent often pays for itself many times over.
The protections worth knowing about
When you book, look out for two key protections. ATOL covers package holidays and makes sure you won’t be left out of pocket or stranded if the travel company collapses. ABTA protects land-based arrangements like accommodation and transport. Between them, these two schemes provide a serious safety net, particularly when you’re paying a large deposit or travelling as a family.
Booking with a credit card also gives you extra protection. Under UK consumer law, purchases between £100 and £30,000 made on a credit card are covered by Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act, meaning you can claim from your card provider if something goes wrong. It’s worth using a credit card, even if you’d pay off the balance straight away.
The flexibility that saves you the most
If there’s one single piece of advice that beats every other holiday-saving tip, it’s flexibility. The more flexible you can be on dates, destinations and travel style, the more you’ll save. Even adjusting your travel dates by a couple of days, or being open to flying from a slightly different airport, can shave hundreds of pounds off the total cost.
Consider less obvious destinations too. The most famous resorts often charge a premium just for the name, while a quieter neighbouring bay or island a short drive away might offer the same beaches and weather at half the price. Combined with smart booking, careful packing and a bit of savvy money management, this kind of flexibility is the single biggest reason some holidaymakers consistently get great deals while others overpay.
