Are you planning a day trip or holiday in the UK? We asked money and travel bloggers for their tips for saving money on holidays in the UK. We’ve compiled our top 12 tips.
There is so much choice in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland for holidays and day trips. From back to basics camping to luxury hotel stays. You can relax and get back to nature, enjoying wonderful walks and picnics or plan an action packed itinerary.
We are just back from a fab weekend in Bournemouth (in January). Enjoying the UK isn’t limited to summer time – you actually get great hotel rates out of season, less than a third of the price of peak summer. We booked our hotel on booking.com which saved loads, and spent less than £100 all weekend, theres so much you can do for free or really cheaply without compromising on enjoyment.
Whatever or wherever you choose, these Bloggers have tips that will help you save money on your next holiday closer to home. We’ve added our Travel Smarter tips too.
Enjoy Camping for less – Zoë Morrison EcoThriftyLiving
Get Camping equipment for free. Zoë Morrison, the author of Eco Thrifty Living the blog and Eco Thrifty Living the book shares this blog post about how to get camping equipment for free
Enjoy Campervanning for less – Joseph Seager – Photographyish.com
Make the most of a campervan. Joseph says there is a huge demand for campervans at the moment, so here’s some great hacks when using small campervans
Enjoy a Cottage Holiday for less – Faith Archer – MuchMoreWithLess
If you want to book a cottage holiday in the UK, try SnapTrip. It searches cottages, lodges and apartments across loads of different holiday suppliers, with a best price promise plus extra savings if you sign up for free membership. Click through Cashback sites like Quidco or TopCashback before booking, and you can even earn cash back on the cost of your holiday too. Faith says ‘We often book self catering holidays to save money’. Check out her post about what to pack to save money‘
Enjoy Hotels for Less – Dan Erricson – The Financial Wilderness
Shop around for the best hotel deals. Dan has a jumbo post on this coming soon (I will link when it’s ready.) However in terms of immediate tips Dan suggests there’s huge variability in what the online travel agents quote for the same hotel, and shopping around on this really does make a huge difference. Find Dan at www.thefinancialwilderness.com
Enjoy activities for less – Jennifer Graudenz – Monethalia.com
Plan activities in advance. Jennifer says ‘This gives you time to look for discount codes, discount for booking in advance and you will be less tempted by overpriced tourist traps on the day’. Visit Monethalia.com , featured in the Top 10 UK Early Retirement Blogs.
Enjoy Pontins and Butlins for less – Claire Roach – MoneySavingCentral
Shop around when booking. Claire says – a lot of England holiday providers such as Pontins and Butlins do flash deals on websites like Groupon and Wowcher, where you can get some seriously reduced deals (which you can also couple with a voucher code and cashback). Find out more in the post The best websites to find cheap last minute travel deals.
Enjoy anywhere for less – Fiona Hawkes – Savvy in Somerset
Find out what you can do for free Fiona has a list of free places to visit in Somerset as well as many other moneysaving tips and ideas.
Enjoy daytrips for less – Emma Maslin – The Money Whisperer
Buy an in car cool box for day trips Excellent tip from Emma, who is a certified money coach and money mentor. Here’s a great size coolbox and a fab picnic cool bag with wheels .
Enjoy hotel TV for less – Or Goren – Cordbusters.co.uk
Avoid extra charges for TV in your room . Ors tip – some hotels charge for extra content on your TV in the room (and for pay-per-view content). So instead of paying extra, you can bring your own streaming TV stick (such as an Amazon Fire TV stick). Then, you just need a free HDMI slot in the hotel’s TV – and a WiFi connection, which is often free (or at least something you intended to pay for anyway). Once connected, you can use your stick to stream from your own Netflix (or similar) account. Find out more at Cordbusters
Enjoy attractions for less – Jupiter Hadley – JupiterHadley.com
Use Tesco vouchers. They triple the value for some places meaning you can end up visiting attractions like the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth for a third of the normal cost. Another tip – if you are staying in a hotel, ask if they have any partnered discounts for nearby attractions – they often do. Visit JupiterHadley.com for Indie games, days out, recipes and more.
Enjoy exploring for less – Katie Louise Mulford – MumsFamilyFun
Use a Treasure Trail to explore the area near where you are staying and find out more about it. It’s probably cheaper than booking a tour. Katie says ‘It’s brilliant fun as well as fascinating to learn more about the town’s history. The whole family really enjoyed it’ . Read a review of the treasure trail. Also, Katie says – check to see if you can use Tesco Clubcard vouchers to pay for entry in to any local visitor attractions. It’s saved me a fortune doing this over the years!
Enjoy lunch for less – Clare Lush-Mansell – Travel-bugs.co.uk
Packed lunches all the way!! Clare says ‘Whenever we want to save money on our UK holidays we usually stock up on some nice items to make packed lunches and go down that route most days. We usually get an ice cream when we are out, we sometimes have dinner out or takeaway but we do find that taking a packed lunch can save us so much money, especially as a family of five’. Clare’s site travelbugs.co.uk has great ideas for places to go with the kids in tow.
Enjoy travel for less – Mind over Money Matters
For further afield trips between England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, grab some cheap flights by booking well in advance. London to Edinburgh or Newquay return can be only £50, if you avoid Fridays and Mondays. Cheaper and much quicker than driving.
Or use your Avios, we flew to Belfast for £1 each return. It was a ‘where shall we go next weekend’ decision – there were reward flights available for £1, cash fare would have been hundreds.
Have a look at these articles for more ideas and information, and let us know your top tips in the comments. How do you save money when you’re travelling in the UK?
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