Cheap Holidays Abroad - Takeoff, courtesy of geograph.org.uk author David Johnston

The holiday industry is very good overall at matching capacity to demand, but because of the logistics of hotel accommodation and flights, in the short term there are often imbalances and this gives you and I a chance of finding cheap holidays abroad.  I mean, you can’t just “un-build” a hotel when demand falls, or sell off an Airbus overnight.  So sometimes, quite often actually, capacity outstrips demand and this leads to lower prices.

This is what we have been seeing in the travel industry for many years.  However, what’s new of late is that the industry, like many others, is working through probably the biggest downturn in its history.  This has seriously disrupted the normal trading patterns, and while some holidays are going up in price, others can be bought, in certain circumstances at certain times, for very low prices indeed – sometimes the lowest ever in real terms – now these really are the kind of cheap holidays abroad we are looking for!

You’re probably bursting to know how to get hold of one of these really low-priced holidays.  Well, they pop up all over the place and it’s not always easy to predict where and when, but in our experience there are some definite rules to follow – some old, some very new – if you want to find the very best bargain holidays in today’s market:

“the biggest killer of cheap holidays abroad is still the school holiday”

Golden rule – avoid school holidays.  At the moment, despite economic conditions, the biggest killer of cheap holidays abroad is still the school holiday effect.  It seems to have become even more marked in recent years as the rules about taking children out of school during term time have been tightened up.  If you can travel during term time, you will save a great deal.  For example, flights are often as much as three times as expensive during a half-term holiday than the weeks either side.  A top tip is to check the school holiday dates for several counties when you’re booking your time off work, because they can vary by a week or so depending on where you are.

Act quickly – if you see a holiday that meets all your requirements and is there on your screen at a really good price, you need to be mentally prepared to click the button and book it on-line with your credit card there and then.  If you’re going in a group, you need to get advance agreement from everyone on what to look for, so that when you see a holiday, you can book it without double-checking with them.  This is the only sure way to secure that cheap holiday abroad.  I have delayed booking by literally a couple of hours to get the “OK” from the family, only to find that the holiday had vanished and I had to start again.

“be flexible”

Be flexible on hotel, resort or even country! – The more open you can be to a variety of holiday experiences, the more bargains will be available to you.  Can you really say you “I don’t think I’d like Turkey”, when you have never

Cheap Holidays Abroad - In Flight, courtesy of flickr.com user: a_of_doom

experienced the tranquility of its beautiful sandy beaches?  You only live once.  Why not open yourself up to the possibilities and see where it takes you?

Avoid weekend flights – most people work Monday to Friday still, and therefore most of them want to travel at the weekend so that they use less of those precious days off work.  Weekend flights, and even Friday flights, tend to cost more because of this extra demand.

Consider a night flight – OK personally I would no longer go on a night flight to the Med unless I was in a wooden box, and even then, only if meals were included..   But, if you are young or just really tight for cash, flights that leave at the crack of dawn or late at night are almost always cheaper because fewer people want to go on them.  Maybe you can compromise and take an unsocial flight at one end of your holiday.  Some people don’t mind being half-dead on their employer’s time the day after they get back (tut..)

“allow for meals”

Take meals into account – when you are calculating the cost of your holiday, allow for meals and see if half-board could be cheaper.  In Spain, for example, you often go up from self-catering to half-board in a four star hotel for as little as £25 per week per person.  The food included is usually buffet-style, so you can eat as much as you like for breakfast and at night, so you won’t want much at lunchtime!  £25 is not going to go far if you are eating out every night and doing your own shopping for breakfast items on top.  This means that although the headline holiday price for half-board could be higher, the overall holiday cost could be cheaper once you add in meal costs.

Check package holiday prices – a few years ago, package holidays were your only chance of getting cheap holidays abroad, because there was less technology to adjust prices according to supply & demand, and operators sometimes got stuck with unsold seats at the last minute.  In recent years, independent travel has taken off (so to speak) and a lot of people look for bargain flights then bargain accommodation separately.  However, you can still find the occasional package holiday bargain, because even with all the sophisticated pricing technology, sometimes seats get left unsold.  The best bargains are for seven or 14-day package holidays – simply because that’s where the bulk of the capacity is.  If you can’t do this length of holiday, I would forget packages.

“save a bundle”

Buy the add-ons in advance – you can save a bundle on airport parking, train tickets, foreign currency and airport hotels by booking them in advance.  Get in to the habit of doing it just after you’ve booked your holiday.

Check reviews to make sure it’s cheap for the right reasons! – read hotel, accommodation and resort reviews on sites such as Suntrap Holidays.  Some hotels are way past their best and very cheap in price because nobody in their right mind would pay any more to stay there.  When you see a bargain, you need to make sure that it’s somewhere that gets average reviews at the very least.  The ideal find is the hotel with great reviews that has somehow been left with a load of unsold rooms at the last minute – it happens.

Look for hotels on the edge of their classes – by this I mean that some hotels cannot become, say, four star because they have, for example, a small bathroom that cannot be changed without serious demolition. The hotel might be

Cheap Holidays Abroad - Landing, courtesy of flickr.com user: ryax

refurbished and generally equipped to four-star standard and offering service to match, but because of a technicality has to be classed as three star.  This is often reflected in reviews – I cannot tell you how often I have read things like, “it was three star but should have been four star from what I saw.”  So, watch out for these tell-tale reviews and see if you can pay three-star prices for what is effectively a four-star hotel!

Transfer by bus or train – people often automatically pay for a tour operator’s airport transfer or book a taxi, but if you do a bit of research on-line you will find that many destinations have great bus, coach and train services from the airport to the resort and they can be many times cheaper.  This especially applies to city breaks and the more popular holiday destinations.  Even if you can’t book trains or buses in advance, at least know where to catch them and when.  Then, as you leave the airport, tired and hot, you will know what to do and you will be less tempted to jump into the nearest expensive taxi!

In today’s market, with prices changing from hour to hour, I have to say that one of the most important of the above tips for cheap holidays abroad, a tip for the internet age, is the one about acting quickly.  You really do have to “just book it”!

If there are any true bargains out there in the marketplace, by following these tips you can be sure that you will be in the right place at the right time to snap up a bargain – and if you find one, go for it, because cheap holidays abroad may not be about forever.
We work with some of the best on-line travel agents in the business, because after all, if we didn’t provide the best deals here at Suntrap Holidays, we would not survive!  You can check out some of the current great offers on flights and hotels – see if you can find some of those cheap holidays abroad – by clicking the big red button: