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The weekend is approaching, oh yes! I always feel much happier on a Thursday night than I do on a Monday night, I wonder why? Michael's lasagne went down a treat last night, we are going to finish it off tonight with some mini waffles...oh yes we live a wild and exciting life! Work is busy right now as we are preparing for our school musical and it's been a lot of scenery making, costume changing...the great thing about working in a school though is that every day is different! That is what I love.
Michael and I are planning to go on a little trip and stay somewhere for the night over Easter time so I have been getting my organisation hat on to find some good deals! I thought I would do a little post about saving money when booking/holidays as I have picked up a lot of tips over the last few years...
Getting the best holiday deal by booking online
You can pretty much book everywhere online now which is great but there are a few things I would recommend doing before you do ANYTHING! Firstly, when booking a holiday which is abroad I have found it is always cheaper to book flights and hotel separately (it does involve some hours of research but I have saved over £200 before) rather than a package deal. When we went to Morocco for a week, we paid little over £200 each (and this was staying in two really nice hotels) when it would have cost twice that as a package.
I almost always use a website called Venere for booking hotels abroad-they seem to have the best deals but I also often look on booking.com. I find Lastminute and Expedia to be more expensive but I always shop around. For hotels in the UK, if there is a Travelodge there, we will almost always stay there and never pay more than £30-£40 a night. However it is really important to check on Tripadvisor before booking anywhere. Websites like Travelodge and Premier Inn can be decieving in terms of location etc so I always read reviews. If they are generally favourable we will go for it. We are not so bothered if a room is small and doesn't include breakfast-I always think location and cleanliness are most important.
The key is to catch the Travelodge and Premier Inn cheap prices during their sales. They have them a few times a year and I know they are happening because I sign up to weekly "Money Saving Expert" emails (I highly recommend them-they email once a week and they never ever spam.) and you can get a room for 20 quid!
I always managed to find great deals on travel to and from holidays too because usually if it's booked weeks in advance, it is much cheaper. I never buy a return ticket online if we're going somewhere in the UK. It is almost always cheaper to get two singles (advance ones)-for example every time I go to Brighton I never pay more than £7 or £8 return where as if I bought it at the train station it would cost me around £19...an instant £12 saved which pays for a meal out!
This post may be sad but hopefully it will help someone out as I have been asked a few times how I get such cheap deals. Bear in mind, I spend a lot of time looking online but I really would recommend shopping about before going for the first price you see.
I am off now to read a book I ordered online called "The Pact" by Jodi Picoult...until later my peeps. xoxo
Thursday, 23 February 2012
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5 comments:
More great advice from Miss Money Saving Expert, excellent!! Have fun planning your Easter trip, any ideas where to go yet? :)
Hey hun, thank you!! We have found this nice little town called Arundel, it is quite near Brighton. Have you heard of it? It has a lovely castle and wildlife park etc :)
Hi Cheryl, love your blog!
Me and Craig really love Arundel! It's one of our fave places to go and we go there a couple of times a year.
Were you thinking of staying in the Premier Inn there? We've stayed in it before, it's probably about a half hour walk into town but it's right near the station and they can order you a taxi into town which if I remember was quite cheap.
The castle is really good, there's a lot to see so you get your moneys worth.
There's quite a few little shops in the town to browse, a really cool second hand bookshop and lots of antique shops to rummage in and a yummy fudge shop, the owner is really friendly.
There's also some good restaurants, one's called India Gate (we went in there when it first opened so hopefully it's still as good) and the other one is The Bay Tree (very nice but think that was a bit more expensive), also Pizza Express and a few others.
Sorry to go on a bit, hope you have a great break! x
Hey hun, thank you so much for your tips! Glad you like reading my blog hehe. Yeah we are going to go in April, I have looked at the Premier Inn but as we don't drive we think the walking may be a bit too much so we are going for a place called The Swan Hotel, have you heard of it? We were thinking of going to the Castle, is there is anything else there? Thanks again :) x
No probs hun:-) Yeah the Premier Inn is a bit of a pain to get anywhere from if you haven't got a car. Is The Swan Hotel a pub right in the town? If so I'm sure we had a drink there once. I think I remember it had quite a chilled atmosphere in the bar and there were mostly older people in there which we prefer!
Apart from the castle I'm not sure there is much else around, apart from a Wetlands Centre and the shops. The castle is huge though and does take ages to get round and is quite tiring so that would probably fill most of one day. When we go there, we normally spend the day pottering in the shops. There's also a really funky home and gift shop called Sparks Yard which also has a cafe in it, that's down Tarrant Street. Hope you have a nice weekend xx
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