It’s that time of year when many of us start planning for some summer sunshine and January marks the peak period for holiday bookings. Package holiday companies and airlines are offering sales with the hope of securing business for 2024, with many bargains on offer.
This week some pertinent holiday advice has come from Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis, In the latest MoneySavingExpert weekly newsletter, Martin warned households to take out travel insurance as soon as they book a holiday. He spoke about the many cases where people have booked holidays and then succumbed to a serious illness. Holidays then have to be cancelled while the person gets treatment but the airline or hotel won’t refund them. Had the person took out insurance they would have received a refund.
This week some pertinent holiday advice has come from Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis, In the latest MoneySavingExpert weekly newsletter, Martin warned households to take out travel insurance as soon as they book a holiday. He spoke about the many cases where people have booked holidays and then succumbed to a serious illness. Holidays then have to be cancelled while the person gets treatment but the airline or hotel won’t refund them. Had the person took out insurance they would have received a refund.
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00:00 It's that time of year when many of us start planning for some summer sunshine,
00:05 and January marks the peak period for holiday bookings in the UK. Package holiday companies
00:11 and airlines are currently offering sales with the hope of securing our business for 2024,
00:17 with many bargains currently on offer. So there are lots of things you can do, whether it's
00:22 researching the holiday, so if you have a destination in mind, do a lot of research
00:26 early to find the best deals. Also think about other destinations, so if you usually go to one
00:33 destination, maybe look further afield at places like North Macedonia or the Balkans, Albania,
00:39 you know, these are places that you could find yourself a really good value for money holiday
00:44 because they're not quite so popular with tourists at the moment, so they're good value for money.
00:49 There are many other ways you can save money on your holiday, including finding cheap flights
00:53 with price comparison search engines. Don't rush to book the first cheap flight you see,
00:58 compare prices with multiple airlines and search engines for the best value. Use search engines
01:03 like Skyscanner, Momondo and Google Flights, which have features to find deals and indicate cost
01:09 savings for flying on different days. Check the airline's flight terms and conditions carefully
01:14 to avoid exceeding hand baggage limits and incurring additional fees. Invest in luggage
01:20 scales to check you're within restrictions and avoid over packing or wearing the contents of
01:24 your suitcase. Consider alternatives to flying perhaps, maybe traveling by coach or train for
01:31 shorter journeys and check for offers on the Channel Tunnel and ferry crossings, especially
01:36 for trips to France or Belgium. Interrail across Europe making travel part of the adventure is also
01:42 suggested, as well as getting affordable travel insurance. All-inclusive breaks also offer an
01:48 opportunity to lock in your holiday costs early. So that's another way that holidaymakers can do
01:53 that. But we think one of the easiest ways to find savings is by booking all those extras,
01:59 all those things that you might leave to the last minute and 7% of us do. If you book those early,
02:04 you can actually find much better savings and it can give you peace of mind. Peace of mind by
02:08 getting to book an airport hotel, which comes with parking and might actually be a better deal
02:14 in terms of overall cost. And it means you can get to the airport early, start your holiday early,
02:19 not get up quite so early in the morning with maybe your children in tow if you've got an early
02:24 flight. That's a good option as well. And this week some pertinent holiday advice has come from
02:28 money-saving expert Martin Lewis. In his latest weekly newsletter, Martin warned households to
02:34 take out travel insurance as soon as they book a holiday. He spoke about the many cases where
02:39 people have booked holidays and then succumb to a serious illness. Holidays then have to be cancelled
02:45 while the person gets treatment, but the airline or hotel won't refund them. Had the person took
02:50 out insurance, they would have received a full refund. Well, according to Travel Weekly, around
02:56 5.2 million holidays are booked by people in January. And the top destination for this year,
03:02 well, it's the same as last year - Spain.