Save £659 on your holiday!

Harvey Jones explains how he managed to make some great savings on his trip to Spain...

The problem with cheap foreign breaks is that once you add up all the costs, they ain't cheap.

Those free flights aren't free, that commission-free currency has a lousy exchange rate, and airport car parking, accommodation, hire car, food and drink all add up. It doesn't help that sterling is so worthless that European restaurants use £10 notes to stop their tables from wobbling.

But my girlfriend and our five year old daughter hadn't had a proper holiday all year, and as the autumn rain lashed against our windows we decided to fly to Alicante in Spain in the first week of December.

Then I had a great idea that amazed and delighted my girlfriend: "Let's do it as cheaply as possible!"

Flights

The first trick is to get the cheapest possible flight. In this case, it meant Ryanair (yes, I know) from London Stansted. It was offering "free" flights at the time and better still, free online check-in, which normally costs £15 per person. Always check online check-in costs when seduced by a Ryanair free flights offer.

Of course, it wasn't really free. Taxes, fees and charges came to around £35. We paid £30 for each of the three bags we checked, and were stung for a £30 handling fee, right at the end of the booking. Despite waiving travel insurance, priority boarding and text message confirmation, our free flights still cost £145.

Yes, we did feel conned, but it was still at least £200 cheaper than the next best flights, and the departure times were respectable. Ryanair is supposed to be a master of marketing, but to save somebody hundreds of pounds and still make them feel ripped off doesn't look too masterful to me.

My girlfriend hates Ryanair and regularly swears she will never fly with them again. That's why I booked the flights when she was down the shops.

Saving £200.

Car

The next step was to book a hire car. My girlfriend is particularly keen on having a car, whereas I love to take foreign trains, and the Spanish railway network puts ours to shame.

I usually book online direct through either Avis or Alamo, but this time I used price comparison service Comparecarhire.co.uk. Avis quoted £240 for one week's rental of a "medium intermediate" car while Comparecarhire.co.uk found me a similar class motor for £130, through easyCar.com.

Saving: £100.

Our daughter suffers from car sickness, and had only just suffered a nasty bout. So my argument in favour of local trains won the day. Any train fares or airport taxis should be balanced by savings on petrol.

Bonus saving: £130.

Car parking

We thought of getting a taxi to Stansted, but were quoted £60 each way. So we checked out airport parking. One week in Stansted Long Stay was a reasonable £42, but this is miles from the terminal and the buses only run every 20 minutes, so I upgraded to Mid Stay, which is closer and has a more frequent courtesy bus. It cost £49 for a week, just £7 more, but a lot cheaper than that £120 taxi round trip. I briefly considered upgrading to the handier Short Stay car park for £75 a week, then remembered I was a money saving journalist not a luxury traveller.

Saving: £78

Somewhere to stay

I've saved plenty of money and found some great hotels through website Booking.com in the past, so I tried again. The most promising hotel was the Eurostars Mediterranea plaza, which charged €565 for seven nights in a triple room. At €1.10 to the pound, that's £510.

In the days when £1 = €1.45 that would have cost just £390, but maybe it's best not to dwell on that.

Then I did something I've never done before: I clicked on a Ryanair offer embedded in my flight confirmation email. This linked to a site offering affordable pensions and apartments.

We found a three-bed ensuite room in Hotel Pension La Milagrosa in the old town for £369. It has a kitchen and fridge, so we don't have to eat out every day. The savings should balance the fact that the pension doesn't serve breakfast.

Saving: £141.

Spending money

Several years ago I signed up to the Nationwide Visa credit card, which has zero foreign usage charges in the EU, and I plan to use this card for all my purchases. Its exchange rate is pretty good as well.

The Santander Zero MasterCard and the Post Office Classic MasterCard both have 0% foreign usage charges in the EU and worldwide, so they are also worth considering.

This will save me 2.5% on the £400 or so I expect to spend, compared to a standard credit card.

Saving: £10.

Taking a foreign cash advance on a credit card is an expensive no-no, so now I need to find the best way of getting a couple of hundred pounds worth of euros. Think I'll check out The best way to get your foreign currency by my colleague John Fitzsimons.

So let's see how that's all adds up.

I'll leave you to judge whether £963 for a week in the sun is expensive, but it is a lot cheaper than the £1,622 it would otherwise have cost.

I'm going to put the £659 savings in a pot for our next holiday. At this rate, I will get one free holiday for every two I buy (and then some). I just hope it doesn't rain all week, and my girlfriend doesn't slaughter me for being such a cheapskate.

Get help from lovemoney.com

If you need a bit of help cutting the cost of your holiday, we can help.

First, adopt this goal: Have a cheap holiday

Next, watch this video: The worst holiday rip-offs

Finally, why not have a wander over to Q&A and ask other lovemoney.com members for hints and tips about what worked best for them?

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