Great ‘Holiday at home’ Hunt: How to have a cheap holiday without leaving home

Former_MSE_Wendy
Former_MSE_Wendy Posts: 929
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What's it about?

It's possible to have a happy holiday staying at home and visiting local attractions, saving the bulky cost of hotels. While Cheap Days Out and Restaurant Vouchers are a great place to start we'd like to tap MoneySavers collective knowledge for the best stay at home ideas for singles, couples and families.

What to do?

Click reply below to give other MoneySavers the benefit of your ideas.

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Comments

  • Rachel85
    Rachel85 Posts: 370 Forumite
    edited 20 July 2009 at 3:10PM
    This may sound odd, but go along to your local Tourist Information. Even for those who have lived in the same town for many years, there are still bound to be ideas, attractions and events you've never thought or heard of before. For anything that attracts a charge, the leaflets they give you often have discount vouchers inside.

    Your local paper can provide loads of ideas, too.
    There is no such thing as a free lunch. Its only free because you've paid for it.

    Noone can have everything they want and the sooner you learn that the better.

    MSE Aim: To have more "thanks" than "posts"! :T
  • Mark_Hewitt
    Mark_Hewitt Posts: 2,098 Forumite
    It's a grand idea for people who never go anywhere or don't explore their local area very much. But for me day trips to local attractions, landmarks, National Trust, English Heritage etc, are just a normal part of summer weekends for me.

    Holidays are in addition to that, not instead of. For me the whole point of a holiday is that you're not at home!

    Having said that it's always nice just to have some time off work, even if you don't use it to go anywhere in particular.
  • There are instructions on a charity fundraising blogsite for how to have a holiday in France (and how to apply it to anywhere else, particularly Europe) (a) without leaving your sofa (b) without leaving town or (c) by going to the "foreign" bits of the UK such as the French bit of London where you can hear French spoken all day, eat in French restaurants, go into French bookshops etc. There's a post describing how to create the holiday and another describing the blogger's resulting weekend in "France". It involved very creative use of DVDs (including one of "M. Hulot's Holiday" set on the French Riviera), Flickr, Googleview and other things - very cheap!

    The site offers new money-saving tips each week like this one so that people can donate part of their savings to biomedical research for ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (if you know someone with the illness, please tell them about the site).
  • There's another post on the same site about how to have a "staycation" including visiting places included in the National Gardens Scheme and making the most of local tourist info sites such as Visit Britain. It also recommends behaving as though you were about to emigrate to Australia, which should motivate you to visit all those things in your local area that you've put off thinking they were just "for tourist" but are probably really good.
    There are instructions on a charity fundraising blogsite for how to have a holiday in France (and how to apply it to anywhere else, particularly Europe) (a) without leaving your sofa (b) without leaving town or (c) by going to the "foreign" bits of the UK such as the French bit of London where you can hear French spoken all day, eat in French restaurants, go into French bookshops etc. There's a post describing how to create the holiday and another describing the blogger's resulting weekend in "France". It involved very creative use of DVDs (including one of "M. Hulot's Holiday" set on the French Riviera), Flickr, Googleview and other things - very cheap!

    The site offers new money-saving tips each week like this one so that people can donate part of their savings to biomedical research for ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (if you know someone with the illness, please tell them about the site).
  • brushcolour
    brushcolour Posts: 1 Newbie
    edited 20 July 2009 at 3:13PM
    im a single mum with a preschooler living in basildon and ive been having lots of sundays in my local travelodge for £9 since before xmas and using the david lloyd health club next door which im an off peak member of but never find the time to go for myself otherwise (just swimming ballet and tap for lil one)! my mum cooks sunday dinner then drops me off afterwards and looks after my little girl while i indulge in beauty treatments in the hotel's family room which has a full size bath for bubble baths and take some wine and chocolates and candles in. then nip next door in the evening to the gym until closes at 11pm then next day have a lie in then off to read clubs papers and magazines by outdoor pool and order kids teriyaki chicken jacket potatoe salad and broccoli with glass of milk -costs £3.60 then my mum meets me at 4pm so i can take my girl to her ballet tap class
    This has really helped me relax and de stress and havent needed to go on holiday. have supplemented with 4 weekends away also in £9 travelodges in oxford for sightseeing, staines , slough for windsor thorpe park and legoland and chessington for hampton court flower show and chessington with 2 for 1 tickets. This has all cost the same as just one weeks holiday
  • Go to your local library! There's usually leaflets and brochures detailing what to do while the "school's out" for summer! I picked one up last night and was amazed at what is going on around me for free and suitable for all age groups.
    Must learn not to count chickens before they are hatched!!!!:D

    Every day is a new challenge not a new problem!:p

    SW start 08/01/14 4/21lbs (1st target) :j
  • norahj
    norahj Posts: 2 Newbie
    edited 20 July 2009 at 3:14PM
    Living in Cornwall, there are a plethora of attractions but they all cost a small fortune. Most of the time my children were only interested in the play facilities, so last summer we had a tour of municipal playparks in the area! Free, varied, take a picnic, design a rating sheet for older ones to fill in to compare and contrast... Don't forget that what is mundane for some is a novelty for others - going on a train is passe but a bus is an adventure!

    I've also taken to making a Post-It wall - I used to feel that we got to the end of the school holidays and had never really got around to doing anything. So now I write down different things we'd like to do/visit on a separate Post-It and stick them on a wall e.g. swimming, boat trip, National Trust property using Walker's tokens. I also look at the local paper/free magazines sent home from school for vouchers and ideas to add to the wall.
  • bryonyhines
    bryonyhines Posts: 15 Forumite
    1) Ask a friend to swap houses with you for a day or two
    2) Go swimming in the morning, (followed by a quick go on the sunbed for extra feeling of being on holiday)
    3) Have lunch/dinner in a part of town that has a lot of foreign restaurants and a general feeling of being on holiday
    4) Stay the night at the friends house, and then repeat the next day

    This can be amended to match what you would normally do on holiday, such as sports/outdoor activities, etc.

    I'm sure discounts can be found on MSE for most of these things. :T
    Loves to save money - loves MSE. :j
    £2 coin savings - £128 Total debt £9,611 and falling
  • I am building an urban beach in the moor, sheffield 27 july - 2 august and one in all saints square, rotherham 10-15 august.
    Everything we provide is free. Prize bingo, donkey rides, circus workshop, punch & judy, face painting, balloon modelling, real beach sand for sandcastle competitions, surf board simulator, rodeo bull, storytelling, make and take workshops.

    Different themes each day, teddy bears picnics, yorkshire day, pirate party, car rally etc
  • jumblejack
    jumblejack Posts: 6,599 Forumite
    My lads LOVE camping out in the garden, rain or shine. In the morning they have mugs is steaming cocoa and hot buttered toast passed to them through the patio window by yours truly which they either have on the benches or take back to the tent (depending on the weather!).
    :A Every moment is a gift. That's why we call it the present.!:A
    Grocery Spend Weekly Challenge (Sat-Fri):£30.50/£40
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