The Great 'Cheap When You Get There' Holidays

gboo

RE- Nationwide cash machines in Europe. I now just get a minimum of cash here and use the Nationwide flex account card abroad all over europe it is the same and a) the exchange rate is always better and b) there is no handling charge C) even for purchases you get a better rate. eg uk exchanbe rate was 333 per £1 and hotel spa entry 368.098 to be precise for Budapest HUFs.

The trains trams and buses are available on one three and longer day tickets which are worth considering. You buy a ticket and then vlaidate it on the train tram bus - but if you are ' an ignorant' tourist and don't validate it you can go round on one ticket - but run the risk of being fined although we didn't see any checking them.

[Deleted User]

redmandarin wrote: »

In my view, the free board and lodging doesn't seem worth it, for all the hours you have to work (and you have to pay for your own flights)! It's a 12 hour day, (apart from an hour and a half off in the afternoon) none of your evenings are free (one would be nice!) and the evening meal isn't until 9pm. It doesn't stop there either - you're required to socialise with the students from 10pm onwards each night! Thanks, but no thanks, mummypirate!

I think you're being a bit mean - if you're a chatterbox this must be holiday heaven. Might send my wife there :rotfl:

koppite

Camping in Wales and going out on the bikes and a little scrambling up the 'hills' of Snowdonia. NO (or at least a very small) carbon footprint. A trip to Anglesey for a bit of boating/sailing/birdwatching or lazing on the beautiful beaches - most of which are underused. How do I know all this? I live here and friends and family are always telling me how lucky I am. How cheap is that?!

lynseyf

I've been skiing to Bulgaria, Slovenia and Slovakia and would reccomend all 3. Bulgaria is much less "off the beaten track" and you can get reasonable deals with a tour operator. Slovenia and slovakia are much cheaper to organise yourself.

You can get return flights from london for about £50 ( easyjet, skyeurope, wizzair) We hired a 12 person chalet about 1 mile from the ski slopes for £60 pp/week and one right on the slopes in Slovakia for £120 pp/week, I also stayed in a lovely hotel in slovenia near lake bled for £120 pp/week half board. The food etc is ridiculously cheap when you get there, my skiing holiday cost about £300 for flights, accomodation, lift pass, ski hire and private lessons for 1 week, spending was about £150 on top of that but i ate out for every meal and drank quite a lot

I think a lot of people are scared to go a bit off the beaten track because they think it will be a hassle to organise but my tip is to ask the people you are staying with to organise airport transfers for you, all the chalets i have hired or hotels I have stayed in have been happy to do this and it takes a lot of the stress away knowing you are being met at the airport. Also Google is your friend, the more research you do on the internet the more money you are likely to save.

redmandarin

Deleted_User wrote: »

I think you're being a bit mean - if you're a chatterbox this must be holiday heaven. Might send my wife there :rotfl:

I don't think I'm being mean and I think you're being sexist!

PeteW

redmandarin wrote: »

I don't think I'm being mean and I think you're being sexist!

What an absurd response!!

What on earth is sexist about him implying his wife enjoys conversation???
He's not said that all women are chatterboxes, he's merely implied it of his wife - and nobody would be in a better position to judge this than him!

mum2one

If your staying anywhere say like a caravan park / camping etc, ask at the reception as they always have discount tickets for local attractions, thatthey advertise.
We asked at the site we last stayed at in Dawlish Warren ( South Devon), got discount for Babbacombe Model Village, Kents Caverns and Crealy.
Most sites have them

As I say you dont askyou dont get!

x

sandy_may

We had a stunningly cheap holiday in South Wales last year. We have english heritage membership paid for on our tescos club card vouchers. in your first year of membership all CADW (welsh) sites are half price & the second year they are free. in addition a trip to the Big Pit mining heritage museum near Abergavenny is free (really fab, evryone has to wear a pit hat & carry their own battery pack the kids love it!). Also tea & cake was very cheap in Wales so i think we spent a total of £6 for 6 of us for the week plus our normal grocery shopping.

actually we are real cheapskates on our holidays. we always self cater, and make extensive use of our National Trust membership & our Birmingham Botanical Gardens membership which offers reciprocal entry to 12 sites in Uk inlcuding Kew & the National Botanical Gardens of wales. We are big into hillwalking & we also take our own climbing gear & find a nice little quarry somewhere for us all to have a climb. when we do splash out on a NT tea, the slices of cake are so big we can share 1 between 2. Our 4 children have a great time & it doesn't break the bank.

We also drive to the south of France every May & stay in a beautiful villa for 6 with a private pool & it costs us nothing as we pay for it all on our tescos clubcard vouchers. A real bargain!

Finally we are lucky enough to have in-laws who live in Poole & have a 28ft boat that we can use.

IvanOpinion

DW has relations in LA, America and when we visit we pretty much get picked up at the airport and go straight to a local travel agent (AAA) looking for a last minute deal.

So far we have managed to bag (prices are meant to be dollars)
- 3 nights in Vegas for $32 (for both of us, including buffet dinner and some other sweetners). We did have to pay another $50 for a brace of return flights to LA though (friends fly free))
- 5 nights in Hawaii for $199 each (including flights, hotel, cruise round Pearl Harbour, complimentary bottle of wine and vouchers for buffet breakfast)
- 7 night Mexican Riviera cruise on Carnival for $400 each (I think?)

The one thing is that these really were last minute and for the cruise we had a matter of a few hours before having to catch the ship (obviously pre 9/11). We usually go for about 3 weeks and look for an additional holiday for a week.

DW's cousin has a job that I envy. His job is to entertain clients so a typical day is meet clients for breakfast, take them for golf, meet new clients for lunch, take them to base ball game in afternoon or Disney etc. He gets loads of freebies that he passes onto us (free tickets for SeaWorld, Disney, Universal etc.).

So my tip is to marry someone who has relations in America

Ivan

morg_monster

When I went backpacking after uni I went to some nice cheap places - Thailand in particular, although that is now quite expensive compared to other less developed countries in the region like Laos.

One thing I would say though - when looking at a souvenir stall in Bangkok (generally pendants, knick-knacks etc handcrafted from local stones or shells etc) - an awful british guy was really haggling down the kid (no older than 12 or 13) on price, for about 5 minutes when other customers were waiting. In the end he got him down to 110 Baht (about £1.75), but walked away because the kid wouldn't drop it by a further 10 Baht (16p...). I was so disgusted and ashamed, the idea that someone from our prosperous isle could come over to a place like Thailand where everything can be so cheap for us, and argue over 16p.
Of course its great to get a good deal, and I'm sure that the sellers are going to make sure they don't make a loss even with hard bargaining, but it just strikes me as so desperately mean to behave in this way. He wasted that much of the kids time, and refused to buy, yet probably when he's at home he has at least £40 in his wallet at any time.
(he was no grimy backpacker by the way, if he was i could understand it a little more as some do try to survive on the most ridiculously small amounts per day!! Probably a nice bland international hotel for him!)

Anyway so I must say this isn't relevant to ANY of the posts already made, and isn't in response to any of them, but when you do go to poorer countries remember that extra 5% tip, or not driving quite the hardest bargain that you can, will not make any real difference to you (what could he have bought with that 16p at home, anyway?!), but it could make a real difference to the person you are dealing with.

Happy (and cheap) holidays!