Budget Holiday Tips for Families

We are a family that loves to travel, but as we have grown, we have had to think more about how to make our holiday's as cost effective as possible.  With four children we don't often fit the standard family requirements and we have had to change the way we travel to reflect this.  Here are some of my top tips for travelling on a budget.

1) Flexibility makes it easier to get a better price so search for flights for the week you want to go away and check if one day is significantly cheaper than the others.  Fridays are usually the most expensive so being able to go midweek can pay off.  Flexibility on location helps too, you may want to go to Spain for example but browsing a site like Spain-Holiday.com and checking out different regions means you can find something to fit every budget.

2) Book each part of the holiday separately to ensure you are getting the best deals.  Check out sites like skyscanner to compare flight prices and book everything direct with the company to avoid paying any additional fees. 

3) It can pay to stay a little further away from where you want to be to save some pennies and also give you more living space for your money.  Choosing to rent a holiday house can be much easier with a larger family too as you have space to settle the children to bed and still have some adult time rather than playing cards by the light of your phones in a dark hotel room (which we have done more than once). Check out the local transport to see how this could work for you.

4) Choose what is important to you.  We often fly with the cheapest budget airline and don't pay for any frills like choosing seats or quick boarding.  We are happy to stay in cheaper accommodation if it means more money for eating out and going on trips.  If you are planning on cooking more then spend a little more choosing the right holiday home with a decent sized kitchen.

5) Travel with friends - if there are a group of you looking for the same kind of holiday then check out some bigger rental properties.  On Spain-Holiday.com you can filter by the number of guests and there are stunning villas that sleep up to 16  - you get to split the cost and have a private pool!

6) Booking early is the best way to guarantee low prices and ideally 11 months before you want to travel is the cheapest.  Alternatively, wait until 3 days before you want to go away to make the most of the last minute deals.  Both have advantages of course but planning early gives you more chance to save and pay things off slowly.

7) Before you go away look for discounted entry tickets for local attractions, whether there are any festivals on, free days to visit things or cards that offer entry to multiple places.      

We love to travel and try and cut down costs so that we can go away more often.  Do you have any great budget tips to share?

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