Money Saving tips for Family Holidays
Our holiday is nearly here! We cannot wait for seven days of sports, food, beach and pool for the boys and beach, pool, reading, relaxing, sports for me. We are off to Corsica soon on a Mark Warner holiday.
Tis is our second visit to Corsica and it was one of the best holidays I have ever been on for rest and recuperation. Here is the post I wrote after our last visit.
When you want rest for adults and activities and childcare for the children, plus beautiful food, Mark Warner is the holiday for you.
I must point out that Mark Warner have asked me to review the holiday, so I did receive a nice discount for the holiday, but I am keen to share my money saving tips for family holidays and everything else that needs to be sorted for the holiday.
Flights
Our flights to Corsica are included in the package price. We are flying EasyJet which was a bit disappointing as last time we went we had a chartered BA flight. But we are flying this time from Stanstead, a 30-minute drive, much better than Heathrow or Gatwick (we live in Hertfordshire). And our tickets included seats and luggage. Also, we are flying during term time, so I doubt there are enough people for a chartered flight.
Normally with Easy jet you need to be on the ball 30 days before departure and check in to get your choice of seats which I did. (you normally pay around £6 to £10 for seats or can wait until being allocated at the airport).
I have now learnt that it is possible to pack your holiday life into a small hand luggage bag, as I did for Vegas. But maybe not when travelling with the family.
We have 5 large bags included in our package (!!) but we are only going to take one large bag and maybe two to three hand luggage bags. What do you really need for holiday, a pair of sandals and a pair of trainers (for all that exercise I am going to do)? Five bikinis, beach dresses and skirts and tops. For the boys a load of swimmer shorts and T-shirts. In fact, Josh has already packed (one month early!).
If you do have to pay for hold luggage pack sensibly, dont take two bags when you can get away with one, save the money and use the hand luggage free allowance instead.
At the Airport
Our flight is at 6am. Wonderful. Meaning we need to leave home at 3am. I doubt very much will be open at 4-5am, a good thing to stop me spending money. But we do of course need to get some breakfast and have a mimosa to start the holiday. There are loads of discounts and offers in the EasyJet app as I noticed whilst nosing around yesterday. 15% off at giraffe or coast to coast.
And don’t forget to take food on board if you want a snack and don’t fancy paying the high in-flight food prices. I was also going to take some snacks with us pre-bought from Aldi.
Getting to the Airport & Parking
I have been investigating the best option here, taxis, meet & greet or standard airport parking. I have decided we are going to drive and use the airport parking. You can book via the Easy jet app where I have found mid-stay parking for £58.99, BUT I have found a better offer with TopCashBack. I can book the same parking and get 20% – £11.80 cashback into my cashback account, which then transfers into my bank account in a few weeks’ time. Happy days. I love saving money.
Grab yourself a TopCashBack account FOR free and get a £5 Tesco gift card for signing up using my referral link.
Travel Insurance
We have an annual insurance policy that I took out in August of 2018. Hurrah it is still valid. I bought this policy using the TopCashBack comparison tool which finds you the best deal from lots of insurance providers plus gives you extra cash back on top!
Our policy is with Debenhams insurance and cost £62 for a family of five. This policy also came with a cash back discount of £7.41 from Top Cash Back plus I was sent a Debenhams gift card for £10 as well.
Travel Money
I have a Starling bank account for personal use and another for business use. The exchange rate on the Starling card is very good, no loading fees or hidden charges. And you can withdraw cash for free. I also have a Halifax clarity card, which has a great exchange conversion rate, but you do start to pay interest as soon as you withdraw money from a cash machine.
We will be taking some money with us, but not much as the holiday includes everything. I always get my travel money from Debenhams as the rate has consistently beaten the market every time, I have checked over the past year. Plus, you get a £5 voucher in store. Juts ensure that you ask them to match their online rate at the counter to ensure you get a few more Euro for your pounds.
Holiday toiletries
I did an interesting piece of research last year on sun cream and found the cheapest place to buy five-star protection sun cream. Take a read of the post, I compared Lloyds to Boots to Aldi.
I have loads of travel toiletries stashed as I always nab them from hotels. I brought back loads from Vegas, I know such a tea leaf, but I love the little products. Who doesn’t get excited at a posh hotel when there are white company or molten brown products!
Holiday Wardrobe
We have FAR TOO MANY clothes. If anything, I need to declutter and get rid of a load not buy more. Stet, Dylan needs some sliders. Ill get them from Primark!
What have I forgotten? Not much. Hope that this was useful and saves you lots of money with everything that needs sorting out for your family holiday. Hope that you have a relaxing time!
This post contains affiliate links that will result in a small fee payable to me, but will cost you no extra money. Thank you for signing up using my referral link. And I received a discount for my holiday, but in no way effects my view in any social media or subsequent blog posts.
