Travel Resources to Bookmark ASAP: The Basics

So I kind of touched on some of this in my How to Interrail on a Budget post where I discussed some of the best websites I used in order to travel on the teeniest tiniest budget. Since then I have had some nearly equally amazing deals on holidays (7 nights in Marrakesh including flights for less that £120 whaaaat?) and the most common response, after WOW WHAT OMG is how??? So I thought I’d share some of my main resources that I use when looking for a low-cost break and how I use them.  So if you like me, suffer with severe wanderlust then read on...
 

Inspiration

Sometimes you’ll have a place in mind already and you’ll know exactly where you want to go but sometimes you just want to go somewhere ANYWHERE. A fab way to get a cheap holiday is to look at sites like holiday pirates or icelolly to see where the offers are at the moment.

HolidayPirates is great because it’s got a bit of everything: local weekends, European city and beach breaks or luxurious all-inclusive Caribbean holidays. It’s a “build-your-own-holiday” type site so if you see a trip that you like you can book their recommended hotel but find your own flights or vice versa which gives you a nice framework to go on but aaall the flexibility.

                                   

I love icelolly too because you can pick “any destination” from your chosen airport and any “type” of holiday. While I may not book through icelolly as you don’t always know what you’re getting, it’s great for inspiration. For example, when I was looking at Marrakesh on icelolly a few weeks ago I found an AMAZING looking deal but when I delved a bit deeper the flight was 18 hours and the hotel was… well… not ideal. But it showed me that Morroco could potentially be done on the cheap so I went and looked elsewhere.

I get destination inspiration from Ryanair too. If you’re from London or nearby then the world is your oyster but flights from Wales and the South West are sometimes a wee bit more difficult. Ryanair’s Fair Finder allows you to choose your departing airport and your budget so you could have your destination and transport sorted right there!
 

Booking

Obviously you can book through any of the sites previously mentioned but I do have other favourites. For flights I swear by Kayak.com, you can use it for hotels as well but I only ever use it for flights. I like the grid it gives you with departures and returns for all selected date so you can pick the cheapest for you! Another nice little touch I discovered recently and got possibly a little carried away with is the ability to save flights and hotels etc and plan your whole holidays on it.

I have two favourites for booking places to stay: Airbnb and hotels.com.

I am airbnb’s biggest fan – I used it exclusively during my interrail trip and saved SO much money and met some absolutely beautiful people. Of course, I mostly stay in spare rooms or budget accommodation but there are some breathtaking properties for all budgets and some really different, interesting places – I stayed on a boat in Amsterdam and am currently looking at a campervan in North Wales!

Although I would normally prefer Airbnb sometimes you just don’t find what you’re looking for. Hotels.com is another site that has accommodation for all budgets which is great but my favourite thing is that for every night away you book through the website you get a free night away! There's normally some discount code floating around somewhere too so you can get some good deals!

I hope this all isn't too horrendously obvious and boring to you all but these are just the starting points for any amazing, low-cost holiday. I have other little money-saving tips/resources for transport and other super important bits and bobs, and the "finishing touches" (AKA the best bits of a holiday), so make sure you follow me on Bloglovin to see the rest!

Happy travels, pals.
Teri-May xx

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