Cheap holidays 101

If you know me and Sam, you probably know that our desire to travel outweighs anything else. Moving out and getting married, whilst important to us, are on the back burner while we travel as much as possible and explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before. I'm joking, but one thing we really love is going to cities and countries that are a bit more ... out there. You probably won't ever catch us in Ibiza or New York - there's nothing wrong with those places, of course, but they're just not us. 

Our first holiday together just the two of us was to Kraków, a city that has such a huge place in both of our hearts. It's the friendliest, safest place I've ever been and so full of culture, life, love and excitement. This year we've been to Riga, capital city of Latvia, which we fell in love with instantly. Not too keen on the gays, but it's generally pretty friendly and so cheap, plus the architecture is phenomenal. And we've just booked Poland again - but a new city this time: Poznan, which is colourful and full of tiny archways and has loads of museums, as well as one of the biggest greenhouses in Europe. It's gorgeous and we're so excited.

And what's it cost us? £94 for 4 nights/5 days. Including our flights and a lovely apartment which is pretty central. And that's for 2 people, so it's literally costing us less than £50pp for a 5 day get away. You can't moan at that, really, when it would cost us more to go down to London for one night. HOW DO YOU GET ALL THESE CHEAP HOLIDAYS people always ask when they see we've booked somewhere new.

Skyscanner is your friend, especially if you don't mind going somewhere you'd not thought of before - you just pop in your nearest airport (and you can click 'nearby' airports too, if you're able to travel to more than one airport) and then I normally go with 'EVERYWHERE' on the destination selection bit, and click 'whole month'. That way, you can see where's the cheapest place to fly to in, say, March and what dates in March are the cheapest. Normally the cheapest is Ireland, but once you get that out of the way you begin to see cheap flights to Germany, Poland, France and more. It's about being a bit adventurous, not having your heart set on one place.

Accommodation-wise, we always go with Air B n B now; I've never had a bad experience, and you can find so many unique places that always feel like home. From shared rooms to private rooms to whole flats/apartments/houses, there's normally something that fits your budget. For example, in Poznan we're staying in an apartment which has a little bathroom and little kitchen, and a sofa bed instead of a normal bed, but it's central and cost us hardly anything. It takes a while to scour through the listings and find one that ticks all your boxes, but like I said I've never regretted going with Air B n B and for the most part, it's always cheaper than a hotel!

You can also use my code to get £30 off your first Air B n B stay (and I guess you could just make a new account if you've used them before which is a bit cheeky but would anyone know?) which makes things even cheaper. This isn't a sponsored post or anything, just my tricks and tips, so I thought I'd chuck this code in too: www.airbnb.co.uk/c/katyg1004

Not only can you get cheap flights and accommodation if you visit lesser-known places, or at least lesser-visted places, they aren't taken over by tourists so their prices haven't skyrocketed. Kraków, my first true love, is getting there - prices are creeping up, because of how popular it's getting. I'm lucky to have been 4 times when it wasn't such a tourist hotspot, when you could take £200 with you for 5 days and come home with change. 

I didn't expect this post to be so long but there you have it - my top tips for travelling on the cheap.