With ever-increasing appetites for luxury travel, people are searching for more inventive and drastic ways to be able to splash out on certain aspects of their holiday.
Travel agent Florida4Less has found that holidaymakers’ creative budgeting is letting them experience things that would normally be out of their reach, with people prepared to do without comfortable beds or meals out so that they can afford extravagances in other areas.
People like Nicola Bamforth, a 24-year-old veterinary receptionist from Barnsley, who spent three months travelling around Australia, New Zealand and Asia with her boyfriend David.
As adventurous souls, Nicola and David wanted to take part in as many excursions as they could. Something that, even though they’d saved for the previous year, wouldn’t normally have been affordable for them.
Nicola said: “We wanted to make sure that we could experience as much as possible, so we chose to save money on food and alcohol while we were there. The money we saved allowed us to hire a campervan to drive from Sydney to Cairns, swim with turtles on the Great Barrier Reef, sail for two days across Whitsunday Islands, visit Hobbiton in New Zealand and body board down the sand dunes!
“We did drastically cut back when it came to eating and accommodation. We stayed in hostels and cooked our own food. We didn’t once touch alcohol while we were travelling. I wouldn’t change the experience for the world though, because it meant that we had some incredible once-in-a-lifetime experiences.”
Meanwhile, Rosie Kelly’s dream of travelling around Japan, a country with famously expensive internal transport, wasn’t going to come without some radical savings.
The communications officer from Bristol used a budget airline for her arduous 14-hour flight, which halved the cost of a typical long haul return fare to the country, saving around £250 on each ticket.
She said: “The money we saved allowed us to travel a lot more than we otherwise could have done. We splashed out on rail passes which gave us unlimited travel throughout the country and we got to see so much! We made detours to Osaka, Kyoto, Mount Fuji and Hiroshima.
“I’d definitely do it again. We basically got the holiday of a lifetime for not much more than the price of a couple of weeks in the Spanish Sun!”
To help other holidaymakers experience a once-in-a-lifetime holiday without breaking the bank, Florida4Less has created a guide to luxury holiday cheating:
Fly business class - by booking a cheaper family room
Sharing a family room for large groups of people might not be the ideal situation, but the comfort, added extras and priority boarding of spending a long-haul flight in business class more than make up for it.
Enjoy juicy steaks and breakfast in bed by room service - by only drinking water
For those who prefer to spend on the accommodation, forfeiting cocktails, wine and fresh smoothies for the rest of the holiday is much easier when you can look forward to room service in a nice hotel. Steak for two and breakfast in bed is surely one of life’s best luxuries.
Fine dine every night - by staying at a no-frills hotel
If good food is really what you’re going for, then pack a glamorous dress or smart suit to enjoy the best restaurants at your destination. Staying at either a hostel or a cheap but clean no-frills hotel will free up your budget to enjoy them.
Book a five-star suite - by saving on flights
A massive comfortable bed, unbeatable location and extra luxuries really can make you feel special. Just be sure to book the very cheapest flights possible. They might be at an ungodly hour, take a little longer, or not have the benefits of travelling with a big airline, but it’s all worth it when you’re standing in a luxury suite.
Take an excursion to another city - by hunting out family meal offers
Renting a car and driving to the coast or another city for the day is a great way of exploring more of the region. To free up the budget, visitors to Florida especially can take advantage of ‘kids eat free’ offers at many restaurants. The food might be unadventurous, but there’s still a decent amount of choice.
Jon Moulding, director and co-founder at Florida4Less, said: “By being creative with what you choose to scrimp on, and taking it to extremes, it is possible to save enough to be able to splash out in other areas.
“As long as you’re happy to put up with sleeping in a hostel so you can enjoy fine dining every night, you can still leave feeling like you’ve had a luxury holiday.”
