A luxurious summer holiday is not in the cards for me this year, but a short holiday abroad is. The kids are doing their own thing, so I dare to take a chance on a last-minute bargain.
With my passport in hand and an open mind, I search the internet for a cheap option for the next day.
Given the enormous choice, I take the plunge and head over to the travel website Skyscanner and click on the ‘Explore Everywhere’ button.
Toby Walne in Biarritz in southwestern France, an elegant seaside resort on the Basque coast
Biarritz has 20 surf schools where you can learn from ‘les tontons surfeurs’, so it’s no wonder that the cheapest deals are hostels that cater to surfers
Lucky Air flights that immediately catch my eye include a deal to Oslo in Norway for just £15. But as I type in the dates, the offer has suddenly disappeared.
I find out it was a one-way trip in September and wonder if the term ‘Lucky Air flights’ might be a marketing ploy.
I press on and select my nearest Stansted airport for my outward and return flights – and voila, trips to Ireland from £35 and France from £39 appear on the screen.
In search of an exotic location, a city trip to Cork, however wonderful it might be, is rejected.
The cheapest flight to France arrives at Bordeaux airport at 12:30 the next day – not ideal for a relaxing getaway.
But it also offers a return trip to Biarritz for £55, a Basque seaside resort just 30 miles north of Spain.
The cheapest flight to France arrives at Bordeaux airport the next day at 11:30pm – not ideal for a relaxing getaway
Grande Plage beach with Hotel du Palais in the background. Winston Churchill, Pablo Picasso and Charlie Chaplin all stayed here
It is an elegant favourite among the French middle class and is also appreciated by our own royal family.
Queen Victoria once took the reins, driving a carriage drawn by a donkey. Other visitors included Winston Churchill, Pablo Picasso and Charlie Chaplin, who all checked into the Hotel du Palais, where they admired the sandy La Grande Plage beach and the glamorous Art Deco casino.
Originally built in 1854 by Napoleon III for his wife as Villa Eugenie, this five-star hotel was renovated into a luxury hotel after the fall of the monarch in 1870.
I pull out my credit card to book the flights. The website seamlessly switches me over to Ryanair. The catch is a 6:20am flight. Even though I live only ten miles from the airport, that still means I have to set my alarm for 4am.
The 90-minute return journey must take place the following day at 10:05 p.m. The offer therefore offers two full days to live the French dream.
I oppose Ryanair’s attempt to more than double the price with a £76 ‘flexi plus’ option, which allows you to choose a seat and take more than a laptop-sized bag on board.
This bag must be no larger than 40cm x 20cm x 25cm and must fit under the seat in front of me. There is just enough room for a laptop, notepad and toothbrush – but not enough for clothes.
The website then reports: ‘Oops, something went wrong’.
When I refresh the page it turns out that this technical issue has caused the total cost of my flights to increase to £59, when I agreed to pay £33 for the outward journey and £22 for the return journey.
Unless you’re travelling light, with a bag that fits under the seat and is therefore free, baggage costs a hefty extra charge
The cost of travelling can add up. We now spend an average of £36 per person on snacks, meals, wifi and airport duty free
But if I take the risk of booking at the last minute, I might pay less than the £100 or more I would have had to pay if I had booked the seat a few months earlier.
Nightly rates for Biarritz hotels on Skyscanner start at £49, with deals selected from websites including Booking.com, Expedia and Agoda.
Biarritz has 20 surf schools where you can learn from ‘the tontons surfers‘It is therefore not surprising that the cheapest hostels are those aimed at surfers.
But for £69 I found the two-star Les Alizes Hotel right on the beach – and I could knock the price down to £62 by visiting the hotel’s website and booking direct online.
Airbnb is another option and for £49 I can ‘share with Jeff’ – but this kind of offer doesn’t appeal to me.
Incredibly, the biggest bill I get is to and from Stansted Airport, asking for £88 to park my car overnight in the nearest short-stay car park.
So for just £2 more I pay £44 for a taxi from home to the airport and £46 back (this includes a £7 surcharge the airport charges for using the pick up and drop off points, which is added to the taxi bill).
The airport also tries to suck money from my wallet as I make my way through the shiny boutiques and expensive cafes and restaurants to the departure hall.
According to Holiday Extras, we now spend an average of £36 per person on snacks, meals, wifi and airport duty free. That’s a 37% increase in just two years, with meals having risen by around 9%.
Once on board I feel rather smug, because despite my bargain tickets I get one of the best seats on the plane. The flight is almost full with mainly French travellers and British holidaymakers who look as if they are on their way to surf the impressive waves around the town in the Bay of Biscay.
Arriving in Biarritz is a different world to the overcrowded rip-off I left behind. I pass through passport control and board a €1.40 (£1.20) bus into the city centre.
Although I bought a €3 (£2.50) baguette with ham and cheese for breakfast at the local supermarket, my budget at the hotel turns out to be in disarray.
The room is small and depressing. Every time a guest uses the room, the sound of the elevator echoes through the wall.
Fortunately, the hotel receptionist Rebecca is flexible and finds me another room at the three-star Marbella Hotel, just next door. I have to pay an extra €20 (£17), but this offers spacious accommodation with a balcony overlooking the sea. It’s easy to spend the extra money after being so frugal when booking the flights.
Prices for meals along the coast are reasonable: €20 (£17) for a heaping plate of locally cured meats with cheese, bread and pickles
Prices for meals along the coast are reasonable – €20 (£17) for a heaping plate of locally cured meats with cheese, bread and pickles, or grilled local prawns, salad and chips. A pint – Basque beer – is €5 (£4). The hotel’s buffet breakfast costs €14 (£12) and is a smart purchase as it allows me to skip lunch. The food and drink bill for two days comes to about the same price as my flights.
Skyscanner isn’t the only website offering great value holiday deals.
Wowcher offers a ‘Mystery Holiday’ from £99, but a key part of the mystery is how they lure customers in with images of resorts like Barbados in the Caribbean, when the chances are you’ll end up being sent to a less exotic country like Bulgaria or Poland. And in the summer, you’ll pay at least £129 for your stay.
Opodo also offers flight and hotel packages. Tap ‘Anywhere, Surprise Me!’ and you can get ‘Prime Hottest Deals’ including returns to Prague in the Czech Republic this month for €70 (£59) with hotels from £80 per night.
Other options to consider include Cheeky Trip, which has an ‘Anywhere’ option that can yield unexpected bargains. For example, flying you to Agadir in Morocco for a seven-night hotel stay with breakfast for £141 this month.
Budget airlines like Wizz Air often have links to discounted hotels on their websites
Budget airlines such as Wizz Air also have links to discounted hotels. Click on the ‘Anywhere’ destination link for countries and it will reveal unexpected options, such as flying from London Luton Airport to Tirana in Albania for £12.99 each way in September, with hotels for £19 per night.
Sometimes when you travel you get what you pay for, but the budget option in Biarritz turned out to be the perfect holiday destination with excellent value for money.
The cost of flights, hotel and meals for two days came to just under £200. The real increase in my bill was the shocking price of travelling to Stansted Airport and back – or the official parking charge – which added £90 to the bill.
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