Smarter money and stress saving holiday tips
By Darren Cronian on Monday, July 14th, 2008

European city breaks are much more popular as travellers prefer to take a few trips to different destinations throughout the year, rather than have one holiday, in one destination. I know I prefer short breaks over an annual holiday.

Smarter money and stress saving holiday tips

Karen Bryan, of the Europe a la Carte blog reveals her smarter travel tips.

Five tips for smarter travel tips

» Slap on the suncream, experts say we apply too thinly and not often enough.
» Learn a few words of the language so you can reel off a few phrases.
» Buy cracked heel cream to avoid/soothe cracks which appear when you walk around in sandals.
» Ditch the mobile and laptop you’re on holiday.
» Decide before you go what you want to get from the holiday.

Five money and stress saving tips

» Buy food for picnics at a grocery store, so you can eat when you want and choose a picturesque spot.
» Set a spending budget before you leave home and stick to it.
» Buy travel insurance and don’t carry all your card and cash in one place.
» Accept that there may be delays and hassle at the airport, arrive in plenty time.
» Don’t overload on travel bloggers travel tips or you’ll spend your whole holiday checking a list.

The last point made me laugh, but it’s true, whilst it’s important that you read tips before you travel don’t spoil your holiday. The tips are here to refresh your memory, which is important when your’re dashing around the house getting the family organised.


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6 responses to “Smarter money and stress saving holiday tips”

Andrea Wren | 14 July, 2008 at 10:37 am

Ditto on the last point, made me laugh as well! And not all tips are relevant to every traveller, of course, so it’s worth picking and choosing and, as you say, it’s important not to let fastidious list checking spoil your holiday. There has to be some spontaneity, after all.

Look forward to reading the next articles in your week-long tips series!

Jack | 14 July, 2008 at 10:51 am

I absolutely agree on leaving the laptop and phone at home. And unless I’m traveling solo, I’d leave the iPod and everything else electronic too. A book and a notebook are much more useful if you want to some. Oh, and good earplugs :-)

Darren Cronian | 14 July, 2008 at 12:47 pm

@ Andrea

Good point about not all tips are relevant to every traveller. The tips from travel companies will be more relevant to their area of business. There’s some great tips coming in to the inbox from bloggers and travel companies.

Hopefully we won’t get too much duplication.

Kellie | 14 July, 2008 at 1:30 pm

I have to admit i always take my laptop and always work while away, its like a addiction, i wish i could stop it!!

Karen Bryan | 14 July, 2008 at 9:54 pm

Andrea and Darren, glad to hear I made you laugh at tip 10, I just had this picture or Travel Rants readers running round in circles trying to follow all the tips and exclaiming, “What was tip 47, it’ll ruin my holiday if I don’t follow it?”

Darren Cronian | 15 July, 2008 at 6:23 am

@ Kellie

How can you enjoy your holiday with a laptop, I couldn’t think of anything worse. I’d hate to have a business phone too, otherwise I’ll be called at all times of the day and night. Leave it at home and relax!

@ Karen

No, it was a great point. I am sure this week will be information overload, which is why I am trying not to duplicate tips and theme the tips in each post, like air travel tips, backpacking etc.

The great thing about blogs is that this information will be searchable in the search engines and on the blog for years to come, so future travellers can make use of the wealth of information.

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