How to travel in a recession – Top tips from Kayak.co.uk

With a full-blown recession predicted to be on its way, some people might think they need to scrap holiday plans. However, for many this needn’t be the case. Helpful sites like Kayak.co.uk have some great bargain hunting features that can help people create the holiday they want – without sending bank balances into the red!

Top tips for booking an affordable holiday:

- Flexibility is key. Airfares can vary several hundred pounds by day of the week. Travelling whilst most people are still at work will save time and money, so try booking your ticket for a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday to save some cash and aggravation. Use Kayak.co.uk’s Flexible Search tool to compare airfare up to three days before and three days after desired dates of travel.

- Lose the last minute: Kayak.co.uk’s the first to admit that sometimes there’s nothing more invigorating than throwing caution to the winds and taking that spontaneous trip. But in order to protect your wallet from the increasing oil prices that are driving up the cost of flights, you’ll need to book now if its savings you’re after. Costs for airfare, hotels and hire cars for the most part follow the thermometer – as the temperature rises, so do the prices!

- Open your mind: Not everyone knows where and when they want to go for their summer holiday. Kayak’s award winning Fare Buzz feature provides a crystal ball of prices for users who are date and/or destination challenged. Holidaymakers can search and track the best fares to the “Top 25 Cities” in a region including US, Europe, Caribbean, Mexico/Central America, Asia, Africa and Australia/Oceanic. The ultra budget conscious traveller can narrow in on the perfect destination based on price or use the Google Map to weigh options such as travel time and weather.

- Go for the Greenback: Travelling a bit further afield is hardly inexpensive, but Brits can make their hard earned pounds stretch as far as possible by heading to any destination accepting (or linked to) the U.S. dollar. Interested in making the most of the exchange rate but looking for someplace more tropical than the U.S. or Canadian mainland? Consider sunning yourself on the beaches of dollar-based Caribbean islands like Anguilla, Antigua, Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Just make sure to avoid St. Martin and St. Barts, which are much pricier and trade in the ever rising euro!

For more information, visit Kayak.co.uk.