Fixed vacation destination and fixed time?

Flights and hotels are significantly cheaper in the low season. If you are completely free in your planning, you can search for the cheapest month on many travel and flight portals and make real savings. And if you arrive on a Tuesday instead of a Saturday, you can fly 11% cheaper on average. And according to studies, flights cost the least seven weeks before the desired departure date. You can save around 26 percent again.

If you want to travel cheaply but prefer to decide on a destination and time early on, you should secure your vacation bargain as early as possible! This is especially true for families with school-age children. This is because cheap travel offers during the vacations sell out quickly. What's more, if you book early, attractive discounts and children's discounts based on age are still available until April. Instead of discounts, there are sometimes extras such as travel for 14 days but only pay for ten or book half board but enjoy full board. Another potential saving lies in the choice of airport. Look for departures in federal states where there are no school vacations in the respective period! Travel by train from your home town to the departure airport and back is often included in the package deal.

Flexible in terms of period and destination?

If you are more of a spontaneous type of traveler, you can also book last minute and find great deals! These are often remaining places from existing tour operator contingents. Here you benefit from great price advantages, but only have a limited or no choice of travel period, departure airport and hotel. The closer you get to departure, the cheaper your vacation will be. But be careful! If you book a long-haul trip at short notice, you also need to think about the necessary vaccinations and visas. Otherwise your vacation could end at the airport!

Choose your destination based on the cost factor

If you have a small vacation budget, you should not only pay attention to the flight price. A flight to France may not be as expensive as to Southeast Asia, for example, but the local costs for accommodation, food and transportation quickly add up. Within Europe, Albania and Bulgaria, for example, are inexpensive.

Get there and around your vacation destination cheaply

With a low-cost airline, you usually arrive a little off the beaten track, but you can organize your own transfer by public transport. If you travel to Girona instead of flying directly to Barcelona, for example, you will save a lot of money. Would you like to drive yourself? It is best to book a rental car ten to 14 days before departure. This is when the rental price is at its lowest.

Pay attention to the vacation periods of the federal states

You can usually only travel with children during school vacations. It is cheaper to travel from an airport in a federal state that has no vacations. Take the train to get there. A "Rail&Fly" ticket is often already included in the airline price.

Let yourself be surprised and try out blind booking

Blind booking is a pig in a poke. For example, you only enter the departure airport, book and be surprised where you are going, e.g. via Eurowings. You can find hotels in this way at www.hotwire.com

The country check: it's particularly cheap here

The price level for accommodation and gastronomy varies considerably across Europe. If you want to pay less for a similar service, Bulgaria offers the best value for money. Here, everything is on average more than half (-58%) cheaper than here. This is followed by Turkey (-53%), Croatia (-35%), Greece (-33%), Poland (-32%) and Portugal (-27%). Prices are also 23% lower on average in Spain, the Germans' favorite travel destination. Incidentally, it is twice as expensive in Norway.

Extra tip

Travel cancellation costs: insurance pays if you are unable to go on vacation due to illness, for example - but not if you change your mind later!

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