I wanted an exotic holiday this year but I didn’t want to pay the earth for it. Some of the quotes that I got from package holiday companies were absolutely ridiculous and far outside of the budget I had allocated. I went to lots of package holiday companies, both on the internet and on the high street but they were literally over a thousand pounds more than I was prepared to pay, both because I couldn’t afford it and because I simply didn’t believe that it actually cost that much. I decided instead, to book my airport transfers, flights and accommodation individually myself and it actually ended up coming in below my actual budget!

If you want to save money, this is a great way to do it. I knew that travel agents added a premium but some of the charges are astronomical, particularly the mark up on airport transfers I have been charged in the past. Before booking my airport transfers or anything like that, the first thing I did was checked that the hotel I wanted to stay in was actually available for the dates I wanted – obviously you need to do this first, after all – you don’t want to book your airport transfers and flights and then find you have nowhere to stay. I found the hotels official website and sent then an enquiry email directly, they were prompt in responding and the price they quoted me was a fraction of that a travel agent would have charged me.

I then booked my flights and this is a great way to save money, I even opted not to have an in-flight meal, after all – over £50 for two people is pretty expensive when you think about it, you can eat at a nice restaurant for that price. Why pay that when you can grab a snack at the airport for far less.

The final part was the airport transfers. Our destination was quite exotic and off the beaten track so to be honest I was half expecting airport transfers companies to not offer it but I was amazed to find that they all did. I had saved so much money with the flights and accommodation that I decided to splash out on the airport transfers and booked private transport but it was still pretty cheap for a 3 hour drive and the whole holiday came in less than my budget. I thought airport transfers were just for popular resorts but they offer transport in lots of different more exotic locations.