40+ Brilliant Travel Websites To Help You Save BIG: Seriously Don’t Book Before You Check These!

This page has our best travel recommendations. These sites can save you hundreds of pounds. Before you book any travel, check these sites first!

Freebies

Airbnb: Airbnb is our favourite way to travel. They are often cheaper than a hotel and with much more space. Perfect if you are a group or family. Use our link and you’ll get £30 FREE towards your next stay!

Uber: If you’re looking for a cheap taxi ride, here’s a free £10 voucher off your first ride with Uber. The code is “dominics257” or just click this link.

EHIC Card: The EHIC card is 100% free. Never pay a shady third party website to ‘process’ an application for you. The official government website is ehic.org.uk. You need to register, but you can link the whole family’s cards to one account.

Kids Pass: Kids Pass members get access to over 5,000 offers and is a great way for families to save money all year round. These include anything from kids eat free at 1000 restaurants, 40% off cinema tickets and up to 57% off thousands of days out. Join now for £1 for a trial membership. OK, it’s not quite free but close to it! 🙂

Ultimate Holiday Checklist: Our HUGE list of everything you need to think about when it comes to packing for your family holiday. Get it here.

Family Travel Pocket Companion: Before you go on holiday, download our FREE passport-sized Family Travel Pocket Companion – you won’t believe how much helpful holiday information we’ve crammed onto one page. Print it off and fold it into a passport-sized doc that you can keep with you at all times.

TasteCard: TasteCard is giving away FREE 1 month trial memberships. It will give you 50% off at over 7,000 restaurants around the UK. These include many popular restaurants including Pizza Express, Zizzi, Bella Italia, ASK, Cafe Rouge, La Tasca, GBK, Strada and Prezzo.

Gourmet Society Card: Gourmet Society is offering a FREE 30 day trial dining card. You can get 2 for 1 meals or 25% off your bill at over 7,000 restaurants in the UK. If you don’t wish to continue your subscription after the trial, don’t forget to cancel. Many popular chains include Prezzo, La Tasca, Cafe Rouge, Strada, Hotel du Vin and Belgo.

Free Brochures: Choose from thousands of brochures and get them delivered to your door, for FREE! We still love leafing through brochures as way to get inspired on destinations, as well find great deals. This saves you from carting them home from travel agents. Plus, there is a lot more choice! For example, categories include: UK Short Stay | Adventure Holidays | Family Holidays | Exotic Holidays | Winter Ski. Take a look at the selection!

Kids Eat Free: If you’re on the look out for a cheap meal at a restaurant near you, we’ve collected a number of deals and food vouchers where kids eat free! There’s loads of great restaurants to choose from, including Frankie & Benny’s, Harvester where kids eat for £1 and a great choice of Italian restaurants for a cheap meal out with the family. View Kids Eat Free deals.

Kids Go Free Holidays: We’ve rounded up the most popular holiday companies offering that all important free kids place! Make booking your next holiday child’s play ? We cover free child places with On The Beach, Jet2holidays, First Choice, loveholidays.com, Thomson and Thomas Cook. Get the details.

Train Tickets

Virgin Trains: VirginTrains is our TOP recommendation. “But isn’t it just for Virgin’s routes?” we hear you ask. No! Many don’t realise that VirginTrains provides fares and times for the whole rail network using the same search engine as Trainline. And the reason we like it is because, unlike others, it doesn’t add booking fees or credit card charges. It’s also one of the smoothest sites to use.

Railcards: Get a railcard if you spend over £90 a year on train tickets. Railcards are available for families and friends, young people, seniors and disabled people. They’re even offered for couples – look for the Two Together card. They cost £20-30 per year and the biggest saving they offer is a third off train fares. If you are likely to spend over £90 a year then they are usually a worthwhile investment. You can use them on peak as well as off-peak services.

Special Offer – Get 20% OFF a Family & Friends Railcard. Deal ends 20th Feb. Usual price is £30.00 – new price is £24.00 (discounted at the end). Use code FEB17.

Hotels

Booking.com: Booking.com is my favourite hotel booking site. As well as hotels they have loads of other accommodation types including glamping, apartments and villas. Their prices are fantastic and they have a price match guarantee.

Travelodge: My recommended budget family friendly hotel chain. Kids go free (under 16) and always check their online saver rates that are better than you’ll find anywhere else. Travelodge lets you book for up to a year in advance, so if you can, book 10-11 months ahead for the lowest prices.

TripAdvisor: As you begin your search for a cheap hotel you’re going to need reviews. In our experience, TripAdvisor reviews provides the most accurate sense of the quality of a hotel, with many experienced travel reviewers who are willing to factor in value-for-money and customer expectations.

Attraction Breaks

Merlin AttractionsThe benefit of booking direct is often you get 2nd day free or kids go free offers. So if you’re thinking of a short break to any of the following Merlin attractions check the prices direct on the following links: LEGOLAND Holidays, Alton Towers, Chessington, Thorpe Park, Warwick Castle or Peppa Pig World.

SuperBreak: A huge choice with over 400 attraction breaks. We’ve highlighted SuperBreak a lot on our site. In our research they often turned up the best offers and they offer many accommodation options. But there are some other reasons they are a reliable place to find a good package: Excellent customer feedback (97% on Feefo), Their prices include taxes, No sneaky credit card fees, No extra booking charges, Established for 30 years and last year’s ‘Best UK Tour Operator’ (Globe Travel). Call them for a quote on 01904 420476. They are open 8am – 10pm, 7 days a week.

Booking.com: If you decide to book your tickets and hotel separately check Booking.com. They have tonnes of accommodation options near local attractions. It’s our favourite hotel booking site. Their prices are fantastic and they have a price match guarantee.

Travelodge: Another option if you decide to book your hotel separately for an attraction break. We’re big fans of Travelodge – try and book your accommodation far in advance. Don’t forget to check their online saver rates.

Attraction Tickets

AttractionTix: Want to book a fun day out? AttractionTix have cheap theme park tickets for attractions across the world (including Spain, Portugal and France) as well as UK favourites like Legoland, Alton Towers and Thorpe Park.

Kids Pass: Kids Pass members get access to over 5,000 offers. These include anything from kids eat free at 1000 restaurants, 40% off cinema tickets and up to 57% off thousands of days out. Join now for £1 for a trial membership.

Package Holidays

Kids Go Free Holidays: We’ve rounded up the most popular holiday companies offering that all important free kids place! Make booking your next holiday child’s play ? We cover free child places with On The Beach, Jet2holidays, First Choice, loveholidays.com, Thomson and Thomas Cook. Get the details.

Best Low Deposit Holidays 2018 / 2019: Take the pressure off by booking a holiday with a low deposit starting at only £50 per person. We’ve searched the web to find you the best low deposit holiday deals. Get the details.

Best Package Holiday Booking Codes – DO NOT Book Until You Have Seen This List: We’ve saved you time to find the best holiday discount codes. This is by no means an exhaustive list but we’ve focused on the most popular companies offering savings with codes that work. Get the details

Flights

Skyscanner: The starting point of any cheap flight search is a comparison site. But which to use? Skyscanner is our favourite. It’s so easy to use and searches over 1000 different airlines and agents. It quickly finds the cheap flights and then links you directly to the airline to book.

SeatGuruSeatGuru is a clever site that shows you where the best seats are on your aircraft – and which ones to avoid. With seat reviews from thousands of users and details of over 800 aircraft, you can make sure you’re not getting given a bad position. SeatGuru looks at everything from legroom and reclining distances to TV screen availability and closeness to the toilets. They also have airport reviews telling you where to find charging stations and how to get free wifi.

Holiday Rentals

Airbnb: Airbnb is my favourite way to travel. They are often cheaper than a hotel and with much more space. Perfect if you are a group or family. Use my link and you’ll get £30 FREE towards your next stay!

Holiday Rentals Finder: Use our finder tool to search over 4 million holiday rentals worldwide and compare prices from dozens of sites like TripAdvisor and HomeAway. From UK cottages, caravans and big barns to European beach apartments and Florida villas – find and book the cheapest holiday rentals as you search by price, size, amenities and rating.

Travel Insurance

GoCompareA good way to start off your search is with a travel insurance comparison site. Our favourite site is GoCompare and you can also get quotes for car hire and flights.

Car Hire

SkyscannerSkyscanner searches all the major car hire firms, including Europcar, Enterprise, Budget, easyCar, National and Hertz. It shows you the closest deals to your doorstep and has dozens of filters – from air con to automatic – ensuring you’re shown exactly what you need. It has an easy booking process and great filter options.

Airport Parking

Holiday Extras: The ‘Google’ of airport parking (because it’s the one most people turn to first) Holiday Extras provide an alluring price guarantee. If you see the same airport parking offer cheaper elsewhere, they’ll give you your parking for free. It’s a bold offer when you see the number of car park companies they work with – why not test them out.

JustPark: With over 200,000 parking spaces JustPark is the UK’s largest site in this sector. A recent study conducted last year found the UK has the world’s most expensive airport parking. Try JustPark to see if you can save some money on your airport parking.

Bus Tickets

National Express: If you’re travelling by bus, these days National Express really makes an effort to be family friendly. With booster seats, wifi, air con and power sockets for tablets – as well as bargain prices when compared to train – they’re worth a look. With their £8 Family Coachcard kids go free.

Travel Money

FairFX: FairFX is a tried and tested prepaid travel card with good rates. Use our special link to get your card for free – there’s usually a £9.95 application fee if you load less than £200. You get FairFX’s own exchange rate, which changes daily but usually beats that of most other prepaid cards. FairFX is FCA regulated so your money is safe.

Florida

Walt Disney World Florida: The cheapest 7, 14 and 21 day ‘Ultimate’ tickets we found for Walt Disney World are through the official site. All travel agents we saw were adding at least a few pounds on top of the prices available at Walt Disney World UK. Note that UK tourists are forced to this site rather the US site, and UK retailers – including travel agents – are only given these Ultimate tickets to sell to Brits. That said, these Ultimate tickets give the kind of flexibility most UK Disney-goers are looking for.

FloridaTix: This is our favourite Florida general ticket site and the best option we found for UK holidaymakers looking for cheap Universal Orlando tickets. The two-park entry tickets were over £20 cheaper than on the official site (see below). Plus with FloridaTix you get lots of bonuses: a $10 voucher for Planet Hollywood, mall vouchers, money off car hire and free postage. There are no credit card fees, the site has a price-match promise and reviews are good.

Eating Out

TasteCard: TasteCard is giving away FREE 1 month trial memberships. It will give you 50% off at over 7,000 restaurants around the UK. These include many popular restaurants including Pizza Express, Zizzi, Bella Italia, ASK, Cafe Rouge, La Tasca, GBK, Strada and Prezzo.

Gourmet Society Card: Gourmet Society is offering a FREE 30 day trial dining card. You can get 2 for 1 meals or 25% off your bill at over 7,000 restaurants in the UK. If you don’t wish to continue your subscription after the trial, don’t forget to cancel. Many popular chains include Prezzo, La Tasca, Cafe Rouge, Strada, Hotel du Vin and Belgo.

Kids Pass: Kids Pass members get access to over 5,000 offers and is a great way for families to save money all year round. These include anything from kids eat free at 1000 restaurants, 40% off cinema tickets and up to 57% off thousands of days out. Join now for £1 for a trial membership.

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Dominic Sawyer

Dominic has been writing on the web since 2000. He has a BSc (Hons) degree in Biological Sciences from Nottingham University and his research thesis has been published in journals. With a foundation in painstaking research he found his passion for travel and has worked in the sector for 20 years. He has written a book about travel and has extended his expertise to consumer research across the travel and leisure sector.

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