Katie Nelson

Plan your annual leave wiselyGetting the most out of your annual leave is essential, so make sure you plan things carefully. Bank holidays are your best friends, so if you’re looking to go on a city break or a week long holiday then try and tag them onto a bank holiday weekend. This Easter I’m off to Riga, Latvia for 4 days, yet I won’t need to take any holiday from work. This is a win-win situation; 4 days is the perfect amount of time for a city break. I won’t need to rush my trip and I get to save precious annual leave days, meaning I can save them for another time in the year. I’m also going inter-railing at the end of the summer and have combined this trip with the August bank holiday. I’ll be away for 17 days in total, while only taking 10 days annual leave. Now that is a winner. The only downside to booking a trip over a bank holiday is that transport and accommodations prices tend to be more expensive. However, if you plan well ahead and take this into consideration you’ll be financially prepared for the slight increase.

The internet is your friend
The internet is the perfect tool for planning and booking your holidays and it’s especially great for bagging yourself a bargain. Skyscanner is my favourite website when it comes to booking trips. If you’re unsure where to go and want to fly somewhere on a budget, you can select their fly to everywhere feature and see what destinations are the cheapest. I’ve done this several times before; I choose London as my departing destination and see where I can go from there. My Krakow, Copenhagen and Budapest trips were all planned in this way and I purchased each of these flights for less than £40 return. Once you’ve found a destination you can start planning from here. If, like me, you’re keen to travel for a cheaply as possible while having a great experience then hostels may be your accommodation of choice. Again, the fabulous world wide web comes up trumps with fabulous websites like Hostel Bookers. This is my go to site for researching and booking a hostel, and you only have to pay a deposit up front, so you can spread the cost of your trip. If hotels or apartments are more up your street then sites like airbnb or Lastminute.com are great places to look! Research is always key when planning a trip, big or small, so make sure you Google your destination. Lonely Planet is the holy grail for planning any trip – the amount of knowledge and tips they provide is endless! And remember: always hunt around for the best deals on flights and accommodation – don’t just book the first thing you see!

You don’t have to travel to the ends of the earth
Travelling doesn’t necessarily equate to long haul trips to far flung countries. If you’re worried about jet lag or taking too much time off work, you can always plan a trip closer to home. We are so lucky living in the UK with mainland Europe on our doorstep. It’s so easy to get to any number of countries in under 2 hours and it usually costs less than the price of a train ticket to London. If you want to fit in travelling around a full time job, then long haul trips probably aren’t the way to do it. That’s not to say you shouldn’t do them – but you’ll probably be restricted to one big holiday a year. Long haul trips are expensive and you’ll need to take more annual leave to compensate for the flights and jet-lag. However, if you stick to Europe you can fit in a handful of little city breaks, week long holidays or even a longer inter-rail type holiday. Travelling to Europe is also a lot cheaper than going somewhere further afield. With cheap flights so easy to come by, you can get to dozens of destinations for under £100. You can also take a ferry to France or the Netherlands and go for a road trip or explore the county by train. The possibilities are endless and won’t break the bank.