Easter travel tips 🌍 🐰

Easter holiday prices

Flight and holiday prices soar over school holiday time periods such as Easter. Sadly, it’s a reflection of supply and demand. Families are tied to the school holidays, meaning a lot of people want to travel at the same time and this pushes prices up.

On top of that, inflation has been high at home and abroad for the last couple of years – and the travel industry has not been immune to this.

Flights, in particular, have seen significant price increases due to a mix of factors, including higher fuel and maintenance costs, and supply-chain issues.

BUT, there's some good news for those looking to travel during Easter. There are ways to save, especially if you are flexible with the destination and date you travel. Let's get into it.👇

Tips and tricks

Finding cheap flights and holidays

The best advice here is being flexible with where you choose to go. If you want to book a week in Greece, Spain or any mass-market destination, it’s going to be hard to find cheap flights.

If the aim is just finding cheap flights, we recommend looking for destinations that people might overlook. For example, flights to Mallorca in the Easter holidays, including bags, would set a family of three back by about £450.

On the same dates, a family could fly to Nice, in France, with BA for £316 all in. The French Riviera is certainly a bit cooler than the Balearic's at that time of year, but it’s a beautiful destination with lots to see and do for families.

How to search for cheap flights?

There’s an enduring myth that you should use private browsing or clear your cookies before looking for flights, and that search volume impacts prices. There’s no truth in that.

What is true is that flight prices are very volatile. But the changes are governed by complex algorithms that you can’t game with simple fixes like clearing cookies.

The best advice is to decide how much you are willing to pay to travel to a certain destination, and then set price alerts on websites like Kayak as early as possible (flights tend to be released nine-12 months ahead), and wait and see.

The second week of the holiday tends to be the cheapest option because there’s no bank holiday.

Weekend departures for a traditional 7-night holiday always command a premium because they enable people to have a week off using only five days of annual leave. Any weekday departure will require a sixth day of leave (unless you can find late flights, but that will eat into your holiday time).

So if you’re happy to use an extra leave day, weekday departures should save you some money.

How far in advance should you book?

For people who have very specific requirements in terms of when and where they want to travel, booking early is advised. Prices will be fairly competitive if there’s still a lot of availability in the market.

But, if you’re flexible, it might be worth leaving it late. As certain destinations underperform against the travel companies’ expectations, you can see considerable price drops.

The best tip is to set a budget, look for a holiday you like, and book it. The best deal is the one you can afford and makes you and your family happy.

If you don’t want to do the legwork though, there are some great travel-deals companies, including HolidayPirates, that specialise in hunting the best offers for you.

Should you book as part of a package?

Sometimes, but not always. Again, it depends on what type of traveller you are.

Some travel companies, for example, have committed stock – either they run an airline and/or they have pre-bought rooms at hotels. In this case, every empty seat or unsold room cost them money. And last-minute discounts can be pretty big.

But generally speaking, peace of mind is the number-one benefit of booking a package. Packages in the UK provide full financial protection – if something goes wrong, you’ll get your money back through the ATOL scheme.

When booking elements separately, if anything goes wrong, you’re at the mercy of your travel insurance.

However, when looking for destinations that are not so well served by the major tour operators, booking flights and hotels or short-term rentals separately will usually work out cheaper. So this may be your best bet for finding that cheap Easter deal.