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Struggling to get away this year? There are plenty of ways to cut costs without affecting the quality of your break. Patrick Collinson and Jessica Bown explain how
1: Don't use Gatwick Express
A standard return on the non-stop Gatwick Express from London Victoria costs £28.80. The Southern service between the same stations takes five minutes longer and has a standard price of £10.90 each way, but you can buy two £5 singles if you book sufficiently far in advance.
2: Take the tube
A Heathrow Express train from London Paddington costs £32 return. A single tube ticket from zone 1 to Heathrow costs £4. A one-day family travel card for two adults and two children (five to 15) will cost £8.
3: Take the bus
The Stansted Express costs £26.80 return from London Liverpool St and takes 52 minutes. The Terravision bus outside the station claims to take 55 minutes and costs £13 return.
4: Advance book the airport car park
You pay £60 for one week's parking at Manchester Airport if you just turn up. Book in advance and it's £55. Or try the likes of airport-parking-shop.co.uk for quotes on car parks nearby with regular shuttles to the terminals. The cheapest we found was £19.44 for a week in August.
5: Beat the "super collision damage waiver (CDW)" car hire sting
You could save a fortune by using an insurance policy to cover the extras demanded by rental firms at foreign airports. Insurance4carhire.com offers a starting price of £49 a year (Europe only) that will cover the extra insurances which can typically put £30 a week on your basic rental bill.
6: Find cheap car hire
Guardian Money likes Holiday Autos (holidayautos.com) - it's not the absolute cheapest but is very competitive as it includes the extra CDW mentioned in point five.
7: Fly Thursday, return Tuesday
Looking for a free flight? Don't expect to find one flying out Friday returning on Sunday evening. The best-value Ryanair deals are nearly always found on flights travelling on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
8: Get a Visa Electron card
When using a standard debit or credit card, Ryanair charges £4.75 per person per single journey. EasyJet charges a minimum £1.95 per transaction. But if you have a Visa Electron debit card, there are no card charges. To obtain an Electron card, try halifax.co.uk and open an Easycash account online.
9: Never opt for "dynamic currency conversion"
This is the fastest-growing rip-off of British holidaymakers. Shops will let you pay in sterling rather than local currency, but the currency conversion rate used will be lousy and it will cost you 1%-5% more. The same goes for cash machines, which will offer "press yes for GBP, no for EUR". Holidaymakers should just press "no".
10: Get a Nationwide Flex Account card
All big banks impose a "foreign loading charge" of around 2.75% every time customers use their debit or credit card abroad. Using a cash machine abroad attracts a fee of 1.5% with a minimum charge of around £1.50. But you can avoid these charges in Europe if you take out a Nationwide Flex debit card as there are no extra charges.
11: Join your local library
Save on buying travel guides and maps by borrowing them from your local library. You can even obtain OS maps for walking holidays.
12: Download travel guides
Go to ivebeenthere.co.uk for budget ideas on locations, hotels, restaurants and so on, posted by Guardian readers. The Guardian's travel website also has city and country guides at guardian.co.uk/travel.
13: Don't automatically renew annual travel insurance
If your holiday insurance policy is about to expire and you don't have a holiday booked, don't renew the policy. You're covering an eventuality that won't happen. Restart the cover the next time you book a trip.
14: Get an EHIC card (but don't pay for it)
If you're going to Europe make sure you have a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC). It gives you access to the same state-provided healthcare as a resident of the country you are visiting. Try ehic.org.uk (not ehic.org, as that takes you to a site which encourages you to pay £9.95 for the card).
15: Don't buy food onboard
Have you tasted the soggy £5 sandwiches on the low-cost airlines? Buy fresher and cheaper sandwiches and drinks at air-side outlets such as Pret a Manger or Boots.
16: Beware the mobile phone sting
Leave your mobile phone switched off. If you have to use it, send texts. Or buy an international sim card in the UK before you go. If you are away for a long holiday and need to make local calls, it's cheaper to buy a sim when you're out there.
17: Consider a home swap
Why pay for accommodation abroad when someone will swap their home for yours in the UK? There are now lots of websites offering homeswap deals such as the Guardian's own guardianhomeexchange.co.uk, HomeLink.org, HomeforExchange.com and Intervac. There are also specialist sites such as sabatticalhomes.com which connect academics.
18: Buy foreign currency with cash
An annual gripe from readers is how they pop into the Post Office and use their debit card to purchase foreign currency, only to be charged 2.5% extra. Withdraw the cash from a hole-in-the-wall first.
19: Cash in on Tesco Clubcard
Instead of exchanging Tesco Clubcard points at £1 for £1 value, you can get four times the face value if you exchange them for Clubcard deal tokens, which can be redeemed against a range of travel fares and holidays. Under the Nectar loyalty scheme, which allows you to collect points at a range of retailers, you can use points to get discounts on hotel and fares.
20: Buy cheap sun tan lotion
According to a Which? survey, Sainsbury's £3 Sun Protect lotion and Asda's £3 Sun System rank alongside more expensive brands and in many cases offer better protection.
... but don't skimp on buying the Guardian, which is not one of the papers given away as you board a flight. That's no way to save 90p.
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