When is the best time of year for a cheap holiday?
Simon Calder answers your questions on bargain holidays, travelling in the Czech Republic and new US rules on stricter vetting for travellers
Q When is the best time of year to go on holiday for cheap prices?
Rhianna J
A Predictably, the short answer is: it all depends. For cut-rate hotels at British seaside resorts, the best deals are probably obtainable during a wet week in November or early December. The same gloomy time of year will also see very low transatlantic economy airfares. Budget airlines tend to offer cheap deals year-round outside the school holidays, especially midweek but sometimes at weekends, too. Two weeks ago I flew from London Stansted to Bergerac on Ryanair for £24. But for what many of us would consider a traditional holiday in the Mediterranean, the second and third weeks of May offer the best deals.
Airline and package holiday schedules have been ramped up for summer, yet demand is still weak. Next month Europe’s biggest holiday company, Tui, has a wide range of bargains from UK airports. The prices here are per person for two travelling together on a one-week holiday, including return flights (with baggage), transfers and self-catering accommodation. They include London Gatwick to the Greek Ionian islands of Kefalonia (11 May, £217) and Zante (20 May, £221).
Prices tend to be lowest from the London airports, but Jet2holidays has some excellent deals from elsewhere, such as £280 from Liverpool to the beautiful Bodrum Peninsula in Turkey on 14 May. The following day, to the same destination, easyJet Holidays has a week for £320, flying from Bristol, with breakfast included.
The lowest May price I have found is through the online travel agent Love Holidays: £149 for a week B&B in Agadir, Morocco, flying from Edinburgh on 21 May. But this includes less than the offer from the three big package holiday companies already mentioned: you must pay more for anything but minimal cabin baggage on the Ryanair flights, and transfers cost an extra £23 per person.
Add in the excellent early summer weather in these locations, and the absence of crowds, and May offers the best value as well as the lowest prices.
Q I need to get from Prague to San Sebastian in June, preferably without an overnight at a European airport and/or a “self-transfer”.
Seems tricky. Any ideas, please?
“Funky Munky”
A Congratulations on combining two of Europe’s most beautiful cities in a single trip. I am all in favour of “triangular” trips that go from A to B to C to A, rather than just A to B and back. You can take advantage of excellent links across Europe and cut the amount of travel compared with making two return trips.
I also agree that “self-transfers” – where you buy two separate budget flights rather than a “through ticket” – are risky, especially in a summer when the worst air-traffic control delays for a quarter of a century are predicted.
Now for the practicalities. Prague has a well-connected airport at the heart of Europe. San Sebastian’s small airport is both awkwardly placed (adjacent to the French frontier next to the scruffy border town of Irun) and poorly linked. The only regular services are domestic links from Barcelona (Vueling), Madrid (Iberia) and Gran Canaria (Binter), with the occasional British Airways flight from London City. Prices for connections via these locations are high, such as £375 for a same-day trip on Iberia via Madrid.
Fortunately, San Sebastian is also reasonably close to Bilbao airport, which has good connections across Europe. There are direct Vueling flights from Prague to Bilbao on Wednesdays (arriving 11pm) and Saturdays (arriving 1pm). The basic fare is around €100 (£85). On other days you could self-connect via Rome (Wizz Air) or Palma (Ryanair plus Vueling), but better to go for KLM, Iberia or Lufthansa via their respective hubs to protect the connection – if your first flight is late and you miss the booked onward journey, the airline must rebook you and, if necessary, provide a hotel.
On arrival at Bilbao airport, there are hourly buses direct to San Sebastian (know on timetables as Donostia, the Basque name) between 7.45am and midnight, taking 80 minutes, for a flat fare of €17 (£14); no need to book in advance.
Q An Australian was turned away for flying from Australia to America via Hong Kong, which was deemed suspicious. What is your advice to people thinking of flying to the US on indirect flights such as via Iceland?
David G
A On day one of the Trump presidency, an executive order demanded “all aliens seeking admission to the United States” should be “vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible”. This has been interpreted by immigration officials as requiring them to be far more suspicious of potential visitors. The “crime” of the Australian in question had been to buy a ticket on Cathay Pacific from Sydney via Hong Kong to New York, rather than a more direct option, presumably because it was significantly cheaper than the alternatives.
I can understand a Customs and Border Protection officer raising eyebrows about why an Australian would fly an extra 6,500 miles on an already long trip between Sydney and New York. From experience of US immigration, I imagine it was not a huge leap to persuade officials to err on the side of caution and deport the traveller, who promptly lost a cruise worth over £10,000. This unfortunate decision provides a useful reminder that obtaining an Electronic System for Travel Authorisation(Esta) permit to enter the US does nothing more than allow you to apply for entry. In these strange times the risk is raised that you may be refused admission and deported on the next plane home.
Yet a trip to the US via Reykjavik is unlikely to be misconstrued. For decades Iceland has been taking advantage of its position in the Atlantic to offer many routes between Europe and North America. The most direct track from Manchester to Seattle, for example, goes almost directly over Keflavik international airport. So it is a respectable way to arrive.
However, travellers need to exercise an abundance of caution because of the heightened vetting of tourists. The best option, in my opinion, is to travel via Dublin (or Shannon) in Ireland, where passengers for the US are “pre-cleared” while still on Irish territory. If you are going to be turned away, better that it happens before you have flown the Atlantic. And in the likely case that you are allowed through, you will have swerved the long queues on arrival in the US, while other travellers are “screened to the maximum degree possible”.
Welcome to America.
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