to ask for you tips with booking cheap long haul flights?

[Extraordinarytimes]

After costing up a modest eurocamp style break in France, I am wondering if we would be better off spending on flights and staying in a much cheaper country?

I haven’t traveled long haul since the kids were born and have been studying sky scanner but not really getting anywhere. Want to travel mid-August and don’t mind gentle monsoon. Do mind heat - can’t be higher than 35 really. Happy with modest accommodation; as long as the kids have a separate room and it’s clean. We used to camp (can’t now for health reasons) so standards can be low! Kids are all foodies so street food etc would be heaven for them. Would be lovely to have a beach but if not, decent hotel pool would be OK if there was plenty to see and experience.

Normally takes us 24 hours to travel to France so happy with similar flight time, or less! I have been looking at Thailand but can’t really make the flight figures work. Hoping for a total travel+accomodation spend of £4k - for 12-14 days. Husband refuses a shorter break as he takes that long to de stress!

Any hints or tips please? Or am I dreaming/being unreasonable and should return to France? 5 of us, kids 14, 12 and 10.

It would be difficult to get a holiday for 5 to the Far East for £4k - it looks as though the cheapest you'll (currently) get flights for is £600pp. Is that too much? You could stay in hostels/2 star hotels to keep the cost down.

I do get reasonably priced flights each year but am pretty open-minded about where I go - looking at places that look reasonably cheap. I'd do an "everywhere" search on Skyscanner for open dates - go at end July and come back in August and see where comes up cheaper. Then save the flights and get notifications about price decreases. I usually book mine in or around April of the year I go. You can then play around with dates to get the cheapest combination. be prepared to go on strange airlines/strange routes. I went to Japan last summer with Lot Airlines (Polish Air) and the flights were really reasonable! I went to Guatemala the year before via Canada - again more reasonable. We don't mind adding on a few hours though in order to save money. We had a day trip in Toronto which we all enjoyed !

We also stay in very cheap places when we go - so had a combination of hostels, cheaper hotels and Airbnbs in Japan, and similar in central america last year. I'm happy to sacrifice comfort so that I can have more adventurous holidays.

Also you can sign up for Jack's Flight Club (I think you have to pay now) and they email you details of bargain flights. There are quite a few now because of Black Friday.

A package may well be cheaper -worth a look. Unfortunately a lot of places count 12+ as adult though.

Depending on the airline, your 12 and 14 year olds may count as adults.
£4k for flights + accommodation for two weeks for five people, especially in school holidays, is optimistic.
You might manage eg Egypt on that budget but may do best with a package as PP suggested.

I use a Virgin credit card and pay for absolutely everything with it, settling up at the end of the month without fail. I earn points (air miles) which really add up. You need to look at booking a package and might have to rein in your travel plans eg Spain, the Canaries or Crete.

Depending on where you are travelling from you find find good flight deals on Scoot which is run by Singapore airlines, where will you travel from.

The cheapest Tui holiday to Thailand next August, for 10 days, would cost you £7k.
Your flights alone are likely to cost around £1k each.

It's much much easier if you're not fixed on dates. I like Google flights to check mine - you can put in a country (or area) and your requirements and it will come back with options, it also provides a matrix for adjusting your outgoing and incoming flight details as sometimes 10 days / 15 days can be cheaper than exactly 14. If you're happy not staying 'on resort' you can definitely get everything far, far cheaper than doing what people would consider to be a standard long haul package.

Thanks all. Good tip about Jacks flight club - will take a look now.

@Soontobe60 Im not considering anything like Tui hence looking at flights then an independent hotel/air bnb when we arrive.

I take your point about booking separately and I know it varies but do have a look at BA flight + hotel deals, they are often not much more than flight only. We've had some amazing deals over the years, better than TUI.

Long haul flights alone for that many people are going to eat up your budget

pre covid I used to fly to Australia for £700. It’s now double

South East Asia is a long and relatively costly trip for what would be rainy season in most parts in August. Why not consider mid haul - Oman, Egypt, Cape Verde, Azores, Kenya? Tips wise: sign up for deals, try looking at the Google flights grid and travelling mid week not over weekends.

You can still fly to SE Asia for £6-700 if you don't mind a weird layover - we have been via Shanghai a few times or some other city in China. Try a lesser known airline. If you budget £700 pp for flights that's 3500 though - you'd be hard pressed to do the rest for £500, but if you could stretch to 5k it's doable in cheap hotels. We do the same sort of holiday but it's got a lot more expensive since covid due to flights - we went to Thailand in 2018 for £300 each!

Because of the flight costs recently we have been staying in Europe and flying into Geneva or Milan which is cheap and then going on from there. Air bnb apartments way cheaper than hotels and you can move around to make it more interesting.

I think you have to decide it's one or the other - expensive flights but cheaper once you're there, or cheaper flights to Europe but spend more on food, accommodation etc. currently making the same choices for next summer! Good luck

I did look at flights at the beginning of August on Skyscanner and the cheapest was £890, so I checked Tui for comparison. august is one of the cheapest times to go to Thailand as the weather can be so bad - rainy, 100% humidity, and temps well over 35C.

Have a look at Africa, there are some great beaches and it's more or less in the same time zone so there is no jet lag to worry about.

South Africa may be an option. There are flights from £700 from Gatwick to Cape Town via Addis Ababa with Ethiopian Airlines. Leaving on 18 Aug returning 31 Aug.

Or the island of Zanzibar (part of Tanzania) for £800 with Kenya Airways via Nairobi. Or Dar Es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania for £650 with Ethiopian Airlines.

Thanks all, I have been looking! @Another2Cats my family is from Zanzibar - great shout! Would be fun to see where my dad grew up.

If Zanzibar is an option then it may be better to fly in to Dar es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania, and then get the ferry to Zanzibar.

The flights to Dar es Salaam are quite a lot cheaper and then the ferry costs US$35 (£27.50) for adults and US$30 (£23.50) for children for economy seats - more for luxury seats. The ferry takes two hours and if there are at least five people in your party then they offer a free transfer to/from the airport.

https://www.zanzibarquest.com/ferries-flights/ferry-dar-es-salaam-zanzibar.html

If you have a look on Tripadvisor then there are a lot of low cost hotels and guesthouses available to book in Zanzibar in August.

If you build a stopover into your itinerary, this can really bring down the price of flights. I’ve just booked a flight to NZ. Without stopover it was £1800, with stopover it dropped to £1300 using a mix of airlines.

I have started following this person on instagram- they have so many great ideas for cheap travel, some of them really far flung, they’re currently in Korea I think.

www.instagram.com/cheapholidayexp?igsh=MWZ0N2gwdm9raHIzcg==

Very exciting, I think I have found tkts to China for 2.5k on gotogate. Bit terrified about using this but you have all given me confidence! Just one stopover also, and it’s a long one which I prefer as removes the stress. Door to door probably 24 hours including arriving 3 hrs early at the airport. It usually takes us 18-30 hours to get to France so that’s comparable. And actually more leg space than our car with all our clutter on top of us!

I have always wanted to go to China, in particular Tiananmen Sq so I’m just looking into accommodation etc to see if it’s financially viable for that part, and I need to check out accessibility as I have a child with mobility issues. Has anyone been?

@Extraordinarytimes yes. Pre-covid and I believe things are a bit rougher now. Absolutely not somewhere I’d recommend for anyone with additional needs or mobility issues. Very difficult to get about unless you’re fluent in Chinese, you’re with a tour or have a guide. I had the latter which helped but what you’re allowed to see is quite strictly controlled even in HK. It’s a huge country and if you want to do more than one place then you’ll end up with internal flights or long train/bus journeys. The cities, away from the main attractions are quite stark concrete jungles and exceptionally polluted. You’ll need a VPN to use certain social media or apps there. I’ll be honest - the food (outside of HK and Hainan) was one of the worst parts. Interesting at points but not somewhere I’d go again. If you’re keen, definitely use a tour, especially with kids.

South Korea and Taiwan are much nicer as is pretty much anywhere in SE Asia.

Also if you do go to China, under no circumstances mention the three Ts - Tibet, Taiwan and Tianamen. It won’t be taken well.

Ok that’s really helpful thanks. I have a friend who went recently without a guide, but she is fluent so bit of a different experience. I would love to go to Korea but can’t quite make the figures work…

We did Thailand start of Aug 2adults + 2kids over 16 (so 4 adult fares) for less than £5k for two wks including travel days. Was so amazing and cheap once there

Did b&b on the loveliest hotel I've ever stayed in the good in the nearby town was the cheapest we have ever had. This was thru Tui

Ah and factor in the visas for China - I was on a different visa but I believe the regular tourist one is about £100 each and it requires a trip to a Consulate/embassy.
Thailand/Malaysia are much better especially with kids. You might touch lucky with flights into Bangkok as it’s a regional hub then take the overnight bus and ferry to the islands or hop a Thai air flight.