First holiday/break of 2023, and how much did it cost?

[Holidayexpert]

Just booked a long weekend in Spain for January. Great flight times with Ryanair, and lovely central apartment through Booking.com.
Total cost is £285!!
Spending money obviously extra.
Hit me with your bargains for 2023!

Anyone else. There must be some fellow bargain hunters out there!

Just booked the flights for our summer holiday- Jersey while DS is away on school rugby trip - £200 in peak season for two of us including an extra cabin bag each. Accommodation isn't that cheap, but it's somewhere I've been wanting to go to for quite a while.

@rookiemere Decent flight prices! I really like Jersey. I’ve been twice,

@Holidayexpert any Jersey hotel recommendations please?

Got a cheap Airbnb for last 3 nights and planning to go to France in the middle, but I'm not altogether happy location wise with what I've booked at the start.

Love this OP. Here to join.

I booked 10 months ago for May 2023. £571pp 5* Hotel all inclusive for 9 nights. My package has now doubled at least!

11 days in Mallorca in May, £820 for two people, self catering apartment that is huge - we've stayed there before.

I don't know if that is a bargain or not? as its about 150 more than pre CV.

I paid £2100 for 11 days for an apartment in mallorca last month so that sounds very reasonable.

Oh I forgot my other bargain.

I spent enough on BA Amex card to get the two free flights so I've used them to book to go to Florence in June and found a gorgeous aircon apartment complex with pool for £600. Annoyingly car hire is £400, but I keep looking to see if any reductions.

@rookiemere We stayed in St Helier both times, but I would stay pretty much anywhere on the island as the bus service is excellent and pretty cheap!
We stayed in the hotel de Normandie on our last visit. It’s Across the road from the beach, and there’s a bus stop outside the hotel.
You can walk in to the centre in about 20 minutes.
There was a gorgeous Thai place on the beach, think it was called Thai shack that did great food.

can’t remember the name of the hotel we stayed in the first time we went, (maybe the Merton or the Mayfair) but it was excellent and very close to the centre!
i remember looking to book it again but the price has shot up. It had a lovely rooftop pool!

Loving all of your holidays. Some really good deals!
One of my other bargains is to Portugal with ba avios reward flights.. only cost me £2 in taxes!
Airbnb for £200 for five nights!
Very happy with that.

Thank you for the St Helier advice @Holidayexpert and loving your Portugal bargain.
I've had to add DH onto the Amex otherwise I don't think I'll reach the spending threshold of £12,000 for the free flights this year.

I'm going to Tampere in Finland. Flights were £96 and I'm visiting family do no accommodation costs.

Love this for inspiration!

@countrygirl99 Have a great time’
@Tinytortilla yeah great for inspiration.

Used American Express Partner Reward scheme to get 2 business class flights to LA in Feb for £1000 each. While we there we are going on a cruise and have a £3500 credit note to use towards a suite.
So it’s sort of a bargain.

I notice a few of you use BA avios for flights, as do I , but only ever to Europe.

This probably needs a different thread, but just wondering if anyone has used reward points to book flights to the USA. When I look, the taxes seems very high!
Am I missing a trick?

7 nights in tenerife for Easter.
Flights (Aer lingus)€360pp Accommodation €160pp

Going to a show in London in January (live in Ireland) so flight, show and hotel (2nights) is just under €300 👍

Portugal in April cost £250 pp for a week.

@Notimeforaname Great shout. Your flights are fairly pricey, but offset by your accommodation costs.
@Ringbling85 That’s a really decent price. Great to have something to look forward to after Christmas.
@autienotnaughty I love Portugal, and great price too.

The trick is not to use it in economy. It’s better for more premium cabins like business or first.

I’m not sure if this is in the same league but I booked a business class flight to Malaysia for £1,500. It’s now £4,000! Fantastic value seeing as economy is over £1k!

Another shout out for Jersey. Love it there. Earlier this year I was looking for self catering for 5 adults and 2 Dcs and then found out it was cheaper overall to try the Grand Jersey Hotel on the Esplanade in St Helier! never got there in the end as carious life complexities took over but I am keeping it in mind for next time.

@Kualma Thanks. I’ll do some digging. I’ve had lots of flights to Europe with avios that we earned from credit cards in the past, but only s dwindling supply left now.
Might use them for business to Hong Kong or Us for 2024.
Enjoy your trip.😀

We gone a bit mad on holiday bookings 2023 and have
March 2 nights and holiday inn Belfast £140 each
Easter long weekend Nice flights from London city and hotel on promenade de anglais for £400 each
My bargain Monday to Friday in July in a cottage in Looe 3 bed used my clubcard points to swap for £99 off on cottages.com so £350 total
Crete All inclusive for a week in September £600 each cheap and cheerful just want to sunbath and eat too much