There are 5 main things you need to figure out when considering a holiday abroad –
destination, flights, accommodation, food, and activities. When it comes to
accommodation, more expensive is not always better. Thinking about what you
actually need from the place where you will stay can make a big difference to your
budget and your overall experience. Here are some handy tips to consider before
you book your holiday abroad.
How much time will you spend at the accommodation?
This is a good place to start when choosing where to stay. Think about what type of
holiday you are going on. Are you going to spend the majority of your time out and
about sightseeing and doing activities and only return to the hotel to sleep? For
example, if you are going to Disneyworld in Orlando, would you be leaving the hotel
at 7.30am to get to the park just as it opens, and leave at 8pm when it closes? If that
is the case, you wouldn’t really need much more than a clean en suite bathroom and
a comfortable bed, potentially breakfast included. There wouldn’t be much point
paying extra for features such as a swimming pool or a whole apartment / villa to
yourself if you are not going to have the time to enjoy it and take advantage of it.
On the other hand, if you are going on a holiday where you will spend the majority of
your time in your accommodation, you might want to get the most options and
features that could fit within your budget. A pool / beach holiday on the Spanish
coast? Consider getting a pool (especially if you are travelling with children and they
are suspicious of the sea), all-inclusive food options (great for picky eaters), and a lot
of entertainment and pastime options. As you will be spending the majority of your
time in the hotel, try and find the most comfortable and well-equipped one you can
afford.
The balance between price and location
The location of your accommodation abroad is one of the most important features
that you will have to consider, especially if you are not familiar with the area or if you
want to be central to the activities you are planning in order to be able to fit in
everything within your busy schedule. One thing to consider however is cost vs
distance. Take Paris for example – the closer you get to the central part and
attractions such as the Eiffel Tower, the more expensive the accommodation gets, to
the point where you can barely afford an en suite bedroom in the city centre for the
price of a whole apartment to yourself in the suburbs.
The trick here is to consider transport and what savings you would make if you
undertake to “commute” to the central parts of the area you are staying in. Most
bigger cities these days, as well as the majority of popular travel destinations
regardless of their size, have developed reliable and affordable public transport links.
In cities such as Paris, Berlin, London, New York, Chicago etc., if you are happy to
travel for up to 30 minutes to get to the central pats, you would easily find
accommodation in a 10-15km radius that would be times more affordable than the
immediate vicinity of major attractions. To improve travel time and convenience, a
good idea is to open your preferred map service (such as Google Maps), and look at
the transport lines between your preferred attractions and the outskirts. You can then
look for accommodation along those lines, which would guarantee you that you will
have a direct metro / bus / train link from where you are staying to where you will be
going most frequently. For example, on Google Maps, you can zoom in on the Eiffel
Tower, click on a Metro station near it, and it will colour the whole line for you,
making it easy to pick an area where you can then focus your search for
accommodation.
Stay safe and take care
One other important feature to consider when travelling abroad is security. Travellers
would rarely look for a dangerous area / hotel to book, unless it is a specific travel
purpose or project, however sometimes it is difficult to know which areas are good to
stay in and which should be avoided, especially if you have never visited before.
These aren’t things that people like to think about when booking a holiday, but the
good news is a relatively small effort could go a long way to ensuring your peace of
mind and a seamless travel experience. When booking a hotel or accommodation
abroad and you have a few options, you might want to put the name of the
neighbourhood, zone, or area in Google, Facebook, Reddit, or your favourite search
engine / social media and have a quick read. No area is perfect and there could be
issues even in the most respectable estates and neighbourhoods, however if all you
see when you search is negative comments and experiences, you might want to
reconsider your choice. Another useful hint is to filter the reviews for the
accommodation and read the 1-start and 2-start reviews, which would give you a
good idea of what could be wrong with the place you want to stay at.
Here’s a real-life example. If you were interested in travelling to Glasgow and you
found accommodation in a neighbourhood called Drumchapel, you could search for
“Should I visit Drumchapel”. The second result on Google at the time of writing is a
thread named “Why is Drumchapel a sketchy place?”, and you can see all the
reasons why if you open it. This would help you make up your mind in terms of the
risks associated with visiting the area and if you would want to stay there.