Bargain overview: prices for hotels and flights are exploding – so you can go on holiday cheaply
If you want to go on vacation now, you have to reckon with shock prices. Almost all airlines have made flights up to 50 percent more expensive. Hotels are also continuing to tighten their prices. FOCUS Online tells you which simple tricks you can use to go abroad cheaply.
A week in Crete, Rhodes or Mallorca for less than 1,000 euros? You can only dream of that. As FOCUS Online learned, the three islands are among the most popular holiday destinations for tour operators Tui, Booking.com and Check24. The high demand is also driving prices to dizzying heights.
The prices explode!
While vacationers could fly to Heraklion (from Munich) for EUR 760 in June, they now have to pay EUR 1,800 for it. The price includes a four-star hotel, the shuttle bus to the hotel and half-board.
Not an isolated case! As the price radar from FOCUS Online shows, holiday providers for package tours have turned the price screw properly in July and August. Sometimes it’s a surcharge of up to 150 percent.
Instead of paying 1,000 euros, holidaymakers pay 2,500 euros for the same trip. Changing scenery abroad has never been so expensive.
- Incidentally, particularly popular holiday destinations are: Rhodes, Kos, Crete, Fuerteventura, Hurghada, Safaga, El Gouna, Safaga, Al-Qusair, Marsa Alam, Mallorca, Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Side and Alanya.
Holiday homes and hotels increase by up to 40 percent!
According to an evaluation by the comparison portal “Check24” for the “Bild” newspaper, hotel prices rose by more than 30 percent in the Netherlands and the Czech Republic within a year. Travelers in Turkey and the USA paid 27 percent more. In France, Italy and Austria, the price increase was around ten percent.
Apartments and holiday homes have also become more expensive. In Portugal travelers pay almost 40 percent more and in Greece almost 20 percent. Holiday homes in Spain and Italy cost about 15 percent more.
Is there still a discount on the summer vacation?
FOCUS Online says: It’s hard to find a bargain, but if you have patience and time, you will generally find it.
- One week Antalya (Turkey) from Munich from mid-August? Is there for 390 euros. There is even a shuttle bus from the airport to the hotel for a surcharge of 89 euros.
- A week in Paphos (Cyprus) from Stuttgart from the end of July? Only 533 euros – breakfast in the hotel is included in the price.
How do you find such offers?
Look out for travel offers, savings vouchers and mega deals that you can get from providers like ” holiday guru “, ” holiday pirates “, ” MyDealz “, ” Travel Dealz “, ” remaining space exchange ” or ” holiday owl ” Find.
- Basically: Deals and certain bargains are bait offers. The aim of the providers is to sell you a high-priced trip.
Tip: You can also find suitable travel vouchers on our FOCUS Online coupon page. In our overview we have summarized the best current travel vouchers for you.
Ideally, visit these pages during the week and mostly in the midday hours. Then you will find the most and best offers. In the evenings and at weekends, many people look for holiday bargains. The operators take advantage of the higher demand – and hold back certain lock offers. Bargains could also be sold out more quickly because more people browse the site.
Also use “Google Flights” to get an idea of the price.
Once you have found a cheap flight, look for accommodation over the phone. Call the hotels directly. In popular holiday hotspots such as Greece, Spain, Turkey or Italy, employees also speak German.
There are often cheaper prices over the phone than online because the hotel arranges the rooms directly. You bypass the online commission, which often accounts for ten percent of the final sum.
- case study: Small hotel and flight from Stuttgart to Rhodes as a package tour with Tui for 1,900 euros per person. Flight via Google Flights and hotel booking by phone only 1,780 euros. The savings? 120 euros per person.
Holidays in Germany are cheaper
The hotel prices are not only increasing abroad, but also in Germany.
FOCUS Online says: Make sure that there are no trade fairs or major events during the holiday season. Best example Munich: Hotel prices in Munich rose by 65 percent as a result of the European Athletics Championships!
- Best example: A double room near the Olympic Stadium from 299 euros per night on the final weekend.
But there is also a cheaper way.
The double room in the best location is available in Hamburg, Berlin, Munich, Brandenburg or Cologne for around 650 euros per week in mid-July. The hotels in Rostock, Bremen, Ulm, Göttingen or Kassel are cheaper. Here you can get a double room for one week in the cheapest case from 360 euros upwards (arrival on July 20th).
If you are traveling with the family and do not want to travel with the 9-euro ticket, you can rely on a mobile home. In Germany, depending on the size, equipment and condition, you pay around 130 euros per day in July. You should add fuel, deposit, meals, toll costs and camping and parking space rental to the costs.
A family with two children pays upwards of 1,300 euros for a week. Compared to a flight and hotel holiday abroad, the saving is a good 30 percent.
The best for your money: Inflation eats up our savings – we take countermeasures
Supermarket prices are skyrocketing, but furniture, clothing, shoes and other consumer goods are also becoming more expensive. As a retail expert, I know the tricks of the trade and tell you how you can save money for you and your family every month when shopping. Would you like to talk to me about your savings tips and savings tricks? Did you notice anything while shopping? Then send an e-mail to [email protected] with your name and phone number
The prize champion’s tips: Travel anti-cyclically. Don’t plan your holiday during the peak travel season, which begins with the school holidays. Take advantage of weekdays and late afternoon departure times. This reduces stress, almost always reduces the time required and usually also reduces costs.
You can also use the 9-euro ticket when planning your holiday!
You can save big if you have the 9 euro ticket and use it to migrate to neighboring and cheaper airports. Most of the time, the tickets for larger airports cost a lot more money because the flight tax is significantly higher.
case study: The cheapest direct flight with suitcase and hand luggage from Berlin to Mallorca costs 588 euros (Easyjet) for the travel period between July 16 (outbound flight) and July 23 (return flight). The Eurowing flight via Leipzig Airport only costs 370 euros. The train journey from Berlin to Leipzig takes just under three hours with the regional local transport system operated by Deutsche Bahn.
Smaller airports in the vicinity can drastically reduce the airfare. However, the following applies: Not all international destinations are served by smaller airports and travelers should generally expect between one and often three hours of local transport by train.
Last-minute vacation for less than 500 euros? Yes, that is possible!
The high inflation in Turkey (almost 80 percent) ensures prices that make savers’ hearts beat faster on vacation. A week all inclusive for a good 500 euros is possible. For example: From Munich to Belek towards the end of August with the travel giant LMX for 476 euros per person.
FOCUS Online advises: Be sure to read the hotel reviews online, and also read about reports of overbooking and hotel cancellations. Before Corona, a number of accommodations had attracted negative attention. travelers had to stay in the hotel lobby .
If you stay in the popular holiday resorts of Side and Antalya, you will pay a lot of money, but compared to Greece, Cyprus or Italy it is only a fraction.
A family of three pays around 1,800 euros for a week in Side at the end of August – almost 600 euros per person. On the island of Kos, with similar conditions, the price is over 3,000 euros (1,000 euros per person).
Bulgaria, Albania, Croatia and Egypt are also favorable. In Norway, Sweden and Denmark you have to dig deeper into your pockets for groceries, but due to the current downward trend in the Swedish and Norwegian Krone, you can get cheaper in the supermarket than in Germany.