The simple tricks to bag a bargain staycation in 2021

With foreign travel looking a bit iffy, many people are booking a UK break rather than getting onto an aeroplane. Unsurprisingly, this has pushed up prices at many caravan holiday parks and lodge parks.

However, with a bit of know how and flexibility you can still get a good deal. 

Here are five tips to get you started:

1) Sneak in through the owners’ door – a lot of caravans at popular sites owned by Parkdean Resorts, Away Resorts and others are actually owned privately. Prices are set by the owners who rent them out when they aren’t using them themselves. The challenge is to find them. The best route we’ve found is to search on a site such as Airbnb for the town which is nearest to the holiday park. You can then find the resort on the map and see all the caravans for hire in one go. The cheapest accommodation tends to be caravans, whilst more expensive ones are lodges which have larger kitchens, full size beds and balconies.

2) Avoid the weekend rush – most people book a Saturday to Saturday holiday but you can save a few quid if you’re flexible. Big resorts such as Haven give you a generous discount if you arrive on a Friday or Monday when demand is much lower. The discount varies but you can often save £100 on the cost of a week’s holiday during the peak of the summer holidays.

3) Avoid the early August rush – along similar lines, avoid holidays in late July and early August as they are the absolute peak of the year. A holiday during the last week of the school summer holidays is often considerably cheaper as most people want to be at home for the last few days before school starts. For example, we searched for a holiday on the Isle of Wight at a lodge resort and found it was a staggering £1200 cheaper to stay for the last week on the summer holidays compared to the third week of the holidays.

4) Try the North – many people head to the Westcountry for a holiday park thanks to the appeal of Cornwall’s and Devon’s beaches. However, we’ve done several comparisons over the years and have found that the cheapest prices are nearly always found at caravan parks in Scotland, Yorkshire, Northumberland and Lincolnshire. In some cases, similar parks are about half the price during the peak of summer. 

5) Invite the whole family – assuming that restrictions are lifted, you will find that you can save hundreds of pounds by sharing accommodation with friends or relatives. On some occasions we’ve seen eight berth caravans costing £1000 less than the cost of two caravans for four people. The downside is that two people will be sleeping in the lounge and the kitchen will get very cosy. You’ll certainly want to eat out more but you should be able to afford it with the money you’ve saved.