We all love our holidays and the credit crunch shouldn’t stop us doing what we love! So how can we get a cheaper holiday? Luckily, flight costs are actually getting cheaper these days, it’s just the accommodation that is becoming more and more expensive. So consider self catering holidays for your next trip. For the most part, self catering holidays tend to be something you do within your own country, but you shouldn’t be limited to that. Most countries these days, especially the cities offer lots of private, holiday apartments for low cost rental, much cheaper than a hotel which you can lease for a weekend, week or more and have the added privacy also. There are also lots of tour operators who are pushing their self catering packages due to people being a little strapped for cash. You can often find a cheap flight and apartment or self catering hotel package, particularly online. For the most part, people who book full board accommodation these days tend to not make full use of it anyway. Who wants to eat in the same place 3 times a day whilst on holiday? I certainly don’t. For your next trip, save some money and enjoy your holiday a lot more at the same time.

If there is one destination that has been popular with tourists from the United Kingdom for the past 3 decades, it’s Spain. The low cost flights (and coach journeys) coupled with cheap hotels, cheap beer and sandy beaches have proved a top draw from tourists all over the UK. Spain, like most European countries has lots of offer, regardless if you’re just looking for a beach or something more cultural.

What is particularly niche to see these days is more and more tourists treating Spain and the people who inhabit the country with a lot more respect. Many tourists are now taking the steps to learn spanish with a view of holding conversations with the locals in their native tongue as opposed to simply being an ignorant tourist who expects everyone around them to speak English – regardless of which country they’re in.

I personally feel that Spain will never lose its appeal to the UK tourist, mainly because of the distance it is from the UK coupled with its diverse culture. It will always be popular. If more and more UK travellers begin to learn spanish also, the locals in Spain will welcome UK tourists for many years to come.

For most travellers in the UK, when considering a luxury destination, we often thing of somewhere further East such as Indonesia or the Maldives, but what about Cuba? I know in the past that Cuba has had a bad image, particularly 10 – 20 years ago, but it has improved vastly over the past few years to become one of the most popular tourist destinations for UK travellers.

Flights from the UK to Cuba are not as expensive as its Asian counterparts which is also proving to be a huge selling point, especially in the current financial climate. Cuban Holidays are always extremely luxury, mainly due to the climate the the countries landscapes but the big draw is the hotels. The hotels in Cuba are absolutely amazing and all appear to be perfectly located on and around the countries extremely luxurious sandy beaches.

Cuba is also a great base to start your trip if you’re looking to explore other islands or south America itself. Many tourists fly into Havana, spend a few days there and then island hop elsewhere.

I can assure you that Cuba will be one of top holiday destinations for UK travellers in 2009.