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MSE's summer holidays survival guide
26 tips for going abroad and staying at home

Including FREE £175 'spending money', childcare cash, 2for1 days out, cheap euros, sun cream trick & more

Summer break-ups don't just happen on Love Island - soon all schools across the UK will have shut their doors, signalling the summer holidays are well and truly here. Whether that fills you with joy or dread, our aim is to at least help it be more affordable. So here are 26 MoneySavers to keep you smiling while the sun's shining and feel less pain in the rain.

Half of you are heading overseas this summer according to our recent poll, and as most go on the early side, let's start there. Here's a flavour, but there's lots more in our 65 overseas travel tips guide.

1. Thousands of flights are being cancelled - know your rights (many due compensation as well as refunds). Easyjet has already cancelled 1,700 Gatwick flights and strikes are likely to see more cancellations. Don't be fobbed off, know your flight delay & cancellation rights (bookmark this guide in case it happens to you).

2. Grab a FREE £175 to ease holiday budgets with top fee-free overseas card. New switchers to First Direct's* bank account get a FREE £175 - which could boost your holiday budget (though it'll take a month for you to get it) - plus its debit card is now a specialist one for going abroad, so you get the same near-perfect foreign exchange rates banks do.

Other perks include a linked 7% regular saver and a £250 0% overdraft for many. Full info including key eligibility criteria (and other banks that pay you up to £200 to switch, but no top overseas debit card) in Best bank accounts.

3. The rebook trick keeps on giving... is your hotel / car hire cheaper than when you booked? We've been flooded with successes after mentioning this a few weeks ago. For cheap hotels, keep your eyes on comparison sites such as Skyscanner*, Kayak*, TripAdvisor and Trivago*. For cheap car hire (which unusually this year seems to be dropping, not rising, in price the closer you get for many), it's similar. If the price has dropped and your booking allows free (or cheap) cancellation, rebook for less.

As Gary emailed: "Saw your car hire costs reducing story. It's normally much cheaper to book in advance, which we did this year as normal in January for our July holiday. Just checked the price, then cancelled it for free and rebooked the same car for €390, saving €190."

4. Top cards for spending abroad (without switching bank). App-only Chase's* debit card gives virtually-perfect exchange rates, and 1% cashback (up to £15/mth) on most spending in the UK and abroad for 12 months. You don't need to switch banks to get it, so can use it alongside your main bank, and it only does an ID, not a credit, check.

Alternatively, the Barclaycard Rewards credit card also has near-perfect exchange rates, no ATM fee, and no interest on fully-repaid ATM withdrawals (max £500/day), plus 0.25% cashback on all spending worldwide and, as it's a credit card, Section 75 protection. Only get it if you'll repay IN FULL each month though, or its 25.9% rep APR interest dwarfs the currency gain. For a full contrast and many more options, see the Top travel cards guide.

PS: Also see Top cards for under-18s to spend on abroad.

5. Grab cheap or FREE access to airport lounges. It could work out cheaper than a meal, drinks and snacks at the airport. Routes include freebies with credit cards. See all ways to do it in Free or cheap airport lounge access.

6. Is your EHIC valid - about 5.4m expire this year. These cards give access to state-run hospitals or GPs in EU countries for the same price as a local - so if it's free for them, it's free for you (if they pay, you pay, so check first). Yet check point 9 on all the family's cards, as 5.4m become invalid this year. If so, you'll need to get a new GHIC instead (it does the same thing). See how to safely get a free GHIC.

Too late to get one? While a valid card's easiest, you can still access the scheme from abroad without a card via a Provisional Replacement Certificate.

7. Booked car hire? Avoid the excess insurance trap at pick-up. Car hire usually includes basic insurance, yet at the pick-up desk, they almost always try to push you to get 'excess cover insurance' costing up to £25/day with scare stories of huge bills for just a scratch - or sometimes implying you have to do it.

Instead, get cheap standalone car hire 'excess' insurance in advance for £2/day. Yet even with it, they will try to put you off or tell you it doesn't work and make you leave a refundable deposit of £1,000+ on a credit (often not debit) card, which must be in the name of the person who booked. Not a problem, as long as you have one, just nod and carry on.

8. Tinkling in the sea, wearing flip-flops, jaywalking and more may land you a holiday fine. Actions acceptable in the UK may hit you in the pocket elsewhere - see our Holiday habits warning.

9. Find your cheapest bureau de change in seconds. Top plastic's the cheapest way, but some cash can be useful. Our Travel money comparison tool compares 26 bureaux for best rates.

10. Parking at the airport? Book ahead - even on the day. Rock up at Stansted Airport without booking, you'll pay from £210/wk to park. Book ahead on the same day using a comparison site, and it could be £87/wk, though generally, earlier booking's best.

Here are discounted comparison site links: FHR 10% to 45% off* | Holiday Extras 10% to 40% off* | Airparks 10% to 40% off* | SkyParkSecure 5% to 28% off*. For others sites and alternatives, see Cheap airport parking.

11. When using plastic abroad, don't let them do the conversion, always pay in the local currency. See Martin's Pay in euros? blog - it may be a bit dated, but the logic's still right.

12. Booked but not got travel cover yet? DO IT NOW, DON'T DELAY. Martin's travel insurance rule is simple, get it ASAB - as soon as you book. Yet many still worryingly leave it to the last minute. That's a mistake. Do it NOW.  As he says:

"Half travel insurance's value is protecting you BEFORE travelling. Waiting to sort it means you're not getting full value, and are at risk. Each year, frustratingly, someone asks me for help as they can't get a holiday refund after something horrid, even a cancer diagnosis. That's what insurance is for, leave it late & you're scuppered." More help in:

 Cheap travel insurance | Cheap over-65s' cover | Cheap pre-existing conditions cover

13. Don't get stung with hidden roaming charges. Our new research reveals how some providers limit the amount of data you can use in the EU, even if roaming's included in your bundle. See full firm-by-firm EU roaming info.

Outside the EU, it can get really costly (up to £8/day), so big savings are possible with international eSims. Lots more help in our Cut roaming costs guide.

14. Turn your sun cream around to save cash. See turning sun cream around, and if you need new sun cream, see how to safely downshift to a 5-star UVA bottle for as little as £2.79.

15. Mine the MSE Forum for travel tips. The Overseas holidays & travel planning and UK holidays boards are a goldmine of MoneySaving knowledge and inspiration.

If you've time to fill for you and / or the kids at home, or want to plan UK holidays and day trips, it's time for a host of things that may help...

16. New. 850,000 Travelodge rooms £38 or less - can you find 'em? This week, it's released lots more cheap rooms for stays this summer, including coastal destinations such as Blackpool, Cornwall, and Eastbourne. But it can be trial and error to find the cheapest rooms. Excludes London and Northern Ireland. See cheap Travelodge.

17. Kids 'eat for free' at M&S Café, TGI Fridays, Beefeater & more. We've rounded up dining out deals, including where kids eat free (or cheap) with a paying grown-up.

18. 'Free' trampolining, swimming, dancing sessions & more. Buy a promo pack of Heinz beans, soup or sauce (usually £1 to £4), then redeem a code for free entry for 1,000s of activities. Also includes Diggerland and Gulliver's. More in Heinz Dayz Out.

20. How to find cheap UK hotels. We take you through it in our full 22 cheap UK hotel tips guide. Here's just a taste...

Uncover huge savings on secret rooms if you're willing to play detective. Mega hotel bargains are available from secret hotel sites. Here, you're only told a star level and a rough location - only once you've paid do you find out the hotel's name. But there are usually sneaky ways to discover the hotels' identities to see if it's worth it.

Slash the cost of city-centre stays by finding university digs outside term time. It can be a surprisingly cost-effective way of staying very centrally, and the surroundings at Oxford and Cambridge colleges in particular can be stunning.

21. Many hostels are just dirt cheap, not dirty - a castle from £15/night. Hostels aren't just for gap-year students in far-flung destinations. There are loads across the UK and they don't have age restrictions (though some aren't suitable for young kids). Don't automatically think bunk bed in a shared dorm either - many offer singles, twins and doubles.

Many MoneySavers on our forum rave about 'em. For example, in Gloucestershire, the YHA St Briavel's Castle (pictured) is located in a moated Norman castle, and we saw private rooms from £40/night with dorm beds from £15/night. See MoneySavers' top UK hostel picks.

22. Summer magic for kids at home, eg, fruit picking & beaming a T-rex into your place. We've a raft of fun activities to wow little 'uns while they're off school, whatever the weather. Get inspired with Free or cheap kids' summer magic tips.

23. 2for1 entry to theme parks, but check booking online isn't cheaper. Our 2for1 attractions page is always updated with the current vouchers available. Yet these are often based on gate prices, which feel over-inflated at some parks. So always check and compare prices with just booking two tickets online in advance.

24. Take a child to a West End show for 'free'. When a grown-up pays, a kid aged 17 or under goes free to 30+ shows including Grease, Mrs Doubtfire, The Wizard of Oz and Wicked. See Kids Week theatre deal.

25. Want to go self-catered? How to find top deals, eg, £595/wk for a 3-bed cottage in Cumbria in Aug. Book the right way and holiday rental sites let you snap up five-star private accommodation for two-star hotel prices. It's hard to nab a peak school holiday bargain in the UK for this year, though we did manage to hunt down a few deals, eg, we found a three-bed cottage in Cumbria near the Lake District for £595/wk in late Aug, compared with £1,605 - nearly three times the cost - for three rooms in a similarly swish-looking hotel nearby. Use the tips in our Cheap holiday rentals guide.

26. £2.50 kids AND grown-ups cinema tickets to family-friendly films. Cinemas put on special screenings over the school hols, where grown-ups and kids pay the same when going together at Cineworld, Odeon and Vue. It's not usually the newest films, but includes recent releases, eg, The Super Mario Bros. Movie. We've these and more tips in 20+ cinema savers.