Protect your plans
As soon as you have booked your holiday you should consider travel insurance. An annual plan will start as soon as you want and is typically good value if you are planning more than one trip. We did a quick quote on Comparethemarket for a break in France compared with an annual policy covering multiple trips to the EU – prices started at £5.55 for a individual in their 40s spending one week away and at £12.15 for a year. (These are very basic policies – if you want larger cash sums covered or fewer exclusions on what you can claim for, you will need to pay more.) Most annual trips will have a cap on the length of each stay. In some cases this is 24 days, so make sure that’s enough for your purposes.
Travel insurance should pay out if you need emergency medical treatment or need to be flown home. It can cover you if you need to cut short your break because you are ill, or if you have to cancel your plans because the government is suddenly warning against travel to your destination. You do need to declare any pre-existing medical conditions, and read the terms and conditions when you are comparing policies. Make sure you know what you can and cannot claim for before you buy. HO
Look after your pets
You can get someone to stay in your house and look after your pets while you are away. There are paid and free services offering this. The average price for dog sitting in London listed on the website Gudog is £32 a night, for example. On Happymeow you can find someone to look after your cat, visiting once a day for £20 or twice a day for £39.
Some people will look after your animals for free in exchange for accommodation. Companies exist to connect both parties such as TrustedHousesitters.
If you are getting people to stay at or visit your house while you are away to look after an animal, it’s good to have both home and pet insurance. Most professional house-sitters should also have public liability insurance.
Mark Shepherd, the head of general insurance policy at the Association of British Insurers, says: “Hiring a trusted house-sitter or having a friend or family member stay at your home while you’re away on holiday will not generally invalidate a home insurance policy. We would recommend checking your cover for any relevant exclusions. For example, some policies may not cover you for theft or malicious damage caused by someone you’ve invited into your home.” SM
Sort out roaming
Whether you can use your mobile phone in Europe as if you were at home this summer depends on your UK provider.
Virgin Media/O2, Tesco Mobile and a number of smaller providers such as GiffGaff have resisted the temptation to impose post-Brexit roaming charges on Britons travelling to Europe – but EE, Vodafone and Three all do. And their prices for doing so have risen for this summer.
Luckily, customers of these companies can generally bring down the charges by signing up for a package.
If you’ve joined EE since 7 July 2021, you’ll have to pay £2.47 a day to use your data, minutes and texts in any of the 47 countries in EE’s EU roaming zone. EE’s month-long roaming pass is £25 a month – worth it if you are travelling for longer than 10 days.
Vodafone Pay Monthly customers travelling to any of its 49 EU locations will pay £2.42 a day for a European roaming pass, £12 for eight days or £17 for 15 days if you sign up to a package. Customers on Xtra plans may have EU roaming included, however, so be sure to check.
Three’s Go Roam service will charge you £2 a day for EU roaming, although it also offers £5 three-day passes and £12 seven-day passes. Three’s seven-day Go Roam Around the World pass costs £30.
The above prices are for those on pay-monthly contracts. Pay-as-you-go customers of each firm will need to check costs. The same applies to anyone going further afield than Europe – check what your provider charges and whether there is a deal you can sign up to before you head to the airport. Be aware: Turkey and Morocco are two countries that catch out lots of travellers. MB
Pack adapters
Travelling in the 21st century means carrying multiple electronic gadgets that all need charging. Adaptors for your existing UK plugs to make them compatible with EU, US or worldwide sockets cost about £5. If you need lots of plugs, consider taking a four or six-gang extension lead instead and plug that into the adapter to provide multiple UK sockets in one.
Alternatively you can buy USB chargers with detachable cables, such as the four-port £30 Anker 543. You can swap the UK figure 8 (C7) for your country of choice –an EU-compatible one is £5 from Maplin – or you should be able to pick one up from a hardware or electrical shop when you get there. SG
Weigh your baggage
If you are flying, try to work out how much luggage you want to take before you book, as adding it to your booking later on – or at the airport – may cost more. Measure your case and weigh it fully packed (use your bathroom scales or buy a cheap set of luggage scales) so you know whether it will fit within the airline’s cabin baggage restrictions, or you will need to pay for the more expensive check-in luggage option. Remember that you may want to bring home souvenirs, so if you are right up to the weight limit on the way there, you could be in trouble on the way home.
Airlines have different rules on baggage and they can make a big difference to the total cost of travelling. On British Airways flights you can take a small bag measuring up to 40 x 30 x 15cm and a second cabin bag up to 56 x 45 x 25cm (including wheels and handles); they can both weigh up to 23kg. Economy Basic customers have to pay to check in any cases. EasyJet allows one free bag, measuring up to 45cm x 36cm x 20cm and weighing up to 15kg. Ryanair allows one free bag, which must measure 40cm x 20cm x 25cm or less. Other airlines have their own size and weight allowances. Families do get some extras: airlines typically let you check in some equipment, such as a pushchair, for free.
If you are buying a new suitcase check size rules before you go shopping and look for the lightest case you can find. HO
