Get away for less

PICTURE a sun-drenched beach, strolling bare foot in the surf without a care in the world...

. . . nor, unfortunately, a penny in your pocket. It is peak summer holiday booking period right now - but many Britons are overpaying by hundreds of pounds.

To beat this, first follow the golden cost-cutting rules below, then see if hidden tricks can sneak even more money off your final bill.

5 musts worth remembering

RULE 1 - Don't ignore package holidays: Many people automatically grab separate flight and hotel deals on the web. Yet, jet off specifically for seven, 10 or 14 days (i.e. not four or eight) to traditional holiday destinations like Majorca or Orlando and all-in package deals often still win. Plus you get extra consumer protection if a travel firm goes bust.

RULE 2 - Use the right cheap flight-finding site: Don't go to the first knock-down flight website... if you are DIY booking, you need to use the right type. Know when and where you want to go? Use "screenscraper-esque" sites where you enter your date and destination and get cheapest live quotes from hoards of airlines.

My top picks are Kayak.co.uk , Travelsupermarket.com and Skyscanner.net . Or find sub-£10 budget airline flights. Budget airlines like Ryanair and BMI Baby often advertise super cheap sales, yet finding them can be a nightmare. To beat this, use my flightchecker.co.uk It's designed so you can say "Find me all June flights under £10 including taxes to Venice" or even "I'll go anywhere." Skyscanner.net offers a similar function.

RULE 3 - Always haggle package-holiday costs: Tour operators make holidays while travel agents sell 'em, so the same package is usually sold by many agents. Play them off against each other and you can cut 15 per cent off the price. To test, I tried an already discounted break for four in Turkey in July at £250 per person (brochure price £325). With a few calls asking other agents to beat it, the price slipped down to £225 - a further £100 off in total.

RULE 4: Beware travel agent insurance: Travel agents' cover can cost more for a week than annual policies elsewhere. As a benchmark, the cheapest ANNUAL European policy is £15 or £27 for a family-of- four. Full best-buys at moneysavingexpert.com/travelinsurance .

RULE 5 - Avoid budget airline "extras": Paying by credit OR debit card on budget airlines can add £10 per person return. Yet usually paying via Visa Electron is free, so grab a prepaid Travelex Cash Passport - for Ryanair you need a prepaid Mastercard, use the FairFX Anywhere card. Plus always check in ONLINE and calculate in advance how many bags you'll need. it can cost £70-per-bag at he airport.

Travel tricks to save even more

TRICK 1 - Fly free: A few credit cards offer free flights as a sign up bribe. Just grab a card, do normal day- to-day spending on it up to the amount that triggers the freebie (£1 to £500) but ALWAYS pay in full so there's no interest. Current deals include Free BA Europe returns, BMI Business Class Europe returns and more. Full list and guidance at moneysavingexpert.com/freeflights .

TRICK 2 - Turn detective on secret hotel discounts:Lastminute.com has a "top secret hotels" option, which offers big discounts but you only get the location, star-rating and price, NOT the name, until you book. Yet the description is often identical to the hotel's own website, so cut and paste key phrases into Google and you can often discover its identity. For example: A 4-star Barcelona hotel at £60 a night was listed as "a step away from Gaudi's most emblematic buildings". Google revealed its name and I discovered the cheapest elsewhere was £90 a night, 50 per cent more. Once you know the hotel, check reviews on tripadviser or simonseeks to see if it really is a bargain. See moneysavingexpert.com/hotels for how.

TRICK 3 - Use an ethnic location specialists: Take advantage of the UK's cosmopolitan nature. Many niche travel agents specialise in finding deals where there is a large community linked to a country who demand cheaper "regular commuter" prices. For example, London's Shepherds Bush has some Caribbean specialists or the Jewish Chronicle has companies advertising cheap Israel flights. Always worth a double check.

TRICK 4 - Is it cheaper with a charter? Tour operators usually charter flights to ferry package holidaymakers abroad. They sometimes flog off unfilled seats cheap, yet most comparison sites only look at regularly timetabled scheduled flights from BA, easyjet and the like. So if you're flying to a typical holiday destination, scan Charters via FlightsDirect.com and Avro.co.uk .

TRICK 5 - Book a package, just for the flight: Scheduled flights to tourist places in Ghana, Orlando and Sri Lanka can be silly money - yet packages there can be cheap. If you only need the flight, check if there's a cheaper package holiday, grab it but DON'T stay in the hotel. I once helped a friend book a £300 Sri Lanka holiday just to get the flight, saving him £700.

TV Money Guru Martin Lewis is the creator of the Consumer Revenge website www.MoneySavingExpert.comwhich is packed with info on how to get more money in your pocket.

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