Planning Your First Holiday Abroad

So it's official - I'm going to Majorca in July for 7 days. *Happy dance.* I've been wanting to go abroad on my own for ages but since finally turning eighteen I have plucked up the courage (and saved enough money) to finally go ahead with it all. 

Last year I visited the island of Majorca with my family, we stayed in the location Calas De Mallorca, and I truly just fell in love with the place. The weather was great, the area was so scenic and beautiful, the water was crystal blue, the facilities were top-notch and all in all I knew it would be a great place to have my first independent holiday. I also know that it's guaranteed that I'm going to be safe when I'm there as I know the nature of the location and my way around.

For students planning their first holiday without their parents and would like to know about my experience sorting out everything, here are the steps I took towards organising my trip -

Deciding how to pay for your break 

Now, I'm a student who is currently unemployed due to the fact I'm committing myself 100% to my degree. Therefore, I am a little skint (like every other student). Although, the little bits of money I do have coming my way I have chose to save and contribute towards my holiday. In all honesty I never thought I'd be able to make up the amount I needed but everything came together eventually and I was able to go ahead.

My advice if you're a current student wanting to get yourself away somewhere for the summer is to save everything and anything you possibly can. Maybe cut down on those wild nights out? Live off cheap food? If you're that desperate to go that is! Even save any birthday money or Christmas money you get - it all counts. And you're last option is to find a job (good luck with that!) if you really aren't in the right financial position to do any of the previous mentioned.

Concluding where to go on holiday

Whether it's somewhere you've been in the past, like me, I'm sure everybody has somewhere in the world they'd love to visit. As an undergraduate it's maybe not the best option to book a 3 week holiday to Miami because that would be well out of our budgets - guaranteed. However the Balearic islands, Greek islands and parts of Spain are usually pretty reasonably priced depending which travel firm you book with. And on top of that they're ideal places to visit if you are a young person who'd like to experience holiday nightlife at its best. 

Looking for the best deal

This could mean either visiting a travel agents such as Thomas Cook, Hays, Thomson, etc, and asking about potential hotels, flights and all the rest. Although, I emphasise that it's important not to go with the first deal you come across. It can't hurt to get a few different price quotes from several places and see which best suits you.  Or, you could go down the route I did and look online for holiday packages. I looked on websites such as lowcostholidays, Easyjetholidays, and Sunshine for all-inclusive package deals. Although, when booking online I strongly suggest that you look around for reviews of other people's experience with bookings to ensure that the website is legitimate, reputable and most importantly secure (when paying). In the end I went with Sunshine as their holiday deals were extremely reasonably priced and almost every review I read was incredibly positive.

Booking with a parent by your side to confirm the details

When you've finally decided how you're going to fund your holiday, where you're wanting to go and which holiday deal you'll be going with - it's time to book it and finalise everything. For first-timers it's probably advisable to have somebody who's had experience booking holidays before by your side to tell you that you're doing everything how you should be. Despite the fact that you might find it extremely straight-forward it's not worth the risk of perhaps misreading or misunderstanding something and you're holiday not going how you'd like it to. 

Sorting travel insurance

Never ever think that you'll just skip the insurance because it's going to cost you another £20 or so. The truth is that you can never be too careful and don't just think "Oh it won't happen to me" because that risk isn't worth it. Imagine if you have a fatal accident on holiday and need to pay hundreds of pounds of medical expenses and you can't enjoy your holiday. With travel insurance you are secured and compensated if anything like that were to happen - also if your passport is lost or stolen, if you miss your flight, lose your luggage etc. Again, looking around for a good deal that is trustworthy and well-known is advised. I decided to sort my travel insurance through Lloyds.

Buying the necessities

Right, so you may be completely without cash after you've just forked out £400+. But, particularly if you're a girl, you know that you need to get some new holiday clothes and essentials. I recommend having a look in vintage/charity shops and seeing what options they have because quite often I find designer pieces that are nicer than what you can buy on the high-street; so it's definitely worthwhile having a browse. You also can't go wrong with Primark, it has everything you could ever need at ridiculously low prices. It would be worthwhile to construct a holiday checklist of what you already have and what you still need to buy. For example the typical stuff you wouldn't buy all year round like sun cream, flip flops, a beach towel, tinted moisturiser etc.