SAVE ON EXTRAS

Lifebooker.com

Economic resolve can fade fast when you’re dealing in foreign currency — because a holiday’s not a holiday if you don’t treat yourself. The glut of salons in America means they discount like crazy on Lifebooker.com, which offers 50% off anything from haircuts to Botox in LA and New York.

Broadwaybox.com has special offers for shows in New York, London and Vegas (the musical Chicago on Broadway for half-price, for example).

The UK-specific Show-and-stay.co.uk does fantastic deals on West End packages (£100 for a train to London, show and hotel). Finally, keep an eye on Groupon.com — a brilliantly innovative way to bag hefty savings (50% and up) on anything from NFL match tickets and skydiving trips to restaurants and boat tours in 17 American cities. At the moment, it accepts only US credit cards, but the site promises to let us in on it in a few months’ time.

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CHEAP FLIGHTS

Kayak.co.uk

Kayak gives you options. If you know where you want to go, it’ll tell you when prices are lowest; if you just want to escape British shores, hit the Fare Buzz option, choose a continent and a date, and it’ll tell you where’s cheapest. Best of all is the “weekend” option, where you enter a destination and it tells you which of the next five dates is best value. Cheapflights.co.uk is another good site, with a laudably clear layout, while Skyscanner.net has the advantage of listing Ryan­air as well. Cheapoair.com is America’s discount offering: you need an American credit card to book (time to hit up expat friends), but UK ones will work from next year.

STAY AT HOME

Airbnb.com

An upmarket version of Couchsurfing.com (which offers you the chance to crash on a local’s spare sofa), Airbnb.com lists residents in 1,332 cities who will let you stay in their spare room for cash. Prices aren’t rock bottom, so if it looks cheap, there’ll be a reason (like the cockroach I shared a bed with in a $35 room in Texas), but you’ll skip the extra charges hotels are so fond of and (possibly) make new friends. Also, remember the rental market isn’t confined to holiday villas or week-long rents — Homeaway.co.uk has plenty of bargains, including a flat in the Marais disctrict of Paris for £55 a night. Holidaylettings.co.uk is also worth a gander for its late and early deals (up to 50% off).

DRIVE CHEAP

Carhire3000.com

Car rental can rival hotel bills once firms are done adding the sneaky charges, and most of the comparison websites are so bewildering you’ll be tempted to fling your credit card at the nearest Avis. Don’t — give it to the nice folk at Carhire3000.com instead. They broker for all the main hire companies, so prices are low. We spent days (seriously) trying to book a complicated rental recently, and this site beat the competition by a mile. What’s more, the people on the end of their free­phone help-desk number were delightful. Avoid those excessive excess charges by using Insurance4carhire.com. Annual policies start at £50.

CUT-PRICE PACKAGES

Sunmaster.co.uk

This is the website to go to for last-minute deals from tour operators, including Thomas Cook and First Choice — two weeks in Turkey for £159, anyone? Latedeals.co.uk works the same way. Lastminute.com is good for cities — its “weekend break brow­ser” tells you when it’s cheapest to go to the most popular places in the near future. (You could have been in a four-star ­hotel in Copenhagen right now for £172 — that’s flights and two nights’ B&B — had you booked on Thursday.) Even if you want to ­retain some control over where you go, it’s usually cheaper to use “dynamic packaging” (booking elements together): you can do this on a number of sites, including Expedia.co.uk and Travelocity.co.uk. Even BA.com got in on the act in April — book a flight and hotel, or flight and car hire, and you’re guaranteed to save compared with booking separately (and if you’re an Executive Club member, you’ll get bonus BA miles, too).

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