I have just written a piece for the next Holiday Villas magazine about how to really get one of those ‘free’ trips advertised by Ryanair. Here’s the gist of it:

Firstly, you need to get yourself a Visa Electron debit card. Then, you book and check in on line using this card. If you use any other debit card or credit card they will charge a £4 booking fee for each person checked in. If you use the Electron card, it really is free (sorry if this sounds like a puff for Electron cards. I don’t get commission!) If you put in the card details, the ‘cost’ will come up as £0.00!

OK. You’ve got the card from your bank. Are there any other snags you need to know about before you start the booking process? Well, yes, there is a problem but it’s not too weighty. Quite light, actually. If you check in on line to get your free flight, you are only allowed to take hand luggage with you – that’s just 10kg in a holdall or cabin trolley bag. 

Can you travel that light? You probably can, though most people think they can’t. Remember that your villa or apartment will be equipped with a washing machine, towels, probably a hairdrier and possibly, toiletries. Books are often available, too (there are plenty in the flat I rent out, from Danielle Steele to Ian McEwan and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, plus DVDs and even Scrabble, if you get really desperate). 

If you pack enough clothes for three or four days, it should be possible to wash and re-wear them without a problem all holiday. If you’re mad on clothes and like variety this will be a nuisance. But just remember that all those people who go off on gap year trips travel light, and they don’t have a terrible time because they happen to be wearing the same clothes a lot.

For the beach and pool you don’t need much: swimwear, shorts/sarongs, a top or two and light sandals or pumps. Then you need a sightseeing/day-out outfit or two, and a couple of evening things. If you intend to go walking, wear trainers or walking boots during the journey, or the first bit of it at least. Wear your heavier layers for travelling. Tie extra things – jumpers, shirts – around your waist. Put on all the jewellery you’re taking. You may look a bit, well, ridiculous but does that matter? There are no laws against it and you are beating the system. Anyway,  once you’re through security you can stick them in your bag which should be expandable for this very reason.

Furthermore, if the villa or apartment does not provide books, you can buy them – after the security checks. You might have to leave them behind but remember, you’re still saving money.

How much money? If you take a suitcase, you won’t be able to check in on line and, apart from all the nuisance of the check in queue, you will have to pay £6 for your suitcase each way. And then they will clobber you for a £6 each way booking fee. So that free trip will then cost you, actually, £28 –  £56 for two of you, rather than £0.00 with an electron card and a squashable cabin bag each.

Final tip: take your own food. In-flight grub, as I’m sure you all know, is a ridiculous price (though, unfortunately, you can’t take your own drinks but have to buy them after security at the airport or on board).

Della and her team in Bath are reporting buoyant feedback from villa and apartment owners booking space in Holiday Villas magazine and on www.villaseek.com. Bookings are looking good, despite – or perhaps because of – the financial downturn.

Many people seem to be turning their backs on expensive cruises, five star hotels and the like – too expensive in a recession.  But in general they’re not abandoning their main holiday (as a report out today by PricewaterhouseCoopers makes clear). Instead they’re after better value – and flexibility. They are turning to villas and apartment.

Owners say they’re receiving more enquiries and, more importantly, firm bookings. And we’re upbeat, too, because we’ve always said that booking your holiday direct with the owner is the best way to get a fantastic holiday home at a brilliant price. There is no middle man to take a cut and you get to speak to the owners direct, which  means more flexibility with dates and price. Sometimes an owner can fit a booking  around a non weekend arrival – when cheap flights are more plentiful.

Also, increasingly, people are asking about things like washing machines, hair driers, books and toiletries. Well equipped villas and apartments can lead travellers to decide to take hand luggage only – because it’s checking in a suitcase that bumps up the cost of flying. Many owners will do their best to get in  provisions like coffee and tea bags and even shampoo and soap so that their visitors can travel light.

Most of us are more savvy now about how to make sure the cheap flights advertised actually are cheap: no frills flights are at their cheapest – even free – if you check in on line and take only hand luggage. 

We’ll be writing more about how to get the cheapest flights very soon.

*The survey for PricewaterhouseCoopers was carried out by ICM Research. For more information go to www.pwc.com

Hello everyone,

Here’s an item I’ve used in the Update pages of the next issue of Holiday Villas, in the shops at the end of the month, and in the on-line magazine which should appear on Villaseek.com at around the same time: read it and it may just save you a few headaches when you’re travelling abroad!

Credit cons 

Credit card crime committed using British-issued cards abroad shot up by 77 per cent last year. A staggering £207.6 million were stolen, says Apacs, the organisation representing debit and credit card companies.                                                                              

Apacs advises us never to let our cards out of sight, as they could be ’skimmed’ – that’s when a receptionist, or similar, swipes a card twice. The first swipe is to record the actual payment, the second is to record information from the magnetic strip. This latter is all a crook needs to make a counterfeit card. Though a false card will not contain a microchip, making it no good for chip-and-pin purchases, it could be used in places relying on signatures only and on-line, says Apacs. 

Also watch out for: •An extra 0 added  to a payment slip – altering, say, a €50 purchase to €500 •Double-charging – if a vendor says he or she has made a mistake and asks you to sign another slip, make sure you get proof of cancellation of the first payment •Any offers to convert your money into sterling at the time of purchase – not illegal but expensive.                                                            

Fortunately, card companies block payments if their systems suspect fraud. Their computers know, for instance, what you regularly spend and where you spend it, so if there’s a £500 payment made in a foreign country, you will be warned. This is great – unless you’re actually in the foreign country. If this is the case, your card could be blocked when you need it most.                                                                                                                                           

To prevent this happening, especially if you don’t travel a lot, it’s best to let your card company know which country you are visiting and when. Also: take more than one card with you, as then you’ll have a backup.