• Always book your transport and hotels direct. Never use travel companies (at least not brochures).
• Use low-cost airlines but book as soon as their summer schedules become available. Last year by booking in December, I flew Stansted to Barcelona in late July for £70 return with Go and Liverpool to Amsterdam for £50 return in June at the height of Euro 2000.
• Travel to places in the summer that are popular for spring or October short breaks. Prague is actually cheaper in the summer.
• Shop at Sainsbury's. Use your reward card and the Sainsbury's Visa card (for double points) and convert to Air Miles.
• For UK travel, use The Trainline to book well in advance. Also, Liverpool to Edinburgh return with a Virgin Groupie fare costs £36 for four adults.
• For hotel rooms, book on the Monday for the following weekend as many places dump unsold rooms cheaply. Try www.laterooms.com
• Use teletext for current bargains.
Geoff Poole
By no means everything doubles in price during the high season. Once you get across the Channel, you'll find the rest of Europe doesn't have quite our high-season problem. French Railways in Piccadilly (0870 5848848) can advise on cheap runabout tickets and other fares and reservations on the Continent and issue tickets.
It does not take long on day and overnight trains to get to the warm parts of Spain, Portugal and Italy. For accommodation, you can get hotel and guest-house lists from national tourist offices or local ones (addresses in Michelin Red Guides) and write or phone to make direct bookings.
A hotel or guest house can usually be found near a station without pre-booking. Check train times so that if you don't find a bed for the night, you can get an overnight train instead.
And If you have friends on the Continent, get them to book a package tour for you and make your own way out.
John R Batts
Look no further than the travel pages of The Guardian. The adventure companies, Explore, Travelbag etc don't double their prices, nor is there a single-person supplement. New Millennium holidays are excellent value.
Eastern Europe is embarrassingly cheap. Hungary has great weather, excellent food and wonderful spas. We booked a Buzz flight to Vienna and a train to Budapest through Rail Europe. Danube Travel got us a hotel in Budapest for £24 a night each. We went on by train to Eger, finding a hotel through the Rough Guide.
Some package operators discount their end-of-summer brochure holidays - which coincide with October half term.
Marion Shirley
I've got some advice for Hilary Matthews - stop whingeing! Doesn't she realise she's no worse off than anybody with school-age children, many of whom earn a good deal less than she does? She's certainly better off than the support staff in her own school who not only get paid less to start with and may not get paid at all in the holidays but can still only go at peak times.
JE Howard
This week's question
Does anyone know if the device called Earplanes really works? I suffer excruciating pain to a damaged eardrum even when descending mountain roads in a car, so I have never dared to fly though I would really like to.
Pat Lacey
• If you have questions or advice, please send it to: Ask a fellow traveller, The Guardian, 119 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3ER. Or e-mail: ask.a.fellow.traveller@theguardian.com.
