- 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 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
I recommend that Hilary Matthews investigates the possibilities of a house exchange. I am a teacher and have had holidays in America, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain France, Holland and Italy without spending a fortune. It's a brilliant way of really seeing a country. There are lots of different exchange organisations to choose from.
Alan Harding
We find that booking flights and hotels ourselves is the best way to travel cheaply during the school holidays. This summer we spent a few days in Stockholm travelling with Ryanair. As teachers we do have some flexibility - we can go on holiday anytime over the six-week summer break. This October half term we spent three days in Prague, the scheduled flights cost us less than £100 return. These flights were booked on Expedia back in March. Planning ahead here helped a lot. Shop around, and keep your eyes open all year round for good deals would be our top tip.
David Williams
Avoid package holidays. Book your flight or ferry without booking accommodation, then book your accommodation from within the country. I normally avoid school holidays for travelling, but had no option last year as I wanted to see the eclipse. So, having booked only the ferry crossing, I set off with a bike and a tent for a memorable week's cycling in France that certainly did not break the bank. My brother - a teacher - has managed cheap travel by booking with no-frills airlines and heading east. This summer he travelled round Slovakia by train, staying in local hotels. The prices may have doubled because it was August, but would have been cheap at twice the price.
Ellie Mayor
Have you ever considered a coach holiday on the continent? My wife and I have been on three during school holidays and they are not expensive. At half term in October we went to Porec on the Istrian Peninsula in Croatia with Leger Holidays for nine days half board for £199. Last February half term we toured through Vienna, Prague and Budapest for £219, and the previous February we went to the Italian Dolomites visiting Lake Garda, Venice and Verona (£189). We have booked to go to Lloret de Mar in Spain next February with Shearing Holidaysfor £189. Travelling by coach means you see a lot more of the countries you visit, something you don't travelling by air. Try it!
Ken Youde
Leisuretime (08705 60 60 70) offer a wide choice of holidays from UK breaks to Mediterranean Sun and Worldwide travel. We provide selected offers, with availability during school breaks, to Best of Terms, the benefits magazine free to staff of primary and secondary schools and colleges of further education (circulation hotline 01608 811720).
Mark Riley, Communications Director, Leisuretime
If you're into skiing there is a ski club run by teachers, for teachers' families and friends to address this very problem of high season prices. It operates trips at Christmas/New Year, February half term and Easter. The price at Christmas starts at £370 half board and includes travel insurance and lift pass. It's called SETAFS, email setafs@cheerful.com.
Jenny Howard
Hilary Matthews doesn't say where she would like to visit, but as schoolteachers we have enjoyed a number of trips abroad which can not be said to have broken the bank. The best way to see Europe is to put a tent in the car, buy a copy of the appropriate Rough Guide and enjoy exploring. Eastern European countries such as Croatia and Hungary are particularly good value and have wonderful scenery, historic towns and a friendly populace refreshingly unconcerned at extracting your money. You don't have to cook everything over a stove - eating out is a cheap and enjoyable experience. But by far the best value is travel to South East Asia. Beyond the cost of the airfare it can be cheaper than staying at home - in Java and Bali a couple of years ago my husband and I spent between us, exclusive of air fare, about £700 in three weeks, which included all internal travel, hotels, meals, sightseeing, a significant amount of personal and gift shopping and a couple of internal flights. We could have spent less, particularly on the smaller islands. Shopping around for airfares usually produces some bargains.
It's usually possible to see other relatively untouristed countries cheaply, particularly those in the Middle East such as Syria or north eastern Turkey. Again, get a Rough or Lonely Planet guide and explore the possibilities of the extremely cheap and gloriously colourful local transport. Foreigners are guaranteed a warm welcome. It also gives a more interesting bent to the 'where are you going this holiday' type of staffroom discussion!
Gilly French
