I’m a firm believer that multiple short holidays and weekend getaways are way better than the traditional ‘big summer holiday’. Don’t get me wrong, I love a big summer holiday but if I had to choose one or the other, I’d pick lots of short holidays throughout the year.
Regular short holidays mean you’ve always got something to look forward to and the anticipation of a holiday is almost as good as the holiday itself!
Did you know we make most of our core memories and have the most fun in the first few days of a holiday? After day three on holiday we begin to acclimatise to our surroundings and stop feeling that awe and appreciation we felt on day one.
Basically, days 1-3 are always the best so surely it makes sense to have lots of ‘day 1-3 holidays!’
But I know what a lot of you are thinking…lots of short holidays can be expensive and you’ll get more bang for your buck on a longer holiday. You also have a busy life and it’s hard to find time to get away. Plus, you can’t go that far and you want to go somewhere new and exotic!
So I’m here to share my travel hacks to book your weekend breaks on a budget, make time for weekends away and find exotic destinations that aren’t too far from home.
10 tips to make sure you have more weekend breaks in 2025
1. Get your dates locked in for 2025 NOW
Now is the time to sit down with your 2025 calendar and make plans with your friends and family. If you leave it too late then everyone will be busy and boring commitments will have snuck into your calendar.
I’m planning my annual girls’ holiday now. We don’t go until September but I know if I leave it too late then we won’t go because no one can agree on a date.
2. Book flights and accommodation in the sales
Now is a great time to be booking flights and accommodation thanks to the Black Friday sales. Check out the Black Friday Barcelo offers for huge discounts on gorgeous hotels and sign up to email updates for the airlines you frequently fly with. Accommodation is usually my biggest expense when it comes to weekend breaks so these sale deals genuinely make a massive difference.
3. Give the gift of travel this Christmas
Rather than giving physical gifts this Christmas, give people the gift of travel.
Don’t buy your mum a new dressing gown, club together with your siblings and take her for a spa weekend.
Don’t buy your husband a new coat, book him a flight to Paris!
And don’t buy more toys for your kids (seriously, they don’t need that many toys!) take them away for a weekend.
4. Move your ‘weekend’
My number one tip for book cheap weekend breaks is to move your ‘weekend’ to midweek. I know this isn’t possible for everyone but if you have the option to work from home then you can work Saturday and Sunday and go away Monday-Tuesday. This is not only MUCH cheaper but it’s quieter too.
5. Pay for things gradually
Taking lots of weekend breaks can seem expensive but I like to pay for things very gradually. It’ll be a £50 flight one week and a £70 hotel the next. A £15 tour the following week and £30 airport parking the next.
It’s much easier than laying down £300 in one go.
6. Do the ‘12 trips challenge’
Have you heard about the 12 trips Challenge? It’s where you plan a ‘trip’ for every month of the year. A ‘trip’ doesn’t have to be anything massive. It could be a night away camping, it could be a spa night or it could be a 3-day break to Morocco.
This would be the dreamiest 12 trip challenge…
- January – Morocco weekend break for some sun
- February – Copenhagen for a frosty city break
- March – Lanzarote for beach chill in the sun
- April – Local glamping break
- May – Rome city break before it gets too busy
- June – Camping
- July – Wellness retreat to relax before the summer holidays
- August – Camping
- September – Nice with the girls
- October – Countryside cabin escape
- November – Bratislava – Early Christmas market trip
- December – UK Christmas market weekend
7. Look for new destinations
We Brits may love a weekend break to France or Spain and that’s often the default for a sunny weekend break. But have you thought about other destinations such as Montenegro or Albania? Albania is next to Greece and has a similarly spectacular landscape with gorgeous beaches, crystal clear seas, great weather and lots to explore. It’s also cheap, the flight is only 3 hours and it feels much more exotic and exciting than Spain!
8. Outsource/delegate your weekend chores
I know many of you will be thinking that you can’t take lots of weekend breaks because…well you have a lot to do on the weekend! Weekend chores are the worst part of adulting but we all have to do it.
Here are some of the ways I’ve reduced my weekend chores:
- Give my kids more responsibility when it comes to cleaning and laundry
- Hire a cleaner
- Do my food shop online to arrive the evening I get home from a weekend break
- Have a daily ‘power hour’ to work through the chores during the week
- Declutter one small area of my house each day
- Plan my week on a Sunday evening so I don’t waste time
- I put a TV in my bedroom – this one might seem completely unrelated but I go to bed earlier now so I have way more energy!
9. Use the search ‘Everywhere’ function on Skyscanner
Rather than planning holidays to specific destinations, look at specific dates and use the function on Skyscanner to search ‘Everywhere’.
This will show you all the cheap flights on your chosen dates from your chosen airport. This can be a really fun and low cost way to find new places to go. This function took me to Morocco (£30 return!), Vienna (£15!) and Copenhagen (£22!)
10. Join group trips
You may not always be able to find someone to join you on your weekend breaks but don’t let this stop you from travelling. You could go solo or, my personal preference, you could join group trips.
It could be a full organised tour run by influencers or tour companies or something like a retreat. I attended a pilates retreat this year. It was run by a local pilates instructor so there were a few people I knew on the retreat, but not necessarily people I knew well enough to book a weekend getaway with. It was brilliant and a really nice way to make new friends and have a mini holiday.
I also love the Azul Fit yoga, pilates and wellness retreats. I’ve done a few of them in Fuerteventura and they’re wonderful.