The Sun £9.50 Holidays Stay in holiday parks in UK from £15-ish per person
Ensure you don't miss out. Join the 6m who get it emailed each week
It’s possible to bag four-day European holiday park breaks from just £60 for four people, when you collect tokens with The Sun.
Yet there’s a host of extra charges to watch out for. This guide explains how to side-step these and save up to £500 on a family getaway.
This is just a one-off promotion. For a step-by-step guide to permanently getting the cheapest holidays, see Cheap Package Holidays & Cheap Hotels guides.
While The Sun’s ‘£9.50 Holidays’ headline looks stunning, it can work out at much more than this if you don’t know what you’re doing.
The basic cost is £9.50 per person for three or four nights. Yet the minimum holiday price is £38, so this is cheapest for families of four. Nearly all parks add a 'service charge' on top, adding around £20-ish to the total cost. Plus remember this is accommodation only, so factor in the cost of getting there (read the Cheap Flight & Cheap Trains guides).
The parks also recoup their cash by charging for optional ‘extras’ such as bed linen and entertainment. Yet if you take your own sheets and a Scrabble board, the holidays really can be had for as little as £60 for four.
With park holidays costing up to £600, the savings can be huge. For example the last time this offer was on, a four-night at La Croix du Vieux Pont park near Eurodisney would normally cost £419 for four, but cost just £84 via this deal.
To book your holiday, you need to collect 10 unique tokens, printed in The Sun (30p) and News of the World (£1) every day from Sat 2 July until Thur 28 July 2011. The last day you can start collecting is Tue 19 July from The Sun.
Next, download a booking form from TheSun.co.uk and fill in the info described below. These holidays are always popular, so your form must be ready to roll the day you get the final token.
One of the reasons these hols are so cheap is that you can’t pick the exact date and place. You have to specify FIVE dates and parks you'd like.
The £9.50 hols can be taken on selected dates Sept - Nov 2011. Weekend breaks are three nights and weekday holidays are four nights.
Monday-Friday (4 night breaks) can start: September 12, 19, 26; October 3, 10, 17, 24, 31; November 7, 14, 21, 28.
Friday-Monday (three-night breaks) can start: September 9, 16, 23, 30; October 7, 14, 21, 28; November 4, 11, 18, 25.
For two, three or four people sharing the basic cost will be £38, five people sharing will cost £47.50, six sharing £57, seven sharing £66.50 and eight sharing £76. On selected dates there are also holidays for £15 per person; go to the TheSun for a full list of the dates you can choose.
Holiday accommodation is caravans, chalets, apartments, tents, lodges, apartments bungalows or cottages at 275 parks in the UK, Ireland, France (inc. Corsica), Spain, Italy, Germany, Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg. The park names are available on the parkfinder, but last year featured some real smashers such as Bunn Holiday Village in Sussex and Parkdean Crantock Beach in Cornwall.
You must pick a shortlist of FIVE, using the parkfinder (link will be live from Wed 6 July). Quality varies, so search the reviews on Tripadvisor, and also compare parks’ service charges.
If you want to take a dog, check directly with the parks first, or your pooch could end up home alone. Also note that the parks will not accept bookings from parties where all persons are under 21. All-male and all-female parties under the age of 25 are not allowed either.
If you’ve been on a Sun holiday before, please add your feedback in the Sun Holiday Parks Reviews thread, so others can benefit.
Some parks are more costly than others in the first place. First, look on the parks’ websites to see how much it would cost you to book direct. Next, whip out the calculator, and work out how much The Sun holiday will cost to make sure it’s cheaper.
Basic costs:
- Basic charge. The basic holiday cost is £9.50 per person, and you can take up to eight people. The parks will only accept parties of fewer than four if you pay the four berth price, so in reality the hols start at £38. You can take up to eight people, but here the cost will go up. If your brood is bigger than four, it could well be cheaper just to hire a caravan direct, so do check.
- Service charge. Next add the service charge. This covers caravan cleaning and gas & elec and nearly all parks charge this fee. Charges vary according to park, but typically range from £10 to £36 per family per holiday. A few offer no service charge on selected dates, as shown with the park listings. Go to the Park Finder, click on a location and check at the bottom. These fees will be charged direct to you by the park before arrival.
Optional extras:
Bed linen. Bed linen and blankets are not included at any of the holiday parks. Make sure you take your own, or you’ll have to hire it for about £10 per person.
- Entertainment. Parks offering entertainment programmes may charge for optional entertainment passes, around £2 to £10 per person per break. See a full list of Entertainment Passes. Take a monopoly board!
- Food. No meals are included in the price, so save by self-catering.
An example costing in the previous holiday offer
Mr Ivor Taholiday and his family get their first choice of four nights in Great Yarmouth in May. He’s taking his wife and two kids, so they pay a £38 basic charge. Haven Seashore has a service charge of £6.50 per unit per night (total £26).
The family take their own bed linen and make their own fun, so they spend a total of £64. If they’d booked a caravan directly, it would have cost £300!
As soon as you've all 10 tokens, post the form. Remember to include a cheque for the basic charge of £9.50 per person. Service charges will be invoiced later. The closing date for applications is Friday 12 Aug 2011.
The Sun will send holiday confirmation by Thur 25 Aug 2011 or, if unsuccessful, your payment will be returned by that date. If you have not heard anything by then, call 0844 543 9743 (calls cost 5p per minute from BT). Make sure you keep a record of your selected parks and dates.
WARNING! Only book if you really want to go!
There are absolutely no amendments or cancellations whatsoever after you’ve sent off the form. So only book if you’re sure about the five dates & parks, and make sure you read the terms and conditions.
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