Copyright birminghammail
The prospect of jetting off abroad with young children can seem a daunting, costly affair that's enough to send your stress levels soaring. However, former NHS doctor-turned-family travel guru Jen Carr is on a mission to flip this narrative. Since launching The Travel Mum and diving headfirst into full-time travel content creation, the mum-of-two has organised over 50 budget-friendly family trips. Boasting more than 315,000 followers on Instagram, this seasoned traveller from Nottinghamshire has become Instagram's go-to mum for cost-effective trips with the little ones. She's keen to help other families traverse the globe without emptying their pockets. READ MORE: Here are Jenn's top tips for planning affordable holidays that the whole family will love. Carr's primary piece of advice is to choose a DIY (do-it-yourself) holiday over an expensive package deal, starting with flights. "I think flexibility is the biggest thing when it comes to getting the cheapest prices. Some people will only look to fly from their nearest airport, but it's definitely worth shopping around," suggests Carr, mum to Leo, six, and Luca, one. "We recently saved £1,000 flying to Sardinia from London rather than Manchester." Carr always turns to comparison sites first when hunting for fantastic deals on flights and holiday accommodation. "I always rave about how fantastic Skyscanner is, it's unbeatable," the 36-year-old enthuses. "The Travel Mum website has a DIY trip-builder that utilises Skyscanner for flights and Hotels.com, which we absolutely adore for comparing hotels." Adding extra luggage to your flight can make travelling abroad prohibitively expensive, so travelling light can be a significant money saver. "Many people don't realise that if you add absolutely no luggage onto your flight, you can still bring a rucksack that fits under the seat in front," Carr advises. "That applies to children as well, so for a family of four, you've got four rucksacks at no additional cost. "You can squeeze a surprising amount of clothes into a small rucksack, especially when the kids' clothes are tiny. Just ensure that everyone wears their largest, bulkiest items on the plane." The mother of two encourages parents to make use of the fact that most airlines, even Ryanair , typically allow families to check in a car seat for free, in addition to the standard baggage allowance. "We usually place the car seat in a car seat bag and then within that bag we put another rucksack with extra items in, so it's almost like a free check-in item," Carr explains. "Having your own kitchen means you can save an absolute fortune on eating out," says Carr. "We normally always have breakfast and dinner self-catered, and then we go out for lunch, because lunch menus tend to be much cheaper than dinner menus. We tend to also look for lunch places that offer promotions and kid-sized meals." "I think UK holiday parks are really underrated," says Carr. "I went to Butlin's for the first time last week and had a fantastic time. We paid £89 for four nights for all of us, and when we got there we didn't have to spend an awful lot because it had a big playground, a swimming pool and all the fairground rides were included." "We tend not to get too roped into too many paid attractions because you can end up spending a fortune," says Carr. "There are so many free things you can do as a family, such as going to the beach, museums, pool days, playgrounds, having picnics and going to local markets." "We really like TUI because it has a really good last-minute deals section," shares Carr. "That's probably going to be your best bet for a good-value package holiday that's reliable." "Be smart with where you book and spend your money in everyday life, because you can do a lot with reward points," advises Carr. "We collect Avios points [a global reward currency you can spend on flights, hotels, car hire and more] with our credit card and they really build up. "You can use them to either get upgraded to a first-class or business-class flight, or to get a full set of family flights somewhere each year. We also book a lot of hotels with Hotels.com and collect OneKeyCash which you can use to book other hotels." "Work out how much you need to save and put aside each month for a holiday," suggests Carr. "A lot of package providers will let you pay in instalments, which makes it easier to budget." "There are so many little things that your kids will see and ask for, so be prepared," warns Carr. "For example, they will probably want to buy a £20 bubble blower at a theme park, so make sure you take a cheap bubble wand with you and say you've already got one, because kids will just want everything."
