9 Ways to Blow Your Savings on a Trip

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I'm sure you will agree that holiday trips are expensive, yet for the luckier vacationers out there money is no object and overstated and elaborate holidays are not a problem. So how exactly do these 'lucky ones' spend tens of thousands of pounds on just one holiday? Here's our list of 9 ways to bump up your holiday spending and add a few extra 0s to the budget...

Luxury travel

If you're going on a luxurious holiday then why not get there in style too? There are a huge number of ways to do this, and some exceed the boundaries of simple 'economy', 'business class' and 'first class' travel.

For instance, Virgin Atlantic will take you from London (Heathrow) to New York (JFK) for the measly fee of £2898 (yes, that little!) in an upper class cabin, complete with reclining leather aisle seats for every passenger, a bed that can be fully flattened, 10.4 inch tv (with games, tv programmes and films), large table and even your very own ottoman. The whole experience appears to be very private, with the opportunity to hold a meeting or invite friends for dinner at your table if you wish. Oo la la!

Luxury accommodation

There are some incredibly expensive hotels offering incredibly illogical benefits to their guests, such as the separate powder rooms of the TY Warner penthouse suite of Four Seasons hotel in New York (which count for just one of the nine rooms which you pay $30,000 per night for).

Of course you wouldn't need to go quite that far in order to blow your savings on holiday but it's the little things like room service and posh hire cars, chauffeurs and in-hotel spa treatments which will have you with your hand constantly in your pocket. Even your choice of hotel makes a difference and they're keen to charge that bit extra for those pretentious little touches like a swan folded into the end of the toilet tissue or a choice of two different rolls.

Ultimate sightseeing

Everybody wants to see the sights when they're on holiday because there's usually something very exciting to see. Sightseeing can be a very cheap way of entertaining the family for the day, often for free but sightseeing can also be hideously expensive if you do it in a certain way. How? Let us explain...

The majority of people will take the cheapest or most reasonably priced route to see a sight, for example by boat to see the Statue of Liberty. Then there are those who will end up blowing their savings on one trip, and choose to see the statue from the ultimate angle i.e. by air. How do you see the Statue of Liberty by air? Why, in a helicopter of course! It's these flashy ways of seeing something from the perfect angle and up as close as possible that spell trouble for the bank account.

The very best food

Gourmet food is often a huge part of a holiday. Travellers quite rightly want to sample the delicacies and traditional cuisine of the country which they are visiting, but there are a number of ways to do this. If you want true gastronomy then you can either go to the most expensive and luxurious restaurant in town with the five star rating and rave reviews, or you can search for the underdog, the secret treasure of a cosy café tucked away somewhere which cooks the real deal at the standard price.

With that said, going to Paris' top restaurants and ordering lobster thermidor with a side dish of caviar and a bottle of Dom Perignon is clearly going to run up a humongous bill. One of the world's most expensive restaurants, for instance, is 'Aragawa' in Japan's Tokyo. A meal at this restaurant with a drink will cost the diner approximately $277.

Unnecessary souvenirs

Buying gifts and souvenirs is all part and parcel of going on holiday. It's our own sentimental way of coming back and saying 'HA! Look where I've been and you haven't!' to the loved ones we left behind. I'm sure you'll have received an incredibly random souvenir from a relative or friend who's been on holiday and it's quite obvious that they didn't know what to buy you, so what happens when people really pull out the stops and buy you something really flash?

Those who splash their cash on souvenirs usually get it either very right or very wrong. For instance, visiting a great landmark like the Eiffel Tower or the Statue of Liberty often elicits hordes of overpriced statuettes being bought from nearby stalls, but they're never anything anyone wants to put on their mantelpiece. Then there are the nicer gifts like a painting of the landscape or a box of the finest Belgian chocolates. If you're going to blow your budget on souvenirs then choose the latter!

The luggage

The airport metal detector isn't usually the only thing saying 'bling bling' when vacationers leave for their holidays. Bags, suitcases, holdalls and briefcases are getting more and more elaborate by the day and with high class designers like Gucci and Armani bringing out their own collections encrusted with diamante studs and gold straps, travelling in style is made that much more expensive. It's not unusual to see people strutting around the big airports with the stereotypical floppy sun hat and sunglasses so it should come as no surprise that they have the luggage to match.

The epitome of suitcase snobbery is demonstrated on our favourite auction site eBay, with authentic Gucci travel accessories selling for $475 plus. Whoever would've thought that the suitcase would be worth more than the contents themselves?

Expensive attractions

The difference in price between staying in a cosy getaway and staying right in the heart of the city with all the best attractions right on your doorstep can be quite stark. Places with a storming tourism industry know exactly how to get the most money out of their visitors and this usually happens at the heart of all the excitement.

Take Venice's St. Marcos square for example; both the center and the outer amenities sell almost identical products and services, yet the further away from the center you go, the cheaper they get. Venice's central shop owners know that tourists get excited and will spend spend spend as soon as they arrive so they know that they can still sell even at high prices. Staying in areas with lots of attractions like Paris or Orlando where Disneyland lie are guaranteed to be pricey.

Taking pets

Ever seen those ladies with miniscule dogs in their bags and all you can see is their head poking out? You may have also realised that they don't ever seem to leave them alone, even when they go on holiday.

Insisting that you take your dogs, cats, rabbits, ferrets, crocodiles etc. on holiday with you is an excellent way to blow an incredible amount of extra money compared to what it would cost to put them in a kennel for the fortnight. Firstly, there's the cost of putting your pet into quarantine, and then the cost of boarding (some hotels offer dog beds, food and other services) and thirdly the cost of finding pet food that won't upset their stomachs or getting someone to look after them while you go to a restaurant. It certainly all adds up!

Extravagant nightlife

Letting your hair down on holiday is a must, after all that's the whole idea of going away. If you really truly want to blow your whole budget, or even your savings on a holiday then choosing only the biggest and best nightclubs, bars and pubs is probably the way to go. Simply walking into the nearest and nicest looking bar and ordering a huge round of elaborately named cocktails is probably the most effective way to spend a lot of money.

Take 'Bar Hemingway' at the Paris Ritz hotel for example; they sell a cocktail called the 'Ritz Side Car' for £288 which is made up of just two ingredients: reserve cognac dating back to 1830 and a drop of lemon. Or how about a round of $10,000 Martini on the Rocks at the Algonquin hotel's 'Blue Bar' in New York? Vermouth served with a 1.52 carat diamond ring is certainly extravagant to say the least.