Top 10 Travel Tips for Foreign Property Owners
If you are a foreign property owner then check out these 10 tips that will save you time and money when you visit your holiday home overseas.
You might be patting yourself on the back because you saved money on your flights by using a low cost airline, but as a regular traveller to your holiday home you could save even more. Join an airline loyalty programme and you’ll find that you’re getting free flights in no time at all!
Leaving your car at a UK airport can be horrendously expensive, so it’s worth spending a couple of minutes comparing rates. You can compare rates online and book your parking before you leave home , saving yourself a tidy sum.
Checking baggage in and out should be a thing of the past when you have a holiday home. There’s no point in shuttling your holiday wardrobe to and fro each time you visit when you can just leave everything in your home in the sun. So when you are departing, you can relax in a VIP lounge until your flight leaves, and when you arrive, you can sail blithely past the queues of overheating tourists with your hand luggage and be the first on the beach! You won’t just save time, but you’ll also save the risk of overweight charges and supplements.
Another way to save yourself from the airport queues is to use an online check in where you can print your own boarding pass… choose an airline that has an online check in facility and you can start your holiday with a smug smile as you stroll past the waiting hordes!
Multi-trip travel insurance works out much cheaper than getting a new travel insurance policy every time you visit your property in the sun. Get a policy designed for foreign property owners, and covers you even if your home abroad is your main residence. Don’t forget that if you are a UK citizen travelling in Europe you qualify for free health care as long as you have a European Health Insurance Card, which covers you for many though not all eventualities.
Taxi prices from airports are going up all the time, but you can book a transfer in advance before you leave home and make some great savings as well as beating the queue at the taxi rank! For example, a couple arriving at Tenerife’s South airport using a transfer shuttle would cost only €11 Euros each to the popular resort of Los Cristianos… a fraction of the price they would have paid for a taxi.
Here’s a fantastic idea from one of the UK’s leading currency specialists. Get a free Travel Money Card that you can use at cash machines and thousands of outlets. The Travel Money Card is a prepaid MasterCard that works just like a debit card. Loading funds is as easy as topping up a Pay As You Go mobile phone. It can be topped up online at any time on our website, over the phone or by SMS.
Don’t use your mobile phone from the UK when you are staying in your holiday home: international roaming rates may have come down, but they certainly aren’t cheap. Get a pay as you go SIM card to put in your phone when you are visiting and leave the number on the voicemail of your normal phone. That way, an urgent caller can still find you and it won’t cost you a penny, and your outgoing calls will be a lot cheaper.
Yes… honestly, learning the lingo will save you both time and money if you own a home abroad. You don’t have to be fluent, but even a basic level will help you and if your property is in somewhere friendly, like Tenerife, you’ll find most people will be patient and even more helpful if you try to talk in their language. You could even start a language course while you are in Tenerife!
Saving time and money starts even before you buy your home in the sun! If you pick a good estate agent, you’ll get help and advice long after you have moved in and you won’t be wasting valuable holiday time chasing bits of paper because your agent did a shoddy job. And if you’re really lucky, you’ll choose an estate agent that can help you make money from your holiday home by promoting your rental to holidaymakers with a free entry into their rental website!
