From 1% tips to smuggling children into theme parks: travellers share their ‘money-saving’ holiday hacks

Few holidaymakers are as parsimonious as Simon Calder, travel correspondent of The Independent. But even he was shocked by the response when he asked readers for their tales of acts of miserliness while on the road.

“When the kids were little we used to holiday in the Lake District, and we would always spend a day at Lowther Park. I would pull up just before entering and one of the kids would go in the boot to avoid the entrance fee. They loved it and would fight for who went in there.”

Tim Coxon

“Does bribing your five-year-old to tell the theme park entrance staff they are only four so they get in free count? All the way there: ‘Tell me how old you are again?’”

Fliss Knowlden

“I once (with a group of friends) did a runner from a bar in Hannover. In our defence, we had asked for the bill three times. In the bar’s defence, it was Eurovision night and they were inundated because the city square was showing the contest on a massive TV screen. Felt very naughty though!”

Isabella May

“Whilst in Tashkent, Uzbekistan: informing my son he’s just negotiated that taxi driver down from a 70p ride to 40p.”

Mark Stapley

“Whilst holidaying in Turkey I tried bartering in a shopping mall over a hair band. I think I saved myself 25p.”

Ralph N

“Haggling in Chiang Mai and then realising I was holding out for 10p!”

Shane Williams

“I once refused to take a rickshaw in Delhi because the driver wouldn’t meet my price that was 3p cheaper. It was a horrible walk too, served me right.”

Ian Naylor

“I went with a friend to Turkey and she bartered so hard, the very insulted trader left a 10,000-lire note outside his shop and watched as she chased it around the courtyard trying to pick it up, not realising he’d attached it to a cotton thread so he could pull it out of reach!”

Four Corners PR

“Many years ago, in Sapa, Vietnam, I was offered a haircut on a side street. We agreed a price and being the only foreigner it drew quite an audience. When finished he asked for 10 times more. I stormed off through the shocked audience and never looked back. Not my proudest day.”

Roger K

“Once had such bad service in a restaurant in New York City, we left only paying a 1 cent tip. I honestly thought we were going to get shot.”

Dave

“I remember sneaking out of an-all-you-can-eat breakfast in Florida without tipping as I only had 20 dollar bills and larger.”

Andy Mullins

“I think you should cut some slack for people who are travelling from non-tipping countries such as Australia. The rules can be baffling, particularly in North America.”

Tim Richards

“Restaurant reducing our bill voluntary by 50 per cent as the meal had taken so long to come, and sister not wanting to leave a tip (the rest of us did).”

Akalaski

“Going on the free walking tour on a European city break and googling to find out how little I could get away with paying. But I always feel guilty and pay too much.”

David Bruce

“I tipped 0 per cent at Chicago O’Hare airport for Garrett Popcorn because tipping someone 20 per cent to put popcorn in a bag is insane. It already cost $8. I’m not paying $10 because the machine tells me to.”

‘Angry Maths Teacher’

“At a small bar at New York JFK I got moaned at by a bar person once for not tipping enough. I went to the bar, ordered drinks, she made them, her job was done. I paid with a tip then took them over to my table. She then came up and gave me a mouthful. She got short shrift!”

Sarah Jane MacD

“My mother used to collect all the hotel soaps, so once on a British Airways flight, I saw all the individual soaps lined up and collected as many as I could discreetly carry- in my trousers elastic. I was eight. I then revealed my free soap stash to her and all the other Boeing 747 passengers. She was mortified.

“We may still have a few under the kitchen sink.”

@flyingwithbaby

“I usually get lunch out of a buffet breakfast, except in Austria where they love a laminated notice forbidding you from removing anything from the dining room. In Croatia this year I witnessed a man eat 14 croissants for breakfast. Bet he saved on lunch.”

DiFi

“When I was in Rome I only threw two coins in the Trevi Fountains. I am Scottish.”

Dougie Baird, travel blogger

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“Does making small children carry their own luggage in a backpack to avoid checking anything in count? They never complained though and it made them think twice before packing unnecessary toys.”

Rebecca Halpern

“Seeking out a local laundry instead of using the hotel ‘service’.”

Nicola Espindola

“Avoid the ridiculous $8 [£6.60] AirTrain fee at JFK by taking the New York Subway A train to Ozone Park-Lefferts Boulevard and the Q10 bus along Lefferts Boulevard to the (free) AirTrain station of the same name. Voila, that’s a free pint!”

Steve M

“I always walk from Corfu airport into Corfu Town via the stadium route. It is a pleasant 20-minute walk along Garistsa Bay and Alexandrou Avenue.”

Matthew Hisbent

“Taxis from airports in unregulated countries often drive me onto the local buses, adds stress and time to a short timeframe, but always results in a story to tell.”

Tim Fisher

“A group of American tourists in a Hong Kong night market loudly exclaimed in English how much they loved the silk kimonos. They asked the stallholder the price. ‘80 dollars,’ she replied.

“‘Is that US dollars or Hong Kong dollars,’ they asked.

“‘US dollars,’ she replied, knowingly. They paid.”

There are almost eight Hong Kong dollars to US$1.

Sheila King