Can you have an awesome trip to Stockholm with Ryanair flights? So Jacks Flight Club is one of my favourite websites, finding the best flight deals. Here’s the MoMM way for you to max the Joy with a really cheap Ryanair flight.
Jacks Flight Club search for the best deals and send out regular emails free. I’ve signed up for the Premium package which is £35 a year though you can try it out for 3 months for £12. This gets you notified quicker as some of the deals are short lived.
Anyway, an offer popped into my inbox, showing weekends away in January including Stockholm return fare £26 each. I remembered seeing awesome pictures of Stockholm’s metro stations and jumped at the chance. Quick text to Mr D ‘do you fancy Stockholm for a weekend in January?’ Answer was ‘Of course, anywhere with you xxx’. So I booked the flights.
Now I am a planner – organised and totally in control. And I’d just booked flights to a place we’d never even considered, knew nothing about, and in January (I’m not a fan of the cold). I did book them using my Amex rewards card so double Airmiles there.
Now the thing about budget airlines like Ryanair which we all know is that £26 does not mean it’s going to cost £26, unless you are only carrying a tiny bag and don’t particularly mind who you sit with. Stockholm in January means we need at least a cabin bag each and of course we want to sit together. So by the time we’ve added these on, flights come to £51 each. Flights are going Friday 6.30 am returning Monday 6 pm.
So I looked up the airport we are flying to – Skavsta. This is 106 km from Stockholm City Centre, and 7 km from a train station. Taxi cost approx. 2000SEK which is around £172. Yikes.
You could look at this and say “Oh my god now it’s over £100 for the flights, we’ll have to get up at stupid o’ clock, airport is miles away from Stockholm, should have planned it first, lets not bother. We have only lost £100.”
Now here is where you can really use your mind to maximise your joy.
WooHoo! Flights only £100, Ryanair yes, but it’s only a couple of hours. We’ll start off in the Airport Lounge, chill out and fill up. I found a bus (comfy with WiFi) that goes from the Airport to the City for about £12 each if you book ahead. That’s a couple of hours enjoying the Swedish scenery. We’ll get to our hotel about lunchtime then we have the rest of Friday until Monday lunchtime to explore Stockholm. I also found a cracker of a hotel which is going to make it AWESOME.
The hotel is really important to maximising your joy. We need a good location, walking distance to all the sights, room with a view and a sofa and, of course, breakfast included.
I found the Downtown Camper Hotel, picked the best room and it even has a rooftop wellness retreat with night-time swimming and sauna. Also free organised events and activities like walking tours, yoga, relaxation classes in the big rooftop net!! Film evenings, organised bar meet and mingles. And a telescope and activity room. That’s loads of new experiences for us to try. And highly rated breakfast. I know I bang on about breakfast – read my blog on “the pain of paying” and you’ll understand!
So I booked the hotel by doing all the usual searches and finding the best price for the room we wanted. Tried the cashback websites but no particular offers there, so waited a day until a special offer arrived in my inbox from Hotels.com, booked it for £309 which is over £100 less than a few days before. Also with their price guarantee, if you find it cheaper you get the difference back in vouchers. One of the best little joys is looking again after you’ve booked and seeing the price go up and up. Now it’s £398. Of course I booked on the right card so insurance is included, and we will use the lounge passes that are free with our Amex. And when we get there we will spend on our overseas credit card to get the best exchange rates and no loading fees. Just booked the Meet and Greet Car Park for a fab £49.20 as an offer popped in from Stansted Airport, the cheapest I’d seen was £56. It’s all in the timing.
So you can easily take advantage of bargain flights and still max the Joy and value. I’ll update you when we get back.
We will definitely be seeing this!
How about travel competitions? Where can you find the best ones all in one place? All the info is in this Mind over Money Matters loves…. Travelscoop post. Good luck Tx
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