Official holiday thread

Post all your holiday questions / tips / suggestions / photos in here instead of starting a new thread every time

Best places to change money:

ICE (Currency Express / International Currency Exchange)
Thomas Exchange Global
Travelex

Good flight search sites:

Cheapflights.co.uk
Fly.com
Kayak
Momondo
Opodo
Skyscanner
TravelSupermarket.com

Best sites for late deals

Ice Lolly
Teletext Hoildays
Thomas Cook
Travel Zoo

whats a good place just down from the topper Maldives/ Seychelles etc for all inclusive on a water bungalow with the crystal clear water?...

anyone been to Portugal? I have to book a villa for family holiday (8 of us) for next summer, never appealed to me but it's a place that's being mentioned.

anyone have any nice villa recs (large) anywhere else, must be reasonable distance to travel, i.e within 4 hours or so.

cheers joe i'll check that area out

went to vale do lobo this summer http://www.valedolobo.com/en/
perfect for any baller occasion.

someone of you already used airbnb? im thinking about using it when going to london in november for a week... Any better suggestions to stay with my wife in london for a week? not to pricey please!

I've just used Airbnb to find an apartment in Sweden for a weekend break. It's bit like a dating agency as you have to create a profile, upload a photo and write a little about yourself. I decided to create a profile for my missus instead, as I thought hosts would be more "welcoming" or willing to let out to a female than a male.

Anyway once you've found an apartment or apartments that you like, you message the host/owner of the place, telling them roughly your travel itinerary, a lot of people I've found are really flexible with check-in and check-out times, which is a bonus compared to hotels. Do take into account that a lot of people charge cleaning fees, but this is pretty nominal and Airbnb will charge you a fee too to go ahead with the booking. Once the owner/host approves the booking for the dates, you then pay via their payment system and then that's pretty much it.

Of course there are some bad feedback as well as good, but it's only going to be as good as the "hosts/owners" who use the site. I've found the majority to be pretty prompt in replying to messages, within 48hours. I've only had one which took 2 weeks to respond, but by then I had found a better apartment which was fractionally cheaper anyway.

Worth noting, there has been one nightmare story (can't find the link but it was for some online newspaper) I read a while back, when Airbnb first launched, whereby the journalist had booked a two week stay in a NY apartment, only to find that his booking had been cancelled on the day of his arrival. Fortunately, he managed to find another place within a couple of days (after shelling out for a hotel room) using Airbnb from a different host and he said his stay there was pleasurable despite the initial hiccup.

Failing Airbnb you could check out http://www.onefinestay.com/ if you still want to go down the apartment route. However, their refund/cancellation policies are very strict.

I'm going to Cambodia in October with my g/f. Any recommendations on stuff to check out outside of the obvious stuff (Killing Fields, Ankor Wat etc)?

Madeira is sweet, been 3 times for a squash tournament/drinking tour, recomended and decent weather pretty much year round.

I want to upgrade my Virgin flights to Vegas. People are telling me not to bother doing it over the phone and wait until I'm at the airport as it will be much cheaper (some say only £150)

Anyone got experience of this?