Your must read travel round up 🎄
Hello!
If you’ve been following along on YouTube, you’ll know that I’ve been posting my Christmas Market Bingo series which culminated this weekend with my final market!
So in today’s newsletter, I thought I’d take you through everywhere I ticked off.
Coming up:
Play Christmas Market Bingo with me ⭐️
Deal of the week: January hotel deals 🛏️
The team’s fave travel videos of the week 📲
I played Christmas Market Bingo around Europe
Every year, I like to do a Christmas Market challenge and this year, I decided to make myself a festive bingo card and give myself 5 days and £500 to get a full house. However there was a sneaky twist. Each and every day I had to roll a dice and if it landed on 5, I had to give £50 of my budget to a total stranger.
⚠️ SPOILER ALERT ⚠️
I’m gonna run you through it all and so if you want to watch along without knowing my route, stop scrolling now and start watching here!
1) Hamburg Christmas Market
I began my festive Bingo challenge in Hamburg, which was all decked out for the festive season and as I always say - the Germans really know how to do a proper Christmas Market.
Mulled wine price: €5 / £4.50
Bratwurst price: €5 / £4.50
And I’ve actually typed up my full review including even more prices and pictures for you to read!
2) Stockholm Christmas Market
My next stop was Stockholm and its small but perfectly formed Christmas Market tucked away in the historic Old Town.
Mulled wine price: 40 SEK / £3.20
Bratwurst price: 50 SEK / £4
3) Tallin Christmas Market
Day 3 brought me to Tallinn - now this gets rave reviews so I set out to see it for myself. Would the festive feels measure up to the other destinations on my list?
Mulled wine price: €7 / £6.15
Bratwurst price: from €7 / £6.15
4) Riga Christmas Market
My fourth stop was Riga, where my game of Christmas Market Bingo went up a notch. I had to give £50 to a stranger and, well, let’s say it was the start of a very merry evening indeed.
Mulled wine price: €5 / £4.50
Bratwurst price: €4 / £3.50
5) Vilnius Christmas Market
My fifth and final Christmas Market was Vilnius in Lithuania, where James joined me. We enjoyed the impeccable Christmas vibes - there’s even an ice rink - but had our challenges finding a Bratwurst.
Mulled wine: €5 / £4.50
Bratwurst: €3.30 / £2.90 for 100g of cured sausage
My deal of the week
This week, I wanted to remind you that if you’ve got a specific hotel on your bucket list - and particularly a treat one - one of the cheapest times of the year to book it is January.
Why is January one of the cheapest times to book a hotel?
Most people have spent lots of money on the festive season and go into savings mode come the new year. So quite simply, demand is down and so prices go down too!
How do you find the cheapest dates?
There’s a super simple way to find the cheapest dates which I’ve written about before but my extra top tip is to look for Sunday night stays, as they’re often the cheapest all year around!
How do you find January or Winter hotel offers?
Prices tend to be cheaper in January as standard - and so booking in the normal way will bring up those prices. However, some hotels do also offer special deals- such as discounts, meal inclusions and even free night stays - just for booking in the quieter months.
However, finding these deals isn’t always easy as they don’t tend to come up when you’re just doing a simple search. Therefore, my top tip is to go to the hotel’s website and see if they have an ‘offers’ section. That, or simply search for the hotel name followed by these key word ‘January Winter Hotel Offer Deal’ and see what comes up. Or, if you haven’t got anywhere in mind, just search for them on their own!
My favourite January hotel offers
Okay I’ve been keeping an eye out and here are a few UK hotels to get us started…
Green King Inns, UK wide
I love staying in a pub when it’s cold and miserable outside, and Green King Inns has 20% off select Green King Inns if you’re staying between 1st Jan - 31st Mar 2026. You’ll also get 20% off at the hotel restaurant.
The Merchant Hotel, Belfast
This hotel is on my bucket list! And their ‘Luxury for Sale’ packages can be booked between 4th Jan - 31st Mar 2026. I like the look of the package which includes a deluxe room stay with noon checkout, two course meal, breakfast and access to the sauna and steam room for £258 - that’s £129pp. These deals can be booked Monday to Thursday.
Whatley Manor, Cotswolds
Whatley Manor in the Cotswolds is stunning and is offering a 3 for 2 nights offer for 3 night stays arriving on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday.
With rooms starting at £429 a night, it’s for you fancy folk out there but at least it means your savings are high too!!
Let me know if you see any other good ones!
What the team’s been loving this week!
When we’ve not been working really hard - ahem - here’s some of the things that we’ve been enjoying over on socials.
Chelsea: This is the best advert for a suitcase I’ve ever seen 🧳 WOW
Anna: This video almost makes me want to snowboard 🏂
Katie: Move over Pitbull, there’s a new Mr Worldwide… 🕺🌍
James: Chelsea’s new sofa… (because ours doesn’t fit) 🛋️
More from Holiday Expert
Passports Please! podcast
We chat about Christmas Markets, map reading and my tips on getting your flight delay compo.
Would you stay in a FREE hotel room?
I recently stayed in Porto at a hotel where one of the their rooms is totally free to stay in.
Now why is it free you ask…
And that’s a wrap!
That’s all for this week – thanks if you made it this far and why not let me know you did so by answering the poll below ⬇️
If you have a mate or family member who loves to travel and could do with a helping hand from us here at Holiday Expert, just hit the button below and share the link!
Which Christmas Market most takes your fancy?
Speak to you soon!
Chelsea x
Goodbye Christmas Markets - until next year!
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