Where to find holiday competitions

Picture it now… lying on a sun-drenched beach in the Maldives, sipping your cocktail and enjoying the luxury of a five star hotel. Your dream holiday… and it cost you NOTHING at all!

Winning a holiday doesn’t need to be something you can only dream of – whether you lust after an all-inclusive week in the Caribbean, a ski trip in Switzerland or just a cottage stay in Wales, there are lots of holiday competitions out there with the perfect prize for you!

Since I started comping way back in 1997 I’ve been lucky enough to win over 50 trips away, ranging from a three week tour of New Zealand and a family holiday to Florida, to an all inclusive week at Sandals in Antigua and a trip to the Brazilian Grand Prix. I’ve won two holidays to Japan, four trips to New York, and countless UK hotel breaks too. I’m always excited about where my next prize holiday will take me!

Although we might not be making as many bookings right now due to Covid-19, it doesn’t mean we should stop trying to win a holiday for when we’re ready to travel again. There are lots of holiday competitions running at the moment, and most of them have extended validity dates and Covid-19 contingency plans so check the T&Cs before you enter.

This post will give you an overview of all the places you’ll find competitions to win a holiday – so take a look, cross your fingers and get that passport ready!

Competition listings websites

The most obvious place to start looking for holiday competitions is, of course, competition listings websites – but keep in mind that these comps will be getting thousands of entries! The links below will take you directly to the Holiday competitions section of the sites. You will need to register with Loquax & Competition Database to see the competition listings but don’t worry, they won’t email you any spam.

• Loquax (Worldwide holidays category)
• Competition Database (International travel category)
• Latest Deals (Travel category)

Many compers use PrizeFinder but this has a lot of pop-ups and affiliate links which go to spam-generating websites such as MyOffers and UKPrizeCompetition – so be very cautious about the comps you click on. MSE has a decent competitions forum, but you can’t easily filter it to focus on certain prizes or competition type.

Travel blogs & websites

The following websites collate current travel competitions from across the internet and social media. No sign up is necessary.

• Rosemary and Pork Belly
• Yokomeshi
• Travelscoop

Travel magazines

There are a number of travel based magazines that host holiday competitions on their websites. Here are some of the best:

• Conde Nast Traveller
• Family Traveller
• Wanderlust
• Food and Travel
• Sunday Times Travel
• Guardian Travel

You’ll also find occasional holiday competitions on the IceLolly, Last Minute, TravelZoo and AirBNB websites.

Holiday competitions on the radio

UK radio stations give away lots of holidays and UK breaks – they’re advertised on air and also on their websites. There are various ways to enter including easy entry online prize draws, social media competitions, creative photo/video competitions, and also text in or phone in competitions broadcast on air. Your best chance to win is where you have to be listening to the show and only have a short time to call or text in. Do not text in for the premium rate prize draws (these will cost £1.50 or £2 to enter, and are usually big cash prizes) – instead, enter the promotions that have a sponsor, where it’s just a standard rate text or call that only costs a few pence.

Holiday prizes are usually given away during the Breakfast or DriveTime shows – and at the weekends. Heart and Capital FM regularly team up with Jet2 across their regional stations to win holidays flying from their regional bases (Bristol, Stansted, Birmingham, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester and Leeds Bradford). Members of my Lucky Learners Facebook group won an incredible 26 Jet2 holidays on the radio in January 2021, so be brave and give it a go, it’s really not that scary to go on air!

Read my tips on winning radio competitions, and check these station websites regularly for the latest competition T&Cs.

• Absolute Radio (Bauer)
• Heart FM (Global)
• Capital FM (Global)
• Magic Radio (Bauer)
• Classic FM (Global)
• Kiss FM (Bauer)
• Smooth Radio (Global)
• Virgin Radio

Note that Bauer have restrictions on winning prizes, and if you win a holiday on one of their radio stations you will be banned from entering comps on any of their stations for 6 months. They email you to confirm the end date of the ban. Global aren’t quite as strict – if you win a biggie, you can keep entering if they don’t tell you otherwise. Find out more in my post Bauer & Global Rules and Restrictions.

Holiday competitions on social media

Facebook

Follow your favourite hotel chains and holiday companies on Facebook, and set notifications for their pages so you don’t miss any posts. There are also a few private Facebook groups where people share holiday competitions:

• Travel Competitions – a group created by Travelscoop
• Holiday Competitions Group UK – a group created by compers

Instagram

On Instagram, follow your favourite hotels, local airports, and holiday companies as they often do giveaways. Try a hashtag search on Instagram – #winholiday, or #holidaycompetition. Watch out though – there are a lot of scammers using Instagram. Check profiles carefully, and visit the website links in bios to check brands are genuine.

Twitter

Use Twitter search to find holiday competitions – try searches combining words and phrases like win, holiday, competition, overnight stay, hotel break, trip, cottage, voucher, travel, UK etc, then view results by the most recent. Brands tend to advertise their website, email, Facebook and Instagram comps on Twitter so you should get lots of results.

Travel shows & events

There are travel shows in London, and sometimes in Manchester or Birmingham. At these events many of the exhibitors will be running competitions and prize draws to win holidays.

• Destinations Holiday & Travel Show
• Luxury Travel Fair

Look out for experiential (pop-up) events at airports, train stations and shopping centres to win holidays. British Airways have given away lots of flights at London train stations in the past!

Google for holiday competitions

If you have a particular destination in mind for your dream holiday – or a certain type of trip (spa, cottage, ski, camping etc), create a Google search for it. Go to www.google.co.uk, and try typing keywords like win competition italy or win cottage holiday voucher. Use the Tools to filter the search results to UK and Past Week, then save this link to your bookmarks and check it weekly. The first page of search results is likely to feature links to competition listings sites, but click through more pages to find less popular results! For more advice on Google searching, read my tips on How to search Google for competitions.

On-pack and in-store holiday competitions

Understandably, many brands have chosen to replace their usual holiday prizes with gadgets, cash or ‘experiences’ during the pandemic. However there are still a few holidays to be won, so always look out for in-store displays and flashed packaging in the supermarkets.

Check my Compers Shopping List for a list of current promotions to look out for. You’ll also find advice in my post Tips for winning on-pack promotions.

ITV & Channel 5 competitions

You might have seen the big prize holidays advertised on TV – but did you know you can enter these by post, rather than paying for a £2 phone call or text message? All entries are treated exactly the same. Of course, stamps are pretty expensive now so it’s not the cheapest way to enter a competition – but if you like sending postcard entries, give it a go! You can find postcard enry details for current Channel 5 comps at superlucky.me/c5comps and ITV comps at superlucky.me/itvcomps

Good luck – let me know in the comments if you’re lucky enough to win a holiday!