Ok so before I give you a tutorial on how and where I enter competitions, I want to give you an example of some of the Travel related competitions I’ve won over the past few years. Although I’ve won a ton of other stuff too like a PS4 and £1000 Dunelm vouchers, but we’re here to talk everything Travel so here goes.

Firstly – why do reputable companies do competitions?

Basically it is really cheap marketing for them. I for one have started using many companies I’ve not known or used before after seeing or winning a competition through them.

For example my trip to Cyprus, although won through Good Housekeeping was provided by Sunvil Holidays, I had never heard of them before, but I would certainly check them out next time I want to go to Greece or Cyprus.

Is it safe to enter competitions is it not all a scam?

Some people are very sceptical of prizes and just think it’s all a scam, well I can tell you in my experience, as long as you choose carefully where you enter competitions, this is not the case. Although if they ask you for any money up front, then I would run a mile!

My best win so far, by far!

This was my 7-night trip to Cyprus, including Bed and Breakfast, flights and car hire.

I was contacted directly by one of the Team at Sunvil with the good news that I’d won a prize and she was my contact throughout.

Firstly I had to get in touch with Sunvil to discuss my chosen dates and holiday availability – we got our first choice .

Then I was offered a choice of airports, dates and times.

We had to let them know our personal details for the flight. At this stage I was fine about doing this but still checked the number on the email with the one on the website.

The accommodation and flights were confirmed.

All the holiday details were confirmed, including an extra charge payable locally of 20 euros for delivery of the car to the airport. We were also given our ATOL certificate.

One complication ……. This was all being booked in 2017, with the trip to be in 2018 and the flights were booked with Monarch ….. who sadly collapsed! Without me having to chase, Sunvil quickly contacted us and rebooked us with EasyJet.

Up to this stage, no bank details or payment of any sort had been required.

I requested booking our seats (I prefer not leaving things to chance), this was a chargeable extra, but Sunvil were happy to arrange this for us. So yes, we had to pay for this, but it was absolutely my choice.

We had an absolutely fabulous holiday! See my Cyprus holiday blog and YouTube video (Ears and Ideas) to see more about the holiday.

My next favourite was a night at the May fair Hotel in London

The initial communication was from an individual from the Neurofen press office and they knew what the prize was. So once again I was happy to communicate.

The initial prize stated was £500 spa vouchers. But when I received the electronic vouchers, they could be exchanged for a number of things, so we opted for the 3 of us to have a night at the hotel as we were planning a West End show, so fitted in perfectly.

A Funny story though, we were waiting for a lift on our floor, one of the doors opened as someone got out so we got in. Unbeknown to us, this was the Penthouse lift and we shouldn’t have got in!! The lift took us to the Penthouse, where it opened up directly into the Penthouse, someone got in, quizzed us on if we were Hotel guests and he went with us down to the ground floor. He then spoke to the attendant on that lift. Ooops but no damage done, gave us a laugh afterward.

Then was a fabulous trip to Alton Towers

Initial contact was from a named person at a PR company, this is not unusual. She explained that she was contacting me on behalf of Seabrook Crisps and that I’d won their Ultimate Thrill Seeker Package and a box of crisps. I knew I’d entered this competition, so I was happy to provide the information she requested.

She then let me know when the stay was to be taken before and my contact at Alton Towers.

So the prize was – An overnight stay in a standard room in the Alton Towers Hotel, plus one day theme park tickets, Fastrack Gold tickets, one day Waterpark tickets and lunch at the Rollercoaster Restaurant (up to the value of £40 per person) – for 2 people. The package also included breakfast.

We agreed a date and Alton Towers sent me the confirmation.

As the waterpark was closed on the days I’d booked, they were more than happy to change it to two theme park days.

Keep your eyes peeled next week for my blog on how and where I enter competitions so you can maybe win some fabulous trips too!!