Entering competitions and giveaways is a lot of fun.  It often takes very little effort and you can win some great prizes, usually at no cost to you. 

A competition usually requires you to answer a question or submit an entry of some sort such as a photo, whereas a giveaway usually requires minimal effort to enter, usually following a social media account or commenting on a blog post.

Travel isn't on many of our agendas right now, but once the coronavirus is under control and the borders open up again, I'm certain travel companies will be ready to market to us for our business and this will include some great travel giveaways.

Some of the best prizes out there are travel and holidays.  Wouldn’t it be amazing to win a trip you couldn’t afford usually?  A holiday paid for by someone else.  Brilliant!

However, wouldn’t you be really disappointed if you won a really great travel giveaway, only to discover you couldn’t go?

It happens and it’s a real shame.  I regularly run giveaways on my blog and I ran into some issues when I contacted the winners of some travel giveaways a few years ago.  The first few winners couldn’t accept the prize and it was a real disappointment to them. 

Reflecting on this experience and to avoid you any disappointment when entering holiday competitions, I’ve compiled a list of top tips for how to effectively enter travel competitions and giveaways.

Tips for entering travel giveaways and competitions:

·         Don’t simply enter every single travel competition out there

Some people enter all and every competition and giveaway they see.  More chances of winning something, yes, but when it comes to a travel giveaway it needs to be something you can actually attend and want to attend, so there’s no point in entering if you have no intention of ever going on the holiday should you win.  It will waste your time and the promoter’s time.

·         But do enter them!

Do enter the ones that are actually relevant to you and you can go on them if you win.  You can’t win it unless you’re in it, so make sure you are entering the giveaways you see if you want to win a holiday!  Someone always has to win and it can’t be you if you don’t enter!

·         Read the small print

This is why you shouldn’t enter every travel competition you see.  Travel competitions don’t always include spending money or transport right from your home, so you need to be able to afford these if not included.  When I had a travel giveaway for a ferry ride, it was specifically a return ticket from point A to B.  The first winner I picked lived on the opposite side of the country and the ferry ride was too far away for them to travel to, so they couldn’t accept. 

Some travel giveaways only offer accommodation, others only offer flights - they are all different and you need to read the terms and conditions to see what’s included .  There’s no point in winning a holiday if you can’t travel to it and have no money to spend whilst there.  If it's abroad then you'll also need a passport.

It may also cause you disappointment to have to reject the prize :(

So make sure you know what you’re entering and what you need to pay for/provide.

·         Don’t avoid those that have more entry requirements

Don’t be put off competitions that do require some effort like a travel photo or video to enter.  The more requirements a competition has, the less likely people are to enter, which means the higher the chance you have of winning!

All the travel bloggers I see who have regularly won travel competitions, such as Vicky Flip Flop, say they enter the trickier competitions; the ones that require more effort. 

But it pays off as there are less entrants and if you are really creative and really want to win, then you stand a much better chance of winning with an entry option like this compared to an easy entry option.

·         Look out for small travel company competitions

You will have more chance of winning a travel giveaway from a smaller company, than a free to enter TV giveaway that has who knows how many hundreds of thousands of entries!

Make sure you follow your favourite travel companies on social media so you see when they release a travel competition.   Lots of companies share their giveaways on Twitter and other social media platforms.  You can search hashtags like #win and #competition to start finding them or something more specific in search like “win a  holiday” or “travel competition” to fish out the travel related prizes only.

·         Make sure you have annual leave available

Another very important tip!  Make sure you check the dates of any holiday competitions for the prize.  Some might be set dates so you’ll have to be available and have annual leave you can definitely take.  Others might be more flexible with dates you can book so long as it’s within a certain time frame, such as six months after winning the prize or maybe even one year.

Whatever the rules, make sure you have annual leave left from your employment, if you’re employed, so you can actually go on the trip if you win!

Don't forget to check out my latest giveaways for a chance to win some great prizes and there's no need to win on my how to get free money pages!