Well the festive season has been and gone leaving a trail of pine needles and chocolate wrappers.

Cheer up, it’s time to start planning your holidays for 2009! But hang on there’s a credit crunch, shouldn’t we be swapping a week on the beach for a stay at the folks? Not with these credit crunching holiday ideas.

Resort: swap Crete for Turkey Turkey has gorgeous beaches, lots of sunshine and fascinating historical sites – but it’s much cheaper.

Caribbean: swap a resort for a cruise You’ll visit multiple islands and if you book through a UK agent you can pay for everything in pounds and avoid the unhelpful currency. Cruising is tipped to be hot in 2009 and there are often offers in Real Deals.

City break: swap Paris for Prague The Euro is painfully high right now so cut the cost of a city break by swapping Western Europe for Eastern Europe. Our top picks are: Prague, Krakow, Ljubljana and Bucharest.

Beach: swap Brittany for Cornwall England can’t guarantee sunshine but it has beautiful beaches and if you swap a French beach for one in the South West you won’t need Euros.

Families: swap a resort for a holiday park The UK have a number of fantastic holiday park chains with beach and forest locations. They offer a wide range of indoor and outdoor activities for young and old and your holiday will cost just a fraction of a holiday resort package. There are often big discounts in Real Deals too.

Sun: swap Thailand for Egypt You don’t have to fork out for a long haul flight to guarantee sunshine. Egypt has some cracking resorts with fantastic reefs for divers. Great value package deals are easy to find.

Ski: swap the French Alps for Bulgaria It may not have the same reputation, or food, but if you are a beginner or intermediate ski bunny you will have a great time for a lot less.