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If you’re going into 2025 and you still have your trusty burgundy British passport then you might want to act quickly.
We’re a quarter of the way into the new century and you don’t want to be caught out by time’s remorseless progression do you?
It would be the ultimate embarrassment to head abroad on your holidays only to show up with a passport that is out of date, and if you’ve still got the old burgundy passport then yours very well might be getting there.
These days Brits getting a passport will get a new one, for reasons that are myriad and complicated but can really be summed up with the word ‘Brexit‘.
The old burgundy ones have no longer been issued since 2020, which means the time limit on your passport might well be reaching its end.
It won’t be long before these don’t work any more. (Huw Fairclough/Getty Images)
UK passports for adults can last about 10 years, but there have been travellers caught out by the rules of some countries which require you to have a certain amount of time left on it.
Even if the span of your planned stay falls within your passport validity date there are countries which will expect you to have several months left on it at least.
Alvaro Iturmendi, a travel insurance expert for Confused.com, pointed out that you could end up in all sorts of trouble if you tried going on holiday without a working passport.
He said: “Booking your holidays can be very exciting, and a welcome distraction to the beginning of the year blues.
“But no matter how far in advance you’re planning, it’s never too early to check your passport’s validity, so you don’t get caught out last minute.
Get yours checked before you travel, it’s less hassle than finding out at the airport. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images)
“Our research found that less than half (43 percent) of travellers knew that if you’re heading to the EU, your passport must have been issued less than 10 years before their departure date.
“And if your passport doesn’t meet this regulation, it could mean you’re denied entry into the country, or may not even be allowed on the flight in the first place.
“Either way, it’s likely to lead to a lot of disruption to your holiday plans.”
It would be a terrible shame for any Brits who’ve got to the trouble and expense of booking a holiday to set off, only to discover they can’t actually go.
Heed the warning, check your passport, make sure it’s been issued with enough time for travel and brush up on how valid countries are expecting it to be when you go there.
Don’t let that spot on the beach you booked go to waste.
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If you need something to look forward to after Christmas, you’ve come to the right place.
Brits have discovered a hidden hack to bag £300 off an all-inclusive stay on a private island in the Maldives next summer. Yes, you read that correctly.
With hundreds of five-star reviews, the Riu Atoll has been described as ‘absolute paradise’ by holidaymakers and it’s not hard to see why.
One visitor wrote on Tripadvisor, “Breathtakingly amazing. The only holiday I have been on where I immediately wanted to go back. The island is paradise, and you will be guaranteed a relaxing trip in one of the most beautiful places on earth.”
TUI
Another traveller was just as blown away, as they wrote: “Wow, wow, wow. We have just returned from the best holiday we have ever been on, 100% paradise.”
A third shared, “If you imagine a picture postcard image of what the Maldives might be like… it’s just like that. Such a beautiful place with crystal clear water, spotless beaches, lovely food, and charming people.”
Situated on the private island of Maafushi in the Maldives, the resort does look like something out of a brochure. You can choose to stay in one of the water bungalows or junior suites with direct ocean access and 24-hour all-inclusive service. There are three restaurants to choose from and a swim-up bar for cocktails all day long.
If you’re up for an adventure, the all-inclusive offer also grants you access to kayaks, water bikes, and snorkelling equipment. What more could you want?
How to save £300 on a trip to the Maldives
For a limited time only, TUI is offering customers £100 off per booking when you spend £1,000 or more on a package holiday. You can also bag £200 off a £2,000 booking and £300 off a £3,000 booking.
Let’s break that down. For seven nights in June 2025 for two people, the Hotel Riu Atoll currently costs £3,489.08*. That means, you’ll knock £300 off your booking. Simple.
TUI
Note: This offer is only valid for new bookings and can only be applied once on each booking. This discount code cannot be used in conjunction with any other discount code.
Maldives Ts & Cs
The discount is only valid on package holidays departing between 1 May 2025 and 31 October 2026. There must be a minimum of two people on the booking (including children aged two and over) for the discount to apply.
The offer is valid on bookings made from 23 December 2024 until 23.59pm on 3 March 2025. Offer does not apply to Lapland Holidays, Lapland Day Trips, accommodation only, flight only, Marella, TUI River Cruise or Crystal bookings.
*Prices accurate at the time of writing
The best TUI deals to shop now for a limited time only
Below, shop the best TUI deals this winter, from a cruise along the River Nile to a snowy escape in the mountains of Switzerland.
Save up to £300 per booking with a TUI package
You can now save a huge amount of money if you book a TUI package online. There’s an incredible range of destinations on offer, from Disney’s All-Star Music Resort to an all-inclusive stay at Riu Dubai. Yes, seriously.
If you don’t want to book a package deal, you can book accommodation only with a huge range of choices found here.
Save 15% off extra legroom seats with exclusive code
Upgrade to extra legroom and add a 25KG bag to receive 15% off the two with the bundle promo code BNDL15.
The code applies to FO bookings only and departures between 1 May 2025 and 30th April 2026. Terms and conditions apply.
Save up to £300 on lake and mountain holidays in Europe
If you like an adventure, listen up! Whether you’re dreaming of a snowy cabin escape in Grindelwald, Switzerland or want to eat pasta in Garda, Italy, you can save up to £300 per booking when you book a lake or mountain adventure in Europe with TUI. Find out everything you need to know here.
Save up to £300 on a TUI River Cruise
If you’ve always wanted to set sail along the world-famous River Nile, then you’ve come to the right place. You can now save up to £300 if you book with TUI River Cruises, an incredible offer you don’t want to miss.
There’s an incredible range of cruises to choose from whether you fancy the Legends of the Nile or Ancient Gods and Famous Pharaohs, which includes once-in-a-lifetime tours of ancient souks and temples. See you there?
Martin Lewis shared an urgent warning to anyone who is still paying off their student loans with a big change coming in 2025.
I mean, let’s be honest, who has even paid theirs off yet?
Obviously, good for you if you’ve somehow managed that, but the reality is most of us are set to be paying out a chunk of our salary each month for quite some time before it’s wiped out.
In recent years, the annual cost of an undergrad degree in England and Wales has been set at £9,250. But for students in the 2025/26 academic year, they’ll be facing a new cost as fees will go up to £9,535 from 1 August.
So, while people are set to be charged more for their education, you might want to check if you can get some more cash back in your pocket from yours.
Always having our backs, Lewis previously issued a call-to-action for people to check their repayments.
With most UK students eligible for a loan to cover their tuition fees (as well as for maintenance), plenty of Brits are now in some level of debt to the Student Loans Company (SLC).
Loads of people have recently been claiming money back due to having overpaid on their repayments.
Lewis explained there’s a few reasons why you may be able to do this, with one of them being if you started repaying your student loan but aren’t actually over the earnings threshold.
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Many of us have accepted we’ll never pay our Student Loan off (Getty Stock Images)
Lewis said this often happens when people’s earnings fluctuate from month to month or if they work on commission – or it can also sometimes be the case if you didn’t work for a number of months.
The threshold for when student loan repayments begin will depend on what type of plan you’re on. So, as is the fairly common one for many of us, for example, those who are on the Plan 2 loan only repay it when earning a yearly income of over £27,295 a year.
“Over a million people are in that position – and you can get the money back…” Lewis explained in a video from his ITV show, Martin Lewis Money Show Live.
“The average payout on student loan claims is £280. This is very big and very easy to do, and it’s worth taking notes.”
Another reason you might be owed back cash is if you were placed on the wrong payment plan.
The money saving man urged Brits to check. (David M. Benett/Alan Chapman/Dave Benett/Getty Images)
Lewis said employers can be told to put you onto Plan 1 as a default which has a way lower repayment threshold than most of the others.
“So what do you do? In that case, dead simple, talk to your employer and tell them what plan you’re on, and then you call up the student loan company and ask for a refund,” he explained.
He added some people can claim money back if they started repaying it too early, or if they had some deducted after the loan was fully paid off.
“If your company doesn’t know when you graduated, it could take the money too early, and therefore you’re paying when you shield, and again, that means you can reclaim,” he said.
“Just call the Student Loans Company payroll details will help you.”
If you go and sign into your Student Loans Company account, you can also find a form to fill out for claiming money back.
Brits have been issued a stark warning when it comes to the state of their passport when leaving the UK for foreign land to avoid leaving their holiday in ruin.
Passport control is an essential requirement we have to go through when travelling the world, with it becoming more of a drawn out process since the United Kingdom left the European Union (EU).
Now, Brits have to go through border control when they go into any of the 29 countries that form part of the Schengen Zone; the area of Europe where there is freedom of movement.
Following Brexit, former prime minister Boris Johnson introduced blue passports as a symbolic gesture of freedom. Or something like that, anyway.
It meant that those with red passports, which have the words ‘European Union’ along the top, are the last of a dying breed before they move over to the blue form eventually.
Those who will need to upgrade to the blue kind have been warned by a variety of airlines – we’re talking Jet2, Ryanair, British Airways, easyJet, and more – about making sure everything is in order before travelling.
That’s because since the UK said goodbye to the EU, your passport must have been issued less than 10 years before the day you enter the Schengen Zone.
Is this your passport? Might be time to renew (Huw Fairclough/Getty Images)
It must also be valid for at least three months after the day you plan to leave.
The Schengen Zone is Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
On top of the three-month alert, a six month rule is in place that states your passport has to be valid for another six months after the date of your planned departure, or arrival from, the country. This is for both domestic and international travel.
The red passport will soon be gone for good (Getty Stock Photo)
If your passport has less than six months validity on it, you could well be denied boarding onto a plane or entry into certain countries after landing.
How you calculate the six month passport validity requirement depends on the specific country you are travelling to. For some, it is about when your leave the country you’ve been visiting while others go from the date you arrive in it.
The best bet is to check Gov.uk advice for the country you are heading to so that you don’t land yourself in trouble.
According to VisaGuide.World, here are the countries with a six-month passport rule:
Afghanistan, Algeria, Anguilla, Bahrain, Bhutan, Botswana, British Virgin Islands, Brunei, Canada (only some countries, so better to check), Cambodia, Cameroon, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Cote D’Ivoire, Curacao, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Fiji, Gabon, Guinea Bissau, Guyana. , Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Kiribati, Laos, Madagascar, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Myanmar, Namibia, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Oman, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Qatar, Rwanda, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zimbabwe.
As much as the sweltering weather may have you wishing you could get a cool night’s sleep by any means possible, you ought to be careful about sticking on the air-con overnight.
It’s a tempting prospect to have the air conditioning on, but a Brit who ended up in hospital after sleeping with it on while on holiday has issued a warning to others lest they make her mistake.
24-year-old Liana Foster was on her family holiday in Turkey when she woke up with a sore throat, the next day she woke up feeling ‘groggy’ and her mum spotted some white spots on the tonsils.
Liana was on holiday with her family when they stuck the air conditioning on for the first night in the hotel. (SWNS)
A trip to hospital had Liana diagnosed with tonsillitis, and doctors said the most likely culprit for her malady was the air-con.
She spent five hours of what ought to have been precious holiday time on an IV drip and has been on medication since then.
“I felt really groggy and got a sore throat as well,” the 24-year-old London scientist said of the early warning signs of tonsillitis.
“I was really shaky. I couldn’t eat or drink. I thought it was covid again. My temperature was bad, my body was aching.
“I went to hospital and they said I have a really bad case of tonsillitis. They said it can happen from the aircon. It’s been pretty dull for the last few days of holiday.”
Liana explained that on the first night of their holiday they had the air conditioning on ‘really low in the room’ and she thinks she sleeps ‘through my mouth more’.
Air conditioning really can circulate poor quality air around a room and spread sickness, so be warned.
She spent hours on an IV drip after being diagnosed with tonsillitis, which doctors said was the fault of the air conditioning. (SWNS)
According to her doctors who said the aircon had been a likely culprit for her tonsillitis, they told her that ‘mouldy air’ might have been circulated around as she slept.
Liana said: “I couldn’t consume oral antibiotics so I had to get injections for three days and twice a day.
“I was in a lot of pain. I believe if we didn’t sleep with the aircon on it would have been fine.
“I’ve had tonsillitis before but it has never been that bad. If bacteria travels down the throat it can get to her heart and other organs.”
So be warned if you’re planning on sticking the aircon on overnight,
If you’re trying to keep cool while asleep then you might want to be careful about sticking a fan on as well, as that carries some health problems as well.
Your best bet is to keep the bedroom cool before you sleep in it, so close the curtains to block out baking hot sunlight and keep the windows shut during the day to prevent hot air from getting in.
