The warm glow of the sun. The smell of suntan oil. Sand, sticking to the inside of your blimmin’ trunks. Yes, as February nips at the ankles, our thoughts turn to matters fun. To holidays. And we’re not talking Bobby Davro and Bournemouth Pier, here. This week, Future Gamer checks out some of the best ways to find a holiday on the Internet…

The Thomas Cook site offers an excellent range of cheap late deals, and best of all, they fly from a vast range of airports around the UK. The site asks you three basic questions: When, Where and How Much? We’re flying to Malta from Bristol tomorrow for a week’s self-catering. Only £189. Not bad!

A2b Travel bills itself as ‘Britain’s most comprehensive online travel resource – ever’. Accordingly, you can find out which places are hot when, and what currency you’ll need if you decide to go there. There’s a huge database of UK hotels and B&Bs, and you can find out flight, ferry and rail times. Not the best place for packages, but comprehensive, nonetheless. We booked a nice B&B in St Ives for the weekend.

Psst! Looking for a cheap flight? On the Internet? There’s dozens of ‘bucket shop’ sites, but we like Cheap Flights. Aeroplanes. Destinations. Not pricey. A recipe for success. It’s a resource site which details a plethora of airlines and sends you to particular sites. There’s some topper deals, too. We’re flying to Boston for £164 return. Hopes that’s the one in Lincolnshire and not Massachusetts.

Doing exactly what it says on the tin, Last Minute offers the best in eleventh hour packages. You have to take what’s on offer (you can’t, for instance, tailor a trip to Lanzarote), so we gratefully accepted a return flight to Budapest from Stanstead for £126.50 (excluding tax, mind). You can also buy theatre tickets and become embroiled in auctions. Strange. But true.

Abroad. Across the sea. The continent. Foreigners! We don’t have to travel out of this green and pleasant land, do we? Famous Yorkshire coach tour operator Wallace Arnold is proof of that. He will take you abroad if you wish, but he’d much rather you took a trip though the Dales or the Peak District. We’re going to the Chilterns with Mrs Blenkinsop, a week on Tuesday.

This is more like it. Let’s narrowboat. Let’s get on our bikes and gaze idly at the wildlife. What about a ‘Bespoke Highland Tour’ – a fine description in anyone’s language. Holidays in the UK describes itself as the ‘Green Directory’ and there’s a huge selection of hiking and other breathless activities at all points UK. It’s damp underfoot, but we’re going walking in the Mendips. Which is nice.