Hi all,
Im just wondering has anybody else noticed that the price of package holidays has gone up alot or is it just me?
I nearly allways book a package holiday, and im trying to book something now for say in a month or so.
Everywhere seems so expensive at the min, I know the prices will drop a few days before the time but I like to have a couple of weeks notice for work etc.
Any thoughts anyone?
A lot depends on your own circumstances and who your going with. I've just just booked my first family DIY holiday and so far so good.
Here's the way I went about it,.
1. Go to Ryanair.com or Aerlingus.com and pick a country and airport and approx date that you want to go. Have a look at the prices, check alternative dates, departure/arrival times, all that sort of thing.
2. Go to these sites and look at appts and villas.
www.holidaylettings.co.uk and
www.holiday-rentals.co.uk. Click on the area near the airport that you are flying into. Check the availability of properties that you are interested in.
Remember that you will be hiring a car from the airport and dropping it back there so depending on the time your flight arrives at, you are looking for anywhere within driving distance of the airport while it is still bright.
3. E-mail the owner and make any enquiries that you have that are not answered in the advertisement (changeover day, cost of extra days, car parking, proximity to towns & restaurants etc).
4. Go to [broken link removed]. They trawl through the car rental companies in the country that you are looking at and get you a cheap price.
5. Go online and get annual travel insurance for the family. This will normally be much much cheaper than the insurance offered by the travel agents and airlines and will last for the whole year.
As far as I know you can rent a sat nav device from the car rental company when you get there but from what I've heard they charge an arm and a leg and its nearly as cheap to buy one (or borrow one even better) here before you go which you can use next year and so on.
Arranging your holiday this way, you should make considerable savings. You are cutting out the middle man. I normally hire a car for a couple of days on holidays, now I have it for the whole holiday.
Again, depending on the size of the group family you are travelling with, you can book a two or three bedroomed appt/villa. You don't have to worry about underoccupancy supplements etc.
You can see the pictures of your accomodation, the pool, the view from the balcony whatever. Has it air-conditioning, pool view, TV, private or communal pool, washing machine and dishwasher. For a relatively small bit extra you can really stay in style, but it seems to me that the general standard of the accomodation available is quite high.
If your going for two weeks, you might decide that you want a two centre holiday. All you have to do is pack up the car and drive to the new accomodation for the second week.
Finally, you know what time your flight back is. You don't have to get into the pick up bus hours before your flight after which the bus calls to every other hotel/appt block on the route to pick up more passengers.
One possible downside is that the luggage allowance is very small and both aerlingus and Ryanair will try and bankrupt you if you exceed their limits (E8.00 per KG with Ryanair on luggage over 15Kgs). Having said that you know what these limits are in advance so if you do get charged it's your own fault.
The travel agent reps at the meet and greet party on my holidays last year said that we could be charged for excess baggage on the return flight, but we never heard anything more about it. There was no free meal/soft drinks on the flights which used to be included and the Reps offered to make sure that the family was sitting together on the return flight for a fee. How generous of them!.
Murt
) And it has worked out way cheaper. If you give it a shot once, you will probably never book a package again.