Booking a Package Holiday in the UK
Some Good Rules In General
- Only use websites that have protection cover with someone like ABTA or ATOL in case they go bust. And trust me, it’s happened to me – Fly Monarch – remember them? And during covid, many went bust.
- When purchasing your holiday – pay via a CREDIT CARD and NOT Paypal. ATOL and ABTA will get you your money back if your travel provide goes bust. But if that fails, you have a secondary protection mechanism – and that is the credit card company – they too will protect you. But Paypal non-credit cards like your debit card and the like don’t protect you – so do not use.
- Also, do not fly without travel insurance. Never lie on the insurance or try to mislead them just to get a smaller premium. If you do this, it will basically nullify your insurance, meaning you get nothing! And a simple 2-3 day hospital stay can cost £15 000 easy! Have you got that sort of money? Declare everything!
- When in the country abroad, spend in their currency not yours. So when in a Spanish restaurant or a clothes shop and they ask you – do you want to pay in EURO or GBP STERLING – choose the host country’s currency – in this case EURO. Otherwise, you get loads of currency conversion charges (from the Spanish bank, the English bank, from the retailer itself!!!).
- When withdrawing money from a cashpoint abroad, withdraw one big swoop then lots of little ones – otherwise charges with each withdrawal.
Some Good Rules For Searching
- Be flexilbe with the dates – click the +/- option on most websites
- Set the departure date for a holiday you like on different dates. You will be surprised how a Friday departure might be cheaper than a Saturday holiday (and vice versa).
- Sometimes full board is the same cost if not just slightly more than half board.
- All inclusive hotels often below par food and the queues for drinks can stop you from going to the bar.
- Search the major providers like TUI, Jet2Holidays – these package providers have thought it all out and include everything like transfer etc. If you go with the others like Love Holidays, you will get a shock at what looks like a cheap holiday at first sight but then expensive when adding baggage, seating costs and transfers. It’s headachey to go with anyone but the big players.
- Always change the search results from LOW TO HIGH not the default RECOMMENDED
The Major Players
Good sites
- TUI – really good, they think of everything
- Jet2Holidays – another great player, as good as TUI
- EasyJet Holidays – all in one package holidays. no hidden surprises.
- Virgin Holidays – are meant to be good. They have a reputation they don’t want to lose. But only good for long haul holidays like United States, Middle & Far East, Carribean, Africa etc, not Europe.
Meh sites……
- Secret Escapes – great website, great deals, but often not that cheap and an incredibly painful website to use because they don’t display prices straight away – you have to faff about.
- Hays Travel – another big player. But again, prices look cheap but then become expensive with the basic add ons – like seating, baggage, transfers. Searches are slow. Cannot put several departure points – only one at a time – FRUSTRATING! And then when you do get searchg results, a lot of the ones are NOT AVAILABLE – despite appearing in the initial search! Crazy!!!
- Thomas Cook – not as great, baggage, flight transfers often not included – bumps up prices big time. Not a favourite of ours.
- Teletext Holidays – painful website to use. Slow in searches.
- First Choice – they are part of TUI. No point searching as you get same results and prices as TUI.
Other Players
Travel Supermarkets
These don’t often give a good service and you can end up with rubbish holidays unless you’re particularly good at doing your own research. There are often a lot of add ons like transfers and expensive baggage costs. But if you have the time and energy and love spending hours on research – then go ahead.
Hotel Sites
Travel Guides
The Unconventional Route – a great honest blog. From one person though!
World Weather Maps
Websites to help You with your research
- Flightmapper
- SiteScanner
- tripadvisor reviews.
Have you got any advice & suggestions
Then leave a comment in the box below.