How do I build my own holiday?
Since the birth of the internet, consumers have found it easier and easier to get better deals for insurance, loans, mortgages, media products and much more. Comparison sites have made it easy for us to make sure that we are getting the best deal without hours of phoning around competitors.
There are a few comparison web sites for consumers looking to book a holiday with the main ones being Travel Supermarket, Teletext Holidays and Icelolly.com. All of these sites will advertise holidays from travel agents that will generally be a lot cheaper than tour operator owned high street travel agents (Going Places, Thomas Cook etc..). These online travel agents and call centres will usually dynamically package a holiday for you by matching the cheapest, low cost airline prices with the best deals on hotels and transfers. This is something that you can do for yourself with the help of this website.
What is a dynamic package?
A traditional package holiday is put together by a tour operator such as Thomas Cook, Cosmos or Thomsons. They wiil usually have their own charter flights, hotel contracts and transfer operations as well as holiday reps in resort. A dynamic package is one that is put together yourself or by your independant travel agent. This involves using low cost carriers such as Easyjet or Ryanair and matching together a hotel deal and a resort transfer.
Flights can be booked directly through the low cost airlines websites and tickets will usually be emailed straight to your inbox. The best way to find a flight that suits you is by using our free flight search engine tool on the flights section of this site. The advantage of using low cost airlines is that you can book flexible durations such as 8, 9 or 10 night as opposed to the traditional 7 and 14 nghts offered by the tour operators charter flights. Charter flights and scheduled flights should not be overlooked as it is still possible to get a bargain when booking last minute. Links to cheap charter flight companies can be found on our flights page.
Once you have booked your flights, you can start looking at cheap hotel deals and cheap self catering deals. On this website you will find a list of tour operators and bed banks offering deals on hotels in all of the major holiday resorts from cheap, self catering apartments in Spain to Luxury 5* all inclusive offers in Egypt. It is worth taking some time to go through these operators websites and seeing what each one has to offer as you will find that room rates can vary hugely. Brochures and websites can make hotels look amazing but it is always worth checking Trip Advisor to get the lowdown and see what previous guests have to say. One thing to remember when checking reviews is that hotels change management regularly so it is only really worth considering reviews that are less than a year old.
Once you have found your ideal holiday hotel, you will need to decide how to get there from the airport. This website gives information and advice on booking your resort transfers or car hire. You also will find a comprehensive list of transfer providers as well as links through to their websites. Before making a transfer booking, always check that your hotel deal does not include complimentary transfers as these are quite common in Egypt and Morocco.
One final point to consider when booking a dynamic package yoursel is that it is not ABTA or Atol protected. This means that in the unfortunate event of an airline or bed bank going into administration, you may lose any money paid to them. You can protect yourself against financial loss by booking through a credit card that offers protection or booking your dynamic package through an independant, ATOL bonded travel agent. In doing the latter, you can research your ideal holiday, get the total price together and call a travel agent to see if they will book it all up for you. You will probably have to pay a small booking fee or administration charge but will have the ATOL cover
We hope that you find this web site helpful and informative. It has been compiled by travel industry experts and aims to give you a comprehensive guide to booking your own holiday directly and saving money by cutting out the travel agent.
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