Booking my first ever holiday

stuartw101

Just wondering how exactly i do this? Is it better to book online? Im looking for a weeks holiday in either August or September. What are the best sites to book from? Is expedia a good place you use as you can book the hotel aswell?

Sorry if this sounds stupid, if you could give me a rough idea of the process or booking a holiday that would be great.

Thanks

Benny24

I've used expedia before with excellent results. You can book flights, plus hotel, plus car or you can do all seperately or you can check holiday packages.

Also it's worth going to Thomson website and seeing what they have on offer. Also try lastminute.com or even go to a travel agents!

There's loads out there have fun looking, and don't forget to check holidaysuncovered.co.uk or realholidayreports to see how the hotel and area fares by comments from real customers before you book.

sloppychops

Im my experience Expedia is expensive compared to the likes of
Med Hotels,Wintersunshineholidays,Freedomdirect,Travel Republic and Onthebeach.
Also try XL and Flydeals for flights
https://www.xl.com (you can use a promotion code on this website,pm me for it)
https://www.flydeals.co.uk

Or
If you tell us what you want one of us might be able to get you a good deal.

For example
Where do you want to go to?
For how long and what dates?
How many people and ages?
What board basis?
Whats your budget?
Where do you want to fly from?

joho

I would say your first stop should always be a travel agent. You can tell them exactly what you want in terms of clubs, or local culture, length of flight, the heat you can stand, who you are travelling with (i.e. a group of young lads, or you and your girlfriend) and they ahould be able to give you several reccomendations.

However, you don't have to take the first thing at the first price they give you. Take it away, research the place on a site like Trip Advisor and then check out the prices on places like LastMinute etc.

As for booking on the internet, you are safe as long as they are ABTA and ATOL registered (look for the logos) and if you pay by credit card you have comeback from them too if anything goes wrong.

Don't take insurance that comes as part of any package. Look at Martins Tips on MSE for the best insurance buys.

And enjoy your first holiday!

mrcow

joho wrote:

Don't take insurance that comes as part of any package. Look at Martins Tips on MSE for the best insurance buys.

Good advice, but make sure that you get insurance as soon as you've booked the holiday (just in case anything happens that would mean that it had to be cancelled etc)!!

stuartw101

Hey, just wondering if someone could help me again. I now have some info. I want to book a holiday including hotel to spain in august. Not too sure on budget but obviously the cheaper the better. Leaving from london on either the 25th or 26th and coming back on 28th.

Im going to do some research myself, if someone could get some prices etc aswell that would be really helpful, never done this before and i really want to go.

Thanks

stuartw101

Any help would be great.

Thanks

ManAtHome

Aaaagh, school hols time...

Have a look at First Choice and MyTravel as well as Thompson (and wait for SloppyChops and others, usually a few good deals if you're prepared to move quick). The tour ops still seem to have around £50-60 of supplements (even on the lates!) to add to the 'wow look at this' prices, but still some reasonable deals.

Most of the major tour operators have a 'late booking' bit on their sites - normally hols in the next 4-6 weeks. Also think about the 'anywhere/I don't mind' option of where to go - plenty of places other than Spain.