Best Place to book Thomson Family Resort Package Holiday?

don9999

Am trying to book a Thomson Family Resort Package Holiday.
Have taken the family on these for about the last 10 years and am more than happy with them - specifically aimed at family groups (often younger kids). This has numerous advantages, such as amenities & activities aimed at children, and no boy or girl groups to cause any nuisance especially late at night.

I appreciate that I pay some premium for this, but it has always been worth it.
But this year, the prices are incredible. I've been waiting and waiting to see if prices would reduce, and they have. But they are still very high!

Is made worse this year as am taking my mother, so there are 6 of us and hence will need 2 rooms.
To add insult to injury, my wife is very keen to go All Inclusive.
Hmmmmm.......

Well the cheapest prices for 2 rooms AI at one of the Thomson Family Resorts is around £4,700, rising to an average of around £7,000, and going well beyond.
GULP!

Anyway...I'm going to have to bite the bullet.
I know I've left it late (for a Summer 2011) holiday, but there is still a fair bit of availability around.
Am just wondering if there is any better way of purchasing a Thomson holiday?

I don't think there are any discount vouchers - I keep seeing lots of people asking.
Are there any companies around that discount Thomson holidays?

Up until a few years ago I used a company called Magic Breaks that would discount all brochure holidays (including Thomsons) by between 5% and 10%. They are no longer available.

I also just heard of HolidaytHyperMarket that I'm told sell discounted Thomson holidays. But unfortunately, it seems that they don't sell the Family Resort packages.

Another option I've pursued for the past few years is to buy the hotel only from Thomsons, and buy my own flights. This has saved be up to £1,000 in the past! But even 'this' option is giving no savings this year :-(

Just wondered if anyone has any thoughts/suggestions? (Besides the obvious of choosing a non-Family Resort hotel etc..)

I can't be the only family that enjoys these Thomson Family Resorts?
But is everyone paying these sorts of prices? £5,000 and above?

Cheers,
Don

needaholiday

I always book my hotel and flights seperately and usually save hundreds of pounds. Other than Thomson website the only other place I can find our hotel is booking.com but just to confuse matters it is called by a different name but it may be worth you checking to see if your hotel is on there. Other than that have you tried e mailing your hotel direct to see if it's any cheaper?

poet123

We stayed at a Thompson resort in Majorca last year, booked direct and saved £700

bagand96

The best price will almost always be through the Thomson website booking direct. It may be worth checking the First Choice website, they are part of Thomson now, although as the merger has completed I don't think there is much duplication left between the two operators.

Thomson/First Choice travel agents will only match an online price, don't think they could do any more. And 3rd party agents probably can't get near the online price.

You could, as others have suggested, see if you can book the hotel separately and then book flights. However, there is a huge but in your case. You clearly state you like the Thomson families programme for the activities etc... If you book the hotel directly, or through a different company, you will not have access to Thomson reps or any activites organised by Thomson kids clubs.

How much of an impact this has depends on who organises the majority of events. In some locations it will be Thomson and their reps that organise the majority of activites. However, in others, the hotel itself has its own reps and kids club, and will arrange a comprehensive programme. This just depends on location.

Have you tried searching for hotel only on Thomson's website? This way you would still be a Thomson customer, and all that goes with that. This may be cheaper, and then source your own flights (maybe even Thomson ones). Sometimes this comes out much cheaper, however sometimes its no cheaper than a package - there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it either!

don9999

Thanks for the comments so far.

As I said earlier, for the past two years I HAVE purchased the hotel/flights separately - hotel directly from Thomson (so get all the Thomson's stuff) but the flights separately eg. I went with Easyjet. So last year I ended up with essentially the exact same holiday, WITH Thomsons, but saving over £1,000! (I couldn't believe Thomsons were trying to charge me that much more).

However, this year it appears that such discrepancies aren't available - at least for the hotels I am looking at.

I'm not even sure if booking directly is available - certainly not for the couple of hotels I have checked - I assumed that these special Family Resort hotels were available ONLY through Thomsons. And anyway, as has been noted; this may preclude me from the Thomsons-provided activities/facilities, which is one of the reasons why I want to go to one of these hotels.

Of course, there are plenty of other hotels (non-family resort) but am concerned about the various reviews you read about groups of boys/girls there that can kick up a fuss - especially having been drinking all day. Good luck to them, I have nothing against groups having fun per se, but with a young family, I don't want it to impact my young kids. Of course, there will be numerous people who will have been that haven't experienced it, but just knowing that it can happen means it 'could' happen again.

I was just hoping someone might know some broker or something who might be able to offer discounts off Thomsons holidays. As I said, I used to use Magic Breaks for about 5 years in the past and typically got 7.5% off the quoted prices.

Cheers,
Don

redmalc

Bagand96,i had always had the same opinion as yourself regarding the shops not being able to better the online price,i recently booked an all inclusive holiday for four of us to the Dom Rep and played the operator of against a major independant,in the end the operator gave me a further 2% of the on line price,they had already given 5% discount and waved the 2.5% credit card charge which was £250 plus the extra £200 so all in all an extra £450 plus the initial 5%.The independent matched the extra 2% discount but they advised they would have to charge £60 for the credit card charges

mick_vandick

Don, which hotel is it you are looking at?

kerrymoh

I'm booked to Thomson's Family Resort in Playa D'en Bossa and paid £1800 for our family of 3 (daughter is 5) all inclusive. I'm glad to have read that you think it's worth it for the kids entertainment as I haven't been with Thomsons before and felt that it was a lot of money to spend. I'm looking forward to it even more now!

don9999

kerrymoh - I think you (an in particular, your daughter) will have a great time! That hotel looks great, with a lovely location. Nice big pool, and right on the beach, so you have the choice. I'd say £1,800 is a pretty good deal! Since there are only 3 of you, you will typically have a choice from ALL the Thomson family resorts, and the price should be pretty reasonable. Was the same for us when we were 3, and even when we were 4 and the youngest was under 2. Unfortunately when third child turned up, it meant we had to start looking for bigger rooms - but few of these hotels will accommodate all of us in one room (Villa Mandi is an exception and gave us a huge 2 bedroom appartment last year!) So now we have to consider TWO rooms which usually MORE than doubles the price. I say 'more than doubles' because not only do we have to pay for two rooms, but we also usually have to pay under-occupancy charges on top!

Hence the cheapest price for us this year is around £4,700! With the average being a fair bit more. Who wants to pay that much for a holiday...?

There are numerous hotel review sites around, but perhaps I'll create a post where I can describe my experiences at the various Thomsons Family Resorts hotels. People could update/comment based on more recent visits. eg. Bonaire in Majorca was our favourite (been there THREE times!) but haven't been for 4 or 5 years. I understand it has now gone All Inclusive and have read reviews that there has been some loutage behaviour there.

'I' have never been to an AI resort, and that is my one concern. That a minority of people drink to excess and cause issues for other guests.

don9999

Mick Vandick - which hotel?

Am considering lots. Typically in the Thomsons Family Collection brochure.

Top preferences ('Family Resort' hotels)
Alcudia Pins Majorca
Bonaire Majorca
Coma Gran Majorca
Playa Mar Majorca
Victoria Playa Menorca
Preidente Ibizia
Fiesta Palm Beach Ibizia
Villa Mandi Tenerife
Bahia Feliz Gran Canaria
Tropicana Azure Egypt
Hotel Bodrum Turkey
Pegasus Royal Turkey
Louis Family Corfu
Blue Lagoon Kos
Alykanas Village Zante
Atlantica Club Cyprus

And after that, there are a lot of other hotels in the brochure that still have Thomsons kids clubs :-)

Of course, there are still some preferences within this list, but is very late, and there is only availability at some of them.
Cost is the issue, with most of them coming in at close to £6,000 for 2 rooms AI (party of 6)

Cheapest (for a non-Family resort hotel) at the moment is around £4,300. Though is my least favourite of the hotels in the brochure :-( But...beggars can't be choosers at this late stage.

I will continue to review and check and see if I can find anything better/cheaper.....

Cheers,
Don

moneypooh

You will probably need to drop the AI option and go half board then upgrade when in resort (email hotel to see if this is an option). The hotel we go to in Mallorca is now encouraging AI but we go self catering. If you book the HB option in the UK they offer great deals on the upgrde when you check in.
The AI option isn't all that brilliant at some hotels and can end up costing you more. People in our hotel last year ended up supplementing their AI with other foods/meals. Also the drinks option was very limited.
Checkout trip advisor etc to see if the AI option is worth the extra. We actually saved £1500 last summer not being AI.