Planning your holiday?

DJSKYLINE

Hi everyone

Im doing some research, I would appreciate your input.

What stages do you go through (in order) when planning a holiday?

E.g.
Think of holiday destination
Book ticket
Go on holiday.


Obviously most people do more than the above and look at weather sometime in their process etc. Can you let me know what YOU do please!

Thank you! x

mrshassall1987

I go online and search for 3 or 4 holidays within our price range. I then go on trip advisor and see which hotel has the best reviews and facilities for us

jhe

i also go online to look for holidays and prices.then look up the reviews on tripadvisor, if i need to find any additional information i ask on the tripadvisor forums for the destination i want to travel to.
when i have decided on hotel i want to book,i print off the online prices then ring round travel agents to see if they will better the price.i always book a package,but others will be able to advise you on booking flight and hotel seperately.

purple45

Research is all important. Once a destination is decided upon, reading the reviews of the hotels as well as checking the location for practical stuff like the distance from the facilities. You learn by previous mistakes. We ended up in a hotel resort near Ayia Napa that was several miles from the main town. The exercise we got walking back and forth every night worked off all the extra calories from the alcohol consumed! But it was very difficult to get to the town, beach, shops without taxis or buses unless prepared to walk. If I didn't have a plan in mind for a holiday I'd probably talk to friends for recommendations and then you'd have a real idea of what a place would be like.

needaholiday

I used to spend a lot of time researching holidays and booked one in Gran Canaria 5 years ago. Rviews were great. I was then invited to a wedding same day we were flying so ended up changing my holiday to Ibiza for the following day. Was all done with no research. Broke my heart when I read the reviews as they were very mixed and some were pretty bad. Wasn't looking forward to my holiday at all but ended up having the best holiday ever and will be returning next year for the 5th time. Something I always said I'd never do!

DJSKYLINE

Excellent, many thanks guys.

PompeyPete

I always book the flights separately from the accommodation.
Then get to work on the accommodation in slow-time, using Travel Republic, Booking.com, Agoda or Sawadee.
Sometimes I'll leave a gap or two, so that we can just take a chance and turn-up somewhere we fancy along the way.
I rarely take much notice of accommodation reviews on Trip Advisor unless I can trust the reviewer has a proven record on TA, the reviews on Travel Republic and Booking.com are more reliable.
If you plan on travelling around independently then most similarly minded folk will tell you lots of pre-trip homework is a must, and it's all part of the experience.

bobajob_1966

My holiday is planned over several months. I travel on award flights so have to keep an eye on availability for them, then I'll gradually book hotels over time. For my holiday next month I booked my outbound flight three months ago, but the return I only booked two weeks ago. I booked one holiday at the time of booking the first flight, the second hotel about a month ago, and I still have not booked the third. I've also still got a connecting flight still to book, which I need to book at least fourteen days in advance. The beauty of spreading everything out is that I never have to pay out a large amount in one go, so it makes the holiday seem like it has cost next to nothing!

merlinormartin

My Stages of holiday planning ..
1. *yawn* i need a holiday, im exhausted.

2. I decide where i would like to visit - i have along list of places i want to vist so normally pick one of those**

3. Vist a few websites to confirm the location .. Virtual Tourist , Lonely Planet etc

4. once location is confirmed price up holiday, both DIY and package using several sites including:
Travelzoo
Skyscanner
Travel Republic
Virgin Holidays
Travel Supermarket
Booking.com

7. Check hotel is OK using Trip advisor

8. Check location of hotel on google maps .. checkout local area on "street view"

6. Book holiday.. for extra protection use Credit card and pay off balance .

6. Read websites for good places to visit/places to eat - if going to USA i buy vouchers from restaurant.com

8. Check Travelzoo for discount activites at the location.. show, speed boat road, theme park tickets etc.

9. Check other travelsites to see how much the same holiday would cost without research.

** Occasionally someone might tell us about a cheap deal eg a cheap package holiday to Florida with Monarch and we normally research less and just book due to the discount.

.. At the moment i'm at step 3. lol

ferf1223

we book DIY and regularly go to the same places, so not as much research as in years gone by, but the biggest thing when we are booking ends up being checking flight prices for our date options, see which suits us best...check hotel rates BEFORE booking flights...almost got caught out on a 'cheap' long weekend to Venice several years ago - cheap flights through some low-cost carrier would have been completely useless given the hotel prices that particular weekend (can't remember why, but hotels were crazy)... we were on the payment screen for the flights when one of us said 'let's just check hotels quickly first'...

On the Vegas thread we occasionally have people who book flights without booking hotels, only to find out there is some big event or holiday in the US and hotel rates are sky high.

So check flight prices, check hotel prices, book flight...maybe book hotel depending - if it's refundable, usually will book a back-up at least...then keep our eyes open for better deals.

Once that is done I spend loads of time researching stuff in the area, sign up for local Groupon offers etc...just for ideas as much as anything.

I love the planning - some people hate it.

Indout96

1) Bring up Google map of USA and look where we haven’t been before (list is getting smaller & smaller)
2) Start paying money on to $ FairFX card depending on exchange rate
3) When destinations are set its time to start searching flights.
3a) flights are checked several times a day until we find one that I consider OK price wise.
4) Flights booked then start looking for hotels usually takes a long time with all review sites checked for each hotel
5) Hotels booked so start looking for car hire
6) Car booked, start looking for restaurants in all the areas we will visit
7) Start researching malls & outlet malls printing off all mall maps
8) Pack night before
9) set off

But as Ferf says we look at a general price for all items before we start booking things then narow it down as per the list above. I would say unless you are looking at Vegas then flights are most important as you can always book out of town & drive in if needed.

P.S. if its a European holiday then normally just look through Jet2 website untill we see something we fancy then book it whilst all the time wishing we were going to America (do still check trip advisor ect re hotel)