What's best - Book holiday to Lanzarote via travel agent or do it myself?

think33

Hi There

I have about £1,600 to book a 7 night holiday for me, my wife and 2 year old son to Lanzarote flying out on the 2nd or 3rd of March this year. The hotel I have in mind is called Zocos.

I've looked at the usual travel agents online (Thomsons, Thomas Cook , The Co-op etc) and they all seem to come out either bang on my budget or just over.

However when I try looking at booking my flight and hotel separately it comes out at £1,200 (ish).

What are the pro's and con's of putting it together myself? I know I won't be protected by ATOL but is there an alternative cover I can get - if so how much is it?

Any advice on how to do this would be greatly appreciated!
:beer:

collywollys

I asked this a few weeks back, I went with booking it separate as it was a big difference in price.

Take out travel insurance and if possible pay on credit card.

ferf1223

we don't book packages and here's why

1) we pay for flights using a CC - if the airline goes bust (which it did once) we get our money back via our CC...so no monetary risk there - though there could be a delay in getting our money back, we know.

2) we book direct with the hotel and can normally cancel with very short notice generally risking only 1-night's deposit or so...so if something happened with the flight and we couldn't make the trip at all as a result worst case we would be out of pocket that small amount...so little or no monetary risk there.

3) we're in control of our own booking and do not have to worry about a 3rd party sorting out any issues - we can sort them out ourselves and would prefer to do so.

4) we have travel insurance.

It is a personal choice - some people prefer the additional protection/safety net of booking a package and the potential for assitance if something goes wrong...we don't see enough value in it to pay inflated prices...and some will say that booking via a 3rd party may not be a true package anyway if flights and hotels are booked separately.

richardw

If there was an Ash cloud type situation or similar, are you prepared to sort things out yourself with a 2 year old?

rocking69

think33 wrote: »

Hi There

I have about £1,600 to book a 7 night holiday for me, my wife and 2 year old son to Lanzarote flying out on the 2nd or 3rd of March this year. The hotel I have in mind is called Zocos.

I've looked at the usual travel agents online (Thomsons, Thomas Cook , The Co-op etc) and they all seem to come out either bang on my budget or just over.

However when I try looking at booking my flight and hotel separately it comes out at £1,200 (ish).

What are the pro's and con's of putting it together myself? I know I won't be protected by ATOL but is there an alternative cover I can get - if so how much is it?

Any advice on how to do this would be greatly appreciated!
:beer:

Why don't you just call some agents, tell them the price you have by doing it yourself and see if they can match it. That's what we do with all our clients. Sometimes we can, and sometimes not. Depends on the details but worth a try.

kellyswon

Hi we got back on Saturday night from the Los Zocos (Costa Tiguise) 2Adults 3 kids (16,12,9) 11 nights we paid £2050 AI
We booked Hotel with Alpharooms
Flights with Ryanair (3xsuitcases @£40 each)
Resorthoppa for the transfer (also went through Quidco £26.02 return for the 5 of us)
Travel insurance £15 (AGAIN USE QUIDCO)
We took our quote to firstchoice (its a firstchoice hotel)to see if they could beat the price and they couldnt beat or match it
So your better off booking seperate>

rocking69

kellyswon wrote: »

Hi we got back on Saturday night from the Los Zocos (Costa Tiguise) 2Adults 3 kids (16,12,9) 11 nights we paid £2050 AI
We booked Hotel with Alpharooms
Flights with Ryanair (3xsuitcases @£40 each)
Resorthoppa for the transfer (also went through Quidco £26.02 return for the 5 of us)
Travel insurance £15 (AGAIN USE QUIDCO)
We took our quote to firstchoice (its a firstchoice hotel)to see if they could beat the price and they couldnt beat or match it
So your better off booking seperate>

I use to work for First Choice, they dont have any flexibility. It is always best to use an independent agency for pricematching/beating.

YorkshireBoy

think33 wrote: »

However when I try looking at booking my flight and hotel separately it comes out at £1,200 (ish).

Looks like travelrepublic can do it for £1,073 (flights, 7 nights AI, 2 x 15KG hold luggage, transfers) from my local airport.

The flights are now £189, but I'm going to Lanzarote the same weekend as you (with travelrepublic) and I paid £115 for the same flights when I booked the week between Xmas & New Year...so had you booked then the cost would have been around £200 less at £873. That's around half the price of the quotes you're getting from the 'big boys'.

mum2one

richardw wrote: »

If there was an Ash cloud type situation or similar, are you prepared to sort things out yourself with a 2 year old?

Had to smile but totally agree.

My misfortune.......

2001 - due to go to Sri Lanka and Maldives - Sri Lanka had the incident with the rebels - holiday cancelled

my very helpful and lovely travel agent swopped around found me a new holiday

Mexico - 2 days into that holiday was 9/11 - Luckly I wasn't personally affected, even 2 weeks later there was still hassle with flights, the people who were due to fly back to Birmingham had notes under their door on the friday - sorry - your not going home tomorrow - hopefully Monday.

----
Ash Cloud
I was staying in a lodge ngt before holiday to Cuba, - 5 mins from t-lodge near manchester - ash cloud - bye bye cuba.........

full refund within 12hrs from travel agent

---

Now I may have just been one of those wrong people to be in wrong place at the wrong time, but I was so glad that I had the protection of the travel agent.

I have done a diy package - went to Prague for 5 days in 2011 - but that was just me, I wouldn't risk being stranded with my daughter.

Doshwaster

richardw wrote: »

If there was an Ash cloud type situation or similar, are you prepared to sort things out yourself with a 2 year old?

Is help in that unlikely event worth paying an extra £400 for?

I haven't booked a package in over 10 years. Going DIY just gives you so much more flexibility - I don't like staying in the same place for too long so I can easily book a trip that includes hotels in different resorts. Try doing that with a package.

tamiami

look at www.lowcostholidays.com or similar. They are still ATOL/ABTA protected but far cheaper than Thomsons, Thomas Cook etc. The web based travel agents are far cheaper as they have less overheads, no high street shops.