When is cheapest time to book summer 2014 holiday?

teabag29

Looking to book our 1st holiday abroad as soon as passports are through, is it cheaper to book earlier (i.e. next month) or leave it a while (early next year).

We are a family of 6 (2 adults 4 kids) and looking for an AI 2 week package. Have had a browse and jet2holidays seem to be the cheapest, 2 weeks in Fuerteventura, AI and 22kg luggage allowance for just under 4k.

Am I likely to find better than this closer the time or is this a good deal? Obviously I wont book until the passports are through though.

Obviously_the_best

Look at HolidayHypermarket in a few months.

The way prices go can depend on what airport you're flying from, Gatwick or Manchester with lots of choice are less likely to raise prices substantially than say Southampton or Doncaster where there is little competition.

4k sounds very expensive to me for 3★ AI, even for a decent 4★ I wouldn't expect more than 4k

Another thing is that Fueteventura is a very quiet island on the whole, for a first time abroad with a family Playa Blanca or Costa Teguise in Lanzarote, or Los Gigantes / Playa de la Arena / Costa Adeje may be more suitable, if you're looking at the Canaries. Many greek islands like kefalonia or corfu and resorts such as alcudia or puerto pollensa in Majora are also very family orientated.

jillie1974

I would book whenever you get a price that you are happy with. Then stop looking and don't look again.
You dont need passports to book a holiday as all the passport information can be added at a later date. Just make sure the names that you book will be the correct names/spelling as the passports

mcfisco

The problem you have is the later you leave it, the more difficult it gets to find good deals with the kids (usually)
There's another thread somewhere with some discussion about large families and I seem to recall it was advantageous to look at splitting the booking up.
sort of 2 x a single parent with 2 kids

I could be wrong though
Anyway, with 4 kids, I'd be doing it sooner rather than later

teabag29

Thanks, I assumed this was cheap because the cheapest package I could find with Thomas cook was £4800 and that is bellvue village in spain

Alan_Bowen

If that is the Bellvue on Majorca, avoid it like the plague, something like 1400 apartments with 5000 people in residence, even off season it looked like hell to me.

If you have to travel at the start of the school holidays, with a large family where your local airport only has one major low cost carrier, Jet2 it seems in your case, then generally if you know where you want to go, book as soon as you can. If you are happy to take pot luck and there are only 2 adults, and you can travel in May or June, you can usually find something 6 weeks before departure.

However, so many things affect sales of holidays, weather here and abroad, fear of war, the economy and political instability that one answer is not possible. This year our good weather in July caused a huge drop in demand and prices for charter based holidays. On the other hand, Easyjet had got its pricing right in January and had few seats left to sell. They didn't reduce prices but increased them at the last minute. As others have said, if you know where you want to go, need space for 6 and are happy with the price, book it and stop looking.

If it is your first holiday abroad, booking a package is probably the way to go Jet2 Holidays get generally very good reviews, so unless you want to book the flights and accommodation separately, and you may want to in the future, go ahead and book when you are ready to do so

louby40

We always book a year ahead. We too have 4 kids and have always tried to get free child places (it does work out cheaper).

For example we booked this years holiday to Turkey in May 2012. It cost £5700 for us, 2 adults and 4 kids aged 15, 13, 13 & 10, All Inclusive for 2 weeks in a 4 star hotel. The teenagers are classed as adults once they hit 13. So we got the 10 yr old free.

I priced up the exact same holiday a couple of weeks before we went away and the holiday was £9,000!

We've booked for next year and are going to Kos with Jet2holidays. Same hotel with First Choice is £2K more!! The hotels cut off point for kids is 14 which helps us further.

Louise

teabag29

louby40 wrote: »

We've booked for next year and are going to Kos with Jet2holidays. Same hotel with First Choice is £2K more!! The hotels cut off point for kids is 14 which helps us further.

Louise

Which hotel is that and how much is it costing you for all 6 of you if you dont mind me asking? Our children will be 6, 12, 14 and 15 and we want to go next July (around 26th) for 2 weeks AI

teabag29

Just been playing around and seems it may be better for me to book 2 rooms with 1 adult and 2 children in each, this gives us more choices of places to go plus a 4 star within our budget. If I did it this way can we get the rooms inter-connecting or next to eachother?

louby40

We're going to the Akti Beach Club in Kardemena in Kos. In 2 rooms, 1 adult, 2 kids in each room. All Inclusive for 2 weeks, 30 July- 13 Aug. 22kg luggage each and transfers. Just need to book our seats which will be a further £84.

It's cost us £5,453. I was really peeved as they added free child places about 2 weeks after we'd booked, which we missed out on.

First Choice also go to the Akti but its £2k more and the flights are better with Jet2holidays too!

Decent reviews on Trip Advisor.

louby40

If you book interconnecting rooms they bump up the price. We looked at doing this once and it upped the price by about £300, just for someone to open 2 bloody doors!! Would do it myself if they'd given me the key.

We always ask to be next to each other and in 4 years only once we weren't. We also email the hotel a week before and request again as that's when they start to allocate rooms.