Multi-trip holidays

Gav2014

Hi all, does anyone know of or have any experiences of any reasonably priced and trustworthy sites to book multi-trip holidays through?

We are looking to go to New York, Las Vegas, and Orlando over 10 or 14 days.

Would booking everything separately ourselves be better?

Thanks in advance.

MasterPoo

I think it's more fun to do it all yourself, but that's a personal choice.

The usual suspects:

http://www.virginholidays.co.uk/holiday-types/multi-centre-holidays

http://www.travelbag.co.uk/tours/usa

Those are the only two I can think of right now, if I can think of any more I will be back.

Good Luck

Disclaimer, I've never used the above, I've always done it myself.

comeandgo

Hi i now book all holidays myself though I have used Trailfinders in the past. If you do book yourself make sure you have sufficient travel insurance in place at the start. Book direct with airlines at all times, even if a few pounds more expensive as if any flight changes it is easier for them to contact you direct.
If you were to use a travel agent then you would probably pay a deposit and full balance prior to holiday, booking direct yourself does mean you pay full cost of flights when booked.

Doshwaster

Always Do ItYourself. It may seem a little daunting if you haven't done it before but there is a wealth of resources available online (including here!) and you will get the maximum choice of flights, hotels and other bookings. Once you have gone DIY then you will never use a travel agent again. Planning everything yourself is much more fun.

You first need to decide which order you want to do NYC, Orlando and Vegas in and how many nights in each. Then you will need:

1) An "open jaw" (sometimes called multi-city) flights from the UK to your first destination then home from your final one. Eg. London to NYC and Vegas to London.
2) Internal flights between the other cities
3) Hotels
4) Car hire (not needed in NYC and Vegas but useful in Orlando)
5) Any attractions/tours

10 days for those 3 cities is probably pushing the schedule too much especially as you will usually lose your first night in the US because of jetlag and the internal flights will effectively take up a day each as the US is such a big place. 14 nights is better but you will need to plan your schedule carefully and don't be too ambitious about what you can fit in.

Neil49

I've found Trailfinders to be very good and they have been consistently rated as one of the best agents by Which magazine for many years.

AS you are doing a multi trip you could just get a quote from them for the flight package and sort out your own hotels.

http://www.trailfinders.com/

johnmcga

Trailfinders have a good reputation and it sounds like a very convenient way to do things, but my preference is always to DIY.

It can be daunting but the trick is to approach it one step at a time. I've arranged trips of 2+ weeks to the US, Canada, Russia, Australia, China, Japan and more over the last few years, and never had a major problem.

Usually we start by working out a rough itinerary, figuring out where we want to fly into and out of, and what transport options we're likely to need during the trip. Then we get the flights booked and start looking at specific hotels, dates to stay, and overland transport, etc.

Have we saved money this way? For 'western' destinations like the US, Australia, Canada etc, I'm honestly not sure. I doubt it's cost more, but I suspect an agent could have got similar rates.

For more 'adventurous' places, like China and Russia, definitely. I looked into booking some of these trips via agents, and the markup on items like train tickets, internal flights and hotels was impressive.

Costs aside, the big attractions for me are:

- We get to choose our exact itinerary (particularly exactly which hotels we stay in) without having to go through a middleman.
- We can chop and change things without having to call up an agent (for instance, on a recent trip we switched round a hire car a couple of days before, and changed a flight, all in a few minutes online).

My final thought would be that the US is one of the easiest places to travel I know. Arranging transport and accommodation is really easy, so personally I think you could manage just fine without an agent.

John259

Doshwaster wrote: »

4) Car hire (not needed in NYC and Vegas but useful in Orlando)

A car is useful in Las Vegas if you want to explore beyond the city, for example to Red Rocks Canyon National Conservation Area (17 miles), Hoover Dam (34 miles), Mount Charleston (39 miles), Valley of Fire State Park (49 miles) or further afield to Zion (160 miles) or the Grand Canyon (south rim 275 miles). On the other hand a lot of people who visit Las Vegas are totally happy to never venture beyond the Strip and therefore have no need for a car.

DUKE

I'll second Travelbag, I've done 2 holz with them, one being a multi.


I've looked into DIY but never found it to be that much cheaper. Where am I going wrong?

callum9999

Doshwaster wrote: »

1) An "open jaw" (sometimes called multi-city) flights from the UK to your first destination then home from your final one. Eg. London to NYC and Vegas to London.

10 days for those 3 cities is probably pushing the schedule too much especially as you will usually lose your first night in the US because of jetlag and the internal flights will effectively take up a day each as the US is such a big place. 14 nights is better but you will need to plan your schedule carefully and don't be too ambitious about what you can fit in.

I guess this increases the complexity somewhat for a first timer, but you don't always need an open-jaw like that. You can occasionally get the internal flights included on the main ticket for a similar price as getting them separately - which would also be beneficial in the US as it would let them avoid the baggage charges.

One year I booked flights that went Europe - Chicago (3 days) - Los Angeles, Los Angeles - New York (3 days) - Europe for something like £30 more than what a straight Europe - LA - Europe would have cost. Discounted economy tickets often don't allow stopovers though so it could be difficult to replicate!

I agree with your timing issue though. 14 days is more than doable, but assuming this will be the first time they've visited these 3 cities, it will feel a bit rushed.

MasterPoo

I've just discovered this app last night. I'm not booking anything through them but I like the interactive map for my upcoming holidays as it includes attractions, hotels etc.

http://www.tripomatic.com

InsideInsurance

If you are DIYing its worth checking with the airline(s) on the phone what the prices are going to be rather than booking things as a series of one way trips.

Certainly when we did our multi-centre trip to India with BA just being used for the outward and return leg their website prices were silly but over the phone it was half the price plus they were able to do an Avios upgrade which their website had said wasnt possible