Why do holiday sites not let you search for holidays to anywhere?!

bogstandard2

I fancy a week away in February somewhere hot... that's my only criteria. Obviously once I see my options and prices I will then have a more in depth look at each place and which looks nice.

But all the sites I can find make you specify a specific city or resort. It doesn't even seem possible to just search by a country e.g. anywhere in Spain.

Surely they must know that often people don't have firmly formed ideas of where they want to go and don't want to have to search every single resort in Spain/Greece/etc. to see where is cheapest?

Or is there a business motivation behind this - that they don't want us to be able to easily find the cheapest option? I notice that the packages they promote under 'deals' are rarely actually that cheap... maybe they would prefer than in my frustration I just plump for one of those!

busiscoming2

Thomson let you choose 'anywhere' as a destination.

So do Holiday Pirates.

piglet74

Thomson,first choice and falcon all let you select "anywhere",

bigadaj

Well nowhere in the med will be hot in February.

As above many sites will allow to search for anywhere, but there's nowhere really short haul that will be hit in February, nearest is Egypt and even canaries won't be that warm.

So you would be looking at a 6 hour flight to more, Gambia, Cape Verde, Dubai probably best after Egypt, alternatively Far East or Caribbean with longer flights and more dosh.

Swash

bigadaj wrote: »

Well nowhere in the med will be hot in February.

As above many sites will allow to search for anywhere, but there's nowhere really short haul that will be hit in February, nearest is Egypt and even canaries won't be that warm.

So you would be looking at a 6 hour flight to more, Gambia, Cape Verde, Dubai probably best after Egypt, alternatively Far East or Caribbean with longer flights and more dosh.

I went to Lanzarote (Canaries) in January and it was very hot in the day, cool at night

Sicard

^^^ anywhere near or in Africa or the Equator will be hot all year round. I went to Mombasa in Kenya in Jan once and it was scorchio.

bigadaj

Swash wrote: »

I went to Lanzarote (Canaries) in January and it was very hot in the day, cool at night

Depends what you class as hot I suppose. We were in fuertaventura a few years ago at the end of January, certainly not cold but low twenties at best, sunny though.

Moto2

Swash wrote: »

I went to Lanzarote (Canaries) in January and it was very hot in the day, cool at night

So did I and it was quite warm, we went back to the Canaries the following year and it wasn't

In fact we go every winter at least twice, and it being hot is not something you can guarantee or bank on.


The OP would be better off finding the destination and booking the flights and work from there.

Westin

The search parameters would be extremely large to search multiple options for flights and hotels on all available dates over a full month. What is asked is a massive data search.

Thomson will allow some flexibility on destination but will still restrict you to a +/-3 days.

Someone like Skyscanner will allow a wide search on flights over a month but there is no matching accommodation search. Also, not all airlines will necessarily be (scrapped) searched.

You will be better to try and narrow down your requirements. If you want winter sun for example you can pick the destinations which are likely to be warmer. Try to pick a few date ranges. Or, despite what Mr.WW says, talk to a good travel agent who will be able to search for various options and have more of an idea on how to approach your flexible brief.

dickydonkin

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A lot of people are also unwilling to purchase anything online because of security issues -others just do not have the time or cannot be bothered to search online. - that is their choice.

If High Street travel agents were no good, then they wouldn't exist although I have to concede that that I have never used a High Street TA for a very long time, but that is my choice as I do not fall into the categories I described above.