How do I plan a holiday abroad?

agrinnall

PompeyPete wrote: »

In SE Asia without a Plan B things can easily get unstuck.

On my 4 month tour around SE Asia my plan A was to have no plan. The only things I arranged in advance were flights into HCMC and out of Bangkok, 3 nights in HCMC when I arrived, travel vaccinations (starting 6 months ahead of departure), supply of my regular medication and Doxycline, and my Vietnamese visa. Everything else I organised (or not) while on the move.

Doshwaster

agrinnall wrote: »

On my 4 month tour around SE Asia my plan A was to have no plan. The only things I arranged in advance were flights into HCMC and out of Bangkok, 3 nights in HCMC when I arrived, travel vaccinations (starting 6 months ahead of departure), supply of my regular medication and Doxycline, and my Vietnamese visa. Everything else I organised (or not) while on the move.

Making it up as you go and following your nose is great for longer trips but if you only have 2 weeks to play with then you do need to be better organised.

PompeyPete

agrinnall wrote: »

On my 4 month tour around SE Asia my plan A was to have no plan. The only things I arranged in advance were flights into HCMC and out of Bangkok, 3 nights in HCMC when I arrived, travel vaccinations (starting 6 months ahead of departure), supply of my regular medication and Doxycline, and my Vietnamese visa. Everything else I organised (or not) while on the move.

That's basically it.....the more time you have to play with, the less need there is to have much, if anything, set in stone.

AlexMac

An alternative to Fly-drive (DIY or packaged) would be to take your own car to somewhere like Northern Spain. We do just that once or twice a year;

- driving from London the 2 hours to Portsmouth,

- taking the Brittany Ferries 24-hour crossing to Santander or Bilbao (Santander's a nicer port, as in Bilbao you land a little out of town),

- then touring on the wonderfully quiet (and mostly toll-free) roads of the scenic coast and mountains of Cantabria, Asturias and the Basque Country. Or, further on to the Pyrenees; Navarre and Aragon.

The fares alone are a bit toppy (although lots of other contibutors on this site will share their "Club Voyage" discount membership code- search this forum by Brittany Ferries) but if you book the ferry and at least three nights in their excellent value hotels or casas, the wholw package becomes great value. Travel off-season or book early during their (not very well advertised) discount period in Dec or Jan and it's a real bargain.

You don't have to book hotels for every night of your holiday if you want to freelance or camp for part of your hol; although with their excellent website tools which map hotel and casa locations, it's easy to build a flexible itinerary, then book by phone as the website can't handle multi-site bookings. Go online, clik "Ferry and Holiday" and do a trial booking to get a price; you may be pleasantly surprised.

cntargett

Has anyone got experience of getting a bit "unstuck when doing a holiday this way?
Planning a honeymoon to South Africa and wanting to sort our own itinerary and initial research comes up nearly £2500 cheaper than going with Kuoni. Before going ahead with it, I want to be comfortable that we will have as much 'protection' as we'll need if things go wrong at any point through insurance. Some advice we have had is that by booking through a big company we will be much better off if anything happens as we have a number to call... not sure how much worse this will be on our own.
What are the pros/cons of DIY touring holidays?

Doshwaster

cntargett wrote: »

Has anyone got experience of getting a bit "unstuck when doing a holiday this way?
Planning a honeymoon to South Africa and wanting to sort our own itinerary and initial research comes up nearly £2500 cheaper than going with Kuoni. Before going ahead with it, I want to be comfortable that we will have as much 'protection' as we'll need if things go wrong at any point through insurance. Some advice we have had is that by booking through a big company we will be much better off if anything happens as we have a number to call... not sure how much worse this will be on our own.
What are the pros/cons of DIY touring holidays?

Have a think about all the things which could go wrong and whether a call to a travel agent in the UK would be able to help you. In most cases you are better off dealing with the airline/hotel directly.

The recent history of the travel industry has shown that the most likely company in your holiday booking will be the travel agent itself.

Kynthia

cntargett wrote: »

Has anyone got experience of getting a bit "unstuck when doing a holiday this way?
Planning a honeymoon to South Africa and wanting to sort our own itinerary and initial research comes up nearly £2500 cheaper than going with Kuoni. Before going ahead with it, I want to be comfortable that we will have as much 'protection' as we'll need if things go wrong at any point through insurance. Some advice we have had is that by booking through a big company we will be much better off if anything happens as we have a number to call... not sure how much worse this will be on our own.
What are the pros/cons of DIY touring holidays?

I think you need insurance that covers consequential losses, or something like that when you diy. Take a look at this link. https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/holiday-rights/