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System · 27 May 2004 at 4:52PM

Too wide a remit.

Hedonism: Thailand is cheap at the moment, with return flight for £320 inc. Accommodation averaging £20 nightly.
http://www.sawadee.com/

I think that will fit the activity remit also.

Sinjun · 29 May 2004 at 12:17AM

Travelman, I wonder if you can help ?
I and Mrs. have recently retired and can be available at short notice for trips. Where is the best place/website to look for last minute bargains - mainly Med/short haul stuff plus cruises, etc. Looking for 4/5 * quietish.
Thanks in advance.
Regards.

TRAVELMAN_2 · 5 July 2004 at 1:48PM

Hello-nice to be back!

Well....we're well & truly in to peak season now & it's a strange situation from an Industry point of view!

If you do a search on any Travel Web-site you'll find flight only prices in August from £89 & July from £39!!!!

Sales have been slow-we think because of the Euro football & also people are a bit concerned re: interest rates, etc...

To get a 'late-deal' in Peak Season (by this I mean NOW for Scotland & 23/7-26/8 in England & Wales) you can't really play the 'wait till day before' game as prices can & do GO UP as demand increases! Sure...you'd get SOMETHING if you booked at midnight & flew next day...BUT it would probably be room-only or 'allocated-on-arrival'-no good if you want kids facilities.

Shoulder season as we call it (now-20/7 approx)-if you can go midweek & wait till close to the time then prices do go down-although again if demand is there then prices can go up!

Where & what are the dest deals??? Well...I've just come back form overseas contracting Hotel rates & the best deals are in Turkey-apartments at £64 pp 1 week & £95 pp 2 weeks from now until end August, (based on 4 share & including private taxi transfer-just flights to add on), all-inclusive in Turkey 3* again from now till 3/9 at 3191 adults, 1st child £29 (??!)-again just add flights!

Greece 5* half-board for all July-1 week £231 adults BOTH kids FREE (again including taxi-just add flights!).

Also-all-inclusives for Greece & half-board are fabulous AT THE MOMENT for July/August.

Majorca-bargains to be had for now-20/7 then, as always prices go silly!

Benidorm-reasonable deals for now but peak is VERY expensive as usual, canaries-great self-catering prices-especially for familiies of 5 or more-in fact this is probably the best bargain peak season destination for sc & large familiies!

Costa Brava-as you've seen on the posts below-FAB all-inclusive prices if you use the economy airlines in to gerona such as ryanair. Costa Del Sol/Algarve-ok for now-20/7 then expensive.

My top 5 for now till end August are...in no particular order..(!)

1-Turkey-s/c & all-inclusive
2-Canaries-for groups of 4/5-self-catering
3-Greece, Corfu 5* HB in july (both kids to 11 free)
4-Greece HB 3*+ in Rhodes, or all-inc in Corfu/Kos/Rhodes
5-Majorca all-inclusive NOW to approx 20/7
6-Costa brava-all-inclusive-COMBINED WITH ryanair seats to Girona-possibly the biggest bargain!!!

A bit of advice in your bargain hunting....please note most (not all!) deals on TV Teletext are 'prices from' & based on 'full-occupancy'-so that fab deal might be going tonight & based on 6 share!

Also....some not to honest companies use 'ghost-selling' as it's known-the price DOES NOT EXIST but it gets you to call (you'll never prove it but I know it goes on!).

If you are checking on any travel search site such as mine or anyones-remember the holiday or flight price is the basic cost-you'll need to add on approx £25-£30 pp fpr things such as fuel surcharges, meals, security charges, ticket on departure fees,etc-have this in mind when you're searching & you'll have a TRUE PICTURE of the overall cost!

Don't forget some companies charge 'booking fees' (a posh word for extra profit!) & credit card charges of 1.95%-2%. This is a genuine charge but if the Agent wants your business then they'll discount it (We make no charge for MSE posters).

Also.....I know the advice is haggle....but you'll get 'short-shrift' if you haggle on a £199 deal...obviously if it's a family deal for £2000 then there's a bit more room for negotiation....As it's a busy time most Agents will probably just say 'no' as they've ALREADY discounted to the lowest level as it's such a cut-throat Industry in Peak Season. The Agent also knows that the next call is just a minute away...A collegue of mine had a guy on 'playing one Agent against another'-knocking a fiver off at a time! My collegue eventually put a stop to it & said' this is it-take it or leave it' (or words to tht effect!)-the guy took it but the Holiday had gone! All the time wasted in saving £15...so a lesson there I think!

The way to go for this Peak Season in my opinion is to avoid the main Tour Op's (they're just TOO expensive) &
use specialist 'packagers' (ie can do flights, accom, taxi in one hit) who have an ATOL licence for your protection OR try the self-packaging route yourself (try & at least book the accom through an agent to give you some protection)-with the low-cost boys!

Anyway....hope this helps!

Kind regards,

Chris

Chester_Draws · 6 July 2004 at 2:47AM

Hi Chris,
Just to say THANKS for the time and effort you put in with such useful information.

I'm sitting here feeling rather guilty really.
I have just returned from a fab holiday at one the MEDHOTELS you so often talk about, which I would never of heard of if not through this forum.
4.5* hotel, FB, total £258 for 2 of us. Greek Island.
Air fares £278.

The reason for guilt was that I had to move real fast and didnt come to you ... just did it myself.

£540 got us a holiday of farrrrrrrr supior standard than we could usually afford, and totally thanks to your links.

I have begun to redeem myself by giving your website details to several friends, and hope to use your services another time when I dont leave it so late.

Thanks Mike

TRAVELMAN_2 · 6 July 2004 at 11:19AM

Hey-no guilt allowed!

Glad I've helped someone!

Chris

TRAVELMAN_2 · 10 July 2004 at 10:20AM

Bumped back up as some good 'tips' to help people bag a bargain-not neccesarily with the High Street!

Chris

nikkikl · 10 July 2004 at 3:12PM

Hi Chris

Dunno if this is in the right place or not and I have searched and searched for an answer before I asked (?) but can you get cheaper Park tickets for Disney Florida etc? We are going there next Easter (already booked and wishing I had seen your posts first!) for 2 weeks but can't decide on the best way to get the park tickets. We have SeaWorld as you get that with Discovery Cove, which we have booked, its just the other parks we aren't sure about. 4 'adults' and 2 kids - I use the term 'adults' loosly

Thanks muchly

Nikki
x

TRAVELMAN_2 · 11 July 2004 at 12:21PM

Hello!

Sorry-again not my thing. We used to have a lady called 'travel counsellor' on here who did this??! My best advice is to just do a net 'trawl'.

Chris

Greenstuff_2 · 29 July 2004 at 3:32PM

Hi travel people.

I have been looking for weeks for a holiday to Menorca and the best I've come up with is;

One week to Es Castell on 6th Aug, 2 adults, SC for £369 each, that includes transfers etc., can any of you do any better?

It's a bit of a pain as we are going to visit family out there so cant do allocated on arrival, but we can be a little flexible.
They live in Es Castell so we would prefer there, but Binibeca or Punta Prima would also be OK.
We would prefer to go on the 7th Aug. but can do from the 6th to 10th, any London Airport is fine, Stansted is nearest.
It's just for 2 adults.

Buena Salud! and ta very much.

loates123 · 21 December 2004 at 10:26PM

great post travelman

looking for an all inclusive in may july or july to mexico or turkey or bulgria( july) must be at least 3-4 star

what sort of prices would i be looking at for 3 adults 1 child, 2 rooms for 14 nights, can book as soon or as late as possible prefer to fly from north england.

my late few holidays have been booked late and was wondring if to do the same again or not????

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