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DIY Holidays
* Flights
* Hotels
* Car Hire
It sounds really difficult booking a DIY holiday, sorting out your hotel, flight, transfer etc but it can be very easy. As with all things in life (although it is usually cheaper), you still need to do your homework. Here are my top tips for bagging that bargain break and yes I've done it numerous times and only once did it nealy go wrong but I'll tell you how to avoid that.
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It sounds really difficult booking a DIY holiday, sorting out your hotel, flight, transfer etc but it can be very easy. As with all things in life (although it is usually cheaper), you still need to do your homework. Here are my top tips for bagging that bargain break and yes I've done it numerous times and only once did it nealy go wrong but I'll tell you how to avoid that.
Once you have researched your destination and resort and know where you want to go, the next thing to do is:
* Check for flights - the tip here is to try and book as early as possible with dates that don't fall on a weekend a holiday period or school holidays. It also helps to be flexible with your dates.
* Next find out who flies there,this can be done with either checking the airport you wish to fly from, alternatively and equally as good is to check on one of the flight checker search engines mainly because they provide the best carrier with flights and times. The best of these are:- Kayak, skyscanner, dohop and ufly4less.
* Once you've established who flies there and the costs involved, you are going to keep that inforamtion for the moment. The next stage is to find a hotel. Hopefully you've checked out the destination search section which not only provides fantastic suggestions to some great destinations but useful tips to some of the best hotels, and not all of them are expensive.
* Now you've got some ideas for hotels, now it's time to price them. The best ones to try are hotelscomparison and Tripadvisor . you can search either by hotel name or by location and it will search within minutes the top hotel comparison sites for the best price. If you don't have a hotel it's really useful as a starting point as it will provide a list of hotels in preferred destination along with costs. Trip Advisor is brilliant for two reasons once again you can search by hotel or location and once you found your desired hotel you can then find out what other guests think who have stayed there. To make it easier and to save time I usually start one search and whilst it's looking up the relevant hotel, in a new window I start a second search and so on.
* So you now should have a price for your flight and hotel. Next just to make sure it is cheaper than a I run another couple of searches through Expedia and www.travelrepublic.com just to get comparisons. Finally, I would also give the preferred ones a call to see if they can match the price you've found by doing it yourself.
* Most times it's usually a lot cheaper, however, bear in mond you don't get the same protection. See below:
BEFORE YOU BOOK - MY WORDS OF ADVICE
So you've decided to bite the bullet and book it independently:
1) Ensure you take out travel insurance that covers you if one part of the holiday fails due to insolvency or you need to be repatriated. Check out Debenhams Travel Insurance - one of the companies I've found that covers this.
2) Always book with your credit card as this gives some small protection (see your individual credit card).
3) Always send an email or telephone the hotel you are staying with direct prior to departure to ensure that they have received your booking from the internet. |
Please Note: Information correct at time of going to print.
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