What happened to cheap holidays?
Discussion
OK so its getting to that time of year when the Mrs is getting very tetchy that we dont have a holiday booked. We are quite easy to please just a week in a half or full board hotel in Spain/Portugal will do for us. We have been used to paying anything from 600-800 for this kind of holiday but despite my other half being a legend at finding bargain holidays she is struggling to find anything.
I know a lot of the operators have reduced capacity this year. I'm thinking the way forward might be to book hotels and flights direct? I understand that ABTA liability is limited if you do it this way?
Any tips would be appreciated we could do with getting something booked soon!
I know a lot of the operators have reduced capacity this year. I'm thinking the way forward might be to book hotels and flights direct? I understand that ABTA liability is limited if you do it this way?
Any tips would be appreciated we could do with getting something booked soon!
There used to be massive overcapacity in the market but now times are tough, all the travel companies offering the really cheap holidays werent making much money and went under.
All the travel companies left merged into two or three big companies after buying specialist travel companies and loads of hotels and online retailers.
Margins on holidays are tiny, if you're getting a really cheap holiday, someone else has judged demand wrongly and is making a big loss.
All the travel companies left merged into two or three big companies after buying specialist travel companies and loads of hotels and online retailers.
Margins on holidays are tiny, if you're getting a really cheap holiday, someone else has judged demand wrongly and is making a big loss.
If you're OK with travelling in the next month or two, then Thomas Cook and Expedia seem to have several options in the 6-800 range for 7 day half/full board packages in the Algarve for two adults and one child... Don't have the time to check any other destinations or sites, but I'm going to assume that I didn't just hit on the perfect combination first time lucky, and so presumably there'll be other options in your price range too.
One of my rugby pals works for this company http://www.hotels4u.com/
Visited their site for the first time this morning and thought to myself that if I didn't have kids at school (and could go any time) prices seemed reasonable.
I have no affiliation whatsoever to H4U
Visited their site for the first time this morning and thought to myself that if I didn't have kids at school (and could go any time) prices seemed reasonable.
I have no affiliation whatsoever to H4U
Europe is not cheap anymore, the Euro has brought prices into line, the once 'cheap' destinations, (Spain, Portugal,Greece, Italy) are not any longer! Their prices and cost of living are as much, if not more expensive, than the UK. Add to that the taxes on flying and Europe is no longer the place for cheap hols.
Find a cheap airline is a good start.
BMIBaby and Vueling still offer cheap flights.
We always rent a villa - out of season, they are more than reasonable and if you don't need a pool, an apartment is cheaper still via sites like www.ownersdirect.co.uk
Car hire is also very rasonable.
Flights to Florida for us would be over £4k alone (5 of us) but to Barcelona under 800 Euros. You need to find the bset routes though. Barcelona with Vueling is half the price they charge to fly to Alicante which is also a lot more than they charge to fly to Mallorca.
We did Lanzarote last year but for some reason the flight prices to the Canaries have rocketed this year.
From April-on you have a very good chance of good weather in Spain/Balearics.
BMIBaby and Vueling still offer cheap flights.
We always rent a villa - out of season, they are more than reasonable and if you don't need a pool, an apartment is cheaper still via sites like www.ownersdirect.co.uk
Car hire is also very rasonable.
Flights to Florida for us would be over £4k alone (5 of us) but to Barcelona under 800 Euros. You need to find the bset routes though. Barcelona with Vueling is half the price they charge to fly to Alicante which is also a lot more than they charge to fly to Mallorca.
We did Lanzarote last year but for some reason the flight prices to the Canaries have rocketed this year.
From April-on you have a very good chance of good weather in Spain/Balearics.
Try living in Northern Ireland, year by year our choices of direct flight destinations have been reduced signifcantly. The cost of a relativitly "normal" holiday from here has gone up a lot of the last few years, my family and I spend most of our holidays in Florida and other parts of North America and the cost of these have at least doubled over the last 3 years.
My wife and I like to go Crete once a year but even the cost of this has got stupid, you would think that of all places there would be some good deals for Greece to help their economy, but no.
Even a simple flight or ferry to the mainland is silly money.
My wife and I like to go Crete once a year but even the cost of this has got stupid, you would think that of all places there would be some good deals for Greece to help their economy, but no.
Even a simple flight or ferry to the mainland is silly money.
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